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The Stand.
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The Shining.
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Dark Tower III: The Wastelands
So the conclusion is that every book is his best book. Except Cujo.
The Shining
Dead Zone
Different Seasons
Night Shift
The Stand
Carrie
Apparently MMDV - I stopped enjoying King with Firestarter, that one felt forced. Read a few more (Cujo, Pet Sematary, Bachman’s Thinner) and found them wanting. Haven’t picked up anything newer – but I still enjoy re-reading the old ones.
I was not a big fan of King’s horror, at least for the bit I tried to read. I would suggest reading at least The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, and The Wastelands, but I’d stop there. That series was all downhill starting with Wizard and Glass.
Any of these are better than Christine, IMHO:
The Shining
Salem’s Lot
Dolores Claiborne
Pet Sematary
The Dead Zone
The Stand
It
I thought Christine was fun. It’s a Plymouth Fury that’s just plain eeevil right off the assembly line; no reason, it just is.
It is one of my favorites, and almost all of his short stories are good reads. Everything’s Eventual is his latest book of short stories, and there’s some good stuff in there. Don’t read Insomnia unless you’re trying to cure yourself of it. Dreamcatchers just irritated me; isn’t that the one he wrote when he was recovering from his van accident, and presumably was on some wicked painkillers? It sucked, anyway.
Head to the library and check out a few of his books. (Not Black House, though. Trust me.) Either they’ll pull you in within the first few pages or you’ll toss them aside and move on to the next.
[sub]YMMV, void where prohibited, offer not valid in the Aleutian Islands, Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Ball, etc., etc.[/sub]
I suppose I have read about 8 or 10. I like most of the compilations of shorter stuff. The only novel I liked very very much was The Dead Zone. The last one I read was Rose Madder which I didn’t bother finishing.
Incidentally, among short stories, I thought that “Dolan’s Cadillac” was just flat-out, put-it-in-the-Norton-anthology great.
The only thing I really liked after It was Misery. I haven’t read the Dark Tower stuff so I have no opinion on the quality but I know the basic premise. What was starting to irritate the hell out of me is all the tie-in’s to the Dark Tower canon.
The ending to From a Buick 8 and —damn damn damn I can’t remember the name of the one with the old guy and and the kid who become friends. The old guy is taken away at the end to go back to the Dark Tower world. There are others but these two are the ones I remember off the top of my head as the most obvious.
It was cute when he would throw in little references to other stories or places now and again. In Tommyknockers they drove into Derry for supplies and somebody thought that they saw a clown looking out of a storm drain. Or somebody giving directions and saying you go down the road and turn past the old Chalmbers place where the dog went crazy a couple of years back.
These were cute and added a bit of continuity to his writing, then eveything revolved around the Dark Tower alternate world and it became the major plot points. That’s when Steve jumped the shark for me.
Seconded. FTR, this story is the first one in Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Another fun little story in that book (well, maybe not so much fun as creepy as hell) is Rock and Roll Heaven.
But I’m surprised no one’s mentioned The Green Mile. For me, The Stand, Misery, It, Rose Madder and 'Salem’s Lot all have re-readability, but I love, love, love The Green Mile.
[QUOTE=Mr. GoobI can’t remember the name of the one with the old guy and and the kid who become friends. The old guy is taken away at the end to go back to the Dark Tower world. [/QUOTE]
That was Hearts in Atlantis, which I thought was good. I agree that his short stories are his best work. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed HiA, because it’s more like a short story collection than an entire novel.
That is correct.
My favs in nor particular oder:
The Shining
IT
Pet Sematary
Eyes of the Dragon
Needful Things
Here are my favorites. I haven’t read any of the Dark Tower stuff.
The Stand *
The Shining
It
Misery
The Green Mile
The Body/Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redeption compilation (Is that Four Seasons?)
Salem’s Lot
The Dead Zone (I haven’t read it in ages, but remember liking the premise a whole lot)
The Talisman
- If you’ve never read The Stand, do read the re-released version with the stuff restored he was asked to cut out for length. In this case, it makes for a much better book. The first release seems chopped and confusing by comparision (sort of like the original version of The Abyss is).
Dreamcatcher made me ill, I thought Rose Madder was misogynistic, The Tommyknockers failed in its follow-through (I can’t remember the details now, though) and Cujo was sad, stupid and boring.
This post is spot on. I’ve read all of King’s works. (My book collection includes every one of his books in hardback first edition).
I pretty much either loved or really liked everything up to The Tommyknockers. After I read that, I felt ripped off. What happened to the great storyteller I had read up to this this point? How could this book suck so much after such a great run of hits?
