What is Stephen King's best novel? [POLL]

Cafe Society
21

I’ve seen the movie a handful of times…hopefully that’ll be enough to get me up to speed when I read the book.

Funny you should mention the alcoholism part, when I saw the movie the first one or two times I didn’t notice the drinking, it wasn’t until I caught a few minutes of the miniseries (the part where Brian from Wings was getting hammered and hallucinating a party) that I said ‘ooooh, that makes sense, he was a drunk’. I mentioned it to a friend of mine and she said they spent more time in the book and miniseries on his drinking. Just now, looking at the wiki page for the movie version I see that King said he feels they left out too much of the alcoholism part so I probably wasn’t the only person who missed that.

22

I voted for the The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger but only because I couldn’t cast a vote for a combination of all of the books in the Dark Tower series.

23

I don’t see The Shawshank Redemption on the list, either.

24

I voted for Christine, I think it is excellent, love the story and it isn’t too long. The Stand is also excellent, but kinda falls apart at the end.

25

It’s a novella, part of the collection Different Seasons.

26

I was torn between The Stand and The Shining. The Stand is probably my favorite Stephen King novel but The Shining is tightly written and one of the few (IMHO) Stephen King perfect endings. Close behind (in this order) are *Dolores Claiborne, The Green Mile *and Misery. *Misery *was the first SK book I read and I remember sitting by the pool one summer as a teenager as one of my friends read out load the foot scene and I was hooked…

27

Dammit, I read the OP as King’s best movie and voted accordingly. I change my Green Mile to The Stand, FWIW.

28

I voted for The Shining, as it is a great book cover to cover. My own opinion is that Firestarter is a great book, and vastly under-rated, and that The Stand is so-so and generally over-rated. I loved Black House, and really dug 11/22/63. 11/22/63 is the most recent SK that I’ve read.

29

I think there are a number of votes for later SK novels because, well, they are later. They might be fresher in the reader’s taste and mind, but I wonder how well they will stack up in 20 years.

The Stand has its flaws, yes. But most novels do, if you look at them from all perspectives. I still think it has the best chance of being the last SK novel standing… in 50, 100 years. Those who dislike it because it’s too sprawling and has too many stories are advised to steer clear of quite a few highly-regarded classic novels.

30

The Dead Zone is the one I enjoyed the most, but I read it when I was a kid. I suspect, much like Robert Ludlum novels, were I to reread it, I would not feel the same way.

31

Cycle was a novella, but a standalone.

32

I could have picked 4-5 books, including The Stand, The Shining, It, Pet Semetary, but voted for Eyes of the Dragon. Since it’s fantasy based, I think it holds up well. And it’s a great bit of storytelling. I like the way King seems to have aimed it at younger readers (it’s got that fairy tale vibe), but doesn’t talk down to them. A great read.

33

I picked Misery as his best book; I really think it’s between that and Delores Claiborne where he really shows that he can actually write and horror is a part of that, but not his only weapon at all. However The Stand is my favorite. And I think Itis the scariest.

34

I voted The Gunslinger. Of all the King novels I’ve read, it was the only one that really hooked me from the first sentence.

While I didn’t care as much for the follow on novels, The Gunslinger never has grown “old;” every time I re-read it, it still hooks me the same way as the first time.

So my vote isn’t for an objective best King novel, but for my favorite.

35

Not his best, but I decided to vote for “Carrie”. “The Shining” is maybe a strong contender.

36

I don’t feel qualified to vote, because I’ve read only two of his novels to date: Dolores Claiborne and 11/22/63. Of those two, I found the latter far superior. But I will be starting The Stand over the New Year’s holiday.

37

Blank Slate, I voted for the “Dead Zone”. Reread it about a year ago. While the setting may be a little dated it does hold up as an excellent example of King’s early work.

38

Pick was Salem’s Lot.

A great modern day retelling of Dracula.

That said, even though it’s a collection of Novella’s, I kind of wish a I could put down Different Seasons, a collection of his novellas.

Just look at what came out of them.

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption(became a movie classics)

The Body(became Stand By Me, another movie classic)

And Apt Pupil(became a movie that’s not a movie classic but still fantastic)

And one dud.

I’ll note that one of his draw backs is King is really terrible at ending his books.

39

Voted The Shining. I enjoyed The Stand until the end. OMG. :smack: I will admit to re-reading it and skipping the end.

40

'Salem’s Lot got my vote. I’d put 11/22/63, The Stand and Misery in no particular order right after that.