I love Stephen King, truly I do. Many wannabe intellectuals write him of as merely a formula writer or an artless purveyor of schlock horror, but I honestly believe he is one of the greatest storytellers of modern times.

From his earliest novels and short stories to his latest instalment of the Dark Tower epic, there are very few stories by Stephen King that I would say I dislike. His skill at intertwining narratives until they form one cord that thrums with tension is incredible.

And he is remarkably versatile. Sure, he mainly writes stuff that could only be described as macabre, but his non-supernatural stories are amongst his best. After all, he wrote the novella upon which the film The Shawshank Redemption is based. Many of the the short stories in his latest collection, Everything's Eventual, have nothing to do with the supernatural and they're all good. Also, one of my favourite King books is On Writing, which isn't a story at all, but is rather a no-nonsense and extremely sensible guide to writing.

Anyway, I guess I'd have to pick The Stand, It, and the ever-evolving Dark Tower Series as my favourite King novels, but I'd also have to pick out the novella The Long Walk and the short story The Jaunt. The latter in particular scared the hell of me when I first read it about 10 years ago. After reading it I lay in bed staring up at the ceiling, contemplating the sheer horror of what I'd just read. And that's the sign of a good story, surely.

Well, I know I'm not the only King fan here... what are other people's favourites?

This thread's way up hello's alley. Nice work!

King is a brilliant story-teller. I don't care if he doesn't fill his novels with big words, and all the other things associated with "intellectual" novels - his books are about things that everybody goes through, with a slight super-natural spin to spice things up a bit.
Like you say, King's not a horror writer, as so many claim he is. The majority of his novels are drama pieces with a bit of a ghost thrown in or some shit.
He's a genius, and Salman Rushdie can go stick it.

I've got all of King's books, and my favourites are, in no particular order -
1) Hearts in Atlantis (further proof that King doesn't just write "horror") - don't be put off by the film, this is an amazing book that really hit me hard. A great exploration of the sixties and loss of innnocence. 1st novel that actually made me cry.
2) Misery - King at his thriller-best. I read the last 100 pages in about an hour (which is bloody quick for me), couldn't put her down.
3) The Dead Zone - A bit over-long and drawn-out, but the story is something very, very special.
4) Different Seasons - The Body and Shawshank Redemption are 2 of the greatest stories King has ever written. Great drama, brilliant characters.
5) It - The 1st King book that really dragged me in. After reading this, I picked up 10 of his books at the local 2nd hand shop for $80. Scared the pants of me, in parts, but also made me cry.

I'm a fan of some of his work. Personally I think he writes a lot of shit as well. Which is a shame because some of the stuff he writes deserves a lot more credit than it gets - his shit work pulls down peoples opinions of all his work.

The Running Man - In my opinion easily his best piece of work that I've read - an amazing critique on society and humanity. It's scary how much of that book has been developing in real life too. Also I finished reading it for like the third or fourth time on the night of september 11 2001. Was woken up maybe an hour later by my brother telling me to turn on the tv - freaky (and a massive spoiler for those who haven't read the book).

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption - much much much better than the movie. And I think the movie is really good too.

His short stories - He's definitly one of the best short story writers of his time.

The Talisman (with Peter Straub) - Every teenage male should read this!

I got hooked on Stephen King about 15 years ago in High School.

The first "King" book I read was IT which gave me the fear of clowns I still have today :(

I went on to read THE STAND which has to be one of the greatest pieces of literary work on par with The Lord of the Rings.

Since then I have everything "King" I could get my hands on. I even have a First Edition Hard Cover of Carrie from the US (will sell for $2000 if anyone is interested, perfect condition).

The latest book of his that I have read was From a Buick 8 which would have to be one of his poorer works.

Unfortunately no one has really been able to convert his work in to a decent movie / TV series apart from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Although I did mildly enjoy the recent Rose Red.

Just waiting for the last of the Dark Tower series so that I can re-read the whole lot together. :D

Yeah I agree here, he's a talented writer with so much creative thinking going on, he pumps out so many different ideas. He thinks up some pretty screwed up stuff too, his novel Desperation for example, which wasnt nearly his best but pretty sick stuff (I dont mean 'cool' sick). I've only read one of the Dark Tower books, Wizard and Glass, and have been meaning to read the series properly, really entertaining read that was. Bag of Bones was a memorable one for me too, was pretty heartbreaking at the end, and also Hearts in Atlantis.

Films based on King's books... not many of them work, do they? 'Needful Things' is possibly the worst film I've ever seen. 'It' completely failed to capture the spirit and epic scope of the book. 'The Tommyknockers' was average at best. I think it's interesting that the ones that have worked (the chief of which, I'd say, are 'The Shawshank Redemption', 'The Green Mile' and 'Stand By Me') are based on books in which the supernatural plays little or no role. Also, two of them are novellas and 'The Green Mile' was really a series of novellas. Films really don't have enough time to dedicate to King's grand narratives.

