Stephen King Novels

[Darthshearer]

I aint a great fan of horror movies but dont mind them and enjoy the odd thriller.

Has anyone read any of Kings stuff? If so what would you reccomend?

 

[RedVenom]

Read the books he wrote under the pen name Richard Bachman. The Running Man is one of the best he's written, ever. The other few are pretty damn good too.

IT's ok, Pet Cemetery's good, and a handful of others. His Dark Tower series is also excellent. He does get pretty samey in his horror genre after a while though.

 

[Darthshearer]

Cheers RV, I do enjoy reading series, I didnt know he did any series, will look into that, thanks again

 

[RedVenom]

ignore-owned!



The series is great, sci-fi though.

 

[Darthshearer]

ignore-owned!



The series is great, sci-fi though.

??? Anyway dont mind the sci-fi stuff. Its really shocked me I thought Stephen King was just pure horror. Is the Sci-Fi series similar to Asimov(Sp?)

 

[RedVenom]

No.

Its a really really fantastic mindfuck about the story of The Gunslinger, semi-set in a sort of post-apocolyptic/current tech world, but with a chivalric spin on the main character. I can't really explain it without ruining things, since I've read most of the series. If you really have to, read the blurb on amazon, or the likes. Not my thing, I'd rather go on a recommendation and not have any real idea of what the books about.

Think the Jon Shannow series by David Gemmel, but then then take out the stupid. Guns, story, semi-tech, and potentially a moral behind it.


Also, read the Bachman books. They're thriller-esque, and really excellent.

 

[Darthshearer]

Cool

/me looks on Amazon!

 

[RedVenom]

Not always so bad, am I?

: loleyes :

 

[Darthshearer]

 

[Darthshearer]

What is the first book in the Dark Tower series?

 

[RedVenom]

I think its The Gunslinger, but I can't remember. Someone else might have the book to hand, or you'll have to wait until I get home to check.

Yes it is, just checked. The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands then The wolves of the Calla. In that order.

 

[Dax]

I think its The Gunslinger, but I can't remember. Someone else might have the book to hand, or you'll have to wait until I get home to check.

Yes it is, just checked. The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands then The wolves of the Calla. In that order.

Wizard and Glass is before Wolves of the Calla.

The Gunslinger
The Drawing of the Three
The Waste Lands
Wizard and Glass
The Wolves of the Calla

There's supposed to be 2 more books coming.

 

[RedVenom]

Ah, I wondered where I was going wrong. Thanks.


Thanks for the definitive list, amazon

 

[Whipped]

Two of my fav King books are Needful Things and Insomnia.

Although I'd definatly agree with the Richard Bachman books being the best.

 

[Darthshearer]

Cheers

I read his website last night very interesting

 

[Lester]

The Shining - one of my all time favourites. Way better than either of the fims.

In fact (and we've been here before) his horror books are ALWAYS better than the films of them, and his non-horror books are ALWAYS worse than the films of them.

I.E.

Books > Films =

Shining
Pet Semetary
Dark Half
The Stand
Salems Lots (close, that one)
Cujo
etc, etc, etc


Films > Books =
Dolores Claiborne
Green Mile
Shawshank Redemption
Stand By Me
Misery

It's not an immutable law but it seems to hold true.


/waits to be contradicted

 

[stormrider]

Used to be a big King myself a few years back until his stuff started turning into what he himself terms "verbal diarrhea". I'd recommend any of his early work. Most of it is horror, few not (only shawshank redemption comes to mind though).
Perosonal favorites: IT, The Stand, Christine, Misery. But thats just me.
I was more a fan of his writing style, content was just a bonus.

 

[RedVenom]

/waits to be contradicted

The Running Man.

The film was pretty bad, in terms of what it could've been. It ended up a comedy, where as the book was just... fantastic.

 

[haggered]

anyone who is interested in the dark tower series, theres a good list of how his books fit in to the great scheme of things. the lists at: www.thedarktower.net. the list is called the darktower road map.

 

[evzy]

Really enjoyed the extended version of The Stand , Insomina was enjoyable because it kinda went against his usual horror genre. Other than that The Long Walk is a great one - in a collectionof 4 shorter stories - not sure of the name though , thinks it the one which also has The Running Man in - much much much better than the film.

 

[SawTooTH]

I always thought Salems Lot was his best book.
Made vampires believable.

 

[Cask]

Waterstones is doing a 3 for 2 on a bunch of books including a fair selection of Stephen King ones. I just went and got IT, The Gunslinger and a George R.R. Martin book. Now which to read first?

 

[stormrider]

If you want classic King read IT - love that book, though it is long.
Gunslinger is shorter and more fantasy orientated, but still a good read.

 

[Cask]

Finishing up with IT and it has been a damn fine book. Never saw the movie (my sister rented it when I was little and even the vhs cover art gave me nightmares) so it has been a nice surprise, but I'm all horrored out for a while at least.

One thing I noticed was that he introduced Dick Hallorann who makes an appearence in The Shining which is pretty interesting. But google as just proved to me, I'm not alone in noticing this and King seems to reuse his characters quite often. Damn reading through that I missed a whole bunch of links between IT and Insomnia, guess I need to pay more attention while reading ;(

 

[Lazarus]

read most of Kings earlier books (until he started churning out the same old shite, book after book)

Christine
Salems Lot
IT

were the three top for me. i read IT in 2 nights

 

[Cask]

Two nights?? That book has 1100 pages. Took me a week to finish it off but I like to take my time over novels, as the Häagen Dazs stains and toenail clippings will attest.

 

[Whipped]

Just finished The Drawing of the Three and picked up The Waste Lands and Wizard and Glass at WH Smith for £12. Got a week in work not doing much, but pulling 12 hour days. So me thinks I shall be itching for Wolves of Calla by the end of the week

 

[Arbaal]

Last Stephen King book I read was Dreamcatcher. Was great book, not seen the movie yet tho. Hope it does it justice.

 

[Whipped]

I wouldn't get your hopes up on the Dreamcather movie. Although it does sport the finest americanised British Accent ever in the history of Cinema. Even better than the British soliders in Independance Day

 

[JBP|]

Really enjoyed the extended version of The Stand , Insomina was enjoyable because it kinda went against his usual horror genre. Other than that The Long Walk is a great one - in a collectionof 4 shorter stories - not sure of the name though , thinks it the one which also has The Running Man in - much much much better than the film.

4 past midnight i think that book is

skeleton crew is another book of short stories by stephen king which iirc has "the jaunt" in it

as for kings horror novels IT,The Dark Half and Needfull Things are amongst the best imo