Inspired by this thread. What are Stephen King’s five best books, in your opinion? No limitations. Anything from novels to novellas to short story collections to ebooks to published screenplays is eligible. It doesn’t actually even have to be a whole book. It could be a story within a book. Herewith, my choices:
[ol]
[li]The Stand[/li][li]The Mist[/li][li]The Dead Zone[/li][li]'Salem’s Lot[/li][li]Different Seasons[/li][/ol]
And yours?
Thee are all tied for first place, along with about ten others. I especialy wanted to include The Body and The Shawshank Redemption.
The first 3/4 of The Stand, Salem’s Lot, and *The Green Mile *are all safe and popular choices. For some dark horse candidates, I’d go with The Running Man for pure pulpy goodness, and I’d also choose Cujo, which was a pretty interesting character study of a failing marriage when it wasn’t about a dog.
Well, that was…impossible.
I knew the first two right away.
The next two weren’t so hard either…I love the early short stories!
At this point, I realized that I only had one choice left, and a whole lot of candidates. Crap!
Honorable mention and the reason they aren’t quite as good as Dolores Claiborne:
The Stand. Actually it’s quite as good as DC, but it’s the fan favorite already so I don’t need to mention it.
The Drawing of the Three. My favorite of the Dark Tower books, but it doesn’t stand alone.
The Bachman Books. Roadwork’s not quite as strong as the rest.
Different Seasons. The Breathing Method’s not quite as strong as the rest.
I also like DC for its lack of supernatural elements.
If I were doing this poll, I’d have two: supernatural and plausible. I love it when King writes plausible stories. Rose Madder would have been so much better without the stupid painting, and instead ending it with Rose kicking Norman’s ass.
I pretty much loved every Stephen King book up until the Needful Things…which completely fell apart at the end for me. I liked each of his books less and less after that. With the exception of Green Mile which was stellar. I exceptionally loved the serial format, it was like a cliffhanger.
I remember the first Stephen King book I was hugely disappointed with - Insomnia (although Tommyknockers kind of slid off the rails a bit at the end). It had a wonderful beginning and then…just ended completely in La La land. Now, it seems nearly all of his books do that. In contrast, I loved Salem’s Lot. If an evil vampire invaded a little town, it could happen just…like…that. It’s so much creepier to me when it seems more “realistic.” I hated hated hated the end of Duma Key for example.
He also doesn’t seem to invest in his bit characters anymore. In his early works, even the most tertiary character seemed fully fleshed and realized. I could barely finish The Dome, I think it’s because I didn’t care about anyone in it. There was no Stu Redman!
Aw jeez…this is harder than “What’s your 5 Favorite Movies of all times” 
So, in no particular order, I’ll just say:
I printed out a bibliography for King so I could go through it, since my books are a little jumbled and I didn’t want to forget something. I was amazed by the depth of feeling I had just reading some of the titles - he is my favorite writer, by far.
I’d have to go back and re-read them all! Part of the problem, though, is I’m likely to discount some of his earlier works (which I quite enjoy) due to them being so dated. It takes away some of the immediateness of the situations in the books that are are supposed to be in the here and now. On the other hand, shorts like “The Body” which are were written intentionally to have occurred in the past don’t have that same feeling.
So just to be lazy without re-reading everything, let me just say:
[ul]
[li]The Stand[/li][li]The Dark Tower[/li][li]The Dark Tower II[/li][li]The Dark Tower III[/li][li]The Dark Tower IV[/li][/ul]
Misery
The Stand
The Long Walk
The Shawshank Redemptino
The Green Mile
The Stand
The Children of the Corn (can’t remember if the short story is called that or not)
The Mist
It
Tommyknockers
If anyone ever starts a “Five worst SK books” thread, Rose Madder would easily place right at the top of that particular list. I do so loathe that POS.
I’m not a big fan of King’s use of the supernatural at all, even when it’s a large part of the story, e.g., The Stand. Add Cell to the list of stories that were irrevocably screwed up by his forcing a supernatural element to the narrative. The first 50 or so pages of Cell are great, though, dammit.
That said, my favorite 5 King books are:
[ol]
[li]The Shining. (It’s one of the best descriptions of middle-age despair and alcoholism I’ve ever read. For me, the story doesn’t need the hotel to actually be haunted for the story to work.)[/li][li]The Bachmann Books (Yes, Rage too.)[/li][li]Different Seasons (Shawshank, The Body, Apt Pupil: all three belong on his 20 best pieces list)[/li][li]Wizards and Glass (or Drawing of the Three—too hard for me to decide, I like the exploration of Roland’s childhood, but Drawing is much more tightly written. Both with The Wastelands are great and right before the Dark Tower Series crawled up its own ass…)[/ol][/li]
I was going to list The Stand (leaving out the dreams and right up to the point Stu and the gang walk to Vegas), but screw it, I’ll vote for The Dead Zone. Mainly for its examination of how Johnny Smith tries to pick his life back up again, as well as its point that Cassandra-like knowledge is much more of a curse than a blessing.
Haven’t read Salem’s Lot yet, and I need to.
You should, it is King’s best work. After that:
The Stand which could have been his best and perhaps a truly great book, except for the ending as you note. One of King’s flaws is weaving wonderful stories- and having no idea how to end them.
The Dead Zone where King truly sticks the ending.
Night Shift great collection; loved The Mangler
The Shining
It’s been so long since I’ve read many of the books…
I also liked his two non-fiction books Danse Macabre and On Writing. I also think the opening chapter in Rose Madder was the most horrific thing of his that I ever read, but the ending was also completely horrific… just not in the same way as the beginning.
He went through a real feminist stage where the female characters were All That and the males weren’t. I found it really irritating.
As far as his bad books are concerned, if Lisey’s Story doesn’t take the smucking prize, I’ll eat my hat.
I wonder how much people’s enjoyment and ranking comes from the time and order of their reading of King’s works.
I read everything up to Needful Things, in order and close to the time the books were released. Therefore, I really like the early stuff, and can see that the themes got stale in It and The Tommyknockers. The last King book I read was Needful Things again great story, but lousy ending.
Not The Plant - so not The Plant…
eta: Honorable mention for Eyes of the Dragon and Needful Things
In no particular order:
[ul]
[li]The Stand[/li][li]Different Seasons[/li][li]*The Dark Tower *I, II, III, and IV… the last three were iffy - they seemed rushed.[/li][li]Eyes of the Dragon[/li][li]Salem’s Lot[/li][/ul]
I don’t recall all his short stories I’ve read, but I think those could have a thread all their own (my choice of Different Seasons here notwithstanding - 3 out of 4 is good for a short story collection!). Roadwork is definitely in my Top 5 for shorts.
Am I the only one who really liked Rose Madder? It wouldn’t make my top 5 list or anything but I thought it was quite good.
I’m feeling upbeat/positive today. I’d answer the OP by saying that his five best works are yet to come.
I really don’t mean to threadshit, but if that’s his best work, I’m not really sorry I haven’t read more of his stories. It’s a good enough book and all, but it’s not a masterpiece.
I’ve only read a few other King books and stories, so I’m not qualified to do a top 5 here. I would say that his “memoir of the craft,” On Writing, is as fine a guidebook for prospective authors as I’ve found. He drive home the point that writing is a learned trade, not a blossoming talent that arises spontaneously when the inner artist emerges. Stephen King wrote and submitted dozens of short stories all through his youth in addition to writing for his local newspaper. What fans see in all the books mentioned is a product of practice and training. That’s a lesson to take to heart.