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Posted: Mar 30 2011 05:00 pm

I quite liked his short story collections, but then, i haven't read one since the 90's so maybe the quality has gone down hill?

I just picked up a copy of the first book of the Dark Tower from the library but haven't really got into it so far.....

Probably because the library didn't have a copy of The Evolutionary Void and I'm subconciously sulking.

Posted: Apr 28 2011 08:50 pm

Carrie and Eyes of the Dragon were my favorites. Especially the scene involving "Dragon Sand". Wink

I'm a bit morbid like that.

Posted: Apr 30 2011 04:29 am

Bag O Bones Needful Things The Dark Half and the first half of The Stand are some of my favorites... The rest are EHHH...

Joined: Jul 29 2012 Posts: 63

This thread is pretty old, I probably shouldn't resurrect it, but on the other hand it's still on the first page.

My two all time favorites are Pet Sematary and The Shining. I can't decide, which one I like more. Probably Pet Sematary. I love Cujo and Christine also.

Posted: Aug 17 2012 04:51 am

I like The Shining the most myself, though I've only read a handful of his books. Under the Dome was interesting and The Dark Tower series was pretty decent but I still like The Shining the most. Some of the movies based on his books have been pretty good, but I've just never been a big fan of his so I've never bothered to read much of his work.

Posted: Aug 20 2012 05:37 am

Am I the only one who doesn't care for his endings? Seems like he throws a dart at a board with stupid endings on it when he hits a certain page count.

Posted: Aug 20 2012 08:24 am

Blackout wrote:

Am I the only one who doesn't care for his endings? Seems like he throws a dart at a board with stupid endings on it when he hits a certain page count.

In his novels, yes, absolutely. The weird thing is, he's FANTASTIC at ending short stories. But his novels never end well.

I mean, one of my favorite BOOKS (not just King stories) of all time is IT, and, while I have no problem with all of the metaphysical battling and such at the end...a *giant fucking spider?* Really? And don't give me that bullshit about "that's not REALLY what it looked like, they were just seeing what their human minds could comprehend!" That's a copout, and he should have known better.

Giant spider. That still pisses me off. It's also the thing that completely and utterly ruined the miniseries, which I really like. Just like in the book, everything is going great and then WHAM, giant fucking spider. And it makes even LESS sense on screen because they can't at least give the bullshit 'it's not REALLY a giant spider' explanation.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

Well... I hate to bring out the old joke, but at least it's not Twilight.

Posted: Aug 20 2012 01:17 pm

IT was the first Stephen King novel I read, which I believe either is or was his longest novel. What can I say? I was ambitious. I was 13, and rathered sheltered... and that book was all kinds of terrifying and fucked up.

So it will always hold a special place in my heart. I guess that would be my favorite.

I followed it up by reading Needful Things, which was arguably even more fucked up. Needful Things had a reasonable enough ending though. ABRACA-FUCKING-DABRA!

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

Syd Lexia wrote:

IT was the first Stephen King novel I read, which I believe either is or was his longest novel.

If we're talking strictly about original work, then that's true. But the greatest page count of any of his works is the Extended version of The Stand. It's almost 1,200 pages.

Posted: Aug 20 2012 02:27 pm

The Stand is my favorite. Particularly the extended version. I adore the Dark Tower series too, though, and I think he's one of the best short story authors out there.

Posted: Aug 20 2012 02:31 pm

Well, IT is 1,138 pages. So it's not like The Stand Redux beats it by hundreds of pages or anything.

Has he done an extended version of The Shining? I know his publisher pressured him to cut down the original draft considerably and that over the years, some of the missing sections have been published in a variety of different places, including TV Guide of all places.

Posted: Aug 20 2012 07:29 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

IT was the first Stephen King novel I read, which I believe either is or was his longest novel. What can I say? I was ambitious. I was 13, and rathered sheltered... and that book was all kinds of terrifying and fucked up.

So it will always hold a special place in my heart. I guess that would be my favorite.

That is exactly how I read IT and was introduced to King too. And also why it's probably still my favorite as well.

Posted: Aug 21 2012 05:21 am

Didn't the Devil fly off in to the night in a flying yellow car in Needfull things, or something like that?

I read that at a young age too, and yeah it's pretty messed up. There's at least three severely wrong activities that I was unaware existed until I read that book, probably more.

Posted: Sep 02 2012 11:23 pm

The sheriff harnesses the power of hope and love and Jesus, and forces the devil out of town... or something like that. Possibly in a flying car. And then he starts a new store in a new town, Answered Prayers.

But yeah, Needful Things had some rather disturbing stuff in it.

Posted: Sep 02 2012 11:33 pm

That WAS a creepy-ass book. Not as directly scary as IT or The Shining, but creepy as hell.

Posted: Sep 03 2012 01:24 pm

What I remember most is Ace Merrill, who I don't think I ever realized was the same character from Stand By Me (The Body, if we're being literate) until VERY recently, running around Castle Rock high on cocaine digging up his uncle's "treasure", which included bestiality porn.

Posted: Sep 03 2012 10:08 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

What I remember most is Ace Merrill, who I don't think I ever realized was the same character from Stand By Me (The Body, if we're being literate) until VERY recently, running around Castle Rock high on cocaine digging up his uncle's "treasure", which included bestiality porn.

Yeah THAT, I was like WTF, people DO that??! Surprised

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

This is kind of an odd thought, but is it possible that the Talisman from the book of the same name is in fact one of the Bends o' the Rainbow from the Dark Tower series? It is the same in appearance and has a similar level of power... I guess. It's hard to say.

Posted: Feb 28 2013 03:01 am

Trying to pick a favorite novel of his, for me, almost impossible as I've read almost all his work and have loved every single novel or novella. But if you put a gun to my head I would say Bag of Bones. Needful things was the first work of his I had ever read and became hooked ever since. I was in Iraq on a deployment and had a good deal of reading time being a medic and all so one I finished I began a compulsive search for any and all S.K. Also Under the Dome and 11/22/63 is up there on my list.

Posted: Feb 28 2013 12:40 pm

The Dark Tower VII or Night Shift

Posted: Feb 28 2013 03:02 pm

Mandrake42 wrote:

I quite liked his short story collections, but then, i haven't read one since the 90's so maybe the quality has gone down hill?

I just picked up a copy of the first book of the Dark Tower from the library but haven't really got into it so far.....

Probably because the library didn't have a copy of The Evolutionary Void and I'm subconciously sulking.

I didn't care for the first book in that series either, but once you finish that one its all amazing after that, in my small opinion of course. The Drawing of the Three ups the ante in every way possible as does the series from there on out. Stick with it and you will be treated to one of the most amazing series ever writting. Of course I'm a Stephen King fanboy so maybe I'm biased but I do believe some share this opinion. After you finish the series you can go back to the first one and a completely new outlook on it...The Gunslinger was the book it took me the longest to finish and it's the shortest in the series.

Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

I'm about halfway through Danse Macabre right now. It's not actually a novel, it's a non-fiction work about the history of horror fiction. So far, it's really good. He makes a case for all modern horror descending from the roots of the novels Frankestein, Dracula, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and traces their influences up until 1980. Very fun stuff.

Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

I've been considering starting The Dark Tower, but that seems like a huge time investment. Can anyone tell me how much the prospect is worth it?

Joined: Nov 22 2018 Posts: 1

Cell a lot.