ian

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King An epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon. King says he wanted to know what happened to Danny Torrance, the boy at the heart of The Shining, after his terrible experience in the Overlook Hotel. The instantly riveting Doctor Sleep picks up the story of the now middle-aged Dan, working at a hospice in rural New Hampshire, and the very special twelve-year old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals. On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the 'steam' that children with the 'shining' produce when they are slowly tortured to death. Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him and a job at a nursing home where his remnant 'shining' power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes 'Doctor Sleep.' Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival ... My thoughts. I got a bit worried when I first heard about this. Would it be any good? Would it spoil The Shining for me? I needn't have worried. The book has a fairly slow start, but King uses this to really invest in bringing us up to date with where Dan Torrance is. When the pace picks up in the second half, I found it difficult to put the book down. The characters are believable and three-dimensional; the plot is excellent. My only niggle - I was expecting more from Snakebite Annie - her conversion to one of the True I thought should have gone on to more later on in the book. But really, that is the only thing I could criticise. 5/5.

Quick question if I may - how can I change the wording that appears above my profile picture? Thanks Ian

I hadn't really thought about this, but I suppose for me personally, a crime book would start with a crime,(duh!) which would then be solved by a professional - police, private detective etc. A thriller would be a fast-paced story, usually with a crime involved, but with a protaganist that wasn't necessarily a professional. That doesn't really do justice to the whole of what I think, and it sure leaves a HUGE cross-over area! Basically, Ian Rankin's "Rebus" book I'm always going to look at as Crime; Lee Child's "Reacher" books are always going to be Thrillers in my eyes - even the ones where Reacher is still in the army investigating crimes.

I never realised till now that seeing a suitcase full of books would have the same effect on me as seeing a briefcase full of money!

I'd love there to be something like this by me.

Oh, I have to agree with No 3. A badly written, unnecessary sex scene just puts me right off. The best example of that is the ending of "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown; notwithstanding that the hero has just fell 2 miles into a river with only a small tarpaulin to act as parachute, he still manages to jump straight into bed with the heroine!

Rule number one for me: Don't make it painfully obvious who the killer is, if you're writing a Whodunnit type crime novel. Other than that, I just want it to be interesting & believable - I'm very easy to please really!

I have to agree with Chrissy; there is a fine line between description of a scene and unnecessary, gratuitous detail. I would struggle to quantify where one begins and the other ends - and it would be different for every person of course. The skill of a good writer is to convinve me that the description of the gory details I'm reading isn't gratuitous.

I think you should still enjoy it. They haven't messed with the formula of the show at all, and haven't tried to copy the Ben Miller "fish out of water" character.

Stephen King seems to be one of those writers that really divide opinion. I like that he gives lots of seemingly irrelevant back-story, but I know others just see that as page-filler. I'd certainly recommend a re-read before Doctor Sleep, it's helped me to have been reminded of the characters as they were written, rather than as they were in the film.

Johnny Depp would almost certainly mean Tim Burton directing, which could be........interesting. Not necessarily good, but interesting! And as long as it isn't Tom Cruise........

"The Wind in the Willows" would be one of those books for me. I don't think that books elicit a strong memory of where you were the first time that you read it, which I think music does. What I get from books I re-read is more generalised idea of the feelings I had. So, for instance - re-reading Wind in the Willows, which I did just before Christmas reading it to my daughter, and I get feeling of warm summer days, and a vague memory of my back garden growing up. So I assume I first read it in summer and in our back garden! But when I listen to say Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast album, I get a very strong image of me at 16, sat in my bedroom holding the album sleeve, reading the lyric sheet and being amazed at the sounds coming from the speakers.

Welcome to the forum!

It sounds like you're doing a great job of broadening your reading horizons! Have fun!

Death in Paradise - which I had convinced myself I wouldn't like anymore as the main character has changed. However, it's still good fun - a nice piece of "brain switched off" TV that I can just watch and enjoy. The Muskateers - I'm really enjoying this. It doesn't quite fill the Sherlock-shaped hole in my Sunday night, but it will do! By default I'm watching Benefit street. Ruth loves it, but it just makes me very angry! Unfortunately, it's one of those programmes that you just can't ignore when it's on. I wish it was summer, so I could sit outside instead.

The Shining - Stephen King Danny is only five years old, but in the words of old Mr Hallorann he is a 'shiner', aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Danny's visions grow out of control. As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217 and who are the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive? Somewhere, somehow, there is an evil force in the hotel - and that, too, is beginning to shine . . My thoughts I was probably a teenager when I last read this book. I thought it was a work of genius then, and a re-read some twenty years later hasn't diminished it in my opinion. Perhaps inevitably, I relate more to the father, Jack Torrance, now than I did when I first read it. I can see the tragedy of what happens to him. I also got a better idea of why Stephen King dislikes the film version of this book! (I still think both versions are great....just different). I enjoyed this re-read, and it's set me up very nicely for Doctor Sleep. 5/5

Wrath

Our musical tastes are somewhat different, so probably not! You don't know MIlton Keynes? You're not missing much! Although to be fair, the Milton Keynes Bowl is a good Venue - I saw Metallica play there with Megadeth as support in about 1992 and it was great!

I got to see Gravity over the weekend. I have to admit that I wasn't expecting too much from it. But, now I've seen it, I have to say I was blown away! It will certainly be a film that you will either love or hate, I think. Very clever writing and acting that can keep you interested with only 2 people in the whole film. I have to say though - Sandra Bullock's character must be the unluckiest astronaut in history!

Chair

Never seen them myself. Previously, they have never played outside London when they come to England (to be best of my knowledge) and it was always too awkward to get there. So they announce they are doing Milton Keynes this year - a much better option for me. It's on my wedding anniversary. No way am I going to swing that!

Book 5? And me having still only read the first book?? I've got some catching up to do!!

It is - I know I've read it, but such a long time ago, I can't remember much about it. I've liked all the Rebus books I've read, so hopefully, you should be in for a treat. In the meantime, I have Doctor Sleep by Stephen King to read, but as it's been a number of years since I read it, I think I need a re-read of The Shining first, so I can go straight from that into Doctor Sleep.

Yes - we're on our third pole as they've destroyed the first two!

Our two cats (Poppy & Percy) are in the dog-house at the moment (if such a thing isn't a contradiction!) as they have both taken to scratching every bit of wallpaper in the house they can get at. I went upstair to find one of them sat in front a huge strip of paper on the stairs. I had a shout at him, but my wife took the cat's side and they both stared at me from the sofa for the rest of the evening! Why didn't we stick with Goldfish?!