Stephen King

MadAlice

We're all mad down here
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Messages
548
Reaction score
131
Location
Derry, Maine
I've read almost all of King's work. The ones I like the most are the ones that are really out there and fantastical, and especially the ones tied to Derry, Maine. I'm sure I'll forget some but here are a few of my favorites, in no order:
Firestarter
The Shining
The Stand
IT
The Langoliers
11/22/63
Pet Sematary
Christine
From a Buick 8

I know there's more I love, but off the top of my head, these.
 

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
6,011
Reaction score
1,036
Location
Nashville, TN
After reading Thinner, I didn't eat pie for months.

After reading The Shining, to this day hotel hallways make me queasy.

After reading Misery, I did not like driving alone for a LONG time.

After reading It, clowns kinda freaked me out.

After reading On Writing, I decided to put my big boy pants on and take writing more seriously
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fi Webster

Spooky

Even the sphinx has eyes O_O
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 16, 2017
Messages
147
Reaction score
3
Location
Dead Hand Bunker
I'll always say that Pet Sematary is King's grimmest tale, there is no light, reading it is utterly fascinating every time, charred and rotting are the primal translations that accompany me in each revisit, it's very desolate but there is meaning, the meaning is dead is better lol. I fathom why some say it goes too far but there is a beautiful glinting forged in all that he makes occur, it is simply what happens in the story, King tells it effectively. No matter how disturbing and unfortunate the fate that befalls the family is, it is a piece of art which I treasure and have in my top 5 of his, it is like a slide going all the way down into a dirty cup full of ugly.
 

Ser Michael P

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
Messages
159
Reaction score
8
Location
Illinoith
I'll always say that Pet Sematary is King's grimmest tale, there is no light, reading it is utterly fascinating every time, charred and rotting are the primal translations that accompany me in each revisit, it's very desolate but there is meaning, the meaning is dead is better lol. I fathom why some say it goes too far but there is a beautiful glinting forged in all that he makes occur, it is simply what happens in the story, King tells it effectively. No matter how disturbing and unfortunate the fate that befalls the family is, it is a piece of art which I treasure and have in my top 5 of his, it is like a slide going all the way down into a dirty cup full of ugly.

Also the best ending he's managed.
 

HaHs

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 20, 2017
Messages
81
Reaction score
6
Location
England
Apologies if this has already been asked, but what book(s) would you recommend to someone entirely new to King and his works?
 

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
12,975
Reaction score
4,507
Location
USA
Website
brightdreamersbookreviews.blogspot.com
Apologies if this has already been asked, but what book(s) would you recommend to someone entirely new to King and his works?

That depends entirely on your tastes; King's written so many novels and shorts that it's unlikely you'll get agreement, here. I'd say find a book whose subject intrigues you and give it a try.

Personally, I tend to prefer what I've read of his short stories. I also enjoyed 11/22/63, which is a bit of a doorstop and a slow builder but does such a good job drawing me into the MC's life while building the tension that I hardly noticed the length. But I didn't care for The Gunslinger at all, and the one other novel of his I've read - The Eyes of the Dragon - was kinda meh, IMHO.
 

Curlz

cutsie-pie
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Messages
2,213
Reaction score
382
Location
here
Apologies if this has already been asked, but what book(s) would you recommend to someone entirely new to King and his works?

Pick a short story collection first, for a taster, "Night Shift" or "Skeleton Crew" is essential King. Perhaps "The Dead Zone", which is also easy to read and not too bizarre.

He's a diverse author and the choice would depend on what types of books you like to read.
If you are looking for entertainment:
"Carrie" is a short and quick read, has a bit of supernatural, bit of school kids story.
"Salem's Lot" is a fun vampire story with some gruesome detail, "Pet Sematary" is similar but a bit sad
"Cell" is about unusual zombies
"It" is a good scare to read at night
"Misery" has a lot of suspense
"The Tommyknockers" is a bizarre story involving aliens and people being weird
"The Green Mile" is a sad story about prison and injustice
"Christine" is about a creepy car
If you have a taste for fantasy, try "The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three" - that's the second part of the series but you won't miss the first part, it's also partially happening in the modern world, so you get to sample King's "usual" storytelling, too.

The more "thinking man's books":
"Dolores Clayborne" is pure crime drama
"Insomnia" is a beautifully written story with an elderly protagonist and bizarre creatures
"11/22/33" is a rather detailed historical drama about Lee Harvey Oswald with time travel elements

If you're not much into the supernatural and enjoy good narrative,
"Cujo" is about family threatened by a rabid dog
"Joyland" is a simple summer story with a little mystery thrown in
"Mr Mercedes"/"Finders Keepers"/"End of Watch" can be read on their own or in a sequence, light crime stories and light human stories, not remarkable but smooth reads
"Rage" and "The Long Walk" are for kids who hate school :))
 

Spooky

Even the sphinx has eyes O_O
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 16, 2017
Messages
147
Reaction score
3
Location
Dead Hand Bunker
I started many years ago with The Shining and have been blessed ever since. I began reading The Gunslinger straight afterwards and left it until a couple years on when I'd explored more of his work then returned and plowed right on through the whole damn series, I always regard The Dark Tower as the main trunk of Sai King's offerings, you'd think just writing those seven books (wind thru keyhole is in a pile somewhere pending reading, unsure if I can slot it between them yet) would take a man's whole life to craft, it's truly absurd what King has managed to create in his life.
 
