Stephen King Horror - Not the Dark Tower series

r3nu4l

So folks, what is your favourite Stephen King book? No point in creating a poll as there are so many books. Please do not refer to the Dark Tower series as that's a whole other angle of his work

For me it was The Stand, I'm a Molecular Medical Biologist so I really loved the whole spread of disease at teh start of the book but then also really loved the whole battle of good versus evil at the end.

The first King work I read was Four Past Midnight (The Langoliers, The Library Policeman etc) and I loved it. I would have been about 13 at the time. After that I couldn't get enough.

Beruthiel

Sorry, can't pick just one...

It
Salem's Lot
Needful Things
The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub

kc66

Needful things was a great book.
Loved many of his short stories too.

Oryx

I loved four past midnight, and most of his early stuff, Carrie, Cujo, the shining etc. I havent read his stuff for a few years, and his later work (after his accident, coincidentally) isnt a patch on his earlier books, imo.

And he doesnt translate well to film. The only ones that work for me are Shawshank and Stand by me, great stories and great films.

r3nu4l

Okay, if nobody else is sticking to one book then I won't either

Loved Needful things, Pet Cemetary, Salems Lot, Christine, IT and Four Past Midnight. I also really liked Insomnia, not because of the story as such but really more because of the concept. I thought it was great.

As for transferring to film badly, I completely agree. Shawshank was great, Carrie wasn't bad but some of the other stuff has been dreadful!

I haven't read any of his recent work at all but recently re-read Cujo. That was a great and terrifying book and typical King, didn't end all rosy and happy for the main characters. Great!

Iago

Some of his stuff has transferred very well

The Shining
Misery
Carrie
Stand by Me
The Green Mile
even Dead Zone wasn't too bad

but there's a long list of bad bad films that I don't even want to go into

As for favourites, in no particular order

The Stand
IT
The Shining
Salems Lot

eachtrannach

I have to go with a Top Three:

Needful Things - definitely up there with the best of the best, best intro ever read by my good self (and I read a lot ...)

It - Read it at leisure, then visit Bangor/Maine and find out that all the eerie things, including the water tower, actually exist ...

Gerald's Game - Yup ... one wonders afterwards "what would happen if" ... dedicated followers of kinky sex be warned!

r3nu4l

Iago wrote:

Some of his stuff has transferred very well

Agree with some of those but I suppose it's whether you read the book first or saw the film. I remember everyone telling me how terrifying the Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris) was when they saw it in the cinema. I had just read the book and then when I did see it, I found it boring!

I've never actually read the shining, must do! The local co-op stores are selling old titles (new prints, not second-hand) at £1.99 must see if The Shining is amongst them.

Oryx

Iago wrote:

Some of his stuff has transferred very well

The Shining
Misery
Carrie
Stand by Me
The Green Mile
even Dead Zone wasn't too bad

but there's a long list of bad bad films that I don't even want to go into

As for favourites, in no particular order

The Stand
IT
The Shining
Salems Lot

They wussed out on the film misery, dosent she cut his legs off in the book? But Kathy Bates was chilling. Had forgotten Green Mile, loved that book, but the film didnt do it for me.

Thanks guys for reminding me of all those great books Id forgotten Id even read.:)

Fanny Cradock

i don't see why the dark tower series is exempt from his other work. at points he even introduces characters form previous novels and launches into his well established horror routine. Book 1 was intriguing, yet it all went down hill after then, especially after book 3. Admittedly, I’ve not read anything by him before, but i am now fully convinced of his crapness after reading the self indulgent nonsense included in the latter books in this series. most over-rated author ever.

Iago

Fanny Cradock wrote:

i don't see why the dark tower series is exempt from his other work. at points he even introduces characters form previous novels and launches into his well established horror routine. Book 1 was intriguing, yet it all went down hill after then, especially after book 3. Admittedly, I’ve not read anything by him before, but i am now fully convinced of his crapness after reading the self indulgent nonsense included in the latter books in this series. most over-rated author ever.

LOL, if you are basing this on just The Dark Tower series, then you might just want to pick up some of his earlier books and see whether you re-consider. The Dark Tower was a big jump from his comfort zone, and from his traditional form of writing. The change between the earlier books and later books also happened during and after his accident, and as has been stated earlier his later work wasn't half as good as his earlier stuff.

Read The Stand , IT, The Shining and then come back and tell me you think he's overrated and I might consider entering a debate into your reasoning then.

r3nu4l

Iago wrote:

The Dark Tower was a big jump from his comfort zone, and from his traditional form of writing.

