Following a 15-minute reading of King’s latest book, Under the Dome, legendary director David Cronenberg hosted a special Q&A with the author who revealed to the audience that he plans on writing a sequel to The Shining entitled Doctor Sleep.
From The Toronto 1ST:
“King dropped a fan bombshell on the crowd by casually describing a novel idea he began working on last summer. Seems King was wondering whatever happened to Danny Torrance of The Shining, who when readers last saw him was recovering from his ordeal at the Overlook Hotel at a resort in Maine with fellow survivors Wendy Torrance and chef Dick Halloran (who dies in the Kubrick film version). King remarked that though he ended his 1977 novel on a positive note, the Overlook was bound to have left young Danny with a lifetime’s worth of emotional scars. What Danny made of those traumatic experiences, and with the psychic powers that saved him from his father at the Overlook, is a question that King believes might make a damn fine sequel.
So what would a sequel to one of King’s most beloved novels look like? In King’s still tentative plan for the novel, Danny is now 40 years old and living in upstate New York, where he works as the equivalent of an orderly at a hospice for the terminally ill. Danny’s real job is to visit with patients who are just about to pass on to the other side, and to help them make that journey with the aid of his mysterious powers. Danny also has a sideline in betting on the horses, a trick he learned from his buddy Dick Hallorann.
The title for King’s proposed sequel? Doctor Sleep.”
“The Dark Tower is part of a longer tale inspired by Robert Browning’s narrative poem ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”
I finished The Dark Tower by Stephen King. It’s done. The whole series. Finished. Roland’s Ka-Tet of gunslingers face off against low men, mutants, vampires, and Roland’s “son” Mordred, and the fearsome Crimson King himself. It seems like he had soo much ground to cover in this book and while I loved it, I think this could have been spread across two books. I thought the ending was perfect and gives a sense of hope for Roland.
Truly a great series, highly recommended.
“Song of Susannah is part of a longer tale inspired by Robert Browning’s narrative poem ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”
I finished Song of Susannah by Stephen King and I know that this booked needed to be so that we can get to the next book, but I wasn’t crazy about it. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked it, I just didn’t LOVE it.
SPOILERS
It starts with Susannah Dean who is now in New York City 1999 and she is possesed by Mia the demon-mother of her growing child. Father Callahan, Jake and Oy, the “billy-bumbler” follow Susannah/Mia to New York in an effort to rescue her before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Roland and Eddie travel to 1977 Maine in search of bookstore owner Calvin Tower before he sells the Rose parking lot and dooms all reality. Stephen King works himself into the novel and it makes for an interesting read.
END SPOILERS
This book ends with a cliff-hanger so make sure you have the next one ready to go.
“Hearts in Atlantis’ first story is part of a longer tale inspired by Robert Browning’s narrative poem ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”
I read this book because it’s supposed to be connected to the Dark Tower series, or at least one of the stories are. I had seen the movie with Sir Anthony which is actually the first of the five short stories called, “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” about Bobby Garfield of Harwich, Connecticut, who craves a Schwinn for his 11th birthday. But his widowed mom is impoverished, and so bitter that she barely loves him. Bobby’s mom takes in a lodger, Ted Brautigan and then tale turns and it is a Dark Tower story that just happens to be here in this novel instead of in the actual series. The other four stories are connected to the first weakly, but whole book is enjoyable.
