I have never read a Stephen King book. Lately I've been in the mood for a mystery/thriller. My mom gave me a John Grisham book, The Street Lawyer, which was pretty good, but from what I hear Stephen King is the master of thrillers. So what are some of his best books? I'm looking for just a good page-turner. I'm all burned out on deep, philisophical stories that make me think too much . Any reccommendations?
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I would suggest:
- The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
- Misery
- The Long Walk (under the pseudonym Richard Bachman)
- The Shining Posted by the_Somalian (Member # 6688) on :
quote:Originally posted by SteveRogers: - The Shining
This especially.
Early King > the rest.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Another one that's good by him (but also really long) is IT. Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
In no particular order:
The Shining IT The Dead Zone Misery The Bachman Books Four Past Midnight Nightmares and Dreamscapes Night Shift Skeleton Crew The Talisman Desperation The Eyes of the Dragon Carrie 'Salem's Lot The Stand The Drawing of the Three The Waste Lands Wizard and Glass Wolves of the Calla
Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
Needful Things is also pretty good.
Posted by Liz B (Member # 8238) on :
The Stand is one of my all-time favorite books.
I also really liked Bag of Bones.
I DIDN'T really like Carrie, but boy, I sure couldn't put it down...so that may be the kind of thing you're looking for.
Posted by rollainm (Member # 8318) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: In no particular order:
The Shining IT The Dead Zone Misery The Bachman Books Four Past Midnight Nightmares and Dreamscapes Night Shift Skeleton Crew The Talisman Desperation The Eyes of the Dragon Carrie 'Salem's Lot The Stand The Drawing of the Three The Waste Lands Wizard and Glass Wolves of the Calla
All of that plus Christine and The Green Mile.
By the way, you're not allowed to simply title a thread "Stephen King" like that. I thought he was dead or something.
[ February 11, 2008, 10:22 PM: Message edited by: rollainm ]
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Dead Zone is quite good. It has a rich story, but there's some adolescent sexuality that may be distasteful to some. The Stand is also quite good, but that's a lot of pages for your page-turner.
I like Insomnia and Hearts in Atlantis, but in many ways they aren't "thrillers" in the usual sense.
Cell was "meh". Couldn't finish Lisey's Story; I recommend avoiding it.
Some of King's best work is in his short stories; I'd recommend any of the short story/novella collections.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I like Green Mile, Delores Claiborn, The Dark Half the best. He also has that collection of short stories. Shawshank the movie is better than the book I think. Apt Pupil was CREEPY as HELL, but if you like that sort of thing.. Stand by Me was really, really good as a story.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Surprised no one has mentioned the Everything's Eventual collection yet.
Posted by rollainm (Member # 8318) on :
Oh yes! The Dark Half was excellent.
Posted by Valentine014 (Member # 5981) on :
The Long Walk was great. The Stand is my favorite, but it is long. IT scared the crap out of me. That's what I get for reading while I was babysitting at night.
Posted by GaalDornick (Member # 8880) on :
That's alot of recommendations. I think I'll start with The Stand, everyone seems to like that one. Thanks.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Then read Misery.
Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
I'm adding my recommendation to "The Dark Half" and "Misery." Both kept me reading through the night and straight on til dawn. And if "Skeleton Crew" is a book of short stories, then I recommend that as well. It was the first thing from Stephen King that I read on my own (my dad used to read from them when I was young.)
"Cell" wasn't anything special and the last third is just a huge letdown. He managed to make zombies boring and practically nonthreatening.
And I got a cheap copy of "Tommyknockers" at a book fair about a year ago and I just can't get past the few chapters. Probably a good read if I was laid up in the hospital, but hard to get started in with life's other distractions.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
I thought The Talisman (cowritten with Peter Straub) was his best.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
The Talisman was good, but I thought Black House, the sequel, was rather disappointing. I did like the philosophy major bike gang, though.
I did mention the short story collections, Puffy, though not by name, partly because I have trouble remembering all of them. Skeleton Crew, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Everything's Eventual... There may be others I'm forgetting.
