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What's the best Stephen King stories?

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Garlador

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With "IT" coming out soon, my Coulrophobia is running at an all-time high, and that's got me curious about more of Stephen King's exhaustive library of seminal works.

Despite loving many Stephen King movie adaptations, I have only read bits and pieces of King's novels and stories over the years. The book I read the most of was Cujo, ages ago, and snippets of Misery. I tried starting the book version of IT awhile back but only made it about 10 pages in for some odd reason.

With such an extensive resume of work, I'm curious what books you'd recommend, what your favorite stories are, and, hell, what are some Stephen King stories to AVOID?

Love him or hate him, he's got an amazingly popular library of horror and non-horror works that have defined pop culture over the decades. I'm curious to know which ones left an impact.
 
The Stand, hands down his best work.

Also, check out Four past Midnight, collection of novella's. Has both The Langoliers and Secret Window, Secret Garden.

Recently, 11/22/63 was a lot of fun.
 
My absolute favorite King novel is Salem's Lot. Just a really good vampire story.

The first four Dark Tower books are good. Some people would say the first five, but it gets really, really dicey after that.

The Stand is probably his most popular work and it is pretty damn good, although the ending is somewhat disappointing.

Frankly, that's always been King's biggest weakness. He pretty much can't write an ending to save his life.

If you're looking at TV stuff, I really like Storm of the Century, but I suspect it'd look pretty dated at this point.
 
'Salem's Lot and IT are my two favourite Kings. Fond of 11.22.63 as well.

Desperation and The Regulators are the two worst of his I've read.
 
The Stand. Salem's Lot. The Shin(n)ing.

I've read a lot of his stuff and one thing they all have in common is shitty endings. Absolutely terrible endings. All of them.

Oh, and the n word. He likes to throw in the odd n word.
 
IT, The Stand, 11.22.63, Dark Tower (especially 2-5), Wind through the Keyhole.
Personally I also really enjoyed Under the Dome, but I might be the only one.
 
Tence said:
IT, The Stand, 11.22.63, Dark Tower (especially 2-5), Wind through the Keyhole.
Personally I also really enjoyed Under the Dome, but I might be the only one.
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I really enjoyed Under the Dome too, for what it was.

The TV show is beyond bad though which, again is typical of King's stuff.
 
Of the ones I have read (which really arent much of his entire library):

Great:
11/22/63
The Stand
Salem's Lot
The Shining

Good:
Doctor Sleep
Skeleton Crew
Full Dark, No Stars

Okay:
Mr. Mercedes
Revival
Under The Dome

Started but never finished:
Dark Tower: Gunslinger
It
The Talisman

Those top four are quite clearly above the others, IMO. I plan on going back to finish the bottom three but have no idea when I will.
 
IT

is quite obviously something large and awesome. I'd say start with that, since theres a movie coming out soon.

Frankly, that's always been King's biggest weakness. He pretty much can't write an ending to save his life.
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pretty much. he's so good at the beginning and middle though that you kind of have to let him off. Ironically I thought the (very) end of dark tower was one of his better ones. The bits leading up to it.... some poor choices there.
 
One I haven't seen listed that I liked a lot was the Green Mile.

You can also try reading one of his short story collections since it might give you more of a range to work with without it feeling like too much of a commitment.
 
Get his short stuff:

Skeleton Crew
Night Shift
Four past midnight
Bachman books.
Different Seasons

Plenty of really really good stuff in there.
 
I'm not a big horror guy, so I've read more of his non horror works, but there is a lot of good work there. Different Seasons has The Body and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, which are of course classics. I'd also add:

The Green Mile

They call death row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary “The Green Mile.” John Coffey, sentenced to die for the rape and murder of two young girls, is the latest addition to the Mile. Paul Edgecomb, the ward superintendent, discovers that there is more to John Coffey than meets the eye, for this friendly giant has the power to heal.
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Joyland

After realizing his romantic life is not going in the direction he’d hoped, Devin Jones decides to take a summer job at an amusement park. There he makes friends with Tom Kennedy and Erin Cook, also summer hires at Joyland, which years before had been the scene of the murder of a young woman named Linda Gray whose ghost is said to be seen at the Horror House. He also befriends a young boy, named Mike Ross and his mother, Annie. Their lives all become entwined when Devin decides to investigate the mystery of Linda Gray’s unsolved murder by the “Carny Killer.”
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11/22/63


Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away...but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke... Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten...and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.
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Misery
IT
Pet Semetery

...are probably the best to me. The Stand is very good but it's no small feat, the thing's a brick.

