What are Stephen King's best books?

[WalkenWouldOwn]

Read The Dead Zone recently for the first time, thought it was great. Need to check out the movie!

 

[WalkenWouldOwn]

My favorites

11/22/63 - have read this multiple times and I just fucking love it. Might be my favorite book TBH. The show on Hulu wasn't horrible either.
IT
The Stand
Under the Dome (holy shit what a bad TV adaptation)
The Running Man (Love the movie too though it's not really the same story)
The Dead Zone

Intending to read Firestarter soon.


I have tried to get into the dark tower series, it's just not happening. I am halfway through the 3rd book and the first 2 took forever to get through and I didn't particularly enjoy them. I'm just gonna stop I think. Not my thing.

 

[Vigorelli]

two of his books that come to mind that I really enjoyed are Cujo and Thinner. In Cujo a lot of the story was about infidelity and King really put you in the minds of the characters. He described the emotional pain very well. And Thinner was just fun to read. Currently I am about 60 pages into IT.

 

[SammyPops]

Mr. Mercedes was really good.

 

[Necromantic]

I just started Nightmares and Dreamscapes. His collection of short stories is just so large it’s almost overwhelming. They are the perfect size for me as I am in school right now. I might go a week without reading for pleasure and will usually set out the time to finish 1-2 short stories rather than forget about what just happened in a massive book.

Did you read Full Dark, No Stars? The stories in that book blew me away.

Does Nightmares and dreamscapes have The Night Flyer in it? Great movie and story. I kind of gave up on King after Gerald's Game except a book here and there. I have not read full dark

Speaking if King, the show Haven was really good and based off the colorodo kid.

 

[HatchetHarry]

Does Nightmares and dreamscapes have The Night Flyer in it? Great movie and story. I kind of gave up on King after Gerald's Game except a book here and there. I have not read full dark

Speaking if King, the show Haven was really good and based off the colorodo kid.

I actually skipped ahead to Night Flier and was a little disappointed with it. Dolan’s Cadillac on the other hand was amazing. Forget about Gerald’s Game as that was kind of when King was in a slump. Full Dark is up there with his best work IMO.

 

[JSN]

Question: I read the first in the Dark Tower series and couldnt really get into it. Should i continue? Does it get better?

yes and no. Opinions vary, but in general 1-4 are considered the good ones and 5-7 he just wrote as quickly as possible. I do feel like they're worth powering through because how many other fantasy series of that scope exist?

I think my favorite novel of his ever is book 4: Wizard and Glass.

 

[frye666]

I think The Stand and then Salems lot. I like all his books though. The Stand was one of the best books I have ever read, cept for the hand of God ending. So 99/100?

 

[BisexualMMA]

Read The Dead Zone recently for the first time, thought it was great. Need to check out the movie!

The movie's good. How can your name be WalkenWouldOwn and you haven't seen The Dead Zone?

 

[WalkenWouldOwn]

The movie's good. How can your name be WalkenWouldOwn and you haven't seen The Dead Zone?

I literally had never heard of the movie or book until a few months ago lol, no idea how that happened as I'm a King fan. Read it in a couple days and loved it.

 

[Mike]

yes and no. Opinions vary, but in general 1-4 are considered the good ones and 5-7 he just wrote as quickly as possible. I do feel like they're worth powering through because how many other fantasy series of that scope exist?

I think my favorite novel of his ever is book 4: Wizard and Glass.

I agree, bought that one as a young adult and reread it so much it's in tatters now. Just a great story and the only book in the series that stands on it's own as an individual story. Probably my favourite book I've ever read, the characters are so well done, even the minor ones have layers.


Imo his best trait is writing really effective and relatable characters, in all of his books even minor characters stand out and feel real.

 

[Mike]

I literally had never heard of the movie or book until a few months ago lol, no idea how that happened as I'm a King fan. Read it in a couple days and loved it.

His early novels are surprisingly strong. Dead zone, Carrie, firestarter, Salem's lot, all absolute classics imo. Salem's lot is still the best vampire fiction I've ever read, and that's saying something.


That book is SUCH a slow burn and a great character study, and he's so good at really developing all the characters before anything sinister happens. There's this horrible inevitably to his work, you don't want to let yourself get attached to the characters because you know something tragic is coming, but the characters are so relatable you can't help it. And there are NO rules, nobody is ever safe in his books.

 

[HatchetHarry]

Started 11/22/63 and am blown away by how good it is. This will be my 9th consecutive King book.

 

[Cooz]

Stanley Kubricks take on the Shinning is a better Story than Kings Book. Which I find hilarious that King Hated it.

Early critics reception of it was actually bad and it diverged a decent amount from the book.

 

[Sir Galahad]

 

[heavyarms21]

Early critics reception of it was actually bad and it diverged a decent amount from the book.

I'm aware , but History has been kind to this Movie because it's now regarded as a Horror classic. I love that King hates it .

 

[nhbbear]

11/22/63, stand,it, dome, Black house and doctor sleep are my favorites. Here is a post I just made in another thread.

Look, here are a few more that you have to read: the dome, the stand, Doctor sleep, and black house-a story he writes with peter straub. That and doctor sleep are sequels. Sleep is a sequel to the shining, but you don’t have to have read that one first. Black house is a scary, gory book and it is a sequel to the talisman. It helps to read that one first. I actually highly recommend listening to Black house on audio-probably the best audio book Performance I can recall. Such a nasty book and so awesome.

Needful things is decent as well.

When you are done with those, and want a long endeavor, try the dark tower series-7 books that increase in length and complexity.


I am a huge king fan, but there are some avoid books that are either not good, or phones in. The mr Mercedes trilogy-no likeable characters, story that reads like an episode of a television cop drama. Revival-pretty awful, actually. You already know about joyland. Also gwendys button box. Not terrible, but it is a phoned in short story that was a blatant rip off. Large text to try and make that short story into novella territory and they charged regular price. Sleeping beauties has few likeable characters despite what should be a great concept-co written with his son, Owen.

There were a few others that I did not like, but they were popular-Salem’s lot, for one, but the great ones like the stand, done, Black house, it all more than make up for it.

One more tip: read Robert mccammon’s Swan song and boys life, also read justin Cronin the passage trilogy-post apocalyptic vampires-nuff said.

 

[nhbbear]

I forgot deadzone and from a Buick 8

 

[nhbbear]

I finished the stand a month ago.

finished all 8 of his dark tower series last year.

Reading Red rising right now.


I would recommend the stand, really enjoyed it.

I am considering red rising, but the author’s name is so dirty-pierce brown

 

[God_Emperor_Of_Mankind]

I am considering red rising, but the author’s name is so dirty-pierce brown

Yes that's strange to me too, it's his first book but....
Red rising is the best series I've read in my life. You won't be disappointed.