Stephen King

He is apparently an orderly at the hospice, but his real work is to help make death a little easier for the dying patients with his psychic powers – But we've seen this in a few new films over the years, can't remember the names at the moment, so what could he bring, that's new, to this concept? Even City of angels springs to mind.

I used to love Stephen King, was reading him way back in the 1970's and read The shining when it first came out, but this sounds like he's running out of ideas now.

I'm still crossing my fingers for a sequel to Salem's Lot.

seun said:

Sod The Shining. What's this about a new DT book? How can there be a new one?

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ohdeargodpleaseno

I couldn't image anything Shining without the Overlook, which for me was the real star of the book. From the moment the family set foot there, you could feel the damn place looking over your shoulder! Truly creepy. Danny at 40? Meh.

WOOT looking forward to that!

Samantha's_Song said:

I used to love Stephen King, was reading him way back in the 1970's and read The shining when it first came out, but this sounds like he's running out of ideas now.

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I feel the same way. I refused to admit it for years but when he started writing himself as a character in his stories (I'm not sharing which one to prevent spoiling) I figured it was becoming a reality.

The Shining should just stand alone. If he can create a completely different story using the same Danny character, that would be fine. As long as he doesn't rehash or taint anything that the Shining created.

But the buzz for "Under The Dome" is really good. So I'm eager to start reading that one. So maybe he's not out of ideas...just the really good ones are starting to get further and further apart.

Rarri said:

Came across this article earlier and couldn't see it posted on here already, thought it might be of interest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/25/stephenking

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What do you figure the odds are on him working Danny and The Shining into the DT mythos with this?

(And props here to my beta and drinking buddy, Saint Jimmy Grainger, who broke this story over at the Torontoist.)

Samantha's_Song said:

I used to love Stephen King, was reading him way back in the 1970's and read The shining when it first came out, but this sounds like he's running out of ideas now.

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I'd say exactly the opposite. I really liked King's early work, but I think he's done most of his best work in the last ten years. Screw ideas. The man just keeps getting better and better, no matter what idea he uses.

I gave up reading him in the late 1980's, but I do still like a lot of the film adaptations of his newer books, like Delores Clairbourne.

Jamesaritchie said:

I'd say exactly the opposite. I really liked King's early work, but I think he's done most of his best work in the last ten years. Screw ideas. The man just keeps getting better and better, no matter what idea he uses.

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I haven't read The Shining yet, but I'm curious to see how the sequel would match up. There would be very high expectations for Doctor Sleep.

I don't find this is the case at all, but then again I've only read Firestarter, Carrie and Cycle of the Werewolf. However the Gunslinger was horrendous.

What are the best Stephen King NOVELS?

I want to get into Stephen King... but he has a lot of novels so I wanted to get recommendations from the people on AW first!

So what do you say? Which one's are your favourites>???

It depends on what you like -- he covers several genres.

I've read pretty much everything Stephen King has ever published, except the later books of the Dark Tower series as I just couldn't get into that.

My favorite, without doubt, is It. It's an opinion shared by a lot of fans and also by Stephen King himself, but It is 1,100 pages long and certainly not the quickest or simplest introduction to King's work.

My second favorite is From A Buick 8. Extremely unique idea which is beyond creepy and disturbing, especially when you realize it was King's WIP when he was hit and nearly killed by that car in real life. It's also average length and has no connection to his many other works set in Maine, so a great stand-alone introduction to his writing and style.

If you want to start with "classic King", I consider 'Salem's Lot the best of his early/most famous novels. It is just a classic vampire story, but extremely well-written and well-paced.

I also can't recommend his short story collections highly enough. He's a master of the shorter forms (short stories, novellas, and novelettes) and you truly can't go wrong with any of his collections. My personal favorite, though, is Full Dark, No Stars, which is a collection of four novellas that stand together as one of the most disturbing books I've ever read.

In the end I doubt you'll get much of a consensus from King fans about where to start, though. Many people think The Stand is his best work, and I think it's his absolute worst, one of his only books I couldn't bring myself to finish because I was bored to tears and there were STILL 400+ pages to go. On the other hand, I adore his novel Needful Things which many others call a silly idea with a hot mess of bad plotting (I feel like they're missing the points, lol). He's written such a huge variety of stuff that the best recommendation is probably for you to check out the free Amazon samples of the various books I and others recommend and choose the one that pulls you in most and sounds most personally interesting.

Probably the Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three, in that order.

The rest of the books in that series (The Dark Tower) are weaker, but overall I liked them. But the first two are the best, and a hell of a read.

My all-time favorite Stephen King book is The Dead Zone

Stephen King is certainly one of the most popular--and polarizing--novelists of all time. I know folks who clamor for his books and others who wouldn't be caught dead reading one. Me? Still mostly a fan, but hardly a fanatic about Big Steve.

If you're starting out with King, I would recommend either his earlier works such as The Shining and Salem's Lot. Carrie is okay, but King was still finding his voice and it's a little rough here.

You may want to consider King's short story collections. Different Seasons is where The Shawshank Redemption was born out of and I also enjoyed Night Shift, Four Past Midnight and Full Dark, No Stars.

By no means should a beginner start with a behemoth like The Stand or any of King's bigger books. When I say "bigger" I mean in the number of pages.

The Stand: 1,153 pages
It: 1,138 pages
Under the Dome: 1,072 pages
Insomnia: 787 pages
Desperation: 690 pages
Needful Things: 690 pages
Dreamcatcher: 620 pages
Duma Key: 607 pages
The Tommyknockers: 558 pages
Bag of Bones: 529 pages

Don't do that to yourself or you may find yourself uninterested in digging deeper in the King canon.

Here's a good link ranking all 64 Stephen King books. It's from 2014, which means it's a couple of books behind now.

No question for me.

The Stand.

My two favorites are The Shining and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

My favorite will always be "Carrie." I also quite liked "Thinner". "The Dark Half" was good, too.

Thanks for all the awesome responses! I've PM'd/given rep points to a lot of you! This is what I have gathered so far... The one's that have multiple recommendations are:

-- It
-- The Stand (which was debatable :/)
-- The Shinning
-- Salem's Lot
-- The Dark Tower Series
-- Carrie

Keep it coming and I will add/refine this list!

+ as some have pointed out are there ones I should avoid? You can still give recommendations but I guess you can include bewares as well... or is anyone of the opinion all his books are good?

The one I have always thought best is The Gunslinger, the first in the Dark Tower series. None of the subsequent ones measure up to that one, IMO.

caw

Ditto on The Shining, 'Salem's Lot, and Night Shift for good starting places...

Ones to avoid? Pet Sematary didn't impress me. Nor Cujo.