Ranking of Stephen King Novels
Stephen King is the prolific award winning author of more than fifty books, most of which are worldwide bestsellers. Over the years, King has become known for titles that are both commercially successful and sometimes critically acclaimed. His books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide and been adapted into numerous successful films and TV Shows. Often regarded as the 'King of thrill and chills', the celebrated author made his name in the horror and fantasy genres with books like 'Carrie,' 'The Shining' and 'IT.' He is also well known for Green Mile, Under the Dome and the Dark Tower Series, which has recently been adapted for film as well. Although most of his work has been published under his own name, some of his work has been published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. He has also, on a few occasions, co-authored novels with fellow horror writer Peter Straub. Here is a list of all the major novels written or co-authored by Stephen King (or written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman). Please rank them from most favorite to least favorite and help decide which Stephen King Novels are the best!
Misery
Misery
Misery is a 1987 psychological horror thriller novel by Stephen King. The novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1988, and was later made into a Hollywood film and an off-Broadway play of the same name. When King was writing Misery in 1985 he planned the book to be released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman but the identity of the pseudonym was discovered before the release of the book. The novel focuses on Paul Sheldon, a writer famous for Victorian-era romance novels involving the character of Misery Chastain. Novelist Paul Sheldon has plans to make the difficult transition from writing historical romances featuring heroine Misery Chastain to publishing literary fiction. One day he is rescued from a car crash by crazed fan Annie Wilkes, who transports him to her house. The former nurse takes care of him in her remote house, but becomes irate when she discovers that the author has killed Misery off in his latest book. Annie keeps Sheldon prisoner while forcing him to write a book that brings Misery back to life.
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The Green Mile
#12.0The Green Mile is a 1996 serial novel written by Stephen King. It tells the story of death row supervisor Paul Edgecombe's encounter with John Coffey, an unusual inmate who displays inexplicable healing and empathetic abilities. The serial novel was originally released in six volumes before being republished as a single volume work. The story is set at Cold Mountain Penitentiary, where they call the death row at the Penitentiary “The Green Mile.” John Coffey, sentenced to die for the rape and murder of two young girls, is the latest addition to the Mile. Paul Edgecomb, the ward superintendent, discovers that there is more to John Coffey than meets the eye, for this friendly giant has the power to heal.
The Shining
#22.0The Shining is a horror novel by American author Stephen King. Published in 1977, it is King's third published novel and first hardback bestseller: the success of the book firmly established King as a preeminent author in the horror genre. The setting and characters are influenced by King's personal experiences, including both his visit to The Stanley Hotel in 1974 and his recovery from alcoholism. The novel was followed by a sequel, Doctor Sleep, published in 2013. The Shining centers on the life of Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of the historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. His family accompanies him on this job, including his young son Danny Torrance, who possesses "the shining", an array of psychic abilities that allow Danny to see the hotel's horrific past. Soon, after a winter storm leaves them snowbound, the supernatural forces inhabiting the hotel influence Jack's sanity, leaving his wife and son in incredible danger. The novel was adapted into a 1980 feature film of the same name directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written with Diane Johnson. Although King himself remains disappointed with the adaptation, having criticized its handling of the book's themes and of Wendy's character, it is regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made. A television mini-series later premiered in 1997, with the making closely monitored by King to ensure it had followed the novel's narrative. King wrote the series himself and was reportedly unable to criticize the Kubrick version due to his contract.
The Stand
#32.5The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It expands upon the scenario of his earlier short story "Night Surf" and outlines the total breakdown of society after the accidental release of a strain of influenza that had been modified for biological warfare causes an apocalyptic pandemic which kills off the majority of the world's human population. The novel was originally published in 1978 in hardcover, with a setting date of 1980. The first paperback release in 1980 changed the setting date to 1985. The book was later re-released in 1990 as The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition; King restored some text originally cut for brevity, added and revised sections, changed the setting of the story to 1990, and updated a few pop culture references accordingly. The novel marks the first appearance of Randall Flagg, King's recurring antagonist, whom King would bring back many times in his later writings. The Stand was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1979, and was adapted into both a television miniseries for ABC and a graphic novel published by Marvel Comics. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 53 on the BBC's The Big Read poll.
Carrie
#43.5Carrie is a novel by American author Stephen King. It was his first published novel, released on April 5, 1974, with an approximate first print-run of 30,000 copies. Set primarily in the then-future year of 1979, it revolves around the eponymous Carrie White, a misfit and bullied high school girl who uses her newly discovered telekinetic powers to exact revenge on those who torment her. While in this process, she causes one of the worst local disasters in American history. King has commented that he finds the work to be "raw" and "with a surprising power to hurt and horrify." It is one of the most frequently banned books in United States schools. Much of the book uses newspaper clippings, magazine articles, letters, and excerpts from books to tell how Carrie destroyed the fictional town of Chamberlain, Maine while exacting revenge on her sadistic classmates and her own mother Margaret. Several adaptations of Carrie have been released, including a 1976 feature film, a 1988 Broadway musical as well as a 2012 off-Broadway revival, a 1999 feature film sequel, a 2002 television film and a 2013 feature film.
It
#55.0It is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was his 22nd book and 18th novel written under his own name. The story follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by an entity that exploits the fears and phobias of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "It" primarily appears in the form of a clown to attract its preferred prey of young children. The novel is told through narratives alternating between two time periods, and is largely told in the third-person omniscient mode. It deals with themes that eventually became King staples: the power of memory, childhood trauma and its recurrent echoes in adulthood, the ugliness lurking behind a façade of small-town quaintness, and overcoming evil through mutual trust and sacrifice. King has stated that he first conceived the story in 1978, and began writing it in 1981. He also stated that he originally wanted the title character to be a troll like the one in the children's story Three Billy Goats Gruff, but who inhabited the local sewer system rather than just the area beneath one bridge. He also wanted the story to interweave the stories of children and the adults they later become. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1987, and received nominations for the Locus and World Fantasy Awards that same year. Publishers Weekly listed It as the best-selling book in the United States in 1986. It has been adapted into a 1990 two-part miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, and into a 2017 film directed by Andy Muschietti.
Under the Dome
#66.0Under the Dome is the 58th book published by Stephen King; it was his 48th novel, and the 41st under his own name. The book was released by Scribner on November 10th 2009. The novel begins with an an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, when suddenly the town is inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a selectwoman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.
'Salem's Lot
#77.0'Salem's Lot is a 1975 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he had lived from the age of five through nine, only to discover that the residents are becoming vampires. The town is revisited in the short stories "Jerusalem's Lot" and "One for the Road", both from King's story collection Night Shift (1978). The novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award in 1976, and the Locus Award for the All-Time Best Fantasy Novel in 1987. In two separate interviews King said that, of all his books, 'Salem's Lot was his favorite. In his June 1983 Playboy interview, the interviewer mentioned that because it was his favorite, King was planning a sequel, but King has said on his website that because The Dark Tower series already continued the narrative in the Wolves of the Calla and Song of Susannah, he felt there was no longer a need for a sequel. In 1987 he told Phil Konstantin in The Highway Patrolman magazine: "In a way it is my favorite story, mostly because of what it says about small towns. They are kind of a dying organism right now. The story seems sort of down home to me. I have a special cold spot in my heart for it!"