This is pretty much why I decided to exclude them, it means that people will pretty much focus on his earlier works which is what I'm more interested in.

I realise that in the Dark Tower he introduces and weaves characters and plots from other books into the series but it seems to me that this is either an ingenious way to intertwine his works or a desperate attempt to lend some credibility to the series. Either way I'm not really that interested in the sereis, liked the first book but didn't read any more of them.

Feel free to start a Dark Tower thread in the finest boards tradition of getting thread ideas from other threads

Beruthiel

Fanny Cradock wrote:

i don't see why the dark tower series is exempt from his other work. at points he even introduces characters form previous novels and launches into his well established horror routine. Book 1 was intriguing, yet it all went down hill after then, especially after book 3. Admittedly, I’ve not read anything by him before, but i am now fully convinced of his crapness after reading the self indulgent nonsense included in the latter books in this series. most over-rated author ever.

I could never get into the Dark Tower series, they did nothing for me.
However, I have read every one of his earlier books up to Dolores Claiborne, all excellent reads which I couldn't put down. His later works don't hold my interest compared to his older stuff.

r3nu4l

I think a lot of long-time King fans will agree that his work has suffered but I wonder if this is a combination of his transition to a new project type, outside his comfort zone and the fact that he's been writing a long, long time and the genre in which he writes is limited to some extent?

It must be extremely hard to remain 'fresh' when you've been writing as long as he has.

Oobie

I love all his early stuff but I also really enjoyed some of the crappy movie versions, particularly Pet Semetary and Salems Lot but I think that's because I saw them when I was really young and they scared the hell out of me.

I also loved most of the good movies too.

Macker

I'm reading IT now and really enjoying it ,I also loved Derperation although it was probably 100 pages too long

oscarBravo

I'm almost finished re-reading The Stand (the uncut edition) for what must be the fourth time. Excellent stuff.

Dades

IT followed by The Stand for me.

I read everything he wrote for years.

Tried to get into The Dark Tower recently (not literally) - found it tough.

Beëlzebooze

I read the shining about 20 years ago, I was working night shift in a warehouse, all on my toddle. It was a 'special' experience, the story creeped me out, and the eariness was amplified by the noises in the warehouse.......

I also quite enjoyed 'Cell' recenly, alsthough it does come off like a combination of 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'The Stand'.

Dreamcatcher, Hearts in Atlantis, Black House and some of the other ones start off great, but just fade into some kind of weirdness that I can't really get my head around.

I also stopped watching movies made based on his stories after that utter drivel 'Cats Eyes'.

_blank_

I love Stephen King.

My first book was Salem's Lot and it scared the bejesus out of me, and is still one of my favourite books by him.

I don't have an absolute favourite, but The Stand is definitely in my top five books ever read. I just finished Rose Madder and really liked it.

King is an excellent short story writer too, and I loved some of the stories in Everything's Eventual and Night Shift (I am The Doorway is a particular favourite of mine).

I wasn't too pushed on Cell, but I don't find his later work to be anything as poor as others in this thread are suggesting in general. For example, Dreamcatcher is one of my favourite King books, and I think they made an unholy mess of the film adaptation. Hearts in Atlantis is brilliant, as is the film starring Anthony Hopkins, even though it tells only one of the stories from the book.

My God, I'm just looking at the Stephen King Wikipedia entry,so I can remember what books I read, there are still a lot of books for me to read. I always enjoy his storytelling, and sometimes even find myself dreaming about his characters.:eek:

The Dark Tower is an excellent epic.

eachtrannach

Just noticed that one of my favorite SK-books of all time was niot mentioned yet, not even by myself ... "Danse Macabre" ... okay, it is non-fiction, but well worth reading!

Lust4Life

My favorites...

Christine - This was the very first Stephen King book I ever read, and it gave me terrible nightmares! (I was quite young at the time).

Needful Things - I loved all of the twists and turns in the story! Very well crafted!

Misery - The book was wonderful and original. And I adore Cathy Bates in the movie! She is so perfect for the role!

Of course, I love them all - except - The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I just could not force myself to finish that one because it didn't capture me right away like his others do.

He went through a phase where many of the stories were all cookie-cutter type. Where you knew how it was going to go before you read the first few chapters - Desperation / Rose Madder.

Also, on every foggy day, I still think of The Mist.

He has such a wonderful writing style. I really enjoy his more than most other writers of this genre.

L4L

BossArky

The King books I remember having read are Salems Lot and Christine. They remind me of someones weekly English school essay. I don't mean that they were bad, ...just written in clear, simple language.

Maybe I should read some of the other titles mentioned in this post.

