Wow I had no idea-fascinating thanks :)

It is fascinating, at least to me it is, lol, and even though not all of his written works are directly connected to The Dark Tower, they are all connected to each other. For example: In The Tommyknockers, a young man and woman are sent to Derry, Maine (setting for IT) for supplies and you get a cameo of Pennywise from IT, its small but it's there. There are all kinds of connections between most of his written works. I remember reading somewhere that many of his stories supposedly take place on a different planes of existence, if that's the case, then really all of his stories are connected to The Dark Tower.

Reading Joyride by Jack Ketchum

I also find connections like this really interesting. If done well they can add an extra layer to the books as a whole and as I am personally very interested in shamanism/metaphysics, I find the idea of stories taking place on different planes of existence very appealing. I just have to stop being lazy and finally get around to reading Part 3 of The Dark Tower I'm sure it's much better than "The Drawing Of The Three" which I felt was just really about introducing characters as I think TheVillain said earlier in this thread.

Yeah, book 3 is much more exciting I think, books 4 and 4.5, take you off the path of Roland and the ka-tet but immerse you into Midworld and Roland as a young man and remain just as exciting. Once you get in book 5, they really take off from there with idea of different planes of existence. It gets really cool.

Just finished Horns by Joe Hill.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ps3c8d82f3.jpg


I think it's possible that Hill is my current favorite author. Really loved this and can't wait for his new novel coming out in April. Highly recommended.

I just recently picked this up, glad to hear that you liked it. I read Heart-Shaped Box and though I did enjoy it, I wasn't as impressed with it as I was hoping. I may have built him up a bit too much after I found out that he was King's son, I wanted him to be even better than his father. I'm not saying it wasn't good, it was, I just had him built up more than I should have.

I really liked Heart-Shaped Box - For me, I think part of it is that my expectations weren't particularly high (nothing against Joe Hill; reading the novel description I just didn't think that I would connect with the characters; I was impressed by how much I clung to their stories until the end). I also thought that it was a good, solid ghost story with well-done characters. Also for me, I (shamefully) have to admit that I'm not that well-read when it comes to horror (I've always read and adored Poe, have only read a few of King's - Salem's Lot, The Shining, Cell, Night Shift), so I don't have the horror cannon under my belt as a lot of people on this forum do)... Based on how much I liked Heart-Shaped Box, I picked up 20th Century Ghosts which was a decent collection of horror tales (though I think they were more vignettes than anything else)... I really love his "Locke & Key" comics. Horns was my last to read - Again, I had put it off because I honestly didn't think that I'd be able to connect with the characters; I think that it's more of a really good character piece than a horror tale (a character piece with horror elements, perhaps?) and I think it's my favorite of his so far.

I know you're quite the reader - Would be interested to hear what you think (as well as other folks on the forum) - I was curious as to how it was received by horror fans.

I'm always looking for the next book to read - Any recommendations for good, solid, modern horror? Character-driven is a must; I really need to connect to the characters (I know that probably sounds obvious but recently I've been more interested in character pieces instead of blood and guts when it comes to horror reading).

My fiance's brother recommended Mystery by Peter Straub, which I'm currently waiting to receive from the library.

I was reading that first Walking dead book. I enjoyed the story and characters, but - particularly the last third of the novel - was extremely rough around the edges - shoddy, even. I expect a deadline was to blame.

Ok I'm on it :)