Misery
#88.0Misery is a 1987 psychological horror thriller novel by Stephen King. The novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1988, and was later made into a Hollywood film and an off-Broadway play of the same name. When King was writing Misery in 1985 he planned the book to be released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman but the identity of the pseudonym was discovered before the release of the book. The novel focuses on Paul Sheldon, a writer famous for Victorian-era romance novels involving the character of Misery Chastain. Novelist Paul Sheldon has plans to make the difficult transition from writing historical romances featuring heroine Misery Chastain to publishing literary fiction. One day he is rescued from a car crash by crazed fan Annie Wilkes, who transports him to her house. The former nurse takes care of him in her remote house, but becomes irate when she discovers that the author has killed Misery off in his latest book. Annie keeps Sheldon prisoner while forcing him to write a book that brings Misery back to life.
11/22/63
#99.011/22/63 is a novel by Stephen King about a time traveler who attempts to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which occurred on November 22, 1963 (the novel's titular date). It's the 60th book published by Stephen King, it is his 49th novel and the 42nd under his own name. The novel was announced on King's official site on March 2, 2011. A short excerpt was released online on June 1, 2011, and another excerpt was published in the October 28, 2011, issue of Entertainment Weekly. The novel was published on November 8, 2011 and quickly became a number-one bestseller. It stayed on The New York Times Best Seller list for 16 weeks. 11/22/63 won the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller and the 2012 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for the 2012 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the 2012 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel The story focuses on Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk. Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.
The Dead Zone
#1010.0The Dead Zone is a science-fiction thriller novel by Stephen King published in 1979. It is his seventh novel and the fifth novel under his own name. It concerns Johnny Smith, who is injured in an accident and remains in a coma for nearly five years. Upon emergence, he exhibits clairvoyance and precognition with limitations, apparently due to a "dead zone", an area of his brain that suffered permanent damage as the result of his accident. The Dead Zone was nominated for the Locus Award in 1980. The book is dedicated to King's son Owen. The book spawned a 1983 film adaptation, and a television series.
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
#1111.0Wizard and Glass is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, the fourth book in The Dark Tower series, published in 1997. Subtitled "Regard", it placed fourth in the annual Locus Poll for best fantasy novel. Part IV of this epic quest sees Roland the Gunslinger and his followers contend with a sentient monorail intent on killing itself and taking them with it. While seeking to return to the Path of the Beam that will lead them to the Dark Tower, Roland tells his friends a story about the tragic loss of his first love, Susan Delgado.
Revival
#1212.0Revival is a novel by American writer Stephen King, published on November 11, 2014 by Scribner. This was King's second novel published during 2014, and his fourth since 2013. The novel starts with the arrival of Charles Jacobs, a new minister, to a tiny main town where everyone including the young Jamie Morton is excited. Almost everyone in the tiny Maine hamlet comes to love Jacobs, his beautiful wife, and his young son. Things change all too suddenly when Mrs. Jacobs and her child die in a gruesome auto accident. Half-crazed, the reverend denounces God and religion during a sermon, is banished from the town, and thereafter pursues successive careers as a sideshow huckster and then a faith healer, fueled by his lifelong experiments with electricity. Jamie meanwhile, grows up to be a musician and develops an addiction to heroin, which ends after Jacobs uses an unorthodox electrical treatment to heal Jamie and cure him of his addiction. Afterwards, Jamie experiences strange side effects, including sleepwalking and jabbing himself in the arm with sharp objects while in a fugue state, as if trying to inject heroin. This leads him to start looking into the many others that Jacobs has healed. As it turns out, many of them have experienced similar side effects, and some have killed themselves and others as a result. Later, Jacobs contacts him; Jamie's childhood sweetheart, Astrid, has developed terminal cancer. Jacobs agrees to heal her, but only if Jamie will become his personal assistant for one last experiment. Jamie reluctantly agrees, and Astrid is cured. Jamie helps Jacobs prepare for his final experiment: Jacobs has discovered something he terms "secret electricity", an all-powerful energy source that he has been using to achieve his miraculous cures over the years. He now intends to harness a massive surge of this energy from a lightning rod and channel it into a terminally ill woman named Mary Fay, whom he has relocated to his lab. Jacobs' plan is to revive Mary Fay after her death, not in the conventional manner, but in the sense that she will be clinically dead and yet able to communicate with Jacobs and tell him of the afterlife and what fate befell his wife and child after their death. The experiment works, but not in the way Jacobs intends. The revived Mary Fay does become a doorway to the afterlife, but to the horror of both Jacobs and Jamie, there is no heaven and no reward for piety. Instead, the fate awaiting every living person is revealed to be "The Null", a dimension of chaos, where dead humans are enslaved for eternity by insane, Lovecraftian beings, the most powerful of which is known as Mother. Mother inhabits the body of Mary Fay, transforming her into a grotesque monster, and attempts to kill Jacobs. Jamie shoots Mother with Jacobs' gun, and she leaves Mary's body. Jacobs has a fatal stroke, and Jamie arranges his body to make it look like he shot Mary. Jamie flees the scene and relocates to Hawaii. Later, many of the people cured by Jacobs go insane and kill themselves and others, including Astrid, who kills her partner and herself. Jamie, one of the few survivors of Jacobs' treatments, is left relying heavily on antidepressants and reflecting that no matter what happens, sooner or later he is going to die and end up trapped in The Null under the yoke of Mother.
Cujo
#1313.0Cujo is a 1981 psychological horror novel by Stephen King about a rabid dog. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982, and was made into a film in 1983. In this tale of a killer canine, man's best friend turns into his worst enemy. When sweet St. Bernard Cujo is bitten by a bat, he starts behaving oddly and becomes very aggressive. As Cujo morphs into a dangerous beast, he goes on a rampage in a small town. Stay-at-home mom Donna (Dee Wallace) gets caught in Cujo's crosshairs on a fateful errand with her son, Tad (Danny Pintauro). Stuck in their tiny car, Donna and Tad have a frightening showdown with the crazed animal.
The Dark Half
#1414.0The Dark Half is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1989. Publishers Weekly listed The Dark Half as the second best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger. The novel was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1993. Stephen King wrote several books under a pseudonym, Richard Bachman, during the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the Bachman novels were darker and more cynical in nature, featuring a far more visceral sense of horror than the psychological, gothic style common to many of King's most famous works. When King was identified as Bachman, he wrote The Dark Half – about an author Thad Beaumont with a sinister parasitic twin George Stark – in response to his outing. In the story, Thad Beaumont has been writing books under the pseudonym George Stark for years. When a journalist threatens to expose Beaumont's pen name, the author decides to go public first, killing off his pseudonym. Stark isn't content to be dispatched that easily, though. Beaumont's alter ego comes to life and begins to stalk those responsible for his demise. The police suspect Beaumont is responsible for these violent crimes.