Last edited:

ReignaFTW

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 20, 2017
Messages
105
Reaction score
4
Location
MKE
The Gunslinger has been on my shelf for years. This thread is certainly motivating me to start it!

Been a little while since I've read any King (I think the last one was The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon), so I picked up On Writing. Enjoying it so far! Also interested in checking out more of his short stories.
 

ShaunHorton

AW's resident Velociraptor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
3,550
Reaction score
511
Location
Washington State
Website
shaunhorton.blogspot.com
On Writing is a great book, and essential reading for just about any writer I think.

He has such a wide range, and his style has changed over the years, it's hard to make any recommendations without knowing what you like or are looking for.

If you're looking for Horror or you like real vampires, definitely grab Salem's Lot. Otherwise, IT is the only book that's ever gotten to me.
 

neandermagnon

Nolite timere, consilium callidum habeo!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Messages
7,271
Reaction score
9,330
Location
Dorset, UK
Apologies if this has already been asked, but what book(s) would you recommend to someone entirely new to King and his works?

As has been said previously, he's written a lot of books in different styles.

My personal favourites (and I'm a big fan of King*) are Misery and The Shining. With honourable mentions to Dolores Clayborne, The Langoliers (novella) and the Dark Half. And there are a few more that I liked. And some that I just couldn't get into at all (which happen to be King books that other people love and list as their favourites). And there are quite a few that I haven't read (yet) in spite of coming highly recommended. Also, bear in mind that some that I've read and felt a bit underwhelmed by, it's more the case that they don't meet the very, very high bar set by Misery, and had they been written by anyone else I'd be saying "hey this book's pretty good."

*not his Number One Fan, though!!! (read Misery for more details...)

If you try one or two of his books and don't like them, it doesn't mean you won't find any that you like. His books are very much not all the same. The Mr Mercedes series IMO is more crime thriller/detective novel than straight up horror (albeit that it has scenes that contain horror and the third book in the series is a bit more like a horror novel - but still different). I'm not an expert on genre and sub-genre so apologies if I'm using the wrong terms.

I'm currently reading Doctor Sleep which is sort of a sequel to the Shining but it's very different to The Shining in a lot of ways, hence "sort of a sequel".
 
Last edited:

cornflake

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
16,171
Reaction score
3,734
I just mentioned this in another thread, but as there are King fans here...

I go off and on him, thus skip around. I get back into him, read a bunch that's usually pulled from the period I've not been reading him, get enough of his rambling and drop him for several years. Last thing I read was 11-22-63; I was in a bookstore last night, picked up Mr. Mercedes, thought the blurb was interesting (hey, I like mysteries/detective fiction), tried reading a couple pages and found it offputting and couldn't concentrate at all.

I figured out after a few that it was because the damn thing was written in present tense. I thought I was going nuts, so checked a bunch of backlist and found everything I randomly pulled was in past, but most on the shelf was older big name stuff, so...

Is this a new thing? Has he switched to present, or was it for that particular book and he's regained hold of his senses?
 

rhymegirl

It's a New Year!
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
21,640
Reaction score
6,411
Location
New England
I am reading King's latest novel called Gwendy's Button Box. It is written in the present tense.
 

HarvesterOfSorrow

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
322
Reaction score
20
Location
Canada, eh?
Yeah, I still gotta order my copy. I wish it was available in stores---not that it matters, since there are no bookstores in Grand Falls-Windsor, goddamnit.

Looking forward to Sleeping Beauties, though. That comes out in late September.
 

Esmae Tyler

This & That
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2014
Messages
294
Reaction score
75
Location
New York
I'll duck in here to hang a flag for Duma Key. It's definitely a door stop (600 and some pages in the hard cover) and in true King fashion takes the scenic route in getting where it's going, but maaaaaaan. I just finished my third reading of it and it was like watching a snowball go down a hill. Slow at first, then faster and faster and faster as it gained momentum.

One thing to be mindful of while reading his works, especially things set in the old Maine stomping grounds (Derry, Castle Rock, etc) is that he has a self-contained universe and the man does not believe in spoiler warnings. It can be interesting to see how everything interacts, but you can also know how something's going to end already because he talked about it in another book.
 

neandermagnon

Nolite timere, consilium callidum habeo!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Messages
7,271
Reaction score
9,330
Location
Dorset, UK
Is this a new thing? Has he switched to present, or was it for that particular book and he's regained hold of his senses?