Anyway, it has been hit-or-miss since then. I *really * got into the **Dark Tower ** series and consider the 4th (Wizard and Glass) to be the second best thing he’s written (after The Stand). And back to the OP, I thought **Christine ** was great. He really got into the heads of those high school kids.
What people who are not fans don’t realize about Stephen King, is that the reason he is such a good writer is becasue of his gift for character. Casual fans think about plots (“the vampire story”; “the haunted car story”; “the rabid dog story” etc…). But that’s not what he’s all about. Why do you think King has risen to the top, while other authors such as Dean Koontz and John Saul have not?
But actually read King’s stories, and it is the characters that stand out. Who among us can read **The Stand ** and not care about Stu and Nick and Tom and the rest? Even books that I did not enjoy all that much, I always thought the characters were well-written.
That’s why I like a lot of the character-driven stories of his later works: Rose Madder, Bag of Bones, Hearts In Atlantis, Dolores Claiborne, The Green Mile. I also really liked Desperation.
As others have mentioned, a lot of his shorter works (stories and novellas) are very very good.
All his Bachman stories I think are very good, with one exception (in the below list).
Here is the *bottom * of the barrel, as far as I am concerned:
**The Tommyknockers
The Regulators
Gerald’s Game
Insomnia
The Talisman ** (but I blame Straub 
)
Dreamcatcher
There are others that rate a “Meh”
But like Chefguy said, you cannot go wrong with anything written between **'Salem’s Lot ** and Misery. Even Pet Semetary, which is a real downer, you have to appreciate the talent behind the story.
Ah, a thread after my own heart! (My username is a takeoff from Dolores Claiborne.)
I love The Stand. And IT. I’m re-reading Carrie right now. Firestarter is good. Everything’s Eventual is a newer collection of short stories. Check out the story Room 1919 (or some number.) It gave me chill bumps.
I’m afraid I love just about all of his books. The characters seem real to me.
Ones I didn’t care for:
Regulators/Desperation
Tommyknockers
I think he’s also great at writing stories from children’s points of view. In It, for example, you really feel like what the Losers go through-not the monster and the weird happenings, but the everyday stuff-is something you’ve probably experienced. Who hasn’t been terrified of a childhood bully, that most of the teachers ignore, or are even afraid of? I think Henry Bowers was even scarier than Pennywise.
I’m extremely fond of his short story body of works.
As far as novels go, yeah. The Shining. I read it as a kid, then re-read it after being married with kids. Wholly different experience. Perhaps it resonates so strongly because the conceit is not that the house is haunted, but that everyone’s mental house might well be haunted and for some folks, the inner becomes the outer with startling speed and with tragic results. That novel more than any other I’ve read of his ( and I’ve read maybe 90% of them ) works that deeply distressing territory so very well.
What would it take to mentally snap? What would it take to try to murder your wife or child? How well do many people around us mask those urges, fleeting and silent as they may be? What is the fulcrom of sanity ?
The guy’s got chops.
Cartooniverse
To me, Henry was scary on the same level that Annie Wilkes was scary in Misery; which is to say, you can tell yourself that Pennywise is strictly fiction, but you know there really are evil kids like Henry, (and psychotic murderers like Annie) and there really are grownups who are afraid of him, or just too damned apathetic to do anything.
My list:
The Stand (I prefer the original version, but I’m glad I read the extended to fill in holes. It’s my favorite book, by anybody, just because I love the characters so much.)
The Shining
The Dead Zone
Salem’s Lot (it didn’t click with me the first time though)
Then any of his non-fiction and short story collections.
The rest range from “pretty good” to “whatever.” I haven’t read any new King for a few years, and I haven’t read any of the Dark Tower series. When I do read a new King, it’s always a page-turner and I don’t decide if I actually like it or not until I turn the last page. I almost always like the characters. He’s a master at bringing characters to life. I may or may not like the story in the end, but I always have to find out what happened to the characters.
I can’t believe that anyone would think Christine is his best book. I think I threw up in my mouth a little when I saw the Subject Line. It’s a lot of fun, but best? Oh lord no.
As long as I’m here…I thought Cujo the book was pretty bad, but I liked Cujo the movie. The movie cut out a silly affair and a lot of other unnecessary fluff and focused on what was important, a mother protecting her child from a rabid (not evil, it’s not a horror story) dog. It gets me every time. I also liked the movie Firestarter more than the book. I think Drew Barrymore was just fantastic in it.
I hate “me too” posts, but it was almost Stephen King weird how exactly you mirrored my thoughts (Very few rank Dead Zone as I [and apparently you] do).