Rating: Summary: contains popular elements Review: There are popular elements in this book, which means you really know what will happen next. When Linoge faces with with many town people, you expect that he will say dark things about them. Briefly story is good for o screen play but not good for a novel. I really disliked the photographs in the book. I imagined Linoge differently :(.
Rating: Summary: Interesting; but it doesnt quite work!, Review: I am a great admirer of Mr King, and have read most of his works; but his,although interesting, does not quite 'work' in the way that his other novels of horror do, and for quite a simple reason.King's great strength is his detailed observation and portrayal of ordinary people.Decent, everyday folk with their loves and hates, joys and worries, the sort of people that live next door without any problems...until King comes along and drops them bodily into some bizarre and terrifying situation and then, in effect, invites us to watch their struggles to extricate themselves. In his novels you can see through the eyes of his characters; you can hear their innermost thoughts, feel their deepest emotions, understand their lives and problems. But I repeat, that is in his novels; written in his fluent and highly descriptive and colloquial prose. But "Storm of the Century" is not a novel. It is the screenplay of the TV film, and like the film itself, can only show you the exterior of the characters. You can seetheir adtions, hear their words, but you are not privy to their hidden thoughts and fears directly; you can only infer them from what you observe. And that is where this story comes to grief; it is strangely, not frightening at all to thereader,although Kings evident intention is to horrify you with his story of the evil and unhuman stranger that comes to the isolated island community and offers them a terrifying choice This stranger, Linoge, is not,(as I have seen suggested) an alter ego of Flagg in Kings "The Stand". Flagg is (to me) the embodiment of pure chaos and destruction; his is a kind of mindless, giggling terror, impersonal, pointless and overpowering. Linoge, on the other hand, evinces a dark and malevolent intelligence, aimed murderously at each individual, in retribution for his or her particular personal sins. Linoge is a kind of nemesis. ( As an aside, it is perhaps a pity that the actor Colm Feore gave the character such a spooky attraction in the film...or maybe thats just my feeling, given that I admire Mr Feore!) But ultimately, the stark choice offered by Linoge to the storm-bound islanders just isn't as terrible as King would have us think. (I wont spoil the story by giving full details) For even given the natural love and protective impulse of parents, there is really only one rational decision they can make, given the overwhelming promise of anihilation offered by Linoge as alternative to "giving him what he wants"... But the concept is interesting. I only wish King had told us more about the nature of the creature Linoge, and his"work" It's worth reading, if you enjoy screenplays. King does include many asides and descriptions that a pure script would not need, aimed at the general reader. But the overall effect is simply not as moving or frightening as much of his other writing.
Rating: Summary: Confined into an Island, just for destroy your life Review: Well, first at all, I haven't seen the miniseries, so I just judge the book. In my opinion, it's a good book. I agree there's some points don't cover... Why the island for example, but >I really like the book. Andre Linoge (The name of the bad guy) could control the people in the island, but couldn't make them "Give him" what he needs; Just analyze the book from this point, you could be the greatest, a superior man, but you can't have always what you want, altough you can make people gives you what you want... even if this it's life itself. Anyway, I like the style, the develop of the story... the conclusion... I like the book
Rating: Summary: Where's the beef! Review: Too many unanswered questions: who is the bad guy? why did he choose that island? why did he kill people? why did he have others kill themselves? where did he come from? he has immense powers - why didn't he just take one of the kids? why did he have to call the town meeting to "ask" for one of the kids? In other words, King put absolutely no thought into writing anything plausible - he was merely out for the shock value. All of you bozos that think he's the best writer since time began should question the faults in this piece of crap (and his other works) a bit more closely.
Rating: Summary: An excellent book Review: I must say that I was wary when I learned that the book stemming from the TV mini-series of the same name was a screenplay, but after reading it through and through, I must say that it is a stunning and captivating piece of literature. The scene directions actually make you feel as if you are there, watching the lives of the people unfold before your eyes as the puzzle for as to who and what Andre Linoge is locks together. Until the brilliant and shocking end of the book, the reader is kept hanging onto every word and every page as if they are drawn to it. My advice to anyone who dislikes screenplay literature and to even those who like it, buy this book; I swear you won't regret it.
