The man can write, the Talisman/Black House books are awesome, and the Dark Tower series is beyond inspirational.

Roland Deschain and Walter O' Dim (and his many, many aliases) have to be two of my favorite characters ever.

Anyone else share the love with me?

I've never read any of his books.

Oh yes Stephen King is very much a literary inspiration but I find his more touching and frightening works to be his tamer ones like The Body and The Green Mile. Both are bittersweet and are even have good film adaptations.

I am not long past re-reading Carrie for the umpteenth time. I usually find his characters to be very realistic. Most probably my favourite author

Well, I've never read Stephen King, but I've gotta give him some credit for writing the book Shawshank Redemption is based off of :D

One of my favorite authors. You get an entirely different appreciation for the Dark Tower series when you've read his other works, since so many of them are interwoven.

Particular favorites are Father Callahan from "Salem's Lot", and Dinky Earnshaw from "Everythings Eventual"

By the way, one of the best opening lines ever: "The man in black fled across the dessert, and the gunslinger followed."

I loved The Dark Tower, Insomnia was okay and The Stand was a great read.

Loved The Stand and Cell. Read a few others but their names escape me.

I'm currently reading Hearts in Atlantis. Just finished Green Mile. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors in the fact that you can't really depend on something reoccurring in his stories (Except for the references to the Dark Tower series).
My favorite stories of his have to be the Stand, The Long Walk, and many more.
So yes, I share the love.

Well i liked the Stand, but for me Stephen King cannot end a book, he weaves a great story but when it comes time to wrap it up, the endings alot of the time seem tacked on or rushed......for those who have read the Dark Tower books will know where my gripe comes from.

Well Stephen King can't do beginnings, I dont need to see the home life of every single character. Its like two parts new England travel guide one part horror story kind of like the aborted feotus of Bill Bryson and HP Lovecraft, or was the child the spawn of Edgar Allen Poe who was delivering milk at the time?

This analogy is grinding on badly, let me say that everything I have just criticised him for actually worked in the Stand the pages of sociological description and the overly complex description actually made the book for me. So yeah I have just cut the legs off my own arguement with the samuari sword of indeciscion...

Dark Tower and Tears of the Dragon were good as well..

I read part of Missery and the Running Man but... Misery was to slow and Running man devolved into this "Political Statement" nonsense. Rage was really good (Find it in the Bachman (SPELLING MAY BE WRONG) Books). Also Cell has been great (so Far).

Not Good:
I've never read any of his books.

Get out. Now.

His characterization is extremely well done, but plotwise the endings sometimes seem a little out of place, like he didn't plan the story before he wrote it especially with Bag of Bones.
My favorites would be Different Seasons which contain some of the "tamer," more mainstream stories, Misery and The Green Mile.

I've read almost every book by him, and read all but the latest book by Richard Bachman. He is the best horror/supernatural author I've read, but his son is catching up quite quickly.

Full List:
Carrie
Firestarter
Night Shift
Bag of Bones
Salem's Lot
Hearts in Atlantis
Different Seasons
Needful Things
Lisey's Story
Cell
The Stand
The Dark Tower
The Green Mile
Cujo (which was depressing as all hell)
Dolores Claiborne
Misery
The Dark Half
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
The Colorado Kid
Christine
From A Buick 88
Bare Bones
Danse Macabre
The Dead Zone
Everything's Eventual
The Shining
Insomnia

While I haven't read many of his books (I've read The Shining, Salem's Lot, and a few of his short stories, and liked all of those), I do have a lot of respect for the man especially since he's spoken out against video game censorship.

I just got one of his books for Christmas. It. The first Stephen King book I've read but already I know hes a brilliant writer. It took 4 years to write and has over 1300 pages!

There's IT, the Shining, and the Eyes of the Dragon.

I am not a huge reader but I would say that I really enjoyed the Dark Tower series. Roland is the man, and not a rat!

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

This is one of my favorite single lines from any book, ever. The Gunslinger is in my top ten greatest works of fiction of all time. I couldn't tell you how many times I've read it.

The Stand and The Eyes of the Dragon are also very good. But, I think that much of his more recent work has been lacking. I gave up on him after Insomnia...

Arsen:
The man can write, the Talisman/Black House books are awesome, and the Dark Tower series is beyond inspirational.

Roland Deschain and Walter O' Dim (and his many, many aliases) have to be two of my favorite characters ever.

Anyone else share the love with me?

Have you read the Dark Tower comic books? If you love the series, you'd like the comics as well... they're very well written, and the artwork is fantastic...

October Country:
His characterization is extremely well done, but plotwise the endings sometimes seem a little out of place, like he didn't plan the story before he wrote it especially with Bag of Bones.
My favorites would be Different Seasons which contain some of the "tamer," more mainstream stories, Misery and The Green Mile.

That's how he writes. He said that "he never plots anything out...". He sits down, writes whatever comes to his head, and then conclusions happen.

Yog Sothoth:

Arsen:
The man can write, the Talisman/Black House books are awesome, and the Dark Tower series is beyond inspirational.

