The Stand I just remember it being very engrossing, and when it was over, I felt sad that there was no more. I read it in 1985.
have you read the dark half? as you say, the line between hero and villain gets blurred. i think you'd enjoy it!
I just finished reading The Running Man for the first time last week... I really enjoyed it but was surprised at how different it was from the 1987 movie version. Aside from the basic premise of a life-or-death survival game show and the name of the main character, the two versions have very little in common. Calling the film a "loose adaptation" of the book would be a stretch.
Those are the only 2 of the Bachman books I've ever read... I've been wanting to check out a few of the others, but I think a few of the older ones were out of print for many years. They seem to be back on the shelves lately, though, so maybe I'll finally get around to them.
I’ve read everything he put out in the 20th Century (except Eyes Of The Dragon and Danse Macabre) but he lost me with Dreamcatcher. I enjoyed virtually everything (Carrie was a strong debut but a better film than a book, The Tommyknockers needed an edit and Desperation was weak) but The Shining always struck me as a cut above-for one thing, it’s the only one I actually found scary.
I've never read the book but I did watch the entire mini series on DVD. It was mostly enjoyable. I'm sure the "hand of God" sequence works much better in the novel where it's left to your imagination.
…because this is in the Visual Arts section, and because I rewatched it recently, I’ll nominate “Storm of the Century”. It’s a rare King original screenplay produced specifically for TV. At five hours, it aired as a 3 part miniseries, but, without commercials, it’s best watched in one long viewing session, especially if it’s in the middle of the winter and you have great snacks and beverages. The story is coherent, the acting, especially by the villain, is excellent, and the ending is logical.
I would probably say Pet Semetary or The Dead Zone. Kind of funny story. Although I read most of his classics many years ago in my teens, I somehow never got around to The Stand. I finally picked it up a few years ago (pre-COVID), at an airport bookstore, figuring it would be fun to read on the plane. Bad idea. Every single sniffle and and sneeze on that flight made me want to jump out of my seat.
I love The Long Walk. I am surprised it hasn't been adapted to film or television yet (it wouldn't be difficult), but given the gruesome plot, I guess it's not that surprising.
I'll probably say The Stand too, if only because it's just as engrossing as many of his other books, but for much longer...if that makes sense. Bag of Bones (1998) has one of the most realistically frightening passages I've ever read. One of the characters is swimming in the lake and someone on shore starts throwing rocks at them. Imagine being forced to choose between breathing and getting hit by rocks...while treading water. Is it Duma Key where the guy get's locked inside a port-a-potty in Florida....that's pretty terrible too. I haven't read any of his work since...Duma Key or Under the Dome.
King wrote Dreamcatcher while high on Oxycotin, recovering from the accident when he was hit by a car. He's practically disowned it (and he's written much better books since then). Dreamcatcher isn't very good, but you can see how his real life experience in hospitals inspired parts of the novel.
This is one of my favorites, and one of his best recent novels, but, yes, bleak. I'm not all that crazy about his epic, Tolkien-inspired novels. I tend to prefer the more modest books (modest in scale, I mean). I think The Dead Zone has aged very well. It's thematically rich and well-crafted. Also, as someone who is now middle-aged, I recognize that King wrote a very insightful narrative about the passage of time, and missed chances (said chances missed by fate, not choice). The part of the novel when Johnny reunites with Sarah is heartbreaking. For me, the novel is as much about this as it is about fascism and the burden that psychic powers would really be. King was only 31 when he wrote it, which is impressive.
I'll stump for Cujo (the other two, not so much). It's much more than a "killer dog," novel, and King depicts Cujo himself as an innocent dog struck by fate (rabies bite), not an evil monster. There are fascinating issues of economic class in the book, including a subplot of the wife of Cujo's owner (a blue collar mechanic) planning to run out of the marriage with her son, to prevent the son (a sensitive type) from becoming like his dad (an abusive lout). It neatly parallel's the novel's other mother (who is much more solidly middle-class) trying to protect her son from the rabid dog. King may or may not have been high when he wrote it, but I think Cujo is a very strong novel, thematically and structurally. Not surprisingly, all of the class issues were left out of the movie (the son of the mechanic is barely in it, and I don't think the mechanic's wife is in it at all).
