Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The King

I was gonna write this on my chum Andrew's blog comments section, but it ended up spiralling out of control and i didn't want to use too much room. So off the top of my head, here is my mini personal guide to the best and worst of Stephen King...

Absolutely Essential:
Salem's Lot
Misery
The Stand - of course
Bachman Books - evil, amazing

Really, really, really good:
Carrie
Dead Zone
Insomnia (but this one ties in a lot with the Dark Tower)
Four Past Midnight - veeery clever.
Skeleton Crew/Night Shift - wicked short stories

A good ol' read - good for the beach:
Cujo
Everything's Eventual - stunning short stories
Green Mile
Pet Sematary

My absolute personal faves but maybe not for everyone:
Desperation/Regulators - kind of alternate reality novels but not, using the same characters, but not.
Gerald's Game - this one just grabbed me, and the last half terrified me.
Needful Things - crazy
Tommyknockers - this one almost made the top section - but not quite

Disappointing!!
Dark Tower

Really quite bad:
Black House/Talisman - i have tried around 6 times to read these, but have failed every single time.
Christine - zzz
From a Buick 8
Girl who Loved Tom Gordon - snoooze
Lisey's Story - coma-inducing

3 comments:

Garen said...

Hello Martin :-) Where is 'It'? That book really gave me the creeps and made it difficult to look down plug-holes. Except for the terrible terrible ending, but the rest of the book is worth it.

Mart said...

hey mate,
you know, i actually wasn't that fond of It! and maybe the awful mini-series was the final nail in the coffin. maybe I'll try it again one day soon.

Garen said...

Well, I'm interested in your list because I've only read 'It' (twice actually), and then 'Salem's Lot' - enjoyed it.

I'm a huge fan of Kubrick's 'The Shining', but it scared my pants off (I used to work in a hotel.. often alone... at night...The Shining always came unbidden into my head and it was not good!). I'd like to read the book... I think.