The one exception to this, in my opinion (and it's kind of a controversial one) is the TV mini-series adaptation of The Stand, which I really liked. It worked because at six hours it was able to capture at least some of the book's greatness (although it still left a hell of a lot out...) It had a good cast, too, and the screenplay was written by King himself.

Dude, you should check out 'Misery'. She's probably the greatest thriller that I've ever seen. 'The Shining' and 'The Dead Zone' were damn good, too. There's about 10 King films that were half-decent, and the 3 that I've mentioned were brilliant.
'The Dark Half' is easily the worst King film. It's just such a dumb concept, and I don't know how they thought they'd be able to translate it to film.

Dude! What about Children of The Corn? Although admitadly five (or however many there are) films based on one ten page short story has some issues already...

Dude!!!!! I didn't really like 'Children of the Corn'.
I still can't believe they made a film out of 'The Lawnmower Man' - the story went for like 8 pages!
Top 10 King Films -
10. Secret Window - Johnny Depp made the film.
9. Cujo - Cool dog.
8. Hearts in Atlantis - Not as good as the book, but still a half-decent effort.
7. Carrie - A good ol' fashioned horror flick.
6. The Shining - Freaky as shit.
5. The Dead Zone - Big Man Walken - what more can I say?
4. The Green Mile - Tom Hanks is cool.
3. Stand by Me - A classic tale about the loss of innocence.
2. Misery - Kathy Bates is friggin' crazy.
1. The Shawshank Redemption - My fave film of all time. Genius.

Hmm, yeah, I did forget about Misery. Although it's hardly my favourite film, it is more than decent. And it's another non-horror one... although it's pretty horrifc.

Carrie, too, was pretty good for what it was. I haven't seen Secret Window but it's supposed to be not bad... and another non-horror story. The Dead Zone, The Shining, Cujo... haven't seen them, I'm afraid. But yeah, it's definitely not all bad news for King's films.

I wouldn't mind seeing Maximum Overdrive, the film based on the short story Trucks that was directed by King himself... it's supposed to be one of the worst films ever made. And that's what King said about it.

:lol: That's seriously one of the crappiest films I've ever seen. Most ridiculous plot-line, and the acting is just so shit-house.

Don't bother with "Secret Window", it is utter tripe.

"Christine" should be on the top 10 list instead or maybe even "Firestarter".

Are you serious? Not only do I think they're two of his worst books. Stephen King has made similar comments about them as well. Firestarter is boring and predictable. Christine is even worse - a great example of Stephen writing way too much with very little substance.

I liked both those books. Especially 'Christine'. I could relate so much to the characters/themes in 'Christine' - when I 1st read her - that it'll always be a personal fave. Maybe, if I re-read it now, I'd think it's a piece of shit, but that's a risk I don't want to take...
My most disliked King novel would have to be 'The Tommyknockers' or the 'The Dark Half'. 'The Tommyknockers' gets a vote because it's so ridiciulously long and drawn-out. Whilst, the plot of 'The Dark Half' is just so completely stupid and over-the-top (and that's saying something when it's Stephen King we're talking about) that I stopped reading it half-way through.

Whoa... 'The Dark Half' and 'The Tommyknockers' are two of my favourite King books. IMO they epitomise King's ability to tell a good yarn without getting too bogged down with anything too deep while still creating interesting characters and situations.

My least favourite King books... hard to say, of course. Everything I didn't really like of his isn't quite a King book. I thought 'The Library Policeman' from 'Four Past Midnight' was rather dull, as was 'Secret Window, Secret Garden'. But they're novellas. I struggled to finish 'The Talisman', but that was co-written with Peter Straub. Some of King's short stories, such as the rather dodgy 'The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands', are crap and I know I could (and do) write better stuff. But they're short stories. I guess my least favourite actual King novel would be 'Thinner', because it's so obviously a short story idea stretched into a novel. If King has a fault, that's it: he sometimes (but only rarely) makes things longer than they should be, and he admits to that as well.

Of course, the longest of King's works, such as It, The Stand and the ongoing Dark Tower series, are his best, in my opinion.

A few of King's short stories were written when he was 18 to 20 - and he just fiddled around with them a bit when they were published in book form - so that may explain why some of them are a bit crap.

If you didn't like 'Secret Window, Secret Garden', than give the movie a miss as it's the exact same thing, 'cept, um, worse.

I though that 'The Tommy Knockers' did have an interesting concept/premise, but it took King way to long to get to the good bits.