Stephen King Question

[Yoda]

I recently purchased Desperation and Regulators at a garage sale.  I know that there are shared characters and similar story lines and that they were simultaneously released.  Is there one that I should read first?

[zuke583]

i read desperation then regulators with a couple years in between. didn\'t notice any problems doing it that way, but i could be mistaken. it\'s a pretty cool premise. creepy too

[FrankZappa]

They appear to be mirror universes, so the plots are intertwined but it doesn\'t seem like theres a first or second book as they were released at the same time. I\'ve seen the desperation movie though, and it sounds like there is some more explanation of how things came to be in the synopsis of regulators so i would probably start there but it doesn\'t seem like it will really matter.

(tak!)

The Regulators is a novel by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was published in 1996 at the same time as its "mirror" novel, Desperation. The two novels represent parallel universes relative to one another, and most of the characters present in one novel\'s world also exist in the other novel\'s reality, albeit in different circumstances.

[BigMamaBlueberry]

These are two of my favorite books.  While I agree that there is no particular order to read them in, my preference would be "Desperation" then "The Regulators".

IMHO the story flows better and themes/facts from "Desperation" helps explain some of the stuff from "The Regulators".

[Yoda]

These are two of my favorite books.  While I agree that there is no particular order to read them in, my preference would be "Desperation" then "The Regulators".

IMHO the story flows better and themes/facts from "Desperation" helps explain some of the stuff from "The Regulators".

Okay... I\'ll try it that way... The only reason that I was thinking of starting with The Regulators is because it was the left side of the image that both covers join to create and we read left to right... I have had both of these books for about a year now, but have shelved them because I saw the first hour of the made-for-tv movie and thought it was cheesy... I should have learned a long time ago that there really is no move adapted to a Stephen King novel that has succeeded...

[kindm's]

These are two of my favorite books.  While I agree that there is no particular order to read them in, my preference would be "Desperation" then "The Regulators".

IMHO the story flows better and themes/facts from "Desperation" helps explain some of the stuff from "The Regulators".

Okay... I\'ll try it that way... The only reason that I was thinking of starting with The Regulators is because it was the left side of the image that both covers join to create and we read left to right... I have had both of these books for about a year now, but have shelved them because I saw the first hour of the made-for-tv movie and thought it was cheesy... I should have learned a long time ago that there really is no move adapted to a Stephen King novel that has succeeded...

While I agree for the most part with your assessment

Carrie
Christine
Cujo
Pet Cemetary
Misery
The Shining (both versions)
The Running Man (kind of cheesy but good action flic)
The Green Mile
Shawshank Redemption
Salem\'s Lot (dated special effects but awesome)

I\'m sure I missed a few but there are some killer movie adaptions of his work. However there is a lot of CRAP as well. Really hit or miss with his stuff

[Spacey]

I never knew they made "The Running Man" into a movie. Gotta check them out. When I worked at Response Insurance, I would read King all day. Got through a lot of essays and short stories.

You are right about some of them being hit or miss.

[Yoda]

These are two of my favorite books.  While I agree that there is no particular order to read them in, my preference would be "Desperation" then "The Regulators".

IMHO the story flows better and themes/facts from "Desperation" helps explain some of the stuff from "The Regulators".

Okay... I\'ll try it that way... The only reason that I was thinking of starting with The Regulators is because it was the left side of the image that both covers join to create and we read left to right... I have had both of these books for about a year now, but have shelved them because I saw the first hour of the made-for-tv movie and thought it was cheesy... I should have learned a long time ago that there really is no move adapted to a Stephen King novel that has succeeded...

While I agree for the most part with your assessment

Carrie  Haven\'t seen, so I can\'t comment, but I believe John Travolta was in it, so it loses points off the bat.
Christine Haven\'t seen it, so I can\'t comment.
Cujo Haven\'t seen it, so I can\'t comment.
Pet Cemetary This was okay, I didn\'t really get into the book.
Misery A lot of details from the book were messed with.
The Shining (both versions) I liked both versions, but there were things (like twins) added that didn\'t happen in the book.
The Running Man (kind of cheesy but good action flic) Arnold, cheesy.
The Green Mile I take it back on this one.
Shawshank Redemption I take it back on this one.
Salem\'s Lot (dated special effects but awesome) This one was okay, but I still need to see the new version.[COLOR]

I\'m sure I missed a few but there are some killer movie adaptions of his work. However there is a lot of CRAP as well. Really hit or miss with his stuff

[zuke583]

I never knew they made "The Running Man" into a movie. Gotta check them out. When I worked at Response Insurance, I would read King all day. Got through a lot of essays and short stories.

