Favourite Stephen King Books?

youngster wrote:

Anyone pick up the new Dark Tower book? Mine is on it's way from Amazon. Kinda toying with the idea of re-reading all the books again and seeing how this new one fits in with the overall story. It's been 10+ years since I read the first 4 so I could use a refresher.

Maybe I might just read the argument before each story instead.

I'm getting off soon and am going to pick it up after work.

I re-read "The Dead Zone" a few weeks ago and loved it! King is amazing.

Mine's in the mail, but I must finish Martin's ADWD first, and I'm about halfway through 11/22/63, so I'll probably finish that too before I even start the new Dark Tower. So little time, so much reading!!!

Porchsitter wrote:

I'm currently reading the Dark Tower series for the first time. Right now, I'm on Wolves of the Calla. I'm enjoying the series and really happy I've held off from getting into the series until a lot of material was available.

That one is a really good one, probably rank it my 2nd favorite of the series behind Wizard and Glass.

So the sequel to The Shining will be here next year!


U.S. publication date for Doctor Sleep set for 2013
Posted: May 8th, 2012 9:08:34 am EDT


Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.

dougfloyd wrote:

Finished The Wind Through the Keyhole a couple weeks ago, pretty good. Wish there was more of the story about Roland in his younger years like Wizard and Glass but I still enjoyed it.

You should check out the graphic novels from Marvel. They're exploring in much greater details stories only hinted at in the books, and the quality has been excellent.

Not sure if anybody saw this, Under the Dome is coming to CBS next summer:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/stephen-king-under-dome-cbs-summer-395495

Mamasan23 wrote:

dougfloyd wrote:

Not sure if anybody saw this, Under the Dome is coming to CBS next summer:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/stephen-king-under-dome-cbs-summer-395495

Whoa!!! This is pretty exciting but I'm nervous at the same time. I absolutely LOVED this book, but there were so many characters and King's work has a tendency not to translate well when put on screen. But it worked for the Stand...so I'm hopeful. (Except for that cheesy hand of God at the end ) It'll be interesting to see if they stick with the book's ending as well. Thanks for sharing!

I'm re-reading The Stand right now. So good!

kw18 wrote:

Has anyone read the graphic novels from King's work? I've read most of the DT ones (really good!) and the first one of The Stand. I hadn't bothered with the rest. There's one chapter of The Talisman out there, but I don't think they've done anymore ... They also did one of N.; I haven't read that one yet, though, nor the original short story.

Any good? What are people's thoughts on seeing more of his stories in comic form? He has such a large number of stories, it could keep artists busy for years!

I bought the first Dark Tower issue and thought it was cool, but was waiting for them to come out all at once. When they did I never got around to buying them. The Stand one looks cool.

If you go to stephenking.com there is an online one up called "The Little Green God of Agony". They were putting up a page a day a while ago so most of it is probably up now. I haven't gotten around to reading all of it yet.

kw18 wrote:

Has anyone read the graphic novels from King's work? I've read most of the DT ones (really good!) and the first one of The Stand. I hadn't bothered with the rest. There's one chapter of The Talisman out there, but I don't think they've done anymore ... They also did one of N.; I haven't read that one yet, though, nor the original short story.

Any good? What are people's thoughts on seeing more of his stories in comic form? He has such a large number of stories, it could keep artists busy for years!

I read most of the DT ones and the Stand ones as well....I would definitely recommend N, I really loved that story.

I think it's great that he's got so much out there in so many different mediums...the man is a genius imo.

I would also recommend the Dark Tower Concordance books if you don't have them, great references!

Mamasan23 wrote:

djklambake wrote:

I like Stephen King's ideas.

The premises for ALL of his books are pretty amazing.

I always have a problem with the ENDING of all of his stories. They just seem so haphazard.

The one ending I was OK with was in The Stand... it made a lot more sense than most of the endings of his books... Especially his latest works like Cell and Under the Dome (although, I really like Under the Dome, too... the ending left me a little cold)

I really couldn't agree more! I have to say that the Under the Dome ending was just a little too Twilight Zone for my liking. I think he is a great storyteller and that is where his strength lies...when it comes to finishing the tale, it tends to fall flat.

I did, however, love the DT ending...I'm prepared for the hate on this one

I rather liked it! I felt the wheels of the stories were coming off those last couple books, likely because so much time had passed between 4 and 5, but I still enjoyed the ride. Like some, I was disappointed there wasn't more of a showdown between Roland and some of the main baddies, but I felt the ending worked well (we create our hells, after all).

It also in some ways reminded me of a Neil Gaiman story that I don't want to say for fear of spoiling the DT ending for anyone ...