Anyone read "Cell" by Steve King?

[DeschainGang]

I'm reading it now .......:Smirk:

[kah]

I read a few Stephen King novels back in middle and high school, but I never really enjoyed them. Carrie was great and I read Eyes of the Dragon about 7 times, but the others I read never did anything for me. Pop in the Dark Tower thread. Chances are someone there has read it.

[Trazalca]

Yes. It's a rollicking good read. A bit light as far as King books go.
Nothing too taxing on the brain. Just a really good horror story, and
one that I'd be willing to see on the screen.
I will say he takes the zombie genre to a new level, and IMHO, an ingenious one at that.

:Smirk:

[DarkJedi]

I'd agree with you on those points, Traz. I'll wait till you're done Deschain before commenting on the whole ending.

[Deacon]

I thought the first quarter was superb. But it kinda lost its way after that. I just wasn't that interested in the direction that it went in.

[Trazalca]

I thought the first quarter was superb. But it kinda lost its way after that. I just wasn't that interested in the direction that it went in.

I agree with that assessment. However, from a logical standpoint, it made perfect sense to me, even though the remaining 3/4 wasn't as slambang as when it started.
It did, for me, allow King to put out some really creepy scenes that were quite chilling.
You fear what you don't know, and he uses that element quite well quite a few times
in the book. There were times where the suspense was most palpable.

But I do understand what you're saying. It would've been nice if the kinetic chaos
of the first few chapters resonated a lot stronger throughout the rest of the book.

Also, is it just me, or is the editor for King's books getting really really sloppy?
I had to admit there were a few moments in the book that could've been shortened.
"Brevity is the soul of wit", and all that. Sometimes a few choice sentences can be
just as powerfully set as would a long expository chapter.
It would not surprise me if the editor thought, "It's freakin' Stephen King! No way am
I gonna suggest to edit that!"

:rolleyes:

[sickness]

Don't ever expect brevity from King.

When he spends 3 pages describing how Stu Redman is aware of Charles Campion's car barrelling out of control down a lonesome highway from 2 miles away, brevity cannot possibly be in his vocabulary.

[DarkJedi]

No, that's just not possible in any novel from King. I'm sure editors have tried explaining this to him but really, what's the point? That's what he loves doing with his characters.

Which partly keeps me from talking about the end of this book in specifics since Deschain hasn't read it through yet..

I'll just say...King doesn't ever seem to know how his characters will end up by the end of the novel and it shows in what occurs in the climax. It's a rollercoaster(for better or for worse) and the reader better be latched on because shit's going to go down and some of it can be rather craptastic in what I(the reader) wanted and what the author provided...

But hey, that's the fun of it.

[Nostromo]

Wasn't my favourite. He may be running dry. And why shouldn't he .. the man is a writing machine. The Stand remains his top read. N

[kah]

I could never get through that one. I watched all 6 hours of the movie once, and the first three hours several times since then. Is it safe to assume the first half is brilliant, and the second ridiculous?

[sickness]

Well, the whole mini-series is ridiculous in light of the book. The only way to make it (or pretty much any King story) work in the TV/movie media is to do a signifcant rewrite a la Kubrick's version of The Shining. The mini-series version of The Shining is, in fact, much closer to the book but is still missing crucial details and has the most putrid of endings. Absolutely horrible. Meanwhile, Kubrick's version, while it takes liberties with the characters and events, is much closer to the spirit of the book.

[madi]

I just finished reading Cell a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, reading it so soon after having read World War Z, it suffered in the comparison. What was frightening about it though was the original concept of the spreading of the "disease". I can honestly see that happening.

[DeschainGang]

I could never get through that one. I watched all 6 hours of the movie once, and the first three hours several times since then. Is it safe to assume the first half is brilliant, and the second ridiculous?

Not a movie yet. Coming '07.

[DeschainGang]

FINISHED!!!

Wow! First of all I loved it.

-----SPOILER WARNING----------------------





Like most people the walk from Boston to the Academy was slow going (pun intended, I mean come on, man! It's a walk!) but it picked up real quick. Scariest scene...when our Ka-Tet comes downstairs and see's all the Phoners standing in the windows staring at them. Yikes. Pure "that's why King is king" stuff for me.
Kinda hoped we would find the garage with the battery powered CPU broadcasting the PULSE...actually thought it was going to be aliens-thought it had to be. Maybe that's why it closed without details about the source.... Actually, finding the source would take away from the whole idea that at any moment everything could just go to the dogs--in our personal lives and in the world as a whole--and when it does, just grab the ones you love and breathe baby breathe.

[kah]

I was referring to The Stand. You should really read Max Brooks' World War Z.

[DarkJedi]

You nuts got me all excited for WWZ so I'll be picking it up in the next two weeks sometime. I'm a huge zombie fan but I never read any written works about Zombies other than Cell so all the reviews about Brook's work got me jazzed for it.

[DeschainGang]

I was referring to The Stand. You should really read Max Brooks' World War Z.


woopsie! Right after I posted I thought that you were refering to THE STAND. My bad. Yea, I'm getting fired up for WORLD WAR Z...even the cover looks epic! According to Mania.com I won a copy of SCAR NIGHT so until I recieve it I'm gonna be reading short stories...I'll be checking out WWZ really soon. Thanks.

[robert eggleton]

I felt the same way about Needful Things. I loved it 3/4 through, but had to force myself to finish.

[Nostromo]

I could never get through that one. I watched all 6 hours of the movie once, and the first three hours several times since then. Is it safe to assume the first half is brilliant, and the second ridiculous?



I read the book first and saw the made for TV years later. In my opinion, the novel
is good to the end but perhaps that's because the story telling was fresh back then.
If I read it again today - maybe not. N

[sickness]

Which version of it did you read? The 500-600 page version or the 1140 page version?

[Nostromo]

Which version of it did you read? The 500-600 page version or the 1140 page version?

The shorter, 1978 version. I have a first release hard back copy. The paper was a fine grade so it's held up over the years, even under my haphazard storage. I borrowed the 1990 unedited version from the Library. Didn't like it. There's a reason for editors. :wink: Also - the attempt to update the story time period missed in a lot of spots.

Didn't care for the mini-series. The Randall Flagg character was an extreme let-down. Poorly cast in my opinion. Gary Sinise as Stu Redman was the high point of the mini.

I noticed on a fan site a mention of similarities between the King story and a 70's British TV show called"Survivors." It's about how a group of people survive the accidental release of a virus or bacteria that almost wipes out the human race. It lasted only a couple of seasons. I'd like to see it.

N

[sickness]

As I understand it, the 1990 version was not only unedited and updated but also extended. I read it for a high school Gothic Lit class a couple months before the mini and was sorely disappointed by everything except the casting of Gary Sinise, Ray Walston and the big, dumb dude from Coach. Having not read the original, I enjoyed the later version. Perhaps that would be different if I had read the original edit.

Oh, and the guy who played Flagg was totally miscast.