Tag: Stephen King

Movie adaptation: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

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The movie adaptation of The Dark Tower opens in theaters this Friday August 3, 2017.

Stephen King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and many of them have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television shows and comic books. He is best known for “Carrie,” “It,” “The Green Mile” and the Dark Tower series. The movie adaptation of the Dark Tower series is set to be released on Friday August 4 and stars Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, a gunslinger on a quest to protect the Dark Tower, and Matthew McConaughey as his nemesis, Walter o’Dim, the ‘Man in Black.’

According to Wikipedia, the Dark Tower is a series of eight books that combines multiple genres including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror and Western. It expands on King’s multiverse and links together many of his other novels. The story centers on a “gunslinger” and his quest to protect the Dark Tower, a mythical structure which supports all realties. The inspirations for the series includes the poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” by Robert Browning as well as The Lord of the Rings, Arthurian Legend and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The movie is a continuation of the series and takes place in both modern-day New York City and Mid-World, Roland’s Old West-style parallel universe. Roland is on a quest to reach the Dark Tower in End-World and reach the nexus point between time and space that he hopes will save humanity from extinction. It is a sequel to the events that take place in the books.

Television adaptation: The Mist by Stephen King

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The most recent adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist premieres on Spike TV on June 22, 2017.

Stephen King is the world-wide best-selling author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction and fantasy. His books have sold millions of copies and many have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television shows and comic books. The most recent one, The Mist, is a short story first published in the horror anthology ‘Dark Forces’ in 1980 and a slightly edited version was included in the short story collection ‘Skeleton Crew’ in 1985. It was adapted into a feature film in 2007 and this month a television series of the same will air on Spike TV starting on Thursday June 22 for a total of ten episodes.

According to Wikipedia, the original story takes place after a violent thunderstorm hits the small town of Bridgton, Maine. A thick mist spreads across town reducing visibility to zero and concealing bizarre monsters that kill anyone caught outside. As a result, a large group of people become trapped in a supermarket while taking shelter, including a commercial artist named David Drayton, his son Billy and their neighbor Brent Norton. After some of them are killed off by these creatures, David and Ollie, the store’s manager, attempt to lead the survivors out of the supermarket but only a handful make it. They leave town driving for hours through the mist and monster-filled New England into an uncertain future but still hoping for the best.

Book review: ‘The Bazaar of Bad Dreams’ by Stephen King

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‘The Bazaar of Bad Dreams’ is Stephen King’s newest collection of short stories.

Stephen King is the bestselling author of more than fifty books and is known the world over as the master of horror. He received the 2014 National Medal of the Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. His body of work includes everything from short stories to full size novels that can be more than 1,000 pages long. Most recently he has written The Bill Hodges Trilogy: ‘Mr Mercedes,’ ‘Finders Keepers’ and ‘End of Watch,’ ‘Doctor Sleep’ and the collection of short stories ‘The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.’

This collection of stories have the universal themes of mortality, the afterlife, guilt and the questions of what would people do if they could see the future or go back and correct mistakes that they have made. Long time King readers, who he describes as ‘Constant Readers’ know that he starts each book with an introduction that describes what they are about to read. In these introductions he addresses the ‘Constant Reader’ and the tone is familiar, as if they have known each other for years.

“Everything you see is handcrafted, and while I love each and every item, I’m happy to sell them, because I made them especially for you. Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”

In this particular collection he also starts each story with comments on when, why and how each story was written, or in some cases rewritten. There is a total of twenty stories including Mile 81, Premium Harmony, Batman and Robin Have an Altercation, The Dune, Bad Little Kid, A Death, The Bone Church, Morality, Afterlife, Ur, Herman Wouk Is Still Alive, Under the Weather, Blockade Billy, Mister Yummy, Tommy, The Little Green God of Agony, That Bus Is Another World, Obits, Drunken Fireworks and Summer Thunder. As with any other collection of works, some appeal to readers while others may miss the mark completely. Standouts include Mile 81, which is similar to ‘Christine,’ Afterlife where the main character repeatedly relives his life and death with no chance to change anything and Ur where a Kindle is a portal to a parallel world. There is even a narrative poem in the mix ‘The Bone Church’ which proves that even Mr King has written poetry. Overall ‘The Bazaar of Bad Dreams’ will appeal to his faithful readers even though some stories are weaker than the others. It makes a perfect addition to any Stephen King library.