Pet Sematary
#1515.0Pet Sematary is a 1983 horror novel by Stephen King, nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1986, and adapted into a 1989 film of the same name. The story begins with the Creed family moving into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, when it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son-and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly car. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth-more terrifying than death itself-and hideously more powerful. The Creeds are going to learn that sometimes dead is better.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
#1616.0The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) is a psychological horror novel by American writer Stephen King. In 2004, a pop-up book adaptation was released, designed by Kees Moerbeek and illustrated by Alan Dingman. This frightening suspense novel tells the story of nine-year-old Trisha McFarland who becomes lost in the woods as night falls. On a six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, Trisha quickly tires of the constant bickering between her older brother, Pete, and her recently divorced mother. But when she wanders off by herself, and then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she becomes lost in a wilderness maze full of peril and terror. As night falls, Trisha has only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, and only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fears. For solace she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio’s reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her—protecting her from an all-too-real enemy who has left a trail of slaughtered animals and mangled trees in the dense, dark woods.
Dreamcatcher
#1717.0Dreamcatcher (2001) is a novel by American writer Stephen King, featuring elements of body horror, suspense and alien invasion. A film adaptation was released in 2003. Set near the fictional town of Derry, Maine, Dreamcatcher is the story of four lifelong friends: Gary “Jonesy” Jones, Pete Moore, Joe “Beaver” Clarendon and Henry Devlin. As young teenagers, the four saved Douglas "Duddits" Cavell, an older boy with Down syndrome, from a group of sadistic bullies. From their new friendship with Duddits, Jonesy, Beaver, Henry and Pete began to share the boy’s unusual powers, including telepathy, shared dreaming, and seeing “the line,” a psychic trace left by the movement of human beings. Jonesy, Beaver, Henry and Pete reunite for their annual hunting trip at the Hole-in-the-Wall, an isolated lodge in the Jefferson Tract. There, they become caught between an alien invasion and an insane US Army Colonel, Abraham Kurtz. Jonesy and Beaver, who remain at the cabin while Henry and Pete go out for supplies, encounter a disoriented and delirious stranger wandering near the lodge during a blizzard talking about lights in the sky. The victim of an alien abduction, the man grows sicker and dies while sitting on the toilet. An extraterrestrial parasite eats its way out of his body and attacks the two men, killing Beaver. Jonesy inhales the spores of the strange reddish fungus that the stranger and his parasite have spread around the cabin, and an alien entity (“Mr. Gray”) takes over his mind. On the return trip from their supply run, Henry and Pete encounter a woman from the same hunting party as the strange man at the cabin. She is also delirious and infected with a parasite. After crashing their car, Henry leaves Pete with the woman and attempts to regain the cabin by foot. From there, his telepathic senses let him know that Pete is in trouble, Beaver is dead, and Jonesy is no longer Jonesy. Mr. Gray, manipulating Jonesy’s body, is attempting to leave the area. The aliens have attempted to infect Earth multiple times, beginning with the Roswell crash in the 1940s, but environmental factors have always stopped them, and the US government has covered up the failed invasion attempts every time. With the infection of Jonesy, who can contain the alien within his mind and also spread the infection, Mr. Gray has become the perfect Typhoid Mary—and he knows it. It becomes up to Henry—by now a quarantined prisoner of the Army—to convince the military to go after Jonesy/Mr. Gray before it is too late. Jonesy himself, now a prisoner in his own mind, tries to help. Both of them are convinced that their old friend Duddits may be key to saving the world.
Thinner
#1818.0Thinner is a 1984 novel by Stephen King, published under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. It would be the last novel which King released under the Richard Bachman pseudonym until the release of The Regulators in 1996, and the last released prior to Bachman being outed as being Stephen King's pseudonym. The initial hardcover release of Thinner included a fake jacket photo of "Bachman". The photo is claimed to have been taken by Claudia Inez Bachman. The actual subject of the photo is Richard Manuel, the insurance agent of Kirby McCauley, who was King's literary agent. Billy Halleck, an arrogant and morbidly obese lawyer in Connecticut, has recently fought an agonising court case in which he was charged with vehicular manslaughter. While he had been driving across town, his wife Heidi distracted him by masturbating him, causing him to run over an old woman who was part of a group of traveling Gypsies. The case is dismissed at a preliminary stage thanks to the judge, who is a close friend of his. However, as Billy leaves the courthouse, the old woman's even more elderly father, Taduz Lemke, strokes Billy's cheek and whispers one word to him: "Thinner." The word, and the old man's behavior, startle Billy. Billy begins to lose weight at a steadily accelerating pace, and he soon realizes that Lemke has cursed him. He also learns that the judge who gave the unfair verdict was also cursed by the old man, causing scales to grow on his skin. The town police chief who helped soft-pedal the charges against Billy is cursed with a horrifying case of acne. Week after week, Billy continues to shed pounds to an extreme. With the help of private detectives and Richie "The Hammer" Ginelli, a former client with ties to organized crime, an emaciated and desperate Billy tracks the Gypsy band north along the seacoast of New England to Maine. He confronts Lemke at their camp and tries to persuade him to lift the curse, but Lemke refuses to do so, insisting that justice must be done upon Billy. The Gypsies throw Billy out of their camp, but not before Lemke's great-granddaughter Gina shoots him through the hand with a ball bearing. Billy calls for help from Richie, who sends a mob doctor to treat Billy's hand and then arrives in person to terrorize the Gypsy camp. After Richie finishes with the Gypsies, Lemke agrees to meet with Billy. Lemke has brought a strawberry pie with him and adds blood from Billy's wounded hand to it, saying that the curse can be transferred to someone else but not destroyed. The weight loss will stop for a short time and then resume unless another person eats the pie, which will strike him/her with the curse and allow Billy to regain his health. Lemke begs Billy to eat it himself and die with dignity, but Billy instead takes it home, finding Richie's severed hand in his car. Later, from a news report, he learns that Richie has been found shot to death with the word "pig" written in blood on his forehead. Billy returns home and intends to give the pie to Heidi, whom he has come to blame for his predicament. The next morning, though, he finds that both she and their daughter Linda have eaten from the pie. Realizing that both of them are now doomed, he cuts a slice for himself so that he can join them in death.
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
#1919.0The Gunslinger is a novel by American author Stephen King, the first volume in the Dark Tower series he describes as his magnum opus. The Gunslinger was first published in 1982 as a fix-up novel, joining five short stories that had been published between 1978 and 1981. King substantially revised the novel in 2003, which is the version in print today. The story centers upon Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, who has been chasing after his adversary, "the man in black", for many years. The novel fuses Western fiction with fantasy, science fiction and horror, following Roland's trek through a vast desert and beyond in search of the man in black. Roland meets several people along his journey, including a boy named Jake Chambers who travels with him part of the way.
