Thread: Reading first Stephen King Novel

The Little Sisters of Eluria was the only story by King I have really liked. It mixes the whole apocalypse thing and what the world is like afterward. Sci-fi I guess you could say. I have bought several books of his over the years and could not quite get into them, thus quitting everyone after a few pages.
I find his little collections of short stories are his best...pick one up.

Kind of off topic but I couldn't sleep after I read the ending of Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

Originally Posted by Leyline

King's best 'head messer' is probably The Shining

This is the one am getting onto next, after recently purchasing it off of Amazon. I've heard good reviews about this book so hope it turns out to be good.

Currently reading It though, taking forever, lol.

Originally Posted by Dr. Malone

And I think he started working on The Dark Tower when he was still really heavy into drugs. That's what someone told me at least. Reading it, I believe it. I definitely don't think it's supposed to be horror. For me that series is kind of slow moving with occasional flashes of brilliance. I never got past the third or fourth book, though.

Smart move. The Dark Tower series went downhill fast in the first one hundred pages of the fifth novel. The last book was horribly written, as well.

I heard that he wrote himself into the last book. Like he was in the Tower or something.

The one that really gave me the creeps reading it was Cujo. I borrowed it from the library one time when my husband was out of town. Then when he came back he brought home...of all things...a St. Bernard.

I like The Stand, It, and The Green Mile, too.

I thought Cujo was boring as hell. The problem with King is that he tends to ramble and ramble, describing useless details, flourishing intermittent hints of genuiousity in a couple of chapters, and then, falling back into this dragging pain-in-the-ass exposition for the rest of the story.

He doesn't allow you to imagine. He slams you with fully blown, intricate details of all the character's thought process, allowing no room for respiration or mystery. He goes about telling the readers flat-out someone is going to die, then for the rest hundred or so pages repeats the same message and shows you how he died. What in the fucks world?

If you really want to read King, I recommend his anthologies of short stories, Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. That's about it. All his other anthologies suddenly become verbose and hamfisted with recycled plot lines.

If you have read one King novel, you've read them all.

Oh, one other thing, his endings are all horrible.

Because he never plans or outlines his stories. He even said it in his memoir, On Writing: he rarely know where his plots are headed, therefore he resorts to trick, supernatural gimmicky faux endings such as the one in Bag of Bones or Gerald's Game or Rose Madder or The Dark Tower and 50 other of his books and anthologies. Whack.

Originally Posted by Dr. Malone

I heard that he wrote himself into the last book. Like he was in the Tower or something.

He wasn't in the Tower, but he was integral to its survival. He used the incidient where he was hit by the van and, in the novel, made it so that The Red King somehow influenced the driver to hit King, and that Roland and gang pushed him out of the way just in time. One of the characters died saving Uncle Stevie, and Roland hated him for it. Oh, and Roland and Stephen King supposedly "looked like each other."

It was stupid.

I consider Cujo and The Stand his best novels.

It, The Shining, Salem's Lot and Pet Semetary are all dog shit. In my opinion, of course. I couldn't even finish It, and I quit reading Salem's Lot after the girl or whoever was turned into a vampire and all the characters were huddled about plotting how to kill the bad guy.

I also really liked Bag of Bones and Lisey's Story.

Originally Posted by SevenWritez

I also really liked Bag of Bones and Lisey's Story.

Haha, you sound like the opposite of everyone else that's read King. A lot of people don't like the majority of his newest stuff. Not that its a bad thing mind you. I actually think it's awesome.

I've read alot of King, but there's not much point in throwing recommendations around, since everyone here seems to feel differently. Can't say I'd ever agree with someone dismissing The Shining as dog shit...

Take your pick out of his most acclaimed, I suppose. My personal favourite would have to be Cujo. There isn't much supernatural tomfoolery going on there. Just strong, believable characters.

Misery was just f'in creepy, because you can imagine it actually happening in real life. It was very good, but since I read it when I was 15, not too scary. Stephen King books are scary if you imagine yourself in the character's positions, but not very much otherwise. Duma Key was a surprisingly good one of his, but if you want just pure awesomeness in a King book, read The Talisman. From a Buick 8 was also a very good book he wrote. Along with 'Salem's Lot if you want a vampire book that isn't meant to be read by teenage girls with hormones squirting out their ears.

Originally Posted by caelum

Some of his short stories have really freaked me out. I read "The Jaunt" when I was in my early teens, and I remember having serious trouble sleeping that night. You know when you wake up from a nightmare scared out of your wits, turning on lights and stuff. That scared. Just the notion... I will say no more. Mr. King, I tip my hat to you. I recommend The Skeleton Crew.

Oh, The Raft! Oh shit I forgot about The Raft. Man was that fucking shiver-inducing. Freaky ass story.

"Longer than you think, Dad!"

Haha.

Didn't he offer one of his more recent short story collections in eBook formula? It was like five or six years ago, but I remember people talking about how revolutionary King was for doing it, and I think he even whored it out in the preface.