Oh, and Danse Macabre, a collection of King interviews, is pretty entertaining- though, again, it's not in and of itself a thriller.
Posted by Flaming Toad on a Stick (Member # 9302) on :
If you can find a copy of 'Rage', written as Richard Bachman, snatch it, as it's out of print, and a great book.
Posted by Occasional (Member # 5860) on :
I am not sure if I have the timing correct, but I would say everything before Bag of Bones and nothing after. He went from really good popular author to wordy literate at the cost of story. The only book that is the exception to the rule is his short story collections and On Writing.
Posted by kanelock (Member # 10982) on :
I would recommend The Dark Tower series. It is such a great story, although the first book is the hardest to read. Wizard and Glass was the one that i just could not put down, it just draws you in so well.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
I found the last of the Towers somewhat disappointing. But given the scope of the series, perhaps that was inevitable.
Posted by DevilDreamt (Member # 10242) on :
You and pretty much everyone else, Sterling.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sterling: The Talisman was good, but I thought Black House, the sequel, was rather disappointing.
I found it more than disappointing. I can't even think of it as a real sequel. That's not Traveling Jack. It's some parallel version of him.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Flaming Toad on a Stick: If you can find a copy of 'Rage', written as Richard Bachman, snatch it, as it's out of print, and a great book.
Easiest way to find it is probably in The Bachman Books, which contains Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man. I think other than those, the only other books he wrote as Bachman were Thinner and The Regulators.
Actually, I'm wrong. Boy, is he whacked out. I just saw that there's a book called Blaze, co-written by Stephen King and Richard Bachman. He just won't let it go, will he.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Salem's Lot is my favorite King book.
I have to agree with Lisa about Black House. It's awful.
Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
The Mist
Haven't seen the movie, so I can't speak to that. But the original novella is one of the greatest stories I've read.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
I second the motion on Hearts in Atlantis. I think the first 2 sections of that were quite probably some of his best work ever.
Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
Misery The Green Mile The Shinning Tommyknockers
Excuse the no itallics and spelling. I just had a couple of seconds to post.
Posted by anti_maven (Member # 9789) on :
The Long Walk from the Bachman books was the first Stephen King work I read. A great story.
I could get along with the Dark Tower at all. We just didn't click, but the rest of the books I've read have been thoroughly good reads.
Try On Writing too - very interesting.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
quote:Originally posted by kanelock: I would recommend The Dark Tower series. It is such a great story, although the first book is the hardest to read. Wizard and Glass was the one that i just could not put down, it just draws you in so well.
I know I've said this before here at the 'Rack, but W&G was the book that finally made it possible for me to actually finish Gunslinger.
I just finished reading Duma Key while stuck in a hospital bed last week. Very twisted, very King. But not a good one to start with. I'd actually start with his early works, Carrie, Cujo, Christine, or The Dead Zone. Especially if you haven't seen the movie versions or can keep the two separate in your mind.
/e wonders how many other Jatraqueros followed the Gunslinger Born comics....
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
I did. I have them all.
Even though it was just a retelling of part of Wizard and Glass (other than the interview with King and various prose vignettes that added some history to the story, in a Silmarillion sort of way), they're going to be doing some stuff that's brand spanking new. In theory, at least.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
And I *just* found out there's another DT comic launching March 5.... (I loves my SKEMERS newsletter)
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
NEVER, ever read Gerald's Game. It's the worst, most horrible book I've ever read in my entire life.
Gerald's Game = a little piece of hell.
Posted by GaalDornick (Member # 8880) on :
Has anyone read Firestarter? I have a friend that owns alot of his books and I asked him to borrow The Stand and he told me that first I have to read Firestarter, saying it's his best book.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: Has anyone read Firestarter? I have a friend that owns alot of his books and I asked him to borrow The Stand and he told me that first I have to read Firestarter, saying it's his best book.
Firestarter was my first King. I wouldn't call it his best, but it is definitely good.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
quote:Originally posted by MightyCow: NEVER, ever read Gerald's Game. It's the worst, most horrible book I've ever read in my entire life.
Gerald's Game = a little piece of hell.