Rage
#2020.0Rage (written as Getting It On; the title was changed before publication) is the first novel by Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was first published in 1977 and then was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books. The novel describes a school shooting, and has been associated with actual high school shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s. In response King allowed the novel to fall out of print, and in 2013 he published a non-fiction, anti-firearms violence essay titled "Guns".
The Long Walk
#2121.0The Long Walk is a dystopian novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1979, under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books, and has seen several reprints since, as both paperback and hardback. Set in a dystopian America circa 1980, the novel follows an alternate history in which Germany appears to have won World War II. The plot revolves around the contestants of a grueling walking contest, held annually by a totalitarian version of the United States of America. In 2000, the American Library Association listed The Long Walk as one of the 100 best books for teenage readers published between 1966 and 2000. While not the first of King's novels to be published, The Long Walk was the first novel he wrote, having begun in it 1966-67 during his freshman year at the University of Maine some eight years before his first published novel Carrie was released in 1974.
Firestarter
#2222.0Firestarter is a science fiction novel by Stephen King, first published in September 1980. In July and August 1980, two excerpts from the novel were published in Omni. In 1981, Firestarter was nominated as Best Novel for the British Fantasy Award, Locus Poll Award, and Balrog Award. In 1984, it was adapted into a movie. The book depicts the story of Andy McGee (David Keith) and his future wife, Vicky (Heather Locklear), who participated in secret experiments, allowing themselves to be subjected to mysterious medical tests. Years later, the couple's daughter, Charlie (Drew Barrymore), begins to exhibit the ability of setting fires solely with her mind. This volatile talent makes the youngster extremely dangerous and soon she becomes a target for the enigmatic government agency known as "The Shop."
Roadwork
#2323.0Roadwork is a novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1981 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books, which is no longer in print. However, three of the four novels in that collection - Roadwork, The Long Walk, and The Running Man - have since been reprinted as standalone titles. The story takes place in an unnamed Midwestern city in 1973–1974. Grieving over the death of his son and the disintegration of his marriage, a man is driven to mental instability when he learns that both his home and his workplace will be demolished to make way for an extension to an interstate highway.
The Running Man
#2424.0The Running Man is a science fiction novel by Stephen King, first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982 as a paperback original. It was collected in 1985 in the omnibus The Bachman Books. The novel is set in a dystopian United States during the year 2025, in which the nation's economy is in ruins and world violence is rising. The story follows protagonist Ben Richards as he participates in the game show The Running Man in which contestants, allowed to go anywhere in the world, are chased by "Hunters" employed to kill them. The book has a total of 101 chapters, laid out in a "countdown" format. The first is titled "Minus 100 and Counting ..." with the numbers decreasing, until the last chapter, "Minus 000 and Counting" (or, in some versions, merely "000"). The Running Man was very loosely adapted into a film with the same name, which was released five years after the book in 1987. The film starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Richards. The film was later made into a video game released on several home computers.
Christine
#2525.0Christine is a horror novel written by Stephen King, published in 1983. It tells the story of a 1958 Plymouth Fury apparently possessed by supernatural forces. A film adaptation, directed by John Carpenter, was released in the same year; this adaptation starred Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul and Harry Dean Stanton. In April 2013, PS Publishing released Christine in a limited 30th Anniversary Edition.
Cycle of the Werewolf
#2626.0Cycle of the Werewolf is the 18th book published by Stephen King; it was his 15th novel, and the eleventh novel under his own name. The book was released by Land of Enchantment in November of 1983, and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson. The story is set in the small town of Tarker's Mill, Maine. A werewolf is viciously killing people and animals, and a strange incident takes place at each full moon. The otherwise normal town is living in fear. The protagonist of the story is Marty Coslaw, an eleven-year-old boy in a wheelchair. The story goes back and forth from the terrifying incidents to Marty's youthful day-to-day life and how the horror affects him.
The Talisman
#2727.0The Talisman is the 19th book published by Stephen King, co-written by Peter Straub; it was his 16th novel, and the twelfth novel under his own name. The book was released by Viking on 8 November 1984. It is one of few novels not to be set in Maine or New England; it is set in Wisconsin, Peter Straub's trademark. King and Straub would collaborate again on the novel Black House. This book charts the adventure of a twelve-year-old boy named Jack Sawyer. The adolescent hero sets out from Arcadia Beach, New Hampshire in a bid to save his mother, who is dying from cancer, by finding a crystal called "the Talisman." The premise of the novel involves the existence of a parallel world to Earth, called "the Territories", a strange fantasy world with ties (though these ties did not exist at the time of publication) to the Dark Tower series. Individuals in the Territories have "twinners," or parallel individuals, in our world. Twinners' births, deaths, and (it is intimated) other major life events are usually paralleled. Twinners can also flip, but only share the body of their alternate universe's analogue.
The Eyes of the Dragon
#2828.0The Eyes of the Dragon is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, first published as a limited edition slipcased hardcover by Philtrum Press in 1984, illustrated by Kenneth R. Linkhauser. The novel would later be published for the mass market by Viking in 1987, with illustrations by David Palladini. This trade edition was slightly revised for publication. The 1995 French edition did not reproduce the American illustrations; it included brand new illustrations by Christian Heinrich. At the time of publication, it was a deviation from the norm for King, who was best known for his horror fiction. This book is a work of epic fantasy in a quasi-medieval setting, with a clearly established battle between good and evil, and magic playing a lead role. The Eyes of the Dragon was originally titled Napkins.
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
#2929.0The Drawing of the Three is the 24th book published by Stephen King; it was his 20th novel, and the 15th novel under his own name. The book was released by Grant in May of 1987, and is the second volume of the Dark Tower series. The book was illustrated by Phil Hale. Following Roland Deschain's confrontation with the man in black, the gunslinger descends from the Cyclopean Mountains to the Western Sea, where he is attacked by lobstrosities from the ocean. As his health wanes, he must travel the shoreline in search of three doors that will allow him access to Keystone Earth, from where he encounters people – including the drug-addict Eddie Dean, the schizophrenic Susannah Holmes, and the psychopathic Jack Mort – who are tied to his journey to the Dark Tower.
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
#3030.0The Waste Lands (subtitled "Redemption") is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, the third book of The Dark Tower series. The original limited edition hardcover featuring full-color illustrations by Ned Dameron was published in 1991 by Grant. The story begins five weeks after the end of The Drawing of the Three. Roland, Susannah, and Eddie have moved east from the shore of the Western Sea, and into the woods of Out-World. Several months have passed, and Roland’s two new tet-mates have become proficient gunslingers. Eddie Dean has given up heroin, and Odetta’s two selves have joined, becoming the stronger and more balanced personality of Susannah Dean. But while battling The Pusher in 1977 New York, Roland altered ka by saving the life of Jake Chambers, a boy who—in Roland’s where and when—has already died. Now Roland and Jake exist in different worlds, but they are joined by the same madness: the paradox of double memories. Roland, Susannah, and Eddie must draw Jake into Mid-World then follow the Path of the Beam all the way to the Dark Tower. But nothing is easy in Mid-World. Along the way our tet stumbles into the ruined city of Lud, and are caught between the warring gangs of the Pubes and the Grays. The only way out of Lud is to wake Blaine the Mono, an insane train that has a passion for riddling, and for suicidal journeys.
