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What is the best Stephen King book I haven't read?
Ohio
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I've read (in no particular order):
The Dark Tower (all of it)
It
The Stand
Duma Key
Full Dark, No Stars
Just After Sunset
Insomnia
The Eyes of the Dragon
The Talisman
Black House
The Long Walk
On Writing
Under the Dome
Night Shift
The Running Man
The Regulators
Damn I've read even more Stephen King that I thought. Maybe I've read all worth reading? Not too interested in the ones that have been turned into movies, because I've probably seen them. I've seen The Green Mile. I've seen The Shawshank Redemption.
What next? And if not Stephen King, how about good Clive Barker novels? Or Dean Koontz? I haven't read much by either of them, but from what I've heard they're B-grade compared to Stephen King.
The Dark Tower (all of it)
It
The Stand
Duma Key
Full Dark, No Stars
Just After Sunset
Insomnia
The Eyes of the Dragon
The Talisman
Black House
The Long Walk
On Writing
Under the Dome
Night Shift
The Running Man
The Regulators
Damn I've read even more Stephen King that I thought. Maybe I've read all worth reading? Not too interested in the ones that have been turned into movies, because I've probably seen them. I've seen The Green Mile. I've seen The Shawshank Redemption.
What next? And if not Stephen King, how about good Clive Barker novels? Or Dean Koontz? I haven't read much by either of them, but from what I've heard they're B-grade compared to Stephen King.
Ohio on
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Nightmares and Dreamscapes
Different Seasons
Bag of Bones
The Shining
The Dead Zone
Tommyknockers
Salem's Lot as has already been said.
For Dean Koontz:
Nothing after around 1995. He went crazy around then and it shows. Hidaway was good, as was the Watchers.
For Clive Barker:
Weaveworld
Books of Blood
The Great and Secret Show and its sequel
The Shining (it is not like the movie, it is very much worth reading)
Everything's Eventual (short story collection)
Skeleton Crew (more short stories)
How was The Regulators?
Also Everything's Eventual features Dinky Ernshaw who plays a major role in the sixth Dark Tower book, so you may as well read that too. Also has some good stories in it.
Edited for getting the title wrong.
The Dark Half
Four Past Midnight (short stories which includes; The Langoliers (much better than the tv version), Sun Dog, Secret Window Secret Garden and The Library Policeman.
Oh, and gotta have Needful Things.
Books of Blood, however, seem to be fairly well-liked.
Edit: Oh, and the Great and Secret Show.
Double Edit: oh, these were all mentioned.
Seeing some of the old book titles is making me want to go out and replenish my S.K collection. How was The Long Walk? Wasn't that book mentioned in 1408?
Desperation - one of my fave books by Stephen King.
And A Winter Haunting is a nice follow up novel to that.
Drood is another good horror novel by Dan Simmons.
It has been ages since I read any Stephen King, well I read the first part of his latest book and I liked it, but I second Tommyknockers and Dead Zone.
The Long Walk is my favorite King book. He wrote when he was really young, but for some reason it's just very visceral. Highly recommend it.
Also, seconding Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. It has a very IT kind of feel, even if it isn't as good. But very enjoyable. I'd read him before I read Dean Koontz, to be honest.
My favorite Stephen King book by far is The Long Walk (also Rage but it's kind'a hard to find now)
What's the sequel to the Great and Secret Show? I know that's a book I haven't read since it came out and I was too young to understand it fully. I need to reread it and I just found it the other day.
What's the name of the book the movie Nightbreed was based off of?
My god, reading the Wikipedia of The Great and Secret Show is just fucked up. It's like someone just spewed a bunch of nonsense under where it says PLOT SUMMERY
But as I recall, that's pretty much how the book was too. Still liked it though.
However. I strongly suggest you pick up Nightmares and Dreamscapes, it really is fantastic writing. The House on Maple Street has got to be one of the best short stories ever written, and this is coming from a huge Neil Gaiman fan.
I'm also partial to Dolan's Cadillac (a gritty tale of revenge) and Crouch End (an H.P. Lovecraft tribute).
Everything's Eventual was the first King book I ever read and those have some pretty fantastic short stories too. The Death of Jack Hamilton, L.T.'s Theory of Pets, and my all time favourite King short story, The Man in the Black Suit, which he says he despises, but I think it's marvelous.
And I have read The Great and Secret Show. I should have mentioned that. But it's the only Clive Barker I've read.
Thanks for the recommendations.
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Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man are compiled in The Bachman Books, which is totally worth the read if you can find it
One hundred teenage boys are in a contest. The contest is to walk as far as you can. The military walks and drives alongside them, enforcing the rules. They walk for days. Each time a boy drops out (cannot walk anymore) from exhaustion or insanity, a military dude immediately shoots and kills him. So all these boys are walking and one by one, they drop out and are killed.
Take a look at "The Plant" :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plant
Let me know if it is good.
Also, the one with The Langoliers is very good, it was mentioned up above I believe.
Huh... seems like you're missing a few of the female-centric books, actually. And, yeah, you have to read The Shining.
Cabal, I have the movie and the book(:rotate:). I thought Needful Things was a pretty good read if you're looking through the S.King library. It's much better than the movie.
Pretty close but it's not "can't walk anymore" it's simply "doesn't walk 3mph or faster!" you get three warnings then shot.
Such a great short story. Apparently one of the first he wrote I think.
King really is the master of the short story. Not really a fan of his novels but things like The Long Walk and The Jaunt stick with me as great examples of story.
There are only four stories: three pretty long ones, one shorter one. All four are really, really good. I highly, highly recommend it. A lot of what's in these stories is really messed up.
1922: Named for the year in which it takes place. Dude murders his wife. Lots of bad shit happens as he tries to cover it up.
Big Driver: Woman takes a shortcut on the way home. Something really bad happens to her. And then she takes revenge.
Fair Extension: Dude makes a deal with the devil. A lot of bad shit happens.
A Good Marriage: Woman discovers a terrible, terrible secret about her husband. Bad shit happens.
You get the idea. Stephen King is not slowing down. All four of these stories are really sharp. He's getting even better with age.
Why is it that every time someone talks about King, someone feels the need to try and shit on the Dark Tower? It was quite excellent, actually, as a whole, and personally I quite liked the ending. It fit.
But anyway.
Go read Carrie! It's still awesome.
I quite liked Desperation even with the religious undertones (family is caught in an evil town. God is involved. The movie was so bad it was almost good).
Lisey's Story is about a widow who's husband taught her how to travel to another world before he died. She uses this talent to outwit a crazed fan of her husbands books.
A Buick Eight is about a possessed buick...but not in the same way that Christine was possessed. He wrote this one after his run in with that van, so it's a little fucked up.
Whatever you pick, since you've already read so much of his stuff, I'm sure you'll enjoy it at least a little bit.
"Gerald's Game"
One of my favorite King books is Firestarter - I imagine its much better than the movie.
I love this book but holy shit it has given me a complex something fierce.
Just to be clear, saying "100 kids walk for a long time and get shot one at a time" is not spoiling the book. That's, like, what the book's about.
Those are good. I also liked Twilight Eyes, Night Chills, The Door to December, and Seize the Night (apparently the sequel to another book I haven't read). Disclaimer: I haven't read these since I was a teenager, so they may in fact suck.
The series that Seize The Night belonged to isn't half bad. I also liked Lightning.
I did like the first Odd Thomas book, not sure how I felt with the others.