I actually have about 50 pages of this one marked off with post-its to tell me exactly which section I have to skip. Way too squicky for me. And I'm sure you can figure out which section it is....
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I wish I had just put one post-it on the front cover and another on the back and skipped everything in between.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
I actually stayed up all night reading Gerald's Game. I'd say it's a little worse than his average, but he's got work that I'd say is worse. I think the dislike for Gerald's Game is largely a female issue, but I could be wrong.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Nah, I thought GG was okay... up until THAT section. It remains the only King story to make me physically ill.
Posted by Flaming Toad on a Stick (Member # 9302) on :
The Regulators did absolutely nothing for me. I really liked Insomnia and the Dark Tower series.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
Did you read The Regulators right after reading Desperation? The two books really needed each other. It was an experiment, of sorts.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Huh? But, they were by two different authors... (just kidding.)
Reading them both definitely made me appreciate each more. I think I enjoyed Regulators more, though.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
I think I did, too. In Danse Macabre, King writes about the difference between horror, terror and fear (iirc). He uses very different techniques as King and as Bachman.
Bachman isn't a horror writer at all. He's a suspense writer. He raises the tension to a high pitch, but that's all. He's a lot like Ira Levin, really. The Dead Zone is really only borderline King. I wonder sometimes whether he was tempted to have that one be by Bachman. Same with Firestarter. Both are extremely atypical King books.
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
<I>Bag of Bones</I> is the only non-fantasy/non-Anne Rice book I have ever physically thrown away from me while reading. And THAT one I later picked up again. It had thise scene that was almost exactly like a very, very vivid nightmare I'd had some months before. The strangest part was that Stephen King was in my nightmare, doing what the POV character in <I>Bag of Bones</I>.
I have always after refered to the experience as the Great Freak Out.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Oh wow, Olivet, that would truly freak me out as well.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
Stephen King is very heavy on characterization, getting you into the heads and lives of his characters--especially when they are young. (This gets way tediously overdone in his recent Lisey's Tale, where you get halfway through the book before anything happens. But his earlier books were better in this regard.) Many of his stories involve telepathy along with other supernatural elements--such as The Shining. I would also say that very few attempts to turn his stories into movies have worked very well. The Langoliers adaptation was not too bad. But the first Shining fell pretty far short. The remake that Stephen King himself had a larger hand in, worked a little better. But for some reason, it has been very hard to capture the mood of his writing in movies. Maybe that's the fault of the music score composer.
(I am convinced that is the primary thing that made the recent TV miniseries Tin Man less gripping and satisfying than it should have been. The main theme was too bombastic with the brass. The composer should have used more strings, with sweeping melody, like the way Howard Shore did the score for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The right film score alone would have made the movie many times better.) We often fail to appreciate how important the right film score is to a movie. This is because music is the language of emotion, and it literally tells the viewers how to feel.
[ February 13, 2008, 11:29 PM: Message edited by: Ron Lambert ]
Posted by Flaming Toad on a Stick (Member # 9302) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Did you read The Regulators right after reading Desperation? The two books really needed each other. It was an experiment, of sorts.
Yes I did. Still did nothing for me. TEHO, I guess.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Reading Regulators and Desperation back to back actually confused me more. It might not have been quite so bad if the character names weren't jumbled - Ellie being an adult in one and a kid in the other, for example. I liked each story on their own, just not as a tag-team.
Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
I've got The Dead Zone, The Green Mile and Different Seasons (a book composed of four novellas). They're all really good, and all I'm qualified to recommend.
I've also got the entire Dark Tower series (I asked for one one Christmas, and my not-so-creative family got me the lot) but I couldn't bring myself to get into the first one, so I wouldn't recommend them either.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
cheiros, try Wizard (book #4) first. Then go back to the beginning. Wizard is almost entirely a flashback and really helped me finally *get* Roland.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
Wizard and Glass is really, really good. It almost has an OSC feel to it, if you take the young Roland as an Ender-type character.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
It took me a while to get into WaG, just because it was so different. The Drawing of the Three and The Wastelands remain my favorite.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
. Any reccommendations?