Needful Things
#3131.0Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. The story is about a shopkeeper who runs his business by exchanging goods for money and mysterious deeds performed by the customer. According to the cover, it is "The Last Castle Rock Story". It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston. The story begins with the character of Leland Gaunt opening a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires: a prized baseball card, a healing amulet. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little "deed," usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control and soon the entire town is doing battle with itself. Only Sheriff Alan Pangborn suspects that Gaunt is behind the population's increasingly violent behavior.
Gerald's Game
#3232.0Gerald's Game is the 31st book published by Stephen King; it was his 26th novel, and the 21st novel written under his own name. The book was released by Viking in May of 1992. The novel, along with Dolores Claiborne, was originally conceived as part of a larger work to be entitled In the Path of the Eclipse. The story begins with Jessie Burlingame and her husband Gerald in the bedroom of their secluded cabin in western Maine, where they have gone for an off-beat romantic weekend. Gerald, a successful lawyer with an aggressive personality, has been able to reinvigorate the couple's sex life by handcuffing Jessie to the bed. Jessie has been into the game before, but suddenly balks. As Gerald starts to crawl on top of her, pretending her protests are fake, she kicks him in the stomach and in the groin, and he then falls from the bed to the floor, hits his head, has a heart attack, and dies. Jessie is alone in the cabin and unable to move or summon help. There is nothing to do but see if anyone shows up. As days pass and Jessie becomes more desperate, she must face a traumatic incident in her childhood to overcome the circumstances and leave the bedroom alive.
Dolores Claiborne
#3333.0Dolores Claiborne is a 1992 psychological thriller novel by Stephen King. The novel is narrated by the title character. Atypically for a King novel, it has no chapters, double-spacing between paragraphs, or other section breaks; thus the text is a single continuous narrative which reads like the transcription of a spoken monologue. It was the best-selling novel of 1992 in the United States. The novel is about Dolores Claiborne, an opinionated 65-year-old widow living on the tiny Maine community of Little Tall Island, who is suspected of murdering her wealthy, elderly employer, Vera Donovan. The novel is presented as a transcript of her statement, told to the local constable and a stenographer. She tells police the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband, Joe St. George, thirty years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera's physical and mental decline and of her loyalty to an employer who has become emotionally demanding in recent years.
Insomnia
#3434.0Insomnia is a horror/fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, first published in 1994. Like It and Dreamcatcher, its setting is the fictional town of Derry, Maine. The novel tells the story of Ralph Roberts, who has been having trouble sleeping since his wife died. Each night he awakens a little earlier until he's barely sleeping at all. During his late night vigils and walks, he observes some strange things going on in Derry, Maine. He sees colored ribbons streaming from people's heads. He witnesses two strange little men wandering the city under cover of night. He begins to suspect that these visions are something more than hallucinations brought about by sleep deprivation. Ralph and his friend, widow Lois Chasse, become enmeshed in events of cosmic significance.
Rose Madder
#3535.0Rose Madder is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1995. It deals with the effects of domestic violence (which King had touched upon before in the novels It, Insomnia, Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, and many others) and, unusually for a King novel, relies for its fantastic element on Greek mythology. In the novel, Rosie Daniels flees from her husband, Norman after fourteen years in an abusive marriage. During one bout of violence, Norman caused Rosie to miscarry their only child. Escaping to a distant city, Rosie establishes a new life and forges new relationships. Norman Daniels, a police officer with a reputation for cruelty, uses his law-enforcement connections to track his wayward wife.
Desperation
#3636.0Desperation is a horror novel by Stephen King. It was published in 1996 at the same time as its "mirror" novel, The Regulators. It was made into a TV film starring Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt and Steven Weber in 2006. The two novels represent parallel universes relative to one another, and most of the characters present in one novel's world also exist in the other novel's reality, albeit in different circumstances. Desperation is a story about several people who, while traveling along the desolated Highway 50 in Nevada, get abducted by Collie Entragian, the deputy of the fictional mining town of Desperation. Entragian uses various pretexts for the abductions, from an arrest for drug possession to "rescuing" a family from a nonexistent gunman. It becomes clear to the captives that Entragian has been possessed by an evil being named Tak, who has control over the surrounding desert wildlife and must change hosts to keep itself alive. They begin to fight for their freedom, sanity and lives before realizing that if they are ever to escape Desperation, they must trap Tak in the place from which he came.
The Regulators
#3737.0The Regulators is a novel by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was published in 1996 at the same time as its "mirror" novel, Desperation. The two novels represent parallel universes relative to one another, and most of the characters present in one novel's world also exist in the other novel's reality, albeit in different circumstances. The story takes place in the fictional town of Wentworth, Ohio, a typical suburban community. On Poplar Street, an autistic boy named Seth has gained the power to control reality through the help of a being known as Tak. Soon, Poplar Street begins to change shape, transforming from a quiet suburb into a wild west caricature based on what Seth has seen on his television. Meanwhile, the other residents of the street are being attacked by the many beings that Seth's imagination is creating, due to Tak's control over them. These residents are forced to work together to stop Seth and Tak from completely transforming the world around them and stop Tak before he kills anyone else. Seth's imagination is heavily influenced by a western called The Regulators and a cartoon called MotoKops 2200. The novel contains excerpts from scripts for both.
Bag of Bones
#3838.0Bag of Bones is a 1998 novel by Stephen King. It focuses on author Mike Noonan who has been suffering from severe writer's block for four years after the death of his wife. A dream inspires him to return to the couple's summer retreat in western Maine, a lakeside house called Sara Laughs. Shortly after arriving, Noonan is caught in the middle of a custody battle involving the daughter of an attractive young widow and the child's enormously wealthy grandfather. He also discovers that Sara Laughs is haunted and that his late wife, Joanna, still has something to tell him. The novel won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1998, and the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1999.