I think The Dark Tower series is easily his most overrated, I appreciate his love for Fantasy which he talks about at the beginning of the edition but good God, Drawing of the Three could be one of the dullest books I've ever read. The less said about the end of the series the better (I think it might've been during King's very druggy period too).
 
The Stand is probably my favorite of his. It has the same pitfalls as a lot of King's books, but it's still great.

IT is also a good one not because it's particularly great as a horror story, but because it's King doing what he does best, which is developing characters and worlds (or "world" singular because most if not all his books take place in the same universe).

I'd caution against The Dark Tower. It starts great for the first four books but then it's kind of a slog for the rest.

The Shining is great. Even if you've seen the movie it's worth reading because it's quite a bit different. I recall it also feeling quite different from the standard "small town Maine horror" that comes from King, but I need to go back and read it again because it's been a long time.

Salem's Lot is OK. Not among his best but worth reading as it's kind of the genesis of King's whole world.

Needful Things is not good. It's just very slow and boring.

The Bachman Books are very interesting to read because they depart somewhat from the typical King stories. That's something you might not really appreciate though until you've read some of his other books.
 
Pet Sematary is my favorite, it's really dark.

I love his short stories, his best collection is without a doubt Night Shift.

From his novella collections I recommend Full Dark, No Stars.

Other great novels are Salem's Lot (the first to send a chill down my spine), IT, Misery, The Shining, Christine, Under the Dome, 11/23/63 and Carrie (almost all of his books are good to great, actually).

The Dark Tower series is outstanding if you have the time and patience to get through. The first book may be a little rough the first time around but after that it's a fast and fun ride. If you're willing to give it a try I strongly suggest you read Salem's Lot before DT 5.

For the drama stuff I recommend Joyland, Different Seasons and The Green Mile.

The Mr. Mercedes trilogy are good crime novels (well, the first two at least) and I recommend them too since they're a very fast read and have great characters that you surely grow attached to.

Anyway, huge Stephen King fan here and I'm always happy to see others like me or who are just now entering this awesome universe SK created.
 
Lots of good recommendations here. It's been mentioned previously, but The Shining is my absolute favourite of King's. It's great, and so foreboding. It also, arguably, has the best movie/tv adaptation.

For more recent stuff, 11/22/63 was very enjoyable. And people don't tend to talk about it much, but I thought Lisey's Story was superb. An underrated gem in his newer novels.

Oh, and "IT" is really great too, except THAT scene, which continues to be a total WTF moment.
The scene near the end of the first half, when the kids are lost in the sewer and need to "come together"... seriously, why?
 
BTails said:
Lots of good recommendations here. It's been mentioned previously, but The Shining is my absolute favourite of King's. It's great, and so foreboding. It also, arguably, has the best movie/tv adaptation.

For more recent stuff, 11/22/63 was very enjoyable. And people don't tend to talk about it much, but I thought Lisey's Story was superb. An underrated gem in his newer novels.

Oh, and "IT" is really great too, except THAT scene, which continues to be a total WTF moment.
The scene near the end of the first half, when the kids are lost in the sewer and need to "come together"... seriously, why?
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Drugs.

The answer to "Why?" for any of his early books is lots and lots of drugs.

I know that there's at least one book (I think it was Cujo?) where King fully admits that he has absolutely no recollection whatsoever of writing it.
 
IT, Salem's Lot and Pet Sematary. I like the latter the most, as the true horror shows the extent man will go to have what they want.
 
I haven't read all of them, because I'm still catching up, but my favorites are The Stand and The Green Mile.
 
Night Shift (early collection of short stories that really play to his strengths)
Misery
The Shining
It

I'm about halfway through 11/22/63 and it's very solid.

I haven't read them yet but Salem's Lot and Pet Semetary are supposed to be some of his best.

Maybe the best thing he's written that I've read isn't fiction at all though. On Writing is half memoir / half writing guide and it is exceptional.
 
Carrie, The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three, Pet Semetary, Salem's Lot, It, the Creepshow comic, most of the stories in Night Shift and Skeleton Crew but specifically the GOAT The Mist, Thinner, The Body, Apt Pupil and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption from Different Seasons, and nonfiction works Danse Macabre and On Writing, are the ones that I have read that I consider classic King.

The Stand has some good sequences, but is bloated, slow and pompously messianic. You might try Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon for a different, weirder take that doesn't drag aw much.

The Gunslinger is probably worth suffering through in its 70s psychedelic artsy-fartsiness to get into the Dark Tower series altogether, although I admit I bailed on it in the middle of the fourth book.
 
The short story Survivor Type from Skeleton Crew might be the most horrifying thing King's written.