Roland Deschain and Walter O' Dim (and his many, many aliases) have to be two of my favorite characters ever.

Anyone else share the love with me?

They are good, however they are a little darker than what I originally envisioned the series as. Good, though I pictured the characters a little differently.

Have you read the Dark Tower comic books? If you love the series, you'd like the comics as well... they're very well written, and the artwork is fantastic...

Arsen:

Yog Sothoth:

Arsen:
The man can write, the Talisman/Black House books are awesome, and the Dark Tower series is beyond inspirational.

Roland Deschain and Walter O' Dim (and his many, many aliases) have to be two of my favorite characters ever.

Anyone else share the love with me?

They are good, however they are a little darker than what I originally envisioned the series as. Good, though I pictured the characters a little differently.

Have you read the Dark Tower comic books? If you love the series, you'd like the comics as well... they're very well written, and the artwork is fantastic...

hmmm, your quote came out a bit funny, no worries though, I got it...

The look of the characters in the comics took me a little getting used to as well, but eventually I warmed to the vision and really got into it...

He's one scary, scary dude.....and insanely awesome.

Love his short stories especially. Almost finished reading Just After Sunset, his newest collection of them, and...wow. If you get a chance then check it out, I recommend 'N.' and 'Graduation Afternoon' of any of the stories.

'N.' offers a chilling look into OCD behavior and insanity, and ultimately leaves you wondering if such a thing is more like a virus that can seep into you, or if dark beings are truly only kept at bay by counting steps and making sure everything is in it's place.

'Graduation Afternoon' on the other hand, it's...it's something that is really quite chilling when you read the conclusion. A must read in my opinion.

IT was a brilliant read, as was Carrie and Salem's Lot. I've read the first few Dark Tower Books. Fantastic author.

Ive read most of his books but my favorites are Salem's Lot, Misery, Cell, and The Shining. There was a book by him i think that involved a running contest and if you stopped you got killed, does anyone know the name of this book or is it different authors?

I find King boring these days. Every time I read one of his newer novels, it seems like he's trying to sell a movie. He's become like Lucas. Lucas is more concerned with selling toys than making a movie that's actually good. King is more concerned with his books being filmed than writing a good book. That has been my impression.

I'm on the fourth Dark Tower book right now. I'm glad to see something really, unequivoacally original after a long time of boring samey stories.

I'm definately a fan of King's, and I recently finished "Cell" for the third or fourth time. I like it because it's a "zombie" story with a twist you never really see anywhere or anytime before.

I'm assuming people have seen Quantum Leap : The Boogieman?

Fudj:
Well i liked the Stand, but for me Stephen King cannot end a book, he weaves a great story but when it comes time to wrap it up, the endings alot of the time seem tacked on or rushed......for those who have read the Dark Tower books will know where my gripe comes from.

Agreed, I love his books, but he always seems to spend too much getting to the ending, and when we get there it's not all that great. Take for example the dark tower, which you mentioned. I read these religiously and couldn't wait for the final release, I was so excited to see what was going to happen (except I had to skim some parts... you know the random ass useless jargon he puts in his books just to make them 2000 pages), and then NOTHING HAPPENS... we're at the freaking start all over, nothing's changed and he still hasn't accomplished anything.

Besides the point he's still my favorite author and I look forward to more books, I'm currently reading Duma Key, it's been good so far halfway through.

Couldn't get into the Gunslinger, but I love The Stand. I read the unabridged version for a school project, and - ugh - that's my only regret. Reading an unabridged version of a Stephen King book on a deadline - not fun. I loved the book and I rented the TV mini-series, but it wasn't as good. They mixed Rita and Naidene's characters - and everything was a little off.

I loved the opening sequence with the 80's music and all the dead bodies. Pretty much sums up the beginning of the book.

"M-O-O-N! That spells NEBRASKA!"

I read The Gunslinger a while back, with the intention of beginning the Dark Tower series. However, after finishing the book, I decided against it. To be perfectly honest, I found Rolland to be so unlikeable, I honestly didn't care what happened to him. A man willing to let a young boy fall to his apparent death so he can pursue some personal vendetta is scum, in my opinion. I realize that much of Rolland's behavior and character was caused by conditioning from the way his father brought him up (I also think, from what I read in the book, his father was scum; who else would teach their child that petty revenge is a more worthy cause than protecting others?) The thing is I just don't believe that's a good enough excuse.

As for Stephen King, I've enjoyed a lot of his other works. I particularly like his short stories, and I have Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. I also own copies of several of his longer works, but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet, save for The Running Man (which, rest assured, is nothing like the cheesy Schwarzenegger movie.)

Similar to King, I've also read a couple of Dean Koontz's works; Darkfall and Tick-Tock. The former I found fairly interesting, particularly with its take on voodoo. The latter wasn't so great; the supporting character was this weird woman with one of those deranged zen-ish personalities; you know the type, the ones that don't seem to be living in reality or seem to believe that the world works however they think it should work.