Black House
#3939.0Black House is a horror novel by American writers Stephen King and Peter Straub. Published in 2001, it is the sequel to The Talisman. This is one of King's numerous novels, which also include Hearts in Atlantis and Insomnia, that tie in with the Dark Tower series. Black House was nominated to the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. The novel is set in Straub's homeland Wisconsin, rather than in King's frequently used backdrop of Maine. A series of murders has begun to plague the town of French Landing, Wisconsin. The murderer is dubbed "The Fisherman", due to a conscious effort by the killer to emulate the methods of serial killer Albert Fish. Like Fish, French Landing's killer targets children and indulges in cannibalism of the bodies. Two victims have already been discovered as the story opens, with a third awaiting discovery. The nature of the crimes, and the local police's inability to capture the killer, have led people all over the region to become more anxious with each passing day, and certain elements of the local media exacerbate the situation with inflammatory and provocative coverage. After the events of The Talisman, Jack Sawyer has repressed the memories of his adventures in The Territories and his hunt for the Talisman as a twelve-year-old boy, though the residue of these events has served to subtly affect his life even after he has forgotten them. Jack grew up to become a lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department, where his professionalism and uncanny talent have helped him establish a nearly-legendary reputation. When a series of murders in Los Angeles are traced to a farm insurance salesman from French Landing, Wisconsin, Jack cooperates with the French Landing Police to capture the killer. While in Wisconsin, Jack is irresistibly enraptured by the natural beauty of the Coulee Country, echoing his reaction to The Territories as a child. When he later intrudes upon a homicide investigation in Santa Monica, certain aspects of the crime scene threaten to revive his repressed memories. He subsequently resigns from the LAPD, and he moves to French Landing to enjoy his early retirement. When the Fisherman begins to terrorize French Landing, the police all but beg "Hollywood" Jack Sawyer for his assistance and are surprised when he flatly refuses. Memories of the Santa Monica event threaten to overwhelm Jack, and he fears that involving himself in the investigation may break his sanity. When a fourth child is taken by the Fisherman, events no longer allow Jack to remain aloof. It quickly becomes apparent to him that the Fisherman is much more than a serial killer. In fact, he is an agent of the Crimson King, and his task is to find children with the potential to serve as Breakers. The fourth victim, Tyler Marshall, is one of the most powerful Breakers there has ever been, and he may be all the Crimson King needs to break the remaining beams of the Dark Tower and bring an end to all worlds. As the Fisherman also proves capable of "flipping" into The Territories, Jack Sawyer is the only hope of not just French Landing, but all existence.
From a Buick 8
#4040.0From a Buick 8 is the 46th book published by Stephen King; it was his 39th novel, and the 33rd under his own name. The book was released by Scribner on 24 September 2002. The novel is a series of recollections by the members of Troop D, a police barracks in Western Pennsylvania. After Curtis Wilcox, a well-liked member of Troop D, is killed by a drunk driver, his son Ned begins to visit Troop D. The cops, the dispatcher and the custodian quickly take a liking to him, and soon begin telling him about the "Buick 8" of the title. It is in some sense a ghost story in the way that the novel is about a group of people telling an old but unsettling tale about a Buick Roadmaster. And while the Buick 8 is not a traditional ghost, it is indeed not of their world.
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
#4141.0Wolves of the Calla is the 48th book published by Stephen King; it was his 40th novel, and the 34th under his own name. The book was released by Grant on 4 November 2003, and is the fifth volume of the Dark Tower series. It was the first volume to be written after King's brush with death, and was the first of the final three volumes published in a ten-month span. The illustrations were done by Bernie Wrightson. In this volume of the series, Roland and his tet have just returned to the path of the Beam upon discovering that they are being followed by a group of inexperienced trackers. The trackers are from the town of Calla Bryn Sturgis, and they desperately need the help of gunslingers. Once every generation, a band of masked riders known as the Wolves gallop out of the dark land of Thunderclap to steal one half of all the twins born in the Callas. When the children are returned, they are roont, or mentally and physically ruined. In less than a month, the Wolves will raid again. In exchange for Roland’s aid, Father Callahan—a priest originally from our world—offers to give Roland a powerful but evil seeing sphere, a sinister globe called Black Thirteen which he has hidden below the floorboards of his church. Not only must Roland and his tet discover a way to defeat the invincible Wolves, but they must also return to New York so that they can save our world’s incarnation of the Dark Tower from the machinations of the evil Sombra Corporation.
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
#4242.0Song of Susannah is the 49th book published by Stephen King; it was his 41st novel, and the 35th under his own name. The book was released by Grant on 8 June 2004, and is the sixth and penultimate volume of the Dark Tower series. The artwork in this book was done by Darrel Anderson. At this point in the series, the Wolves have been defeated, but the tet faces yet another catastrophe. Susannah Dean’s body has been usurped by a demon named Mia who wants to use Susannah’s mortal form to bear a demon child. Stealing Black Thirteen, Mia has traveled through the Unfound Door to 1999 New York where she plans to give birth to her chap, a child born of two mothers and two fathers who will grow up to be Roland’s nemesis. With the help of the time-traveling Manni, Roland and Eddie plan to follow Susannah while Father Callahan and Jake will find Calvin Tower, owner of the vacant lot where a magical rose grows: a rose that must be saved at all costs. But despite ka-tet’s intentions, ka has its own plans. Jake, Callahan, and Jake’s bumbler companion are transported to New York to follow Susannah, while Eddie and Roland are tumbled into East Stoneham, Maine, where they are greeted by Eddie’s old enemy, the gangster Balazar. But it isn’t just bullets that Roland and Eddie must brave. Soon they will meet their maker, in the form of a young author named Stephen King.
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
#4343.0The Dark Tower is the 50th book published by Stephen King; it was his 42nd novel, and the 36th under his own name. The book was released by Grant on its author's 57th birthday – 21 September 2004 – and is the seventh and concluding volume of the Dark Tower series. The book was illustrated by Michael Whelan. At the outset of the final installment of this saga, Roland’s ka-tet is scattered across several different wheres and whens. Susannah Dean (still in the clutches of the demon Mia) is in End-World’s Fedic Dogan: a chamber of horrors where magic and technology can be merged and where a monstrous half-human child can be brought forth into the world. Eddie Dean and Roland Deschain are in Maine, 1977, searching for the site of otherworldly walk-in activity, and a possible doorway back to Mid-World. Jake Chambers, Father Callahan, and the bumbler Oy are battling vampires and low men in New York’s Dixie Pig Restaurant, circa 1999, a place where long pig is definitely on the menu. As soon as the tet reunites, they must journey to the headquarters of Thunderclap’s Wolves in order to discover exactly why the Crimson King’s minions have been culling the brains of young children for twin-telepathy enzymes. The answer is more horrible than they realized, and bears directly upon Roland’s quest to reach the Dark Tower.
The Colorado Kid
#4444.0The Colorado Kid is the 52nd book published by Stephen King; it was his 43rd novel, and the 37th under his own name. The story begins on an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues, and it's more than a year before the man is identified. And that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still . . .?
Cell
#4545.0Cell is the 53rd book published by Stephen King; it was his 44th novel, and the 38th under his own name. The book was released by Scribner on 24 January 2006. In this novel, Clayton Riddell, a struggling artist from Maine who is estranged from his wife, Sharon, and his young son, Johnny, has landed a graphic novel deal in Boston. As he prepares to celebrate, somebody, somewhere, triggers "The Pulse," a signal sent out over the global cell phone network that instantly turns all cell phone users into bloodthirsty, homicidal creatures. Civilization crumbles as the Pulse's victims – dubbed "phone crazies" or simply "phoners" – attack each other or any unaltered people in view.