Lust4Life

Posted by BossArky:
.just written in clear, simple language.

I think that is why I like his works so much. He does not try to get overly fancy in his writing. He challenges himself regarding plot instead of flourish. And I believe that is what makes it so easy to become absorbed into the stories. His casual style lets your imagination accept the story more easily.

L4L

beans

I think The Shining is my favourite of his novels. I love the way it explores demons within, Jack's alcoholism... in fact, given SK's own issues with substance abuse, this makes the book his most autobiographical for me, and that makes it all the scarier. Other than that, the setting and subsequent movie adaptation all come together to put it over the likes of IT or perhaps Salems Lot which are vying for second.

Short story-wise, of what I've read, The Last Rung On The Ladder gives me goosebumps even thinking about it now. It's so good

Eoin

I'm quite surprised no one has mentioned The Dark Half; I thought that was a cracker of a book. I liked most of his short novels, though I am losing track of what stories were in what collections. I really liked the Tommyknockers, though I know a lot of people hated that one.

theCzar

Haven't read a huge number, went through a phase when I was 16 or so of wanting to read loads, but the ones I did weren't great really, was just taking what was on the Library shelf.

Rose Madder was a bit pants, The Shinning was very cool. I liked Thinner as well. I read three or four others, but don't know what they were but occasionally I see a film and its very familiar!

dabbler2004

For me it's two:
It
The Stand-complete and uncut edition.



am currently reading Cell, it's ok but doesn't have the hold of those mentioned above

TerrorFirmer

Skeleton Crew...

Survivor Type, The Mist, Beachworld....my favourite three stories ever, all from within that book.

Oh, and for the record, I thought Cell was excellent - a real and long awaited return to form for SK. In my opinion of course.

petes

The Black House - Stephen King and Peter Straub.

monkeyfudge

eoin_s wrote:

I'm quite surprised no one has mentioned The Dark Half; I thought that was a cracker of a book. I liked most of his short novels, though I am losing track of what stories were in what collections. I really liked the Tommyknockers, though I know a lot of people hated that one.

Tommyknockers and Dark Half would be favourites of mine as well. Altough the movies they made from them were pretty terrible... I actually kept thinking about the Dark Half when I was watching that Secret Window film.

I enjoyed Four Past Midnight too... especially the Langoliers, which I thought was a great idea. (Horrible film based on that one too.)

There was a point where they were making the films almost as fast as he was writing the books, that seems to have stopped. Dreamcatcher would have been one of the last films, wouldn't it?

They did do a Shining TV movie that was supposed to be closer to the book than the Kubrick film.

Ho-Hum

I've read most of Kings books and my favourites would have to be..
IT: Most believable characters I have ever read any book ever, its just fantastic
The Stand: When it comes to a modern epic nothing can touch this book, I gotta love it just for it introducing me too Flagg (I'm a big DT fan too)

As for Kings books not translating well to film; I think as long as they are handled in the right manner they will be good. The ones that fall flat on their face are the ones that focus more on the action element of the story. eg IT: mini series, Dreamcatcher etc
The ones that focus more on the character driven end of the story tend to turn out alot better, eg Stand by me, The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption.

Fanny Cradock

Iago wrote:

LOL, if you are basing this on just The Dark Tower series, then you might just want to pick up some of his earlier books and see whether you re-consider. The Dark Tower was a big jump from his comfort zone, and from his traditional form of writing. The change between the earlier books and later books also happened during and after his accident, and as has been stated earlier his later work wasn't half as good as his earlier stuff.

Read The Stand , IT, The Shining and then come back and tell me you think he's overrated and I might consider entering a debate into your reasoning then.

it's ok, i don't really want to debate with you anyway

in one of the latter books of the series he mentions that this was to be his opus, his lord of the rings as i seem to remember he said. i can only go on what he claimed himself. since posting this i have dusted down IT and remained unimpressed. i guess that is just me, and has more to do with my literary snobbery than i care to mention. however, i do admit that it was better by a country mile than the last few books of the dark tower series.

JaneHudson

I really loved Misery and the Shining but now I wonder do I remember them more fondly because the films were so good?

justfortherecor

Just finished reading The Green Mile and absolutely loved it. King is truly one of the finest storytellers ever.

The Stand was also a delight to read but I sadly followed that up by reading the entirely disappointing Dreamcatcher.

You'll find most of the people who bash his work are a) people who've never even read his books but just go along with the popular belief that his work is silly fantasy and simple ghoul stories and
b) the literary 'elitists' who are simply jealous of King's untouchable position as the king of storytelling that appeals to most everyday readers.

