May's SK flavor of the Month - FIre Starter

time for the next book?

*runs to bookshelf to unearth Firestarter*

And just think I was sitting here reading some more of The Stand!

I've started it already. I wasn't into it at the get go, but I'm starting to like it more now.

And here I was getting ready to start the thread.

I'm looking forward to Firestarter. Another King book that I haven't yet read.

I finished it already (work was slow), but I'll save my comments until more people have at least started it.

All I will say is that I enjoyed it.

I'm still looking at it. I was blessed with (please don't throw stones) a May ER book, a May Bonus Batch book, a member giveaway book and a generous LTer mailed me a book so I'm trying to get them done before starting Firestarter.

Excitement! Im going to have to wait till wed to get started, with school and junk.

I finally have a moment but let me say. Jseger my old friend. Bravo! Kudos for keeping the flavors "tasy". (ok horrible pun but it was so funny in my mind.)

Guys remember that theres the movie with Drew Barrymore in it too. So rstuckey maybe now that your done you might want to check it out and give the group the green light to watch it. :)

It's actually next in line on my queue for Netflix...I should get it by Wednesday.

I am at the point where Rainbird has successfully blackmailed his way into getting Charlie when the Shop is done with her. Haven't given the time to organize my thoughts much about what has occurred to this point except that many King nuances are present.

Still trying to find my copy...

I'm reading a western called Edge the Loner, but it's only a hundred and forty pages. I'm planning on knocking it out today or tomorrow and starting in on Firestarter.

I have some opinions on the Drew Barrymore movie (which I watched a few months ago), but I'll leave 'em alone at least until rstuckey watches it.

I just finished watching the movie and it wasn't very good.

The acting was only o.k. and while the film follows the book pretty well it's still very rushed and we don't really get much character development from anyone besides Andy and Charlie.

I finally started it yesterday. Andy and Charlie are still fleeing the men in the green car.

#12 - I remember reading somewhere that John Carpenter was supposed to direct Firestarter but the studio took it away when his remake of The Thing bombed (hard to believe that classic was a bomb).

It's a shame, because watching it now, they had a good script and good actors (well, and Heather Locklear). It was the direction that was crummy. It felt plodding and a little 'movie of the week' and it's really too bad because it should have been one of the better SK adaptations. (Children of the Corn has this same problem.)

I guess I can give my thoughts on Firestarter now considering half the month is gone already. I'll try to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers.

I didn't like it at first as I said earlier, but as I started to get more of the back story of Charlie and Andy, and the experiments and The Shop I started to like it more.

I thought Rainbird was a great character and probably the strongest of the book. I find King's bag guys who are humans (or at least have human forms like Randal Flagg) are my favorites of his novels. I think he has a great ability to not make the reader neither like nor dislike them. Part of me wants to see their desires play out (maybe not all the way but a little bit) because King gives us great insight into the characters motivations and psyche.

Rainbird's deception of Charlie was probably my favorite part of the whole novel because while I didn't think he would end up fulfilling his wish when I first heard about it I had my doubts as the novel went on. I also thought Andy's character was written at his best during this time in the novel too and I found myself actually rooting for him for the first time. I wasn't wanting him to fail in the beginning; I was just sort of reading with neutrality towards the whole thing...if that makes sense.

I didn't like the Irv Manders character, to folksy and good-natured, just didn't seem realistic to me. I also didn't like the name for the government agency, The Shop. It just seemed too plain of a word.

Overall, I liked the book. It wasn't necessarily one of my favorite King's but it was a fun read (especially the second half). I don't understand why the Miami Harold called this book "Terrifying" (so says inside the front cover where they have one word reviews of about 13 of his books). This book wasn't really scary at all, but more like a thriller. The only "horror" was the telekinetic/pyrokinetic powers but those would be more sci-fi I would say. I just don't think they should necessarily lump all his books into horror because stories like this, The Running Man, Blaze and Eyes of the Dragon aren't really stories I would consider horror stories. Not that this really matters, I just think it sells him short and pigeon-holes him in the eyes of people who haven't read a lot of him and might not read him because they don't like horror novels.

