I think that most people would agree that Stephen King is probably the 
greatest horror writer to ever live. Most of his books have been made into
movies, not every writer gets that chance even once! So come on Stephen
King fans! Let's talk about the Titan of Terror!

87 responses total.

Okay.  BUt then again, he has ALSO written one of the BEST scifi/fantasy books,
 The Eyes of the Dragon.  

He is a pretty good author

No, I wouldn't agree he's the greatest horror writer to ever live.
He's okay, but certainly not the greatest.  
 
Gave up reading Stephen King many years ago when he started getting too
hackneyed to put up with (including a number of inane movies).  You're
quite welcome to enjoy his work yourself, though.

Mr. King once said of himself, "I'm the Big Mac of horror fiction."

Maybe I should change what I said. Saying that he is the greatest horror
writer is taking it too far. He is ONE of the best.

I'm sure more people will agree with that, depending on how they
define "best."

He's pretty good at horror.  I'm convinced he could really get something
going if he'd get moving with his "Dark Tower" series.

I'm not much into horror, but what about H.P. Lovecraft?  Or Poe?

I've never read any of King.  Question to King fans:  What do you
consider to be his best three horror novels?

Pet Semetary.
'Salem's Lot.

and I don't know after that.

  
 The Stand
 Pet Sematary
 Needful Things

yeah, yeah...
Pet SemAtary....


:-)

Personaly, I liked "It".

 IT was long, and boring in the first part, then it got going, but it took
like 600 pages to do so. I liked The Dark Half and 4 past Midnight.
as well as The Talisman co written by Peter Straub. That was fantastic.

The Stand       
It
Christine
Night shift (best collection of short stories.
The gunslinger and the dark tower best series

I liked the TV miniseries version of "It" - found it pretty scary,
and horror movies don't usually scare me easily.  But if I try
reading a Stephen King, I think I'll make it something that I
haven't seen the TV or movie version of (and I've seen quite a few).
_Salem's Lot_ or _Pet Semetary_ look like good candidates.

_The Stand_ and _Cujo_ were my favorites, both of which never
made a faithful transition to film.  I especially liked the
ending in _Cujo_.  

You mean where they blew away the dog? Yeah, I liked that part, too. :)

Not only did they blow away the dog but didn't the little boy die in the
book?

I never read the book, I only saw the movie.

I am an alumnus of King's alma mater-  U.Maine at Orono.
I used to drive by his "mansion" in Bangor every day on
my way to school. I liked The Shining, but I'm not
much of a horror fan.

I never got into IT...but  I liked Misrey and Eyes of the Dragon A LOT though

RE#20
The shinning was a good book also, it was one of the first books of
his that I read. Even better was the fact that the movie with Shelly
Duvall and Jack Nicholson did the book justice.

Redrum, redrum!

I have only read the talisman, but i quite enjoyed it. 
        Does anyone know where i might order the french translations of hisn
        work?

I have been disappointed in the film version s.  King's characterizations
are deep and excellent and are difficult to develop on film.  The
Tommyknockers was much more engrossing, humorous and psychological than
in the miniseries version.  Needful Things was well done as a movie.
The Dark Half again, was disappointing in film version.  My favorite is
the Langoliers, a short in 4 Past Midnight.   Also enjoyed  The Long Walk.

The Stand also seemed more enjoyable a read than on film, even though the
mini series seemed faithful to the book.  Can't wait for more of the
Dark Tower Series.

I enjoyed the Dark Tower series as well.  But I never understood WHY I
liked them...

Can anyone put into words what they thought about when they were reading
that series?  Why did it seem to grab me by the 'nads, and not let go
until I was done reading?

There are few other books that I can say did that to me.  The most notable
other one was by George Alec Effinger.

The thing about the Dark Tower series, at least for me, is that it's about
things that are dying in our world.

It has been awhile sinc I read them, but it seems we are following
them toward an unknown, yet much hoped for, goal.  This is what keeps
most of us going through life.  When we run out of goals, what's the point?

 I left off about 10 pages from the ending of "The Drawing of the Three" and
I have had "The Wastelands for well over two yrs now. It's way way way
down on my "to be read" list.

Has anyone noticed what I think is a connection between the Dark Tower
series, The Eyes of the Dragon, and The Stand? Here it is:
In the Eyes of theDragon, the villain is a "dark man", who has been
around for quite a while. Could it be possible that he is none other
than Randall Flagg, the "dark man" of The Stand? It could then follow
that Roland's world in the Dark Tower series, in which the world has
"moved on", is the post-apocalyptic result of The Stand? And, maybe
"the man in black" here is another incarnation of Flagg.

 Well, Flagg was described in "the stand" as being an ancient spirit.
I would tend to agree with your statement, John.

Can you expand on the similarities between the characters in the books you
describe?  Also on the differences?  If there were to be another
"incarnation of the dark man", how would he be different from the previous
characters?

---

Show some imagination here.  I am interested in how the man characters
were percieved by you...

Wow, is this, like, a test? First, let me say that I looked at the Eyes
of the Dragon again last night, and not only is the villain a "dark man",
but his name was Flagg, too. I guess it's been a while since I read it.
Okay, let's see here... obviously, all three characters were evil, as
well as "dark". Actually, I shouldn't talk in the plural sense, because
as far as I'm concerned, they're all 3 the same character. So, in that
respect, one could theorize that King saw them as the antithesis of the
Holy Trinity. Granted, that's stretching it a bit. 

Another "incarnation"? Well, I'm sure it's possible, although Walter,
"the man in black" from _The Dark Tower_ died. Flagg could very easily
reappear in another form at another time, perhaps even in a time 
previous to the Dark Tower Series...  I'd like to think that he was
also Darth Vader, myself!

Maybe he was Leland Gaunt in Needful Things??

 could have been, since NT and the Stand ended almost the same ;)

  Has anyone read Nightmares and Dreamscapes yet? I would like to get a 
mini review before I decide to buy it new, or wait some more and wait
until Dawn Treader gets it and sells it for $3

Thanks in advance

spartan:  Good Job!  8^)

hey, Thanks! I think I surprised myself on that one.

Welcome back, spartan!

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