Howdy. I’m thinking about reading the ol’ horror King (have gone thru life without reading a word of Steve). I’ve seen a lot of absolute disses as well as glorifying remarks about his books; it seems as if they vary greatly in quality.
So which book is the best? And which should I start out with? (if they ain’t the same)
I think the general consensus among King fans is either The Stand, or The Dark Tower series.
My personal choice would be The Dark Tower.
I started with Misery, which is excellent as well. I’ve read every book of his at least once, except the last few. They do vary a bit in quality, in my opinion, but I like something about each one of them.
Other good choices would be The Shining, The Green Mile, Gerald’s Game, or It.
Starting out… maybe one of the ones that don’t tie together would be good. More recently he’s made all his works part of a grand scheme that takes place on multiple levels of reality.
That being said, I think the Dark Tower series is the best (The Gunslinger, Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, and Wizard and Glass). You don’t need to know any of the other stories to enjoy these, and you see the Dark Tower references in the other books.
Mind you, of the four, I like The Waste Lands the most. The first is quite gritty, but don’t let it get you down.
You can always go whole hog and grab The Stand for a first shot.
You’ll get tons of votes for The Stand, which is good. My first, which got me hooked was Diferent Seasons. Non-horror. Three of the four novellas have been made into very good movies.
I actually don’t like the horror elements in his books, mostly because I think they’re cheesy. I read SK for his fabulous ability of description and characterization(sp?). If you’re into horror, Four Past Midnight is kinda creepy. The Stand is more serene.
Books to stay away from - even if they’re thrown at you: Dreamcatcher and Tommyknockers.
YMMV
I would suggest The Dead Zone or Cujo.
I agree that you should avoid Dreamcatcher and The Tommyknockers- King needs to never write about Aliens ever ever again.
I’ll give a second vote for Gerald’s Game, for the reason that it is one of the only major novels he wrote that has NO supernatural angle. it was all a perfectly plausible human situation, and to me, that made it much more powerful. And the twist at the end still manged to totally creep me out.
Others I have really enjoyed include * Needful Things, The Tommyknockers, Christine & It*
I’ll third Gerald’s Game. I don’t think it’s his best, but it is IMHO by far his scariest.
The only book that I still like of his is The Shining. (One of the few cases where I like both the book and the movie – although I think the movie wins.)
I have a great appreciation for Needful Things. It’s more of a black comedy than anything else. Pet Sematary was the one that scared me the most.
The Dark Tower series is probably his best, but for a first book, Christine, Dolores Claiborne or Gerald’s Game are good choices.
Geralds Game gets a big THUMBS DOWN from me, at least as a first read. The Dark Tower, while a fantastic series is also not imho a “first read”. I know I appreciated it the more for having seen Crimson King and Roland references throughout the rest of his work. Needful Things was a great read, but again I wonder if it’s not more suited to somone who has some of the back story provided by his other works?
The Stand and IT were the first books of his I read.
Very easy to get into and enjoy. Bit on the long side for some, just right for my taste in an entertaining read. The Stand is more post-apocolyptic than horror if you prefer that. A rather underappreciated King is imho, Insomnia. This is also more supernatural than horror. The Talisman with Peter Taub also has it’s points.
IT is a great one. It’s more on the horror side but it also works as an excellent introduction to Castle Rock. Cujo is also a good “hold onto your seat” read.
There are a number of his books that just aren’t worth reading, at least not more than once. I appreciate that King occasionally tries something new, he has worked himself to a place where he can afford to do that, but please god spare me from whatever the hell he thought he was doing with “Bag of Bones” and “The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon”. I could be wrong, but I hope the dodgey quality of the last few books is due to his publishers tossing out “old rejects” onto the market while King has been recovering from his accident.
Excuse me? Ever hear of ** Misery **? Where’s the supernatural in that one? And I think it’s a better read. Gerard’s Game is possible; Misery is plausible.
My favorite is still ** The Green Mile **. It reads excellent, and has very little supernatural or ick in it. The Bachman books are all good too.
I did say “one of…”, if you would like to re-read my post.
You could also name Cujo as well, and a couple of other novellas and short stories.
And this is a personal opinion thread, not a factual one.
I, personally, didn’t rate Misery that highly. YMMV. So excuse you.
The Shining, by far, IMO. I don’t think the Dark Tower books are even in his own top ten. The Shining is a classic ghost/horror novel. Perfect in every way.
I agree King would sometimes do better if he’d maybe try the odd book that doesn’t have a ridiculous supernatural angle. His recent Dreamcatcher would have been a terrific book if he’d done away with the ESP idiot-savant backstory.
Firestarter or The Shining.
Tommyknockers is a big pile of plop, and I wasn’t impressed with The Stand or that other one set in the desert, the name of which eludes me, which made me think that he’d started employing college students to churn 'em out.
Another vote for The Shining. I’m not a huge King fan, and I’ve not found the half-dozen or so of his books that I’ve read to be memorable, but I got to say that The Shining is one darn good spook novel.
Salem’s Lot is one of his best, as is the original version of The Stand. In the mid '80s, he badly “updated” and expanded the book, adding about 50(?) pages of bloat to the novel. It’s worth going to a used bookstore and finding the non-bloatware version of The Stand
And avoid The Tommyknockers at all costs. It’s “It’ll make your eyes bleed” bad.
Fenris
Salem’s Lot scared me many years ago, and still gets my vote as the best. Christine, while not high art, is a lot of fun.
I’m going to go out on a limb, and suggest that for your first book you skip all the novels and go for one of the short story compilations.
By far the scariest and best horror is in the first one, called Night Shift.
His novels tend to be a little heavy, and it’s a good idea to start with the lighter, scarier stuff to see if you like his style. For the record, Night Shift was my first King book as well.
Hands down for erl: Pet Sematary. Scared me the most, consistently, and I have read it several times, followed a long ways behind (in # of times read) by The Dead Zone, though I like TDZ as pulp, not as an example of King at his greatest.
Firestarter, as I recall feeling about it when I read it, was better than Carrie. Carrie was the first SK book I read, though, then the original Stand.
Tommyknockers: the first 250 pages or so were so godawful stupid I put the book down. About a year and a half later I decided to pick it up again and found my bookmark where I had left it. Recalling the difficulty I had with the beginning I decided to pick up where I had left off. I loved the book from that moment on, and would like to reread it except for the whole “obsession with philosophy” thing I have going on now.
But Pet Sematary gets my vote big time. No book has ever, ever made me feel like that one has: scared, sad, awe, introspection, scared… 
Even the movie was tolerable… in fact the scene where Gage dies is done remarkably well in the movie, and now when I read the book I think of that scene… [flash][flash][flash] wow. Very nice IMO
PS and Desperation were the only two King books that actually scared me. Oh, and the intro to (but not the rest of) Cujo.