I've read to about page 100. the shop guys (who changed from a green car to a blue car) just harrassed some diners.

I've met Rainbird, but haven't seen much of him yet.

Charlie is very well done though. If I had read this book when I was younger I probably wouldn't have even noticed it, yet I argue that it is King's ability to create such believable characters as Charlie (or Danny from The Shining) that makes his books resonate with so many people.

O.J. seems like a pretty two-dimensional character, but they can't all have rich inner lives.

For a while I thought that King's books and stories that connected to The Shop seemed kind of dated. But reading it now amid an atmosphere of government sanctioned torture and warrantless wiretapping, The Shop doesn't come off as so farfetched.

I've read to page... I forget. Charlie visited the farm and Rainbird has just paid a visit to the good doctor.

I can see that Rainbird is going to be a very interesting guy. I didn't mind the philosophic rambling while he was sitting on the bed. In fact, I kind of wanted to read more of it.

I agree with rstuckey that Irv Manders is a little too much of a home-spun hero. At least his wife seems to have a head on her shoulders.

So far I'm really liking the book. Stephen King has done a very good job of setting up a manhunt that is threatening and nearly inescapable without resorting to over the top Hollywood style chase/action scenes.

Reading it, it seems like the movie was very close to the book. Closer than most anyway. Too bad the movie was so... lackluster. I'd like to see this one remade.

I've read a bit further. For me I've been tearing through the book.

Andy and Charlie have found a moment of peace and Andy is thinking back on things.

I like the way the story is structured. How it sort of started in the middle and both moves forward and flashes back at the same time. It works to build susoense because right from the beginning we have our hero being pursued. Like the beginning of The Gunslinger we don’t know why they are being chased or who is doing the chasing. The flashbacks work to fill in the story, but they also show just how bad the bad guys can be.

One thing I’ve been thinking about: If The Shop had just worked with the McGees instead of against them, they probably would have had what they wanted with so much less trouble. They could have paid the McGees some monthly amount and either played upon their patriotism or they could have told some half truth about lingering effects of Lot Six and done ‘monitoring’ of the McGees. Either way, free money and the sense that the government was trying to make amends would have probably made the family (and the other subjects) much more willing to help.

Finally found it (under a pile of ironing) and about 150 pages in. Took a little while to get into it - like someone above said, it grew on me as the back story was explained.

Rainbird is fascinating so far. The visit to Irv's seemed random and OTT, to me anyway. I don't think it'll be a favourite, might be a grower, but I'm keeping an open mind.

Sort of off-topic, but I started collecting Stephen King First Editions recently and I found a Firestarter from Half-Price Books that didn't even look like it had been opened. It is the oldest first edition I have got so far and probably only second in condition only to Just After Sunset (but only because it's really new and I haven't read it yet).

Now I'm looking for a Cujo so I can read it for next month.

That's cool. You never know what you will dig up at Half Price books. Good luck with first editions of the earlier books.

(I think June is Danse Macabre. Replies to my post asking which it should be were few, but they seemed to lean towards it. If so, Cujo will be July's book.)

I admit to being stalled on this one, too. Not sure what it is.

Over halfway through but still not enjoying it very much. Telling the story in flashback form might be a useful plot device as far as suspense goes (and this IS a chase story), but the problem with NOT following Andy and Charlie right from the beginning is that you care less. Well, I do. You catch them right when the big things are happening to them and it all seems a bit far-fetched.

I think the plotting spoils the characterisation. I know the events aren't realistic, but SK at his best really does make all sorts of things imaginable. I don't think he's managed it here as everything seems a bit TOO much. What with the abilities, the Shop, Rainbird (even he is getting a bit much, not as subtle as I thought he'd be), I feel everyone is getting a bit cardboard cut-out and seconday to the action.

Nobody so far seems to feel the way I do so again, a personal taste issue? It is a bit like an action movie, there's not a lot of depth, and I don't enjoy action movies.

Determined to finish it, though.

One thing - Patrick Hockstetter. Haven't I heard that name before?