Lisey's Story
#4646.0Lisey's Story is the 54th book published by Stephen King; it was his 45th novel, and the 39th under his own name. The book was released by Scribner on 24 October 2006. Lisey's Story is the story of Lisey Landon, who is the widow of a famous and wildly successful novelist, Scott Landon. The book tells two stories--Lisey's story in the present, and the story of her dead husband's life, as remembered by Lisey during the course of the novel. It has been two years since her husband's death, and Lisey is in the process of cleaning out her dead husband's writing area. A series of events occurs that causes Lisey to begin facing certain realities about her husband that she had repressed and forgotten. As Lisey is stalked, terrorized, and then mutilated by an insane fan of her husband's, Lisey begins recalling her husband's past--how he came from a family with a history of horrible mental illness that manifested as either an uncontrollable homicidal mania or as a deep catatonia, how he had a special gift, an ability to transport himself to another world, called by Scott Landon "Boo'ya Moon," how Scott Landon's brother was murdered by his father when his brother manifested an incurable insanity, and finally how Scott Landon murdered his father to save his father from the madness that had finally taken him over. As the novel progresses we see the complexity of Lisey's marriage to Scott, and their deep and abiding love for each other. The novel takes place over a very short period of time--a matter of days--but the real story is told in Lisey's remembrances of her husband, her ability to harness his special power to save herself (and her sister), and finally to find the gift that her dead husband had left for her in Boo'ya Moon--a story just for Lisey. Lisey's story.
Blaze
#4747.0Blaze is the 55th book published by Stephen King; it was his 46th novel, and the seventh written under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. The book, described as a "trunk novel" like it's predecessor The Regulators, was released by Scribner on 12 June 2007 with an introduction by King. The story concerns the mentally-challenged small-time crook Clayton "Blaze" Blaisdell as he attempts to carry out a high-profile kidnapping planned by his now-deceased partner-in-crime George Rackley. Interwoven through the crime story are flashbacks to Blaze's past, revealing the many experiences that shaped the man he would become.
Duma Key
#4848.0Duma Key is the 56th book published by Stephen King; it was his 47th novel, and the 40th under his own name. The book was released by Scribner on 22 January 2008, and expands on the short story "Memory." The novel is King's first to be set in Florida and Minnesota. In this story, recently divorced Edgar Freemantle moves from Minnesota to Florida, after a construction accident in which he loses his right arm, to begin what his psychiatrist describe as a "geographic cure". He rediscovers his love of painting and finds that he is good at it but his paintings seem to have something "more" to them. On Duma Key he also finds a new friendship with Wireman, a kindred spirit seeking refuge there as a caretaker for Elizabeth Eastlake. Elizabeth's past also contains painful memories that have been reawakened bringing all of them together to face an evil entity named Perse.
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole
#4949.0The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (also known as Dark Tower 4.5) is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, first published on February 21, 2012 by Grant as a limited edition and later published by Scribner, with ebook and audiobook editions. As part of The Dark Tower series, it is the eighth novel, but chronologically set between volumes four and five. In this new addition to the saga, Roland Deschain and his ka-tet—Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler—encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies. As they shelter from the howling gale, Roland tells his friends not just one strange story but two . . . and in so doing, casts new light on his own troubled past. In his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death, Roland is sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape-shifter, a “skin-man” preying upon the population around Debaria. Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, the brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast’s most recent slaughter. Only a teenager himself, Roland calms the boy and prepares him for the following day’s trials by reciting a story from the Magic Tales of the Eld that his mother often read to him at bedtime. “A person’s never too old for stories,” Roland says to Bill. “Man and boy, girl and woman, never too old. We live for them.” And indeed, the tale that Roland unfolds, the legend of Tim Stoutheart, is a timeless treasure for all ages, a story that lives for us.
Joyland
#5050.0Joyland is a novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 2013 by Hard Case Crime. It is King's second book for the imprint, following The Colorado Kid (2005). The first edition was released only in paperback, with the cover art created by Robert McGinnis and Glen Orbik. A limited hardcover edition followed a week later. The novel was nominated for the 2014 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original. In the novel, Devin Jones, after realizing his romantic life is not going in the direction he'd hoped, decides to take a summer job at an amusement park. There he makes friends with Tom Kennedy and Erin Cook, also summer hires at Joyland, which years before had been the scene of the murder of a young woman named Linda Gray whose ghost is said to be seen at the Horror House. He also befriends a young boy, named Mike Ross and his mother, Annie. Their lives all become entwined when Devin decides to investigate the mystery of Linda Gray's unsolved murder by the "Carny Killer."
Doctor Sleep
#5151.0Doctor Sleep is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King. Doctor Sleep is the 61st book published by Stephen King and it is his 50th novel, and the 43rd under his own name. It is a sequel to his novel The Shining (1977), released in September 2013. King stated that it is "a return to balls-to-the-wall, keep-the-lights-on horror". The book reached the first position on The New York Times Best Seller list for print and ebook fiction (combined), hardcover fiction, and ebook fiction. Doctor Sleep won the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals. On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the "steam" that children with the "shining" produce when they are slowly tortured to death. Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep." Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.
Mr. Mercedes
#5252.0Mr. Mercedes is a crime novel by American writer Stephen King. It is his 62nd novel and the 44th published under his own name. He calls it his first hard-boiled detective book. It was published on June 3, 2014. On June 10, 2014 the author described Mr. Mercedes on Twitter as the first volume of a projected trilogy. The novel won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and Goodreads Choice Awards for 2014 in the "Mystery and Thriller" category. The novel begins with many unemployed people standing a queue for a job fair when a Mercedes car plows into the crowd, killing eight people and severely injuring many. Bill Hodges, a recently retired detective from the local police department, receives a letter from an individual claiming to be the person responsible for the job fair incident; referring to himself as "Mr. Mercedes". Hodges is divorced, lonely and fed up with his life, occasionally contemplating suicide. The Mr. Mercedes incident had taken place at the end of Hodges' career and was still unresolved when he retired. Mr. Mercedes knows details of the murder and also mentions Olivia Trelawney, from whom he had stolen the Mercedes. Olivia had committed suicide soon after the massacre, out of guilt. Hodges continues to investigate the case instead of turning the letter over to his former police colleague, Pete Huntley. Brady Hartsfield, who is revealed to be Mr. Mercedes, is an emotionally disturbed psychopath in his late-twenties who lost his father when he was eight years old. When he was a young boy, he killed his mentally handicapped brother at his mother's prompting. He now lives and has an incestuous relationship with his alcoholic mother and works in an electronics shop and as an ice cream seller. Riding in an ice cream truck, his second job enables him to observe Hodges and his neighbors, amongst them is seventeen-year-old Jerome Robinson, who does a variety of chores for Hodges. During his research about the wealthy Olivia Trelawney, Hodges meets her sister Janey, who hires him to investigate Olivia's suicide and the theft of the Mercedes. Shortly after Hodges begins to work for Janey, the two begin dating. Hodges finds out, with the help of bright, computer savvy Jerome, how Mr. Mercedes stole the car and then drove Olivia (whom he made contact with through his job at the electronics shop) to suicide by leaving eerie sound files on her computer that were set to go off at unpredictable intervals, which worked on her feelings of guilt. Olivia, when hearing these sounds, believed them to be the ghosts of the victims of the job fair massacre. At the funeral of Janey and Olivia's recently deceased mother, Hodges meets Janey's unpleasant relatives, amongst them Janey's emotionally unstable cousin Holly. After the funeral, Mr. Mercedes blows up Hodges' car, not realizing that Hodges wasn't in it. However, Janey was inside and is killed in the explosion. Hodges feels remorse, and becomes even more eager to solve the case without the help of the police. Holly joins Hodges and Jerome in the investigation. Hartsfield accidentally kills his mother with a poisoned hamburger which he had prepared for Jerome's dog. With her rotting body in their house, he plans to kill himself by blowing himself up at a giant concert for young girls by feigning the need for a wheelchair and utilizing explosives hidden inside the wheelchair. Jerome, Hodges, and Holly manage to uncover Hartsfield's real identity and search his computer hard drives. They eventually deduce that Hartsfield's target is the concert and the trio rush to the concert venue to stop him. Hodges begins to suffer from a heart attack and is unable to venture into the concert with Holly and Jerome, but urges them to press on. Holly locates Hartsfield and delivers several harsh blows to his head using Hodges' "Happy Slapper" – a sock filled with ball bearings. Hartsfield is left bleeding and unconscious on the concert floor. Hodges (who had been saved by concert staff), Holly, and Jerome have a picnic to discuss the recently transpired events. Hodges has learned that he will not be criminally charged for his actions regarding the Hartsfield investigation. They have received a medal from the city, congratulating them on their work. Hartsfield wakes up in the hospital, asking for his mother.
