Life after Stephen King...

Author
Discussion

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Friday 27th June 2014
quotequote all
I'm not going to beat around the bush......i'm a huge King fan and have currently read about 95% of all of his released work.

The question is, what do I turn to when i've read them all?

As I commute on the train, I read a book a week on average so i've gone through them all quite quickly. I love his style of writing and I love the horror genre but don't really know which author to try next for something similar.

If anyone has any thoughts, i'm open to suggestions?

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Monday 30th June 2014
quotequote all
Yeah i'll give Koontz a try then I think.

I've read Joyland and Dr Sleep, just not Mr Mercedes as yet. I'm tyring to ration the books of his which I've not yet read rather than simply do them one after the other. I also need to read "From a Buick 8" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon".

Overall though, my favourites so far have been:

The Gunglinger series - absolutely brilliant
It
The Stand
Under the Dome

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Monday 30th June 2014
quotequote all
towser said:
Nezquick said:
Yeah i'll give Koontz a try then I think.

I've read Joyland and Dr Sleep, just not Mr Mercedes as yet. I'm tyring to ration the books of his which I've not yet read rather than simply do them one after the other. I also need to read "From a Buick 8" and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon".

Overall though, my favourites so far have been:

The Gunglinger series - absolutely brilliant
It
The Stand
Under the Dome
I'm interested in reading his alternative history of the Kennedy assassination ( think it's called "11.22.63" ). Is it any good?


Well worth a read. TBH it wasn't what I expected at all but it's certainly one of his more thought provoking books.

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Monday 30th June 2014
quotequote all
matt666 said:
The Stand unedited version - I read this on my Kindle so didn't know what I was getting myself into, the paperback is about 1400 pages I think. 20 minutes reading and it's still not gone up by even 1%, that's when I knew it would be taking me a while to get through this one! Great book though and worth the effort. I've read a lot of Stephen King over the years. Presume you've read his Richard Bachman books? They're as good if not better than his mainstream ones.

Also some of the classics have a similar tone, 1984, Lord of the Flies, Koontz is a good shout as is James Herbert and Thomas Harris.
Yes i've read his Bachman books. They're very good but from the style, it wouldn't have taken a genius to work out it was him - no wonder he was rumbled. For instance, he's the only writer i've come across who uses teh phrase "full dark" and that's included in one of the Bachman books (can't remember which).

The full version of The Stand is epic. One of the best "good v evil" books i've ever read.

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
quotequote all
I believe the original version (released 1978) was just over 800 pages. The full version was released in 1990.

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
Yes, Lisey's Storey was terrible. Not one of his best. I also didn't rate Gerald's Game either.

Just started "Odd Thomas" by Dean Koontz (about half way through now) and i'm liking it. I think Koontz may be my next go-to author.....for now. I certainly like his style of writing.

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Friday 29th August 2014
quotequote all
towser said:
So this thread got me back into reading some Stephen King.

Mr Mercedes - 7/10, some great characters in that novel. Story was a little predictable for my liking. Ending maybe a little too neat. But he built the tension nicely.

Dr Sleep - 5/10, never felt there was any real jeopardy. Long book to tell a relatively short story. Liked how it built on the foundations of the shining. But not