Telling the story in flashback form might be a useful plot device as far as suspense goes (and this IS a chase story), but the problem with NOT following Andy and Charlie right from the beginning is that you care less. Well, I do.

I can see that.

I have to say that I enjoy the structure of the story, but I do feel a little disconnected from it. All along I've been feeling like this is middle tier King and that I should be enjoying it more. His characterization is right on and I've been wondering why it is that enev though it is exciting and has great characters, I'm not... hooked like I should be.

I think maybe you've nailed it for me.

Still a good book and I'm liking it better than The Dead Zone... but it isn't King at his best.

I think we all are in the same boat about this book.

I probably wouldn't have liked this book had I not liked Rainbird's character as much as I did. I know he was over the top, but I felt like it worked for him as a villain.

Finished it last night and knocked out a review. (I may edit it. I think it is too long.)

If it were a book by anybody other than Stephen King, it would be a really good book. But compared to King's own work... it was okay.

I agree with the others that Rainbird is probably who I will remember the most.

I must have read the book years ago but nothing about it stands out in my mind. I'm about halfway through and it's OK.

Finished it a few days ago but have had no access to the internet. Recently finished Night Shift and am most of the way through Salem's Lot and they've provided a good contrast. Reading these two straight afterward, I think another problem with Firestarter is that TOO much of SK's voice comes through. It is packed full of his favourite expressions and sayings, and everyone in it thinks and talks like SK, or a cardboard cut-out SK character.

I will say, now I've finished it, that two-thirds of the way along it picked up, and was quite enjoyable. Haven't read Carrie in YEARS but Charlie's walk of destruction out of the compound brought that to mind. Charlie going back to Irv's was too neat a wrapping up, but had to happen or Irv being in the story in the first place would be too random and ridiculous. I did like the twist at the end, about how Charlie chose to tell her story.

All in all one if his weaker books, and not to my taste. Two stars.

I'm with everybody else on this one. Not one of my favorites and to me, it dragged in places. I did read it years ago and the only thing that I could really remember was that Charlie ends up going to Rolling Stone, which I guess means it didn't leave much of an impression!

And you're right Moomin_Mama, I too thought of Carrie with the compound fire/destruction scene.

Overall not a bad book by any means, but I'm glad to be moving on to something else.

I thought of Carrie as well! Firestarter was sort of like Carrie with better parents.

I think the problem with the book was that Stephen King was still getting used to writing thrillers.

After the straight up horror of Carrie, 'Salem's Lot and The Shining, he started branching out. First into epic fantasy with The Stand and then a spate of thrillers where the supernatural takes a back seat. The Dead Zone, Firestarter and Cujo. I think maybe those first two are a result of him still learning the ropes maybe.

>30 jseger9000::
He does seem, in his earlier works, to have less of a natural flair for thrillers, but as someone has already said, once he gets there (with Misery), it's well worth it.

"Carrie with better parents" - I think you've got your shortened review right there! I like it.

Did ANYBODY recognise the name Patrick Hockstetter? Wasn't there a Hockstetter in It?

Did ANYBODY recognise the name Patrick Hockstetter? Wasn't there a Hockstetter in It?

I'm glad you kept on that. Searched "Stephen King" and "Patrick Hockstetter" on Google. Patrick Hockstetter was a character in It! He was one of Henry's friends. He and Henry in the junk yard... um... yeah.

but as someone has already said, once he gets there (with Misery), it's well worth it.

Hey, that was my review! (I think.)

I've not known SK, so far, to use the same name for two different characters, so maybe a bit of dig there - Hockstetter was a shrink in Firestarter, wasn't he? Quite a funny back-story for a psychologist working for the government, considering SK's views of the powers-that-be.

Ah, it was your review I remembered, jseger! You are on top form at the moment, very pithy.

I just finished binge watching seasons one and two of Stranger Things. Fire-Starter is the perfect book to continue the Binge. I am on page 24 (chapter 8) and I am visualizing Millie Bobby Brown (11) as Charlie and David Harbour (Hopper) as Andy. (see what I am doing with parentheses 👍)