Finders Keepers
#5353.0Finders Keepers is a crime novel by American writer Stephen King, published on June 2, 2015. It is the second volume in a trilogy focusing on Detective Bill Hodges, following Mr. Mercedes. The book is about the murder of reclusive writer John Rothstein (an amalgamation of John Updike, Philip Roth, and J. D. Salinger), his missing notebooks and the release of his killer from prison after 35 years. In 1978, petty criminal Morris Bellamy robs and murders acclaimed author John Rothstein for ending his famous Runner trilogy on an unsatisfactory note. Prior to the murder, Rothstein had been in reclusive retirement, never publishing another novel but continuing to write in private. More important than the money he steals, Morris covets Rothstein's invaluable notebooks, which contain the last two books of the Runner series. After the murder, Morris hides Rothstein's cash and Moleskine notebooks in a trunk buried near a creek behind his childhood home. Before he can read the manuscripts, Morris is sentenced to life in prison for another crime. Rothstein's murder is never solved. In the present day, young Peter Saubers now lives in Morris's old home. His father, Tom, was disabled in the events that opened Mr. Mercedes, and the Saubers family is on the brink of financial and emotional ruin. Peter discovers the buried trunk and secretly uses the money to keep his family afloat for the next few years, while gradually becoming engrossed in the Rothstein notebooks. When the money runs out, Pete, now a teenager aware of the true value of his discovery, comes up with a plan to profit from the notebooks. At the same time, Morris, now nearly sixty, has finally been granted parole. He goes to retrieve the buried trunk, only to find it empty. Morris is obsessed with finding the notebooks and learning the ultimate outcome of the Runner series. His search for the notebooks eventually leads him to Peter's family. As a deadly cat-and-mouse game begins, private detective Bill Hodges, the man who brought down the murderous Mr. Mercedes, is gradually drawn into the mystery of the unknown benefactor who helped the Sauberses through their rough patch. He knows young Pete is hiding something, but he doesn't know that the missing piece of the puzzle is the answer to the decades-old cold case – John Rothstein's murder.
End of Watch
#5454.0End of Watch is a crime novel by American writer Stephen King, the third volume of a trilogy focusing on Detective Bill Hodges, following Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers. Retired detective Bill Hodges, who now with his sidekick Holly runs the private investigation agency Finders Keepers, is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Given only months to live, he finds himself drawn into a recent spree of suicides. All the dead are connected by a common thread: each of them have, in the past, been in contact with Brady Hartsfield, the notorious Mr. Mercedes who, six years ago, plotted to blow up a rock concert venue packed with teenagers. Hodges and Holly thwarted Brady's plans and left the killer in a vegetative state from which he never regained consciousness. However, many of the staff in the hospital where Brady now resides believe that he is recovering at an impossible rate, and that he may be faking his injuries to avoid trial ... except that everyone who gets too close to proving this suspicion seems to have died by suicide. After his head injury, Brady found himself gaining new abilities, including the power to move small objects with his mind and the ability to enter the bodies of certain people susceptible to his mental domination. Still confined to his hospital bed, Brady has used his power to finish his murderous work by creating a hypnotic video game app that heightens the user's susceptibility. Once the users are in Brady's control, he will use the app to dominate their minds and persuade them to commit suicide. The targets are the very teenagers who escaped death when Brady's plan to destroy the concert venue failed. Brady's ultimate goal, however, is to lure Hodges into the game and exact revenge. Brady uses the bodies of both a corrupt neurosurgeon and a hospital librarian as puppets and red herrings to do his dirty work and to misdirect the police while he makes his final move to destroy Hodges, all the while unaware that Hodges is already racing the clock against his own death.
Sleeping Beauties
#5555.0Sleeping Beauties is a novel by American writers Stephen King and his son Owen King, released on September 26, 2017. The book was first mentioned during a promotional appearance on the CBC radio program q. Of the novel, Stephen King stated, "Owen brought me this dynamite idea and I've collaborated a couple of times with Joe. I'm not going to say what the idea is because it's too good." The novel was officially announced in June 2016 and takes place in a women's prison in West Virginia during a strange mystical occurrence that causes all the women in the world to fall asleep. It primarily follows Clint and Lila Norcross, a husband and wife who live in the impoverished Appalachian town of Dooling. Clint works as a psychiatrist at the local women's prison while Lila serves as the town's sheriff. The two find themselves facing an epidemic that causes women to fall into a deep sleep where they are cocooned in a strange material. Attempts to open the cocoon and wake the women only result in them reacting in a homicidal manner. As a result, the remaining women try desperately to remain awake by any means necessary while some men react by trying to set fire to the cocoons or accusing women of bringing the sickness upon themselves. One woman, Evie, seems to be the key to the entire bizarre affair.
The Tommyknockers
#5656.0The Tommyknockers is a 1987 science fiction novel by Stephen King. The story revolves around Writer Bobbi Anderson, who becomes obsessed with digging up something she's found buried in the woods near her home. With the help of her friend, Jim Gardener, she uncovers an alien spaceship. Though exposure to the Tommyknockers who piloted the alien craft has detrimental effects on residents' health, the people of Haven develop a talent for creating innovative devices under its increasingly malignant influence. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.
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