The Mr Mercedes series is the only books I've read of his that were in present tense*. It didn't bother me. I enjoyed the series. It's not the best thing he ever wrote, but he set the bar on that one very high. I particularly like the three main characters in the series and the 2nd book in the series (Finders Keepers). IMO the 2nd book has a better antagonist than the main antagonist in the series.

*the second book even shifts tense between flashbacks in past tense and present day chapters in present tense, and the first one-third of the book is all past tense flashback, if I recall correctly. It finally catches up to the present day, then switches to present tense. I can't remember if the other two do this as well because they were from the library so I can't check.

I've had this theory in the back of my mind that King's got a bet going with himself (or someone else, who knows?) that he's going to do all the things that people in writer's forums say you should never ever do. I keep on seeing things that are blatant examples of the "never do this" kind of advice in his recent books. In Mr Mercedes, he introduces some lovely characters, you start to get attached to them, then he kills them off at the end of the first chapter (or was it the prologue?) and continues with a new character as the POV character. Also, the 3rd book in the series has what I'd consider to be a genre shift. He does a whole bunch of stuff that that you're supposed to never, ever do. I probably have an overactive imagination regarding the bet thing but it sometimes comes across like he's come across some internet writing advice to not do something and said to himself "hell yeah I'm going to do that!" :greenie

Also he's never been afraid to experiment and do new and different stuff.
 
Last edited:

Markiemoo

Not Throwing Away My Shot
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 19, 2017
Messages
55
Reaction score
2
Location
Small town Ohio
I wonder if Stephen has had any rejections in the past 10-15 years. I know he did in the beginning. Who would dare reject a Stephen King novel/story nowadays
 

VCAckerman

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 23, 2022
Messages
181
Reaction score
160
Stephen King has written an incredible about of books. I'm curious about how many any of you have read, and if there's anyone out there that has read every single one (aside form King and his editors of course).

I've read 26 of his books give or take, and that's not counting the ones I started and didn't finish. The Stand, It, The Shinning, Doctor Sleep, and The Long Walk are some of my favorites.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fi Webster

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
12,975
Reaction score
4,507
Location
USA
Website
brightdreamersbookreviews.blogspot.com
I've only read eight (seven plus On Writing), and find him a bit hit-and-miss.

Really enjoyed 11/22/63, It, and Billy Summers.

Generally liked The Talisman (with Peter Straub), On Writing, and The Shining.

Didn't care as much for The Eyes of the Dragon and The Gunslinger.
 

Fi Webster

May 21-25 waxing crescent 🌒
Banned
Flounced
Kind Benefactor
Registered
Joined
Jul 7, 2022
Messages
3,708
Reaction score
5,393
Age
69
Location
Texas originally, now living in Maryland (DC area)
Website
www.ipernity.com
Anyone else as fond of Billy Summers as I am? I'm already rereading it. Oh, wait a minute, I see that Brightdreamer just mentioned it.

I've read every single book of King's and every uncollected short story since the first edition of Carrie in paperback. (Plus all the Richard Bachman titles, of course.) I saw the premiere of the Brian DePalma movie in a cinema and avidly watched the credits to find out who in the hell wrote the story. That got me started on over 45 years now of bein' a Stephen King fan. All those fat hardcovers take up a lot of space!

There've have only been a few misses for me in SK's work. Mostly hit after hit after hit. He especially excels at novella length. And at stories nested inside of stories, like the Misery Chastain novel (OMG the bees!) sitting inside the main story like the creamy filling of a bonbon.

I even hooked up with his fan club in the 1980s and wrote some stuff for the fanzine put out by Tabitha's sister, Stephanie Spruce. I wrote, for example, trivia quizzes with questions like "What's the name of the bar in Castle Rock?"
The Lazy Tiger

I have to admit, though, to a rather unpopular position: I don't get The Dark Tower series. I'm so baffled by its weirdness, I haven't even read all the way through it. But I read very little fantasy, so I guess I have a blind spot.

I think he's at the top of his game in Billy Summers. Great characters, dynamite action sequences in the US & Afghanistan, and a moving portrayal of how two very different writers discover their calling. It's squarely in the genre of crime fiction—not horror, sf, or fantasy.
 
Last edited:

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
12,975
Reaction score
4,507
Location
USA
Website
brightdreamersbookreviews.blogspot.com
I have to admit, though, to a rather unpopular position: I don't get The Dark Tower series. I'm so baffled by its weirdness, I haven't even read all the way through it. But I read very little fantasy, so I guess I have a blind spot.

I read a lot of fantasy, and I only got through the first book of DT (The Gunslinger). Felt too random and like it was going nowhere. I hear it picks up significantly (though there is a definite split over the ending), but the TBR pile is just too deep to risk a second book that left me as disappointed as the first...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fi Webster