From a Buick 8 - Stephen King
 

Anyone pick this up and read it yet?

According to an interview I read, this will be the last of Stephen King's non-Dark Tower books.

havent picked up up, and sadly... am not planning on it...

his new stuff has just been so dissapointing... i would bet that is a large part of the reason he's retiring... he realizes that he's just not the same...

as much as i'm looking forward to the darktower books... i'm a little worried about them as well. i really really hope that he didn't just pump out 3 books of crap to finish the series...

I finished it a couple of days ago. It's ok, but nothing spectacular.
I liked it, but I think most readers will find the ending a little aggravating, mainly because it poses questions that are never answered.

Unless you're a rabid fan, I'd recommend just waiting for the paperback.

I would argue that it's King's best work since THE GREEN MILE, which is saying a lot. It's streamlined and genuinely creepy in parts, and doesn't suffer from the bloat of more recent novels like DREAMCATCHER and BAG OF BONES. I actually enjoyed the ambiguity and was hoping that he wouldn't explain everything away. However, I do think the ending suffers somewhat for over-apologizing for that ambiguity. It's as if King figured readers would feel cheated because the book doesn't have a traditional "tie-up-all-loose-ends" ending and so he tacked on an extra 20 pages explaining the "why" of the ambiguous ending.

it sounds like a Christine retread..is it?

It's absolutely nothing like CHRISTINE.

And I would argue that Bag of Bones is his best since The Green Mile. ;) My only concern is that the casual reader (not the rabid fan like me) would get completely turned off by the lack of explanation. It didn't personally bother me too much, because I've read all of his books and I can just write the car off as the same time of car the Low Men drove in Hearts in Atlantis. But someone who just picked the book up on a whim wouldn't have that option.
I do agree, though, that Dreamcatcher was too bloated. That's one of my least favorite SK books. I hope the movie has better pacing.

I am a huge Stpehen King fan but I have to say that I havent liked anything he has written since Th Dark Half ..I had to quit reading Dreamcatcher and Hearts in Atlantis after about 200 pages or so..I usually never stop reading a book..but both of these just bored me to no end..IS the new book a venture back into the old King territory or shouldnt I bother?

Considering the fact that you haven't enjoyed anything since The Dark Half (which I find truly amazing), my answer would be DON'T BOTHER.

Dont know why you find that amazing..many people feel he has gone downhill in his writing since then...Im not in the minority on this..what would you recommend since then that compares to The Stand , Salems Lot, Dead Zone, Shining, Pet Semetary, etc....?
Im willing to at least try and read one of his later ones..the ones I have tried though I was disappointed in

I agree with that to a certain extent. But did you read THE GREEN MILE? I think it's some of the best work in his career. And I think the key is that he was confined by a certain format and wordcount. So he had to constrain himself from over-writing--a curse that plagues NEEDFUL THINGS, DESPERATION, INSOMNIA, BAG OF BONES, DREAMCATCHER, and even THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, which was a short story bloated out to novel length. I think his editors are afraid to rein him in or tell him that he needs to rein himself in. Imagine how great all of those books could have been had they been 200-300 pages shorter. At a brisk 350 pages, FROM A BUICK 8 is a very welcome departure from the "Stephen King Bloated Horror Epic."

I agree..I forgot about the green mile..Yes I got through that one ..i thought it was ok ..anyway I just feel he has gone the path of Tom Clancy..bloated and boring..too bad..cuz I would really like to see King go out with a bang on his last few books

Did anyone read his "On Writing" book? Pretty good non-fiction. Part autobiography and part writing class (he also talks about his accident, which seems to have influenced his retirement).

When I looked at Buick 8, I was like "This can't be King, it's under 600 pages" But I don;t mind his over writing, he is a character writer and is very good at what he does. Cant wait for DT5,6, & 7.

I really enjoyed "From a Buick 8". I think that setting the story in PA had a slight effect on the style of the book. It was very different from what King has written in the past. Anyway, that part at the end was kind of lame,


:thumbsup:

I've read so many pans on this novel, I have a hard time justifying the spending of my little time for free-reading on it.

I've read all of King's stuff - some I loved, some not so much.

The one thing that I enjoy about ALL of his books is the way he writes, and even when he rambles on and on, taking at times what seems forever to develop a plot from time to time, he's still an engaging storyteller.

I just read it this weekend, I liked it quite a lot. Would say it's my favorite since "Hearts of Atlantis." (And I've read all of his books.) It's creepy and scarier than a lot of his recent books, short and to the point without some of the far-out plot hijinks that marred "Dreamcatcher" for me. I for one rather enjoyed the open-endedness of the story -- not everything HAS to have a solution. It's easy to see that in the wake of his accident King might feel the universe is a little more random and chaotic than he once did. Anyway, I dug it. Not classic King but definitely above average. Now I can't wait for those Dark Tower books!

Speaking of the Dark Tower books I wonder if anything connected to "From A Buick 8" will be revealed or included in any of the books, much like how

I'm stupid.

Aside from The Green Mile, I haven't enjoyed any book he's written in the past 10 years or so...I thoroughly enjoyed Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne, which were both released in 1992 - and it ends there, with the one exception listed above.

I tried to get through Insomnia and Bad of Bones, but couldn't - too boring. Needful Things lacked one vital ingredient: likable characters; Desperation and The Regulators were confusing; The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon wasn't very good. So I think I'll pass on From A Buick 8 and re-read something from the 1970's or 1980's or early 1990's.

I borrowed it from the library. While it wasn't the best I've read in awhile, it wasn't horrible.

I really enjoyed it. I have read all but 3 or 4 of King's books and found this to be one of his better ones. Not one of his very best, but still very good. The only King book I did not like was Dreamcatcher. I was bored to death. A few people in this thread have said they did not like Bag of Bones. That really surprises me because I thought it was one of his very best books he has ever written.

I started reading it, but I put it down and now I'm having a hard time picking it up again.

Of the three or four novels you read by King, were they recent books or were they older? If you've read just the recent novels, then I can understand why you might think Bag of Bones was one of his best.

Actually I meant 3 or 4 books that I have not read. Off the top of my head, I have not read Christine, Desperation, most of Everythings Eventual, and 2 or 3 of his Bachman books. I would put It, The Dark Tower saga, The Stand, The Shining, Salems Lot, and probably Pet Cemetry above Bag of Bones. I am not a particuarly fast reader, but I devoured Bag of Bones in about a week. I read the last 200 pages in one sitting. That may not seem like much of a feet for some, but that is incredible for me.