His novels are good, but his short stories, in my opinion, are fantastic. The Mist is my favorite thing written by Stephen King. What helps, probably, is I read it at night in a log cabin on Lake Michigan in the middle of nowhere. At night there was this somewhat continuous noise coming from the lake. It was the perfect place to read a story about monsters coming out of an otherworldly mist. His other short stories and novelettes - Rita Haworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Return to Salem's Lot, The Body (AKA Stand By Me) Children of the Corn, The Langoliers... I find horror works best in short story or novelette format. His best long-format novels are non-horror, like The Stand and The Gunslinger series. Don't get me wrong, his long format horror novels are good, too, but his short stories are just fantastic.
My favorite book is The Stand. Quite an engrossing read, I finished it in two days while staying in a flop house in Chicago in the early 90s. My other favorite is the Audiobook of The Mist that was produced by ZBS for Simon & Schuster with the Kunstkopf Binaural system. Really well-acted and the sound effects startled me several times
Damned if I can't remember the name of it, but my favorite Stephen King novel is that one that takes place in Maine. #seniormoment
She's in it. She wins some money in a lottery and buys her husband some equipment for his car repair business in exchange for a visit to go see some family members in another state.
Re: THE STAND expanded. I thought it was odd that King talked about putting all of the parts back into the novel that the editors made him remove, but he ended up updating everything to a (then) contemporary setting. I thought it would have worked better keeping it all in the '70's timeframe.
I read a lot of his books in my late teens/early 20s. In the midst of the pandemic, since there wasn't much going on, I decided to revisit a few of his lengthier works. I walked to the local Barnes & Noble and picked up The Stand, It, and 11/22/63. I had read The Stand and It and remember being blown away as a youngster, but 11/22/63 was new to me. I was wondering if they would still hold up as a 50 yr old. The Stand did not disappoint. What a masterpiece of character development. One of the best all time classic good vs. evil stories ever. I don't know, "It" for some reason didn't have the same impact. Maybe the main theme the book espouses, that of losing the power of imagination as you leave childhood behind, has some bearing here. It was a bit too much, too over the top...not that King is ever often accused of such things. What blew me away was 11/22/63! Wow, one of the best time travel plots I've ever encountered. Totally riveting. Sounds so cliché, but I literally could not put it down. Excellent. Currently reading The Dark Tower series which I am completely unfamiliar with. I'm only on book 2 which is good so far, but The Gunslinger was fantastic. Loved it. Among his books I've read, The Stand is my favorite. I'll be reading that one yet again at some point.
King's novella strikes me as the most Harlan Ellison-esque story he ever wrote. There's just something about it that reminds me of Ellison's work. I'm not sure what, exactly - just a vibe.
The long expanded The Stand for me. Epic. 11/22/63 is the book that I would use to show what a terrific novelist he is. A masterpiece, and not really a horror novel. Tommyknockers is the only book of his that I would tell people not to buy. Terrible. Cell wasn't that much better. I am glad I was not a parent when I read Pet Sementary. Damn truck, never mind what comes after. Dome was great until the end where the dome is explained . Most people know Stephen King from the movies and Tv, not from the source material he wrote. They may thus think he is a horror hack writer, and nothing could be further from the truth. I understand Rage was pulled from being further published but of course it still exists as used books. I think he has said it is the one book he wishes he could make disappear. I read it in the mid 1980's and it was terrifying, but, yeah, I too wish it did not exist.
Several anachronisms made it past the editor of that expanded edition. The only addition I liked about this expanded release was the character “The Kid”. A real psychopath.
