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Stephen King: Novels, Novellas or Short Stories?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!, Jul 25, 2008.

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Stephen King: Novels, Novellas or Short Stories? Which is his best medium?

  1. Novels

    6 vote(s)
    30.0%
  2. Novella

    2 vote(s)
    10.0%
  3. Short Story

    12 vote(s)
    60.0%
  1. kokane_muthashed

    kokane_muthashed Active Member

    Rose Madder's up there, as is Gerald's Game, but I gotta go with Insomnia because it was 4-times the size of the other two (hence 4-times the suck).
     
  2. joe

    joe Active Member

    I think "Insomnia" was to Stephen King what "Metal Machine Music" was to Lou Reed, i.e., their proof that they could put out an intentionally shitty piece of work and still have it sell.
     
  3. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    This is one of those polls that doesn't have a clear winner, in my mind. I voted for short stories, because I started listing my favorites and found more short stories than novels or novellas. Although, it was close.

    I think Different Seasons is one of the greatest works ever produced. Like someone noted, three of which became major motion pictures. Two of those are must-see classics.

    Dolan's Cadillac is one of my favorite stories. Autopsy Room Four was another one I enjoyed and found myself reading again and again.

    I'm currently reading Duma Key and I'm not sure if I like it yet. I'm really behind on my SK reading, and I'm trying to catch up.
     
  4. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    My first one was 'Salem's Lot. We were visiting my aunt's and one of my female cousins had just finished reading it. I sat down with it because no one would throw the baseball with me, and I was instantly hooked. The rest of the time I was in high school, I had one of his books with me. Classwork done, pull out The Shining. Study hall, crack open The Stand. Summer? Skeleton Crew, Different Seasons.

    The last of his work that I really enjoyed was The Green Mile series. Shame the serial novel thing didn't really catch on mainstream. I thought it was really cool.

    I read the first installment of the Dark Tower series and didn't really care for it. Outside that, I read everything up to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and enjoyed all of them. Bought The Cell when it came out and I got through the first 25 pages or so and put it down. Didn't give Perdido Key, or whatever the last one was, a second look. I don't know if that's him or me, but I just don't have a taste for that sort of reading any more.

    Wasn't Rage pulled from circulation after Columbine? I looked around 2-3 years back for a copy of the collection that it was in, and it seemed nowhere to be found.
     
  5. Dickens Cider

    Dickens Cider New Member

    You should give Cell another chance. I enjoyed it immensely.
     
  6. Colton

    Colton Active Member

    Dickens Cider: Ditto on The Cell.
     
  7. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    Correction: I never did read Carrie. Now that I think of it, that's a real shame, if for no other reason than King was living in a trailer and wrote it in the laundry room early in the mornings so as not to wake Tabitha. Helluva story there.
     
  8. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    Here's a third for Cell. I did the same thing as you novelist, I picked it up, read about 25 pages then lost interest. Then I gave it another shot and couldn't put it down. The beginning is kind of slow, but once it gets moving (pun intended), it gets moving.
     
  9. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    For my money, The Mist was a novella.

    He's at his best writing short(er) stories.

    I had to put The Shining down when Danny goes in the unlocked room and the hand touches his shoulder. Took about two weeks before I would pick it up again, and then I would only read when the sun was out.

    I started The Stand three or four times before I finally got into it. I, too, have since read the uncut version.

    Tossed Pet Sematary across the room when I finished it. Hated, hated, hated the ending.

    One of the best things of his that's in my collection is the "audiobook" Blood and Smoke, for which he originally wrote "1408," "In the Deathroom" and "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe." He reads the stories and 1408 is creepy as hell.
     
  10. Calvin Hobbes

    Calvin Hobbes Member

    OK, passive voice. Any other hairs you'd care to split?

    The point was, I've been reading it all week and I'm tired of it.
     
  11. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    Voted for the novels.
    The Stand, Firestarter, It, Christine, Dead Zone are among some of my favorites.

    It seems he lost some steam with the novella format as the Four Past Midnight collection seemed weak compared to Different Seasons and the Bachman Books.

    Although his short stories are strong - especially the Night Shift collection - his best novels are better.
     
  12. ArnoldBabar

    ArnoldBabar Active Member

    Yeah, Insomnia was tough to get through. He had a bad patch there for a few years.


    I own everything King has ever written, in original hardcover (except for a few things that weren't initially released in hardcover). Strangely, I think he's best in short form or in very, very long form (The Stand).

    I'd love to see someone make The Long Walk into a film, though I'm not sure you could get away with using the right age group. Probably have to make them older. Remaking the Japanese film "Battle Royale," which I'd love to see, faces the same issue.

    If anybody isn't familiar with his short stories and wants some great summer reading, you can't go wrong with the collections Different Seasons, Skeleton Crew or -- and I don't think anyone's mentioned it here yet -- the most recent, Everything's Eventual. That one has the story that won him the O Henry Award.
     
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