Best of Stephen King

[xTommyBoyx]

IT, The Stand, and 11/22/63 are incredible. Under the Dome was great too, holy SHIT did they fuck with with that show lol. Looking forward to the series adaptation of 11/22/63, just hoping they don't fuck it up quite that badly.

The Running Man was a fun, quick read.

I started the Dark Tower series and man that first book is brutal to get into. I have heard so many times from people with similar taste to myself that it's worth it, so I will go back to it but I couldn't make it through.

You can really tell he wrote this when he was younger. I fought to stay interested through the whole first book, but The drawing of the three made it worth it for sure.

 

[johnyboy]

I have read The Shining but not Dr. Sleep. Isn't Dr. Sleep basically The Shining #2?
Does it work on its own, as you have not read The Shining?

It's about Danny the kid from the shining once he had grown up. Book can be read on its own

 

[johnyboy]

I have a copy of the Bachman Books with Rage in it. I don't really remember the story so well.


The Long Walk is pretty fucked. Its like I pointed out earlier, bad shit happening to kids must make King hard or something.

I really liked the long walk

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

I tend to agree that King does better with short stories (at least compared to his more recent novels). I think King has really good ideas for stories, but they must rarely be fleshed out enough for full novels so when he just does them in short form they really shine. The Jaunt is great.

Not that his novels are bad, in fact many are great. Just that they tend to be hit or miss IMO. The Dark Tower series suffered for it. The last two books were hot, hot garbage, although the very very ending I thought redeemed it a little (I know I must be in the minority in thinking that, but I thought it was perfect). I barely made it through the first book; books two and three were riveting; I HATED Wizard and Glass; Wolves of the Calla excellent; Song of Sussanah was among his worst ever, if not THE worst; and the Dark Tower just didn't satisfy aside from the ending we weren't supposed to read.

I also think he's not as good since his accident, I believe it took something out of him.

the ending was the only way it could have ended.

I too thought it was brilliant.

 

[ticho123]

I tend to agree that King does better with short stories (at least compared to his more recent novels). I think King has really good ideas for stories, but they must rarely be fleshed out enough for full novels so when he just does them in short form they really shine. The Jaunt is great.

Exactly. I think Kubrick said something to that extent. Can't find the exact quote but it was something along the lines that King was a man of great ideas, but that he was no writer. I feel that many Stephen King books have good setups, but the characters often feel re-used from book to book, and they are often way longer than they should've been, with a lot of padding in between the important events.

The endings are also problematic. King can never leave his solutions vague or ambivalent, rather he wants to explain the mystical events in a way that "makes sense". However, these explonations are often outlandish as hell, and many times involve other dimension mumbo-jumbo. The Buick book is a prime exemple, and Insomnia as well, and Kubrick (in my opinion wisely) left out the whole explenation part from his version of The Shining.

Some books such as Cujo is much more straight however.

 

[johnyboy]

the ending was the only way it could have ended.

I too thought it was brilliant.

Agreed

 

[S1Z]

Spoiler

Everything about the last 3 books. I mean, King actually wrote himself into the story. There were Harry Potter references (WTF?), there was no conforntation with the man in black. All that buildup and the guy gets eaten by a spider? Fuck off. I waited years and years for King to finish that story. Oh and everyone gets killed at the end but not really. They actually live happily ever after. Everything about those last 3 books was garbage.Garbage. But wait, lets see what the Tower is all about. Oh nothing. I see. Thanks Stephen. I honestly think its the worst ending to any series I've ever read.

Wow, talk about mixed reviews. I thought the series ended amazingly. The series itself was a journey not only to read, but as a person it takes you time, and you grow and learn in life as well, while waiting for the next chapter.

No matter the ending, after such a journey I think it is hard to walk away satisfied. That part of your life is over after a huge personal investment. Although I agree with you on the lack of a final confrontation with the man in black (something I had never thought about until you mentioned it), I think it ended well.

I think the conclusive feeling you get when you realized what was happening, perfectly captured Stephen King's entire essence in just those few final lines.

Best series I've ever read, and the third book was the best of the series.

 

[Kais11]

Dr. Sleep was an enjoyable read - very different tone than the Shining and it can definitely be read as a stand alone novel.

