Stephen King - Best Book??

[Marvolo]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

Cell - I know that not everyone enjoyed this as much as I did, but I think this recent release by Stephen King is brilliant. The 'bad guys' as it were, are zombies with attitude! Brilliant.

I vote for Cell also. Cell would have been a good book had someone else written it; but since Sai King chose to write it, and so late in his career when his story telling ability has been honed to a razor edge, it was fantastic. Honestly, its my second favorite book behind Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.

A very close second, as far as King goes, is Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla. MAN that book rocked! The Seven Samurai/Magnifiscent Seven meets the Ka-Tet! Rock on brotherman!

[Blackhand]

King's four best books, in my severely anti-horror oppinion, were The Gunslinger, The Eyes of the Dragon (mostly for it's view point), Wizard & Glass, and The Dark Tower.
Honestly, I started off on The Gunslinger for King and the brutal insanity of it astonished me to the point where I couldn't stop (revolvers up your vagina will normally bring in readers ^_^). The Eyes of the Dragon's view point is one of the best reasons to read it. It's written as a story teller telling a tale and it's prominent throughout the entire book. He never got lost from that which was one of the most amazing parts. And no matter what anyone says, the ending of DT7 was amazing. It was almost completely unforseeable (everyone has 20/20 hindsight so don't even try that[you know what I'm talking about]).
As for his horror, I'm a terrible judge, but I won't discredit it.

[tangaloomababe]

If I had to pick one novel: The Stand.

Im with That old guy here. I really enjoyed The Stand. I have read it over and over. I also think The Long Walk is great, please correct me if I am wrong but didn't he write this under another name like Richard Bachman or something similar?

[HoopyFrood]

Yes, he did indeed. Apparently he created the pseudonym because, at the start of his career, authors were limited to publishing one book a year, so he used Bachman to be able to publish more books.

[Marvolo]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

Yes, he did indeed. Apparently he created the pseudonym because, at the start of his career, authors were limited to publishing one book a year, so he used Bachman to be able to publish more books.

He also quoted later that he was plagued with self doubt due to his phenomenal success. King wondered if he could recreate it, under a pseudonym. The Bachman books sold well, but people figured him out too. I wonder which had more to do with the sales, people recognizing a very King-esque style of writing, or the fact that the books were just good.

I can't actually remember whether I read any of the Bachman books. I know I liked Desperation, but I heard the companion, The Regulators, wasn't as good.

As for the Stand, I am trying to get through the uncut version. It is a little slow for me. I love character development but at this point (about page 200) I wonder whether it is going to pay off in the end. I never read the original version, but would like to. I think a shorter version would be better.

[HoopyFrood]

I have tried to read The Stand, the uncut version, about three times now, but I always stop halfway through...in fact, around the same point. One day I'm just going to have to push myself past it and actually finish the damn thing!

[tangaloomababe]

Thanks HoopyFrood & Marvolo for the info on publishing, I was unaware if that. I brought a copy of The Richard Bachman books ages ago, I think it had four stories in it, but the one i remember is The Long Walk. Sadly the book had an accident with a rain storm, so it didn't fair to well.

[kcs_hiker]

a little late to the party here... but I'll still throw my two cents in...

1. The Stand (bought it as a science fiction book club main selection in what.. 1977? Read that copy till the cover fell off. Have hb and pb copies of the 90's version which I don't like as much.)

2. Salem's Lot (still, for my money, the best and scariest vampire story I've ever read, although I liked Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian an awful lot)

3. Misery (jeez louise, what a scary plot! I've not reread it... scared/disturbed meso much. Wasn't that the book he wrote after his accident?)

anyway those are my top 3. The Shining and Thinner (written as Richard Bachman) are also quite good IMO. Oh yeah I really liked Hearts of Atlantis too.

[Annie]

I've only read several of his books, and out of those I love 'The Green Mile', the most.

[HoopyFrood]

Originally Posted by kcs_hiker

3. Misery (jeez louise, what a scary plot! I've not reread it... scared/disturbed meso much. Wasn't that the book he wrote after his accident?)

I take it you mean when he was knocked down by a car? That was in 1999, whereas Misery was published in 1987.
Misery is a fantastic book. It was one of the first Stephen King books I read and it's easily one of my favourites that I can read again and again.

[jeffy]

All time Favorite: The Long Walk

Other favorites: The Stand (only read "short" version), The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Black House (follows Talisman)

Excellent: The Talisman (precedes Black House), [the short where the guy eats himself to death on the deserted island...don't know title]

Good: It, Cell (lame ending though), The Gunslinger and Drawing of the 3 (Dark Tower 1 & 2), Rose Madder

Fair: Insomnia, Carrie

Read them too long ago to remember: Thinner, Cujo, Christine, Pet Semetary, Salem's Lot, Firestarter, Misery

Also read On Writing, which was excellent non-fiction.

[IrishWriter]

It's amazing, I've just went through these last three pages on the so called "King fans" and I haven't even seen the words Bag of Bones on the pages. How you can have a discussion about King's best book without recommending that one is kind of strange. And On Writing? My god that was the best book I've read in my life. I really can't understand how that guy has got any critics at all. They all should want to be his foot massager. The man is the reason I get up in the morning.

[HoopyFrood]

I am certainly a King fan, but Bag of Bones isn't one of my ultimate favourites, although it is a still a good book. Besides, everyone has their different tastes, you could put all the really hardcore fans of any author in a room together and, although they'd agree that he/she is the best thing since sliced bread, I'm sure there would be much arguing about the best book!

[andrew.v.spencer]

Irishwriter,

"I've just went through these last three pages on the so called "King fans" and I haven't even seen the words Bag of Bones on the pages. How you can have a discussion about King's best book without recommending that one is kind of strange." IW

I guess the "so called" King fans don't think it's his best book. Neither do I. As you're (on this unscientific poll) in a minority of one, then I suspect you're the one in the strange and unusual position.

[sci-fi girl]

I've read almost all of King's book and though I like the story, I really can't consider "Bag of bones" as one of my favourites. Just my opinion of course, but there are just too many others which are simply better.

My top 3
The Dark Tower
It
Pet semetary