Best work

[Tombrun]

Which of Stephen King's books is generally concidered his best? I don't know how you could measure such a thing, but artists usually has a "hit" or something that is considered his overall best work by critics and fans alike. What do you think is King's? Maybe "he's most well-known book" is what I'm looking for. I know The Stand has gotten a lot of praise and the same goes for It, but are those two really his best? Or is it just because they are long?

[Black Suit]

The Stand and It are the two books that are most widley known by the public..

other popular ones are Pet Sematary, and The Shawshank Redemption..

but overall, I think his most popular novel is IT .. only because it has scared so many people.. everyone is terrified of Pennywise, no matter what race, religion or skin color..

[photochik]

For me it's The Stand but there was a book out YEARS ago that rated all his work and they put It as #1 with The Stand a close second. IMO they are both fantastic!

[aptpupil]

I have to largely agree with "Black Suit". Generally speaking, "The Stand" is SK's best known, and most highly regarded novel, and probably rightly so. "IT" is also a great novel, and one that definitely influenced my own writing.

My personal favourite though, is the little-mentioned "The Dead Zone", maybe because, by accident, it was the first SK novel I ever read, and if I hadn't loved it so much I might never have become such a big fan.

[KateThornton]

I think his best work isn't always the most popular - I have read nearly all of his work, but I think "On Writing" is a superior piece.

However, for fiction, I have to go with "Insomnia" "Duma Key" and "Desperation" - but only because of personal taste & because reading "Desperation" at night in the Mojave Desert really scared the #### outta me.

Kate

[SebastiaanZ]

Well is this a thread about our subjective opinion about the best SK book or about which book is most widely known and appriciated by the general public. As another category you can of course add the critics, but I'm not a great fan of them.

Subjectively speaking, I think "Hearts in Atlantis" is one of his greatest works. For me, that's one of those stories that really gets to you and leaves you filled with emotion. It might not be the book with the highest "horror"-rate, though. I think it falls a little outside of the genre of his other books.

If you look at his works a bit more objectively, I think most readers in The Netherlands know SK best for It.

[finalfantasyVII]

For me his best besides 'The Stand' would have to be the 'Talisamn' and also the sequel 'Blackhouse' (just about as good)..of course then you have 'Hearts in Atlantis', 'The Green Mile' 'Duma Key'...it's really hard to pin this down....but I'll stick with the 'Talisman' thanks...FFVII

[Tombrun]

I was thinking more along the lines of objectivity. Subjectively, I guess everyone has their own favorite book, but objectively I was hoping there was one particular book which stands out as his most well-known or most loved. Just like Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", Michael Jackson's "Beat it"...or Britney Spear's "Oops I did it again" for that matter. It's not necessarily the artist's "best" work according to our personal tastes, but it's the work that we all know best. Maybe non-fans of SK is best suited to answer this question?

[elevelyn]

To me the Dark Tower Series is his best work to date. but other books really spoke to me: the long walk, eyes of the dragon and misery

[Prince of Darkness]

Hi,

The Dark Tower is Sai King's greatest work, and the greatest work of the 21st century, as JohnDalgish will inform a lot of people here.

Other than that, his best novel is The Stand.

Long days and pleasant nights