This may sound dumb, but I’ve never read for this man. I’ve always just heard about him on social media but never ventured to read his work. Opinions, please. Should I invest? Feeling like fiction lately. I’ve read so much non-fiction through throughout my life that I think I deserve a couple of fiction books to get busy with for a little while.
Thanks in advance
EDIT: Thank you so much to all who answered. I have read and appreciated every single comment. I have decided to start with fairy tale since I ran into the book at Walmart. So giving that a shot to see. Thank you so much
The thing about King is, and he’ll admit this now, he used to do a bunch of drugs and hammer out several novels back to back. He’s an incredibly talented writer, but sometimes his stories are just some cool shit he thought of that doesn’t really go anywhere. Sometimes there’s deep introspection, sometimes it’s just a big scary dog that terrorizes a family.
And Cujo is great. Read it. Read all his books. Just not all at once. The Dark Tower series is another good example, because it does a lot of world building, but also sometimes the story just happens and everyone moves on to the next thing. The Stand has a similar issue. It is well written, meandering, thoughtful, and mindeless all at the same time.
There’s also a loosely connected universe between the Shining, It, The Dark Tower, The Stand, and probably a few others I’m forgetting. These are all good books/series, but my recommendation is not to read them back to back. You’ll start to see the patterns and fall backs he uses as an author when he just needs to wrap things up and publish the book.
Doctor Sleep also expands on the powers in The Shining and Needful Things references many of the evil entities in the stand and It.
I have always loved the way King weaves his baddies into many of his stories and basically implies that they are all the same kind of evil dressed up in the “clothing” to suit its purpose at any given time.
Now that I think of it…I think in Cujo when he is narrating the dogs infected mind, he alludes to the generalized evil as well. It’s been a while since I read that one tho.
I find his short stories better than his novels.
“Night Shift” is my favorite of those collections.
He wrote under a pen name to prove to himself that his work was valuable and not just selling due to branding. He wrote Running Man under the name Richard Bachman. It was turned into a Schwarzenegger film in the 80s. It’s cheesy (the film), but fun.
Christine and Carrie should also be good for getting a feel for King. I read Running Man, but not the other two. I just know them from film adaptations. The Stand and It are also worth checking out, I’d think.
Honestly, there are very few adaptations that aren’t cheesy or completely removed from the source material in somewhat major ways.
Take the Shining. Great film. Great book. The two should not be compared as if they were the same story.
Dreamcatcher on the other hand, no notes. Perfect in both versions. Especially the fact that the movie kept the shit weasels in.
I grew up reading his early works in the 80’s and beyond. Well written, novel themes, sometimes fucked up beyond belief. It’s obvious he did lots of drugs.
Recommended.
I’ve read every Steven King book. They all have varying levels of depth, but they’re all very well written and immersive. I think everyone here had a reasonable point about a lot of his endings turning out fast and dark.
You may not enjoy this if you like stories that feel like they come to a proper conclusion, but I think that’s where he excels at making his stories feel dark. The endings are almost always NOT satisfying. They often hurt.
Another thing people don’t like about him is that he’s a period writer, so lots of his writing is filled with current events from the time when he wrote the book. This makes a lot of his older books feel really dated (like Tommyknockers). But it’s good for me.
Also, like most people who have also commented, i recommend starting with his short stories, and his more popular works. They really are good.