Rating: Summary: Just Another Winter Storm in Maine Review: The Green Mile, Pet Cemetery, The Girl Tom Gordon, and Storm of the Century are written by Stephen King. King born in Portland, Maine in 1947 is a distinguished horror writer. King's parents were divorced when Stephen was a young boy. As a result of this he was moved away from Maine. King spent a lot of time living in Fort Wayne, Indiana as well as Stratford, Connecticut. His novels are based a lot of the time in a small New England town some in his home state, Maine. Storm of the Century is a Screen Play that Stephen King has developed in a small island town just out side of Machias. The town of Little Tall Island, population of 400 people most of which flee to the main land when a threat of a winter storm arises. A storm with the force to bury most of the eastern tip of Maine, including Machias and Little Tall Island. Island folk will always stick together until the end. Andre Linoge, King's demon has made himself welcomed to Little Tall. The people of Little Tall are stunned to find out that one of their own was murdered. They were also astonished to find out that the killer was still in the house that he committed the murder in. Linoge killed an old lady who was well known on the island. Brutally beat her in the head with his cane, which we see much in the later scenes. In this screenplay King uses description as one of his finest points. The description of the old lady with an eyeball out of her socket and blood covering her body as well as the floor where she fell to die. His description in this sense is gross and gory, yet it helps the reader to see the picture in front of them, without an actual visual representation. It seems that King has written this screenplay with the hopes that it will make the big screen. He has also written it in a way so that if it does not make the silver screen there is enough detail and depth so that he could then turn this story into a novel. There are many parallels between books in the way that Stephen King writes. Description in characters are one of them. John Coffey was black, like most of the men who came to stay for awhile in E Block before dying in Old Sparky's lap and he stood six feet, eight inches tall. He wasn't all willowy like the TV basketball fellows, though--he was broad in the shoulders and deep through the chest, laced over with muscle in every direction. They 'd put him in the biggest denims they could find in Stores, and still the cuffs of the pants rode halfway up on his bunched and scarred calves. The shirt was open to below his chest, and the sleeves stopped somewhere on his forearms. He was holding his cap in one huge hand, which was just as well; perched on his bald mahogany ball of a head... ("The Green Mile" pg.9) Wow! That is not only the whole description. The way that King makes the character of John Coffey a picture in every readers mind is awesome. In "Storm of the Century" King uses the same description for just about every single character. As a reader you know what someone might be thinking and what the characters body language might be. With this type of work King brings the characters to life which in turn brings the story to life. Small towns are known to most people as a place where everyone knows who you are and what your business is. Little Tall Island is no exception to the rule. All of the towns people interact and most work with one another. As a person living in the State of Maine I could actually get the feeling of what these people felt interacting with one another day in and day out. The islands in Casco Bay just outside of Portland, Cumberland and Yarmouth could actually take the place of Little Tall Island. The screen play touches close to home for those of us who have lived on or close to an island or the coast. The snowstorm in this screenplay portrays so many snowstorms that thousands of Mainers experience every year. The people of Little Tall knew what they were up against with the snowstorm but not from Linoge. Another aspect of this movie was the song "I'm a Little Teapot". The song carried on through the whole screenplay. It was sung after Linoge killed the old lady and also by the girl who murdered her boyfriend. By the end all of the children sang the song as Lignoge had claimed all of their souls. The song could be thought of as a death chant and also a chant of the devil. Stephen King does a good job with putting fear in his characters. Andre Linoge in meeting with the town's people of Little Tall Island reminds them of history. Roanoke Island. The entire inhabitants of the island disappeared without a trace or story, it was Linoge. The people of Roanoke Island would not give him a child to call his own and teach him what he must know to replace him after his death. Linoge instilled the picture of all of the town's people walking into the ocean and disappearing with out a trace. Overall Stephen King has a well-developed screenplay. He has made it so real for many readers. Especially for those readers who live in a small Maine Island community.
Rating: Summary: Ever frightened by a lil' ol' storm? Review: If you live somewhere that you've experienced a heck of a snow storm you can understand the basic struggle that comes along with it. But each town has it's story - and this one is truly unique. We return to a beloved area used in many of King's books for an interesting tale of uncertainty and isolation.
Rating: Summary: Give King what he wants---maybe he'll go away to rewrite... Review: Stephen King phones it in. "Storm of the Century" is King at his worst. The characters are two-dimensional (even for television, for which the screenplay was written), the villain is silly in the Randall Flagg fashion which made the latter half of "The Stand" unreadable, and the climax is probably the nadir of the book. The book itself is in screenplay form, which may throw people unused to reading plays. Of particular interest is King's little throwaway, profanity-laced directions; one necessarily wonders if these were in the original screenplay or if he added them to bulk up the book and thus his payday. The story concerns a malevolent stranger who arrives on a small Maine island just as a major winter storm hits. People start dying in banally brutal fashion, usually after someone writes "Give me what I want and I'll go away" in their blood. Naturally, speculation centers on the stranger who just happened to beat an old woman to death and wrote the same message in her blood. Now, if this took place in L.A. and the villain was O.J. Simpson, we might expect some suspense as to whether the dimbulb citizenry would ever put the two together, but even in Maine the yokels have some concept of reality and so the villain is cast into the island's lone jail cell. Unfortunately, people keep getting knocked off. Could Faye Resnik be involved? A.C. Cowlings? Kato Kaelin? Or could the fanged dude in the cell somehow have supernatural powers? All of this makes the book seem more suspenseful than it is. King having spent the better part of the last couple of years recovering from a near fatal run-in with a van, I can't really blame him for phoning it in this time out. I would recommend, however, that you stay away from this book and grab some earlier King instead.
Rating: Summary: Great movie -- Great book Review: On Little Tall Island, a stranger appears. He seems to know all and even tells quite a bit on some. He is adamant about what he wants. During the worst snowstorm of the century, this stranger demands Little Tall give him want he wants. The same thing he wanted from another town a century ago. But what is it he wants and what will it cost the towns people? The Original Screen Play is very good. You go through the entire movie in this book. As you read, each scene sets itself up in your mind's eye. Although some have been offended by this book. I think some have missed the meaning or the moral that Stephen King was trying to get across. He was not trying to show that if you are evil or make selfish decisions you could get away with it. I believe Stephen King was trying to show how far mankind's moral and self-sacrificing behavior has fallen through time. This is a book that will make you search your soul as to where and what you stand for.
Rating: Summary: The reason why Linoge picked Little Tall Review: The reason why he picked little tall is that people in that town can keep secrets, and also they stick together. and it was an island so if there was a storm no one could get off it.
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