You are right about some of them being hit or miss.

are you ser?! one of the best arnold movies of all time. watch it immediately

arnold...cheesey?...blasphemy!

[Spacey]

I never knew they made "The Running Man" into a movie. Gotta check them out. When I worked at Response Insurance, I would read King all day. Got through a lot of essays and short stories.

You are right about some of them being hit or miss.

are you ser?! one of the best arnold movies of all time. watch it immediately

arnold...cheesey?...blasphemy!

netflixing it when I get home.

Gotta see this.

[SlimPickens]

These are two of my favorite books.  While I agree that there is no particular order to read them in, my preference would be "Desperation" then "The Regulators".

IMHO the story flows better and themes/facts from "Desperation" helps explain some of the stuff from "The Regulators".

Okay... I\'ll try it that way... The only reason that I was thinking of starting with The Regulators is because it was the left side of the image that both covers join to create and we read left to right... I have had both of these books for about a year now, but have shelved them because I saw the first hour of the made-for-tv movie and thought it was cheesy... I should have learned a long time ago that there really is no move adapted to a Stephen King novel that has succeeded...

While I agree for the most part with your assessment

Carrie  Haven\'t seen, so I can\'t comment, but I believe John Travolta was in it, so it loses points off the bat.
Christine Haven\'t seen it, so I can\'t comment.
Cujo Haven\'t seen it, so I can\'t comment.
Pet Cemetary This was okay, I didn\'t really get into the book.
Misery A lot of details from the book were messed with.
The Shining (both versions) I liked both versions, but there were things (like twins) added that didn\'t happen in the book.
The Running Man (kind of cheesy but good action flic) Arnold, cheesy.
The Green Mile I take it back on this one.
Shawshank Redemption I take it back on this one.
Salem\'s Lot (dated special effects but awesome) This one was okay, but I still need to see the new version.[COLOR]

I\'m sure I missed a few but there are some killer movie adaptions of his work. However there is a lot of CRAP as well. Really hit or miss with his stuff

So let me get this straight, your initial comment "there really is no move adapted to a Stephen King novel that has succeeded"

was based on 3 movies you never saw, a book you didn\'t like, 3 movies you enjoyed, and one that had cheesey Arnold in it?

[Yoda]

I didn\'t suggest those titles, just commented on them.  There are tons of SK books that were made into TV shows and movies.  There are some that are good and that I enjoyed, but they don\'t really keep to the story.  The ones that do keep to the story end up being made for TV mini-series and although they\'re very to the detail, they end up coming across as B-type movies.  

2 Examples:

The Shining (Kubrick version) - Nicholson was great and captured the character, but a lot of details were scewed.

The Shining (Made for TV version) - definitely kept to the book, but I couldn\'t get past the "Wings" reject and Rebecca DeMorney as the main characters; not to leave out that it was like 5-6 hours long.

IT (Made for TV) - read the book, skip the movie; the only positive in this is Tim Curry at Pennywise.

I\'m tained though, I really don\'t like many movies that were adapted from books that I have read, mainly because they don\'t follow the story exactly the way the book did.

[SlimPickens]

The Shining (Kubrick version) - Nicholson was great and captured the character, but a lot of details were scewed.

many hardcore king fans... and king himself were disappointed with the shinning.

i personally liked both.  but i don\'t believe a director has to (or really can for that matter) stay faithful to a book.  

i was just pointing out that you made a horribly inaccurate generalization, but I didn\'t realize you were just stating your opinion.

[kindm's]

King is one of few writers who don\'t have issues with their work being "adapted" to the screen. The exceptions to this would be the Original Shining where he and Kubrick had some words but my understanding is King warmed to the movie over the years.

He did sue to get his name removed from a few movies but he primarily has no issue with the liberties taken with his stuff

The Running Man also has a brief role played by none other than Dweezil Zappa.

By and large most books are WAY better than the movies there are a few exceptions to this rule but they are few.

RE: Carrie.
John Travolta. I didn\'t recall him in that movie. He doesn\'t really have a major part and his earlier work wasn\'t that bad. Welcome Back Kotter comes to mind. It really is all about Sissy Spacek and her totally fucking crazy Mom.

I think the issue about books v. Movies always come down to the fact that everyone uses their imagination when reading so what you end up getting is the Directors views / ideas on the book that you have formed your own on. So I think that is always ripe for dissappointment