Foo - Best novel. (And to keep things interesting it must be by Stephen King)

Discuss.

done

Maximum Overdrive was unarguably the finest film ever put to, uh, film, so the short story it was based on can only be a literature classic!

I think Rage, just because he started writing it when he was in Junior high school.

Some of his books really capture that depressed post-industrial rural or at least non urban / pre telecommuting New England scene really well. I'm thinking It (is that the one with the slasher clown in the sewers?). I could picture that being relevant to rustbelt places w/ no current 'new economy' option today.

(slasher clowns don't spend time in server farms)

Christine. A masterful tome

The Shining is still my favorite.


Not the movie

I think It was his best book. There were several other I liked as well. I've read most of them, but I kind of soured on him with the ending of The Dark Tower series. I also don't like how all his characters talk alike (the all sound like Stephen King). I think I'm done with Stephen King.

I think It was his best book. There were several other I liked as well. I've read most of them, but I kind of soured on him with the ending of The Dark Tower series. I also don't like how all his characters talk alike (the all sound like Stephen King). I think I'm done with Stephen King.

I actually stopped after Pet Sematary

I think It was his best book. There were several other I liked as well. I've read most of them, but I kind of soured on him with the ending of The Dark Tower series. I also don't like how all his characters talk alike (the all sound like Stephen King). I think I'm done with Stephen King.

Something I agree with you on. It was by far SK's best book. The Stand was great but IT is the best horror book I have ever read.

My top pick is the dark tower series, but I agree on getting soured by the ending. It was so stupid I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't get through the 1st Dark Tower book so I never tried the others.

My top pick is the dark tower series, but I agree on getting soured by the ending. It was so stupid I couldn't believe it.

I actually liked what happened to Roland, I think it's the only way it could have ended.

I just got bored by it. After a while it all just felt like a bunch of stuff that happened for no reason. And since he wrote it over a long period of time, things that were all of a sudden very important in the later books were totally absent in the earlier ones (because King didn't think of them till later, of course). That was unsatisfying to me.

Dark Tower series was great. The more I thought about the end, the more it made sense. Especially if you read Kings thoughts behind it.
His short story collections are incredible. If you read The Running Man, the movie turns into a disappointment because the original story was so good.
For new stuff, Duma Key is incredible. I really hope they make that into a real movie, not some of the half done versions.

I couldn't get through the 1st Dark Tower book so I never tried the others.

The first book was the best, in my opinion. He was very young when he wrote it, and still had literary aspirations :p There's also a sense of mystery to the first book that you lose throughout the rest of the series as King tries to explain too much about what's going on.

Here's how I rank the books in the series:

1. The Gunslinger
2. Wizard and Glass
3. The Drawing of the Three
4. Wastelands
5. Wolves of the Calla
6. Song of Susannah
7. The Dark Tower

The last three on my list actually didn't like that much.

For the best written, I would say Duma Key is the tops.

For the best ever, Misery has to be my favorite. They did a very good job with the movie as well. It was a close call between Misery and Christine to me, but Misery won out.

I am half way thru Duma Key so dont elaborate much, please.

I boycott all things Steven King. He and Hemingway are two of my least favorites. Both are/were sick, sick, sick people.

I am half way thru Duma Key so dont elaborate much, please.
Lets just say you won't be disappointed.

Oh yeah. Misery. Top shelf also. Delores Claiborne too. Man, I'm gonna have to go hit my shelves and refresh the brain now.

I couldn't get through the 1st Dark Tower book so I never tried the others.

One of the most hard core readers I know couldn't stand the first one, so he wouldn't try the rest. Since that happened, I always suggest to people that they start on the second one.

The Stand has always been my favorite, but I think The Shining might be his best in terms of literary power. He plots that novel perfectly, slowly building the tension until you feel like you're going to explode. Nothing really happens the first 2/3 of the novel, but it all sets up the terror in the last 1/3.

I once had a deadline to write an article on IT, so to do my research I ended up reading it three times in one month. Now I can't really stand to look at it.

For every King Novel I have read, I was disappointed with the ending.

The story builds well, the characters are developed, relationships are introduced and grown, and then the story just kind of ends in a whimper.

It is like he gets to the length he thought the book should be, and then tosses in an ending.

The worst King novel (that I have read) was the 1942 Buick or something like that... it seemed to miss the parts that usually make the early and middle parts of the King novels good.

I did really enjoy "It" and "The Stand" other than the disappointment in the endings.

The Stand has always been my favorite, but I think The Shining might be his best in terms of literary power. He plots that novel perfectly, slowly building the tension until you feel like you're going to explode. Nothing really happens the first 2/3 of the novel, but it all sets up the terror in the last 1/3.

I once had a deadline to write an article on IT, so to do my research I ended up reading it three times in one month. Now I can't really stand to look at it.

+1 on The Stand and The Shining

For every King Novel I have read, I was disappointed with the ending.


I have always felt the same way. He just does not know how to end a book. I did enjoy the ending of the Dark Tower series, though.