With that being said, it is nowhere near the same quality as the Shining. While I love King, he peaked early in his career IMO

Must be because he is sober now. i think we all agree that the team of King, Cocaine, Alcohol, and his typewriter make a good team.

 

[Luger]

Must be because he is sober now. i think we all agree that the team of King, Cocaine, Alcohol, and his typewriter make a good team.

I agree.
A well spun King was great but when he went overboard (The Tommyknockers) he was worse than when he was/is sober.

 

[bowened]

I enjoyed Cujo too. It was back when King wrote short and to the point. But...

Spoiler

What was the whole hinted at supernatural thing? Did some serial killer's ghost get into the dog? what was the deal with the kid's closet?

Spoiler

i got a bit of that but more from the boy. it seemed at times that he had a sense about things that the adults lacked. His fear of a monster foreshadowed cujo's transformation and rampage.

 

[RJ43]

I'm about 550 pages into Wizard and Glass and I absolutely love this book. It's extremely rare that I get this invested in characters, but the way King has set up the dread of impending doom for every Roland cared about in his past in Meijis has totally sucked me in. I woke up Sat morning had a cup of coffee and read 200 pages non-stop...I never do that.

Wastelands was great, but so far Wizard and Glass is my favorite in the Dark Tower series and among my top 3 favorite King books. Possibly higher depending on how it sits with me once I finish.

 

[Deleted member 220895]

The Dark Tower
Apt Pupil
The Green Mile
The Body


I love his non horror stories.

 

[sh1tehawke]

I've read a fair few of his books but I thought his best was salems lot, which I thought wrapped up in a satisfying way and in a reasonable length.

I enjoyed the stand but it was too long and the end was a bit rubbish.

I got about half way through IT before giving up. Some of it was excellent, especially the kids chapters, but it was just sooo drawn out and I wasn't particularly drawn in by the adult chapters. I may try and finish at some point.

 

[Losfer Words]

DT series is the only one I can fully endorse by King. I have read plenty of his other books and have found that almost all of them start great and fall apart by the end. He has a horrible knack for killing his stories by ending them terribly. I differ from some folks in this thread because I think the end of the DT was one of his best...ie he did not fuck it up too bad. For my taste Clive Barker is world's better at story telling than King.

 

[Cptn1NSAN0]

I always thought The Mist was awesome. Movie adaptation was pretty decent too.

 

[Brampton_Boy]

If any of you want a really gory Stephen King short story, read "In the Tall Grass" - you can probably go through the whole thing in under an hour.

It is far and away the darkest and most twisted story of his career. I felt squeamish reading some parts, and it was genuinely unsettling.

By comparison, Pet Sematary was light hearted.

 

[jmadtx]

I haven't the dark tower series but I really like it and the stand is probly my favorite book of all time

 

[Tipapier]

I am actually reading "It", and honestly, after forcing myself into liking the book based on cloudy memories of the movie that I saw maybe at 8 and that litterally terrified me, 800 pages into it I must admit that the novel is globally boring and dull, advancing at a terribly slow pace, sabotaging it's own "great scenes" by semi-spoiling them in advance. A lot of parts in the book are even pretty bad written, notably the dialogues (translation maybe doesn't help). And that stupid alpha-teen Bill, clearly a King avatar, is just cringeworthy with his "leader-got-it-all" attitude and description, what modesty great writer : pretty boy, fearless leader, extremly intelligent, physically imposing and morally inspiring, hats down, nice masturbation !

FFS 1000 pages, that's the whole LOTR saga here, and the book will probably let me with 2 or 3 good scenes in memory ...
I'll finish it though but i doubt my opinion will change again till the end.

Remember having liked Pet Semetarry and some short stories from King years ago, don't know if I as a reader have changed or if he is better when he don't spread his stories so much ...

 

[Tipapier]

BTW for those who don't know it jump on Zig Zag by José Carlos Somoza.

It's by far the best horror novel I ever read, with big chunks of hard science (string theory and quantic physic) and a thriller aspect to it.

It even have pieces of erotism

BUY IT NOW !!!

 

[HomeRun916]

Another thing I don't care for about King as I get older is his dependency on horrible shit happening to kids in his books. Read the Library Police or whatever it was called and see what I mean. Who writes shit like that?

That was a really fucked up story.