He will only truly be regarded as a genius when he passes away.

theCzar

justfortherecor wrote:

King is truly one of the finest storytellers ever.

A touch of hyperbole? He has some great works, he has a lot of trash too. I've actually never read the stand, I must.

justfortherecor wrote:

He will only truly be regarded as a genius when he passes away.

:eek:

What an odd thing to say! Are you that psycho from Misery?

eljono

The Stand is without a doubt, my favourite of his books. Absolutely brilliant.　I've never read the abridged version and I can't see why anyone would want to cut it short. It is a long read but it's riveting the whole way through.

I also count The Shining, Pet Semetary and Insomnia amongst the most enjoyable books I've ever read. I like some of the Richard Bachman stuff too but I prefer good old fashioned King fare.

Bigeamo

Loved The Stand. Just finished Christine. Very very good. I have to say, I find all of his books very readable. The only probably I have is that on occassion (say Insomnia) I feel that he write about 600 pages and then decides that he has to finish it as quickly as possible, so he tries to wrap it up in another 50.

That's probably why I like The Stand so much, I felt that he worked it right through to the end.

_blank_

Bigeamo wrote:

I feel that he write about 600 pages and then decides that he has to finish it as quickly as possible, so he tries to wrap it up in another 50.

Exactly, I have found this with a number of SK books. Needful Things being the worst offender.

Odaise Gaelach

I haven't read a lot of Stephen King's books, but I really, really enjoyed Insomnia. Chilling and amazingly creative.

r3nu4l

Bigeamo wrote:

I feel that he write about 600 pages and then decides that he has to finish it as quickly as possible, so he tries to wrap it up in another 50.

That's probably why I like The Stand so much, I felt that he worked it right through to the end.

This may have more to do with the editors and publishers than King himself. The versions of The Stand on sale now are not the same as the original release which was much shorter. King was never happy with the originally published version and later convinved the publishers (when he had a bit more muscle to do so) that a complete and unabridged version would be better, which as it turns out, it was!

tbh

I've read all his books, and for me, the scariest was Bag Of Bones. Cell is a good return to form as well, but I find with SK books, either the main body of the book is briliant, but the end is weak, or the body is bad and the end is good. I loved The Stand and IT, but, yeah, Bag of Bones really scared me

Shaybo

I would say It and The Tommyknockers are two of his scariest novels.

But two other pieces of his writing are more terrifying IMO - The Langoliers from 4 Past Midnight and The Mist from one of his short story collections (can't remember which right now) are brilliant.

Also very frightening (no supernatural involvement at all) is The Long Walk from the Richard Bacman Books.

Susannahmia

havent read them all yet but my favourites so far are:

1.The stand (by far my most favourite)
2.salems lot
3.firestarter
4 Cell

Huggles

In no particular order

Christine
Desperation
Misery
Thinner
It
The Shining

niallon

Thanks to it being the first King I ever read, I love Dreamcatcher but my favourites are Four Past Midnight, Different Seasons and The Shining. Guess I like the short stories cause I'm lazy!

Faerie

Although I thought Misery was creepier, my favourite is definately Salem's Lot.

Merrick

I'm going to have to go for a top 3, in no order:

Gerald's Game
Talisman, with Peter Straub
The Shining

Mikill

Black House is a classic

Tingo

Misery was the first one of his books that I read. It was good, but it didn't live up to the hype I expected. I always heard about how great and scary the books were, so I gave them a shot...and not so much. :rolleyes:

They are entertaining. I really liked Four Past Midnight, for some reason was jsut drawn towards the plots and characters. I find that his books can be really long (I think that says more about me than him ) and just hard to get into, so I'm probably biased in the sense that the stories were short.

Despite saying that, I loved Insomina. :cool:

While I didn't really like the movies very much, I found a few of them good. I think the problem is if you already know the story. I saw It, and then when I went to pick up the book I just felt bored. Although if I read the book first I'm sure I would have daydreamed through the movie.

I never read the Dark Tower series. I bought one of the books second hand, realised it was mid-way through the series and just couldn't be bothered buying the earlier ones and reading them. Kinda of glad now from what people are saying. Although the book is excellent for killing spiders might I add, the book was worth its money.

Macker

Tingo wrote:

While I didn't really like the movies very much, I found a few of them good. I think the problem is if you already know the story. I saw It, and then when I went to pick up the book I just felt bored. Although if I read the book first I'm sure I would have daydreamed through the movie.

I put off reading It for a long time because I really thought I would have John boy Walton going through my head throughtout the whole book but I eventually got around to reading it on holidays this year and throughly enjoyed it ,one of his best