But I haven't read any of his new books, other than the Dark Tower series. He is pretty much an entertainer and I grew tired of that type of entertainment a while ago.

Dark Tower series was great. The more I thought about the end, the more it made sense. Especially if you read Kings thoughts behind it.
His short story collections are incredible. If you read The Running Man, the movie turns into a disappointment because the original story was so good.
For new stuff, Duma Key is incredible. I really hope they make that into a real movie, not some of the half done versions.

I just read Duma Key. I hadn't read any of his stuff in awhile and it was definetly one of his better ones.

I read quite a few of his books in high school but the only one that scared me was It. Killer clown -- I can see that happening. The other books were nice time wasters when I was suppose to be doing algebra homework.

Salem's Lot
Pet Sematary

I stopped reading him several years ago..

the 1982 text of The Gunslinger. i think he went all George Lucas when he revised it for re-release in 2003. as a result, the book went a bit pear-shaped. sure, it fits better with the Dark Tower series - but it came before the series. stupid revisionism.

but a lot of his works really are classics (given a broad definition of "classic").

his early period (defining early period as ending with 1983's Skeleton Crew) has some really, really good stories. Carrie, Firestarter, The Stand (1978): all very good books for different reasons. Cycle of the Werewolf was a fascinating collaborative work. and Christine is one of the best books about high school i've ever read.

after 1983 he really started to suffer from diarrhea of the typewriter.

I have to agree that most of his books end poorly. I've read quite a few of them and have to think Misery was probably his best start to finish

The Stand. by far.

It is the only King large-scale work (outside of Hearts in Atlantis) that goes beyond the horror genre and shows just how deep the writer is.

In fifth grade, my class had a daily "reading time", and at one point, I brought in The Stand and started reading it. It was the paperback version, so it was pretty huge. Soon after, a lot of other people in the class started bringing in really big books. Eventually, the teacher had had enough, and scolded the class for bringing books just because they were big, and not because they really wanted to read them. It was pretty funny.

I never finished it (I don't remember why, probably moved too slowly for me at the time), but even so, the images and themes presented early on in the book of the skeletons of society living in a post-apocalyptic world have stuck with me. Maybe I should give it another go someday.

fifth grade??

way too young for The Stand.

I used to read a lot. It was probably a bit too old for me, but not by much.

My top pick is the dark tower series, but I agree on getting soured by the ending. It was so stupid I couldn't believe it.

Interesting. Did you read the part where the author himself told you you weren't going to like the ending and maybe you shouldn't read it?

When I got there, I put a paperclip over the rest of the pages. Paperclip is still there. I have no idea how it ends. Guess now I have to be very careful about replies to this post! :innocent:


Best Novel = ANYTHING but Rose Madder. Or the Tommyknockers. Bad.. very bad.

My favorite at the time I read it was Insomnia. Guess it paralleled my life at the time. Well.. the insomnia part, not the little alien guys and life threads (auras) floating above everybody. Dang but that King guy is weird..

Duma Key may be the fastest I've ever read a book. Maybe not his best, but the best in a while, DT series not included.

Oh.. wait. Green Mile (as a whole). Is that considered a novel?

Hmm.. I guess I don't really have an answer.

I prefer his short stories because most of his novels do have terrible endings. I read the Dark Tower series and did enjoy it for the most part. I never read his reasoning behind the ending but I have mixed feelings about the way it ended- it did stick with me for a while and maybe that was his intention.

fifth grade??

way too young for The Stand.

I did a book report in 9th grade for The Stand. Took nearly the whole dang class. The other kids were ticked off 'cause they didn't get time. I got a lower score for not being able to summarize it more. Teach's eyes glazed over I guess.

I've never read anything by SK. He's way too new-school for me. :p

King's non-horror stuff was great...The Body (later "Stand By Me"), Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Tower stuff. It's when he became a horror producing machine he lost credibility.

I used to read a lot. It was probably a bit too old for me, but not by much.

The Stand has a lot of "Adult" themes though, to use a euphemisms of our times. I agree with Grumpy, The Stand is not appropriate for a fifth grader.

Interesting. Did you read the part where the author himself told you you weren't going to like the ending and maybe you shouldn't read it?

When I got there, I put a paperclip over the rest of the pages. Paperclip is still there. I have no idea how it ends. Guess now I have to be very careful about replies to this post! :innocent:


Go ahead and read it. It's not that bad (I don't think). I actually kinda liked the way it ended. I'd like to explain why, but to do so would be giving away too much.



Oh.. wait. Green Mile (as a whole). Is that considered a novel?


Sure. Just in serial form.

My favourite king story is 'The Body', but in no way is it a true horror story although it
contains a great deal of horrible things.
Danse Macabre is a good insight into Stephen King and what made him tick back in his early
days. He has a very interesting take on what horror truely is, then there his treatise on a pimple, just
perfect.
I think that one of his true gifts is making extraordinary things happen to ordinary people
in his stories, and making it somewhat believable.

marty

Bachman books were good.

The one that probably creeped me out the most was Salem's Lot...or his short stories, the Mist, etc.