Stephen King is working on a sequel to The Shining

[tazber]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 8:45am

It's called Dr. Sleep.

It's now official--Stephen is working on Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. This weekend Steve read an excerpt from this at his appearance at George Mason University. They have given us permission to post their taping of the event here on Steve's site which we will do as soon as we receive the file. Dr. Sleep's plot includes a traveling group of vampires called The Tribe which is part of the passage he read from.

(clips of him reading it are "out there", but since his site didn't link it yet I don't know if I should post them)
Vampires?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 9:47am

I guess the elevator filled with blood would make sense now

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:19am

Can't "The Shining" just stay a terrific, modern ghost story with a classic, haunted hotel? Why does it need vampires?

EDIT: And didn't the hotel blow up at the end of the book? I guess it'll be about Danny and a bunch of vampires?

Updated On: 9/27/11 at 10:19 AM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:28am

I have a certain amount of faith in King. I mean, Lord knows he's not doing it because he needs the money.

And I get not wanting it to just be more of the same.

But vampires?

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:33am

Since the hotel is gone, I can only assume it's taking Danny and/or his mother and putting them in some new situation ...

... with vampires.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:46am

I read something about this, apparently it takes place many years later. Danny is now an adult working at a hospice, helping terminally ill patients pass to the next life with his psychic powers, or something. Hadn't heard about the vampires, jeez, haven't we had enough of them yet?

EDIT: Here's a link to that story, which it turns out is two years old. Evidently the story is somewhat different now, with those goddamned vampires...
Whatever.

Updated On: 9/27/11 at 10:46 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 10:47am

Maybe Danny is actually Eric Northman's real son who was sent to live with Jack and Wendy Torrance. Eric decided one day he wanted his boy back but glamoured Jack into seeing all kinds of f*cked up sh*t (just to be funny, y'know), never knowing he would try to kill his boy and now after it's all over....he wants him back. But Mother Wendy isn't going to let that happen once she discovers she's truly a fairy...with a taste for vampire blood. The three fight a battle that spans hundreds of years and even employ the help of a bumbling (but in the end helpful) seeing eye dog named Pebbles who after accidentally drinking some vampire blood is not able to see, but is able to talk and read tea leaves, which makes her the most hunted dog in the world.

Will Eric, Danny and Wendy let their pet be harmed? Or will they sacrifice the dog they've come to love to so much in order to save the world from an atomic bomb built by hamsters who are high on V?

The answers are coming next Fall in Stephen King's DR. SLEEP...

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 11:24am

Especially, I think, because of the movie, I think of "The Shining" as being all about the hotel.

But the title would actually indicate that it's about Danny and his gift. So I guess the destruction of the hotel doesn't really preclude a sequel that follows the further adventures of Danny and the use of "the shining."

But vampires?

[artscallion]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 12:16pm

I'm not a fan of King's newer works. A friend recently convinced me to read "Under the Dome", an 1100 page cross between "The Lord of the Flies" and "The Stand". It's a testament to the way famous authors can escape editing because of who they are. I would have trimmed the thing down to 300 pages max.

Every sentence was interesting and well written in that folksy King style. But that's all there was, an enormous plodding string of interesting sentences that never moved the story forward, or added to the motion. It was essentially an 1100 page mood piece.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 12:23pm

I might be remembering incorrectly, but wasn't King not a big fan of the Kubrick film? Largely because it took out any sort of redemption for Jack (who was somewhat based on King himself) that was in the book?

I never saw the 90s one.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 12:32pm

King has pretty well trashed the Kubrick version. Of course, his own TV version of the novel, while much more faithful, is pretty bad, despite some good moments from Steven Weber as Jack.

I stopped reading King with THE DARK HALF, I think it was. Nothing took 10 pages if it could possibly take 50. I've read the occasional shorter work since then, but I put a page limit on King now. Nothing over 300 pages.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 12:46pm

I can't read King novels. I don't have the patience for 10 pages describing a tree.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 12:52pm

King has actually kinda warmed to Kubrick's film in recent years, probably after his TV version bombed...

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 1:05pm

I love the Kubrick adaptation. I was a big fan of the novel (before King was clocking in at 1,100 pages per book), but the plot changes made in the screenplay worked well on film. I also liked that the hotel wasn't destroyed at the end and that Jack became one of the "staff."

To me, the hotel was always the real "star" of the story, and the Torrances were just the latest family to act as caretakers.

Kubrick's film has managed to grow on me since its original release. I think it's a classic horror film now, and it's aged really well.

I just don't get the "Danny and the Vampires" approach to a sequel, but he must have felt there was a good story to tell. I'm sure readers will find it, hidden within the endless pages of "tree descriptions."

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 1:52pm

I'll always read King, but he definitely had a pretty slow period. Lately, he has improved quite a bit. Cell, Lisey's Story, Duma Key and Under the Dome were all reminiscent of classic King and after being disappointed for a while, I was thrilled with these recent titles. Unfortunately, this Shining meets Salems Lot idea doesn't really catch my interest. Black House, his sequel to The Talisman, was one of the most disappointing novels I've read by King.

I like the Kubrick film, but only if I completely separate it from the novel, which was far more interesting and much scarier. The TV movie was closer to the orignal novel, but the TV budget couldn't elevate it to the heights of either the novel or the Kubrick film. Basically, the two film treatments are more or less companion pieces to the exceptional novel.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 2:09pm

If you're a "faithful reader" of Mr. King you know that many of his stories overlap. Many of his plots are mentioned in other novels...like events in The Shining being mentioned in Misery etc. I'm really hoping that these vampires have something to do with Salem's Lot...my favorite King book of all time.

I agree with Matt...I've really liked some of his recent work. Especially Duma Key and Lisey's Story. I've also really enjoyed his recent collections of short stories.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 3:05pm

I much prefer King's shorter, more focused works like CARRIE, THE SHINING, MISERY and PET SEMATARY to the bloated likes of THE STAND or IT or the godforsaken DARK TOWER mess.

To be fair, when he's good he's really good. He seems to be really good at writing about kids and younger people. CARRIE and CHRISTINE are among the most accurate pictures of American high school age kids I know of, and the best parts of IT center on that bunch of main characters when they're children. He is (or was) really able to tap back into that whole experience without sentimentalizing it as completely as others might.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 3:10pm

I wish there would be a sequel to WICKED with Vampires.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 3:26pm

Roscoe - Have you read Cell? It really is a throwback to his more intesified concise works. If anything, it's a fun read.

The only books of his I couldn't get through were Gerald's Game and the Dark Tower series (only made it through book 3).

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 3:37pm

Matt - I have CELL and read a bit of it, but for whatever reason never got back to it. Mainly I think I just had other things I needed to be reading at the time. I'm thinking I'll give it another shot.