EDIT: Yeah The Jaunt's great too.
 
shawnbuddy said:
Carrie, The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three, Pet Semetary, Salem's Lot, It, the Creepshow comic, most of the stories in Night Shift and Skeleton Crew but specifically the GOAT The Mist, Thinner, The Body, Apt Pupil and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption from Different Seasons, and nonfiction works Danse Macabre and On Writing, are the ones that I have read that I consider classic King.

The Stand has some good sequences, but is bloated, slow and pompously messianic. You might try Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon for a different, weirder take that doesn't drag aw much.

The Gunslinger is probably worth suffering through in its 70s psychedelic artsy-fartsiness to get into the Dark Tower series altogether, although I admit I bailed on it in the middle of the fourth book.
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Yeah, his non-fiction stuff is pretty good, so I'll definitely second Danse Macabre and On Writing.

Also helps that because it's non-fiction he can't really screw up the ending.
 
King is a genius at coming up with ideas and premises, but I really started to hate his actual writing style as I got older.

When I was a teen I loved the Stand but I never went back to it and I wonder what I would think of it today.

I really liked the Dark Tower though. I always thought that was his best work. He really has a fantastic imagination. Eddie and Roland are two amazing characters. Among and maybe the best he has created.
 
If you want something about growing up or love the setting of the 60s you should read Hearts in Atlantis I think it's his best book he's ever written. His short stories are always good I've read almost all of them but Everything's Eventual is my favorite but Nighshift and Nightmares and Dreamscapes are also good. I'd skip Four Past Midnight The Langoliers is god awful.
 
Col WillieSharp said:
Ctrl-F "The Jaunt"

No?

The Jaunt.

It's a short story

Longer than you think!
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I really want to see this made into a movie.
They could expound on how the guy "murdered" his wife by throwing her into a portal with no destination.
Could be a terrifying nightmarish horror movie
Like how the "beings" that were awake come through the portal and they are older than time its self.
Could be like Event Horizon.
 
IT
The Dark Tower series
11/22/63

If you don't feel like reading through the whole Dark Tower series I would recommend Wizard and Glass. It's my favorite book in the series and is mostly flashback so it should work pretty well as a standalone read.

I'm currently reading The Stand and that one is very enjoyable too (but also really long).
 
tanooki27 said:
I really liked the tommyknockers for some reason
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The Tommyknockers is King at his worst, personally, at a point where his drinking and cocaine use were no longer sustainable and his wife was threatening to leave him. That produces a very weird book with a lot of the meanness and weirdness of drug-fueled King, the self-indulgence of best-seller King and not a lot of the heart that balanced some of King's better works. I liked it for its strangeness, but it's not one I generally recommend to people because I figure it's an acquired taste.
 
^ interesting, I thought that book was cool.

Patryn said:
My absolute favorite King novel is Salem's Lot. Just a really good vampire story.

The first four Dark Tower books are good. Some people would say the first five, but it gets really, really dicey after that.

The Stand is probably his most popular work and it is pretty damn good, although the ending is somewhat disappointing.

Frankly, that's always been King's biggest weakness. He pretty much can't write an ending to save his life.
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True, though it hardly matters because the journey is so much fun.

Apart from IT, some of my favorites are The Tommyknockers, The Stand, 11/22/63 and I've been reading The Dark Tower series since this spring, nearly finished. First three books are the best obviously, but I'm still having fun.
 
My father gave me a copy of The Talisman to read when I was 10. It was the first and only book that ever made me cry. I remember running into my old mans study in my PJ's pointing at the book and asking why it had to happen.

He told me that loss was a part of life, and that sometimes there are no perfect endings. It may not be the best book ever written, but damned if I don't absolutely adore it from start to finish.
 
I would say that IT and The Stand are two of his "best" works. I think IT would be the most defining Stephen King book regarding story / horror / characters. But I like a lot of his short stories. And I'm particularly fond of Hearts in Atlantis. Also enjoyed 'shorter' stuff like Joyland and Duma Key and recently the Mr Mercedes novels. I also love The Dark Tower (read through it all it twice now) but its a bit too meta to just start reading if you don't know much about his other works.
 
Some of my favorites:

The Stand
11.22.63
Needful Things


I've read around half of his books and I've enjoyed them all to various degrees, but these three stick out in my mind.
 
I mean this thread has pretty much covered everything so far, but I also really liked Insomnia. I know it's not on a lot of Stephen King lists, but I really enjoyed that story, it was one of the ones that scared me the most.

I also really enjoyed The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon for something a bit out of his usual.
 
I'd suggest any of his short story collections. His best works are short stories, imo, and the most common criticisms of his work are avoided in the shorter format.
Full Dark, No Stars is a more recent one. All the stories in that one deal with revenge and the like. I found it very enjoyable and very disturbing at times.
 
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