Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Insomnia by Stephen King starting on June 1, 2024.


Happy Reading

Let's do this!!!

🤔

Fire Farts?

🤣🤣🤣

That definitely would give you insomnia.

Backdraft / Backdragon

LOL

Stage 1 of the Ultimate Dark Tower/Stephen King Read is live!

2024 Pre Dark Tower stand-alones
1) Insomnia (4.2) (1994) June 1
2) ’Salem’s Lot (4.1) (1975) July 1 [link]
3) The Eyes of the Dragon (2.2) Aug 1 [link]

4) The Stand (2.1) (1978/1990) Sept 1 [link]
5) Everything's Eventual (4.4) (2002) Oct 13
(skip "Little Sisters of Eluria" for now)
6) Hearts in Atlantis (4.5) (1999) Nov 4

Dark Tower Read from Jan-July 2025

Oh man I'm super excited for some King this year!

For real!!! I’m forcing myself to not start this early. And I do t think I’m going to win that battle.

I’m also excited about how many of these reads I haven’t read yet. I’ve hit a lot of King but never read a few of these.

Same! Haven't read any of the pre Dark Tower Standalones except for the The Stand

I’ve read Salems lot and the Stand. I did read Everything is Eventual but I don’t remember it at all.

I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to do The Stand. It’s so huge and daunting. But I read Lonesome Dove last month so I can do chonky things.

Yeah I'm not sure about that one either since its a reread and I want to say a lot has stuck with me... But post Covid, it should be an interesting read lol

That’s definitely true.

This will just be my second Stephen King... I've avoided him my whole life, but now the hiding is over... First was Fairy Tale and I found it very interesting...

Oh my! King was my favorite for a long time. In fact, he is still a favorite. I haven’t enjoyed his new stuff but classic King is great. He’s a sure fire way to fix a reading slump for me. Duma Key on audio read by John Slattery is my favorite audiobook of all time.

He is a long-time favorite of mine as well. The nuns called my Mom because I was reading The Stand during our silent reading time when I was in 4th grade and so I had to put book covers on any books that were not "age appropriate" for a Catholic elementary school. My Mom just said if I wasn't asking what every other word meant then I was old enough to read the books and if something scared me I wouldn't read them any longer lol He did stop being an insta-buy for me around when Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game were released the same year, I was not a huge fan of those at all. so I have been a little picky since then but his classics? Love them to this day <3

I inherited all the classic King novels from my aunt who was a religious King fan. I've read a few of them and some newer ones (one being The Outsider. Loved that one)

Tonari no Emily wrote: "I inherited all the classic King novels from my aunt who was a religious King fan. I've read a few of them and some newer ones (one being The Outsider. Loved that one)"

So I got my copy of The Stand because my best friend's mom took me shopping one day when I had off from school and she didn't (Catholic vs public schools) and she was browsing the paperbacks and picked it up. I was like you have that book already and she was like nope, I do not and I was like you definitely do and she was like yeah, I am going to buy it. So fast forward to us getting home, I marched into her house and went to her bookshelf and pulled out the hardback and she was like dammit, do you want to read it? And I was like YES PLEASE and thus began my love affair with Stephen King lol

LOL That's a great story! Both of those.

Haha, great anekdotes, Ann-Marie! I've discovered Stephen King when I was in my early teenager years, but due to circumstances, I needed to give up most of my books...I had a huge pile of King's books.
Years later (25 or so) I'm buying them again, but I enjoy in searching them in second hand bookstores. So, for the BR's of King, I'm going on a second hand bookstore hunt ;)

I started this last night when I stayed up too late. I was too excited to wait. So far so good.

I do have a complaint about the audio. The narrator is fine but there is tense music that plays throughout and it’s too loud. It makes it so I can’t understand what the narrator is saying when it’s at 3x speed so I’m forced to reduce to 2.5. And it pops up all the time. I hate it. My library only has the one version so I guess this will just take me a bit longer.

I have never read any King mainly because I am a scaredy cat that avoids horror unless it's used as a little flavoring in my fantasy. (I think I can't deal with supernatural scary stuff when it's in our world but if it's another world it's fine lol.) But I am curious about the Dark Tower series so I might go for these too.

King was my starting point for horror and now I love it. There are some of his stuff that’s scary like It and Pet Sematary. But I think most of his stuff is just atmospheric and philosophical. I don’t think DT is scary at all and would mostly fall under fantasy/western.

Yeah, DT brough King on my radar. I only though of him as horror author before. So I was happy to find out I can read the big author without getting into scary horror. I just never got into the series. Especially with all the opinions about reading order and books to read before the series.

Again, this BR might be good motivation to go for it but... Idk if I can add more eye books on my TBR. Even though at this point I accepted I will be reading multiple books at the same time. Which I used to do until I started needing to concentrate on one book at a time. But would love to be able to do again.

I’m 31% in and (view spoiler)[ The two men on stoop that our MC is watching through the binoculars. Are they Low Men? (hide spoiler)]

There have already been so many DT references.

Was this written before or after DT? I hope all y'all in the know'll help point out/explain those references to those of us noobs. ^_^

An obvious early one is that this story takes place in Derry as does most of Kings books, most notably It. I’m not sure if that’s so much a DT reference as a general King reference.

I started this because I need a break from Jade War and man, that random screechy music is going to get old FAST. This was published after King stopped being an auto buy for me and at least a couple DT books were released prior to this. I did pick up the Derry references but it's weird because this was published after Needful Things, right?

I’m not sure about those types of timelines. I don’t do research. Ha ha.

That's off the top of my head :)

Derry is a...place?

I think it’s fictional but yes, Derry, Maine. Most of Kings books take place in Derry or Maine generally. There are a few exceptions like Duma Key (Florida), The Shining (Colorado) & Desperation (I think Arizona) but most are in Maine.

Derry (view spoiler)[ I believe is a gateway or a thiny. (hide spoiler)] I’m not a good King fan though cause I don’t know all the details. We need a real King fan to get in here.

Felina wrote: "I think it’s fictional but yes, Derry, Maine. Most of Kings books take place in Derry or Maine generally. There are a few exceptions like Duma Key (Florida), The Shining (Colorado) & Desperation (I..."

Ah, thank you!

Ahhhh…Ka is a wheel. This book is very DT.

To other worlds than these!!

This is so exciting.

Yes, Insomnia is probably the biggest DT related book King wrote that isn't an actual DT book.

Derry was first (I think) introduced as the central location in It, but has popped up many times over the years.

Castle Rock is his other most used Maine town.

Nirkatze wrote: "Was this written before or after DT? I hope all y'all in the know'll help point out/explain those references to those of us noobs. ^_^"

This was written in between books 4 and 5 of the DT series. Insomnia actually introduces several elements that pop up in books 5-7 too.

Legit. This book reeks of DT. I was thinking, it’s basically a DT novel straight up. Should be called DT 4.5.

Yay! Chris is our King scholar.

Also, for you King virgins, characters from other books pop up all over Kings other books. The SKU (Stephen King Universe) is very real and it’s beyond fun to find the Easter eggs in all his books.

I’ve never read Insomnia before but it feels like revisiting an old friend.

Looking forward to it! I'm in line at the library. ^_^

91% (view spoiler)[Only King can make a catfish scary. Ha ha. (hide spoiler)]

I just finished this one. It was so good and did not disappoint. I'm happy I didn't overhype it for myself.

I've started yesterday and it's so easy to get carried away in King's books. He writes so fluent.
I'm still in the prologue after (view spoiler)[what happened between Ed and Heavysetter. Ralph and Carolyn made me think of the old couple in 'Pet Semetary'. Wasn't there also a warning in the book that you don't want to mess with the 'bigger business'? (hide spoiler)]

The nice thing about King and all his cross references is that for the most part, they're Easter eggs and not something that's a big deal if missed. Other than the numbered DT books, it really is okay to read stuff out of order or selectively.

I am through chapter 10 and enjoying it so far besides the random, terrible music. It has been a million years since I read DT but some things are screaming the connection like (view spoiler)[the Crimson King (hide spoiler)]. As for this story (view spoiler)[I am enjoying it but it is dragging a bit in parts. And come on, the way the flying school was introduced, if Ed doesn't use a plane to try to disrupt Susan Day's appearance then I need to stop trying to predict how books will play out lol (hide spoiler)]

I'm about 40% in, in Chapter... hm. This doesn't seem to have chapters. I agree with Ann-Marie--I'm enjoying it but it is dragging in parts. I don't feel a connection to the characters, but the descriptions are rich (sometimes too rich, ewewewwwww) and there are specific sequences that have me nose-to-book. (view spoiler)[Like the sequence with the battered mother, and how the MC calling in the spousal abuse set off the dominoes to get her to a safer place... the interaction with the abuse counselor... and her coming back and telling him about it. But then the husband was released???

Or the scene with the woman across the street... the MC always sitting at the window with binoculars... kind of makes me think of that nosy neighbor in Iron Druid, and another in the Mercy Thompson books... but the book is told from the POV of the nosy neighbor.

The ongoing plotline of the Pro Life representative coming to town, and how the town is reacting to abortion and places that provide planned parenthood services is an interesting connecting thread, and I'm just waiting to see how all of these threads come together.

The more trippy things happening to the MC as he gets more and more sleep deprived and tries different things to ameliorate it--make me think of how King has talked about how many of his books were inspired by drugs, or written while doing drugs... very trippy. (hide spoiler)]

I finished this earlier today and the easter eggs to his other books was super fun. I liked the book well enough but I thought it was too long and slow for a decent bit, to the point I was annoyed. My biggest beef was the narration, I didn't love Eli Wallach as the narrator but the random, loud and just terrible music that was included was the absolute worst and negatively impacted my listening experience. I was stopped at a red light listening to this with the windows down and the music kicked in and a dog in the car next to me was startled and started barking! SO BAD lol

As for the story (view spoiler)[the last third was very good, once things started happening and the story became more focused. I know SK writes chonkers and I have been good in the past, this one was just too slow for me for a lot of the book. So many things that called back to It that was so much fun! And of course the DT series. I recognized some but then after I finished I googled all of the references because I was certain I had missed some. It sucked that Ralph had to sacrifice himself in the end but it makes sense how close he was with Helen and Natalie for so long. I was glad that he and Lois had several happy years together. (hide spoiler)]

At first those horrible music sounds were so annoying and then I got used to it. Ha ha. By the end I kinda liked it. I’m stupid.

Felina wrote: "At first those horrible music sounds were so annoying and then I got used to it. Ha ha. By the end I kinda liked it. I’m stupid."

Not stupid, I am jealous you were able to not be bothered by it lol

Felina wrote: "At first those horrible music sounds were so annoying and then I got used to it. Ha ha. By the end I kinda liked it. I’m stupid."

You're not alone--I found it kind of atmospheric. But too loud.

Finished! Agree with Ann-Marie on everything except the music, lol. (view spoiler)[After Ralph saw those guys leaving the neighbor's house with scissors, I seriously would never have guessed the story to take a turn into Greek mythology and bring out the Three Fates... and that they would be such weirdos.

I was glad Ralph's sacrifice was kind of an epilogue... a really long epilogue. And of the ways to go out in the world... knowing that you're saving someone's life isn't bad. I'm also glad he & Lois got a good life together. (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze wrote: "Agree with Ann-Marie on everything except the music, lol. "

The music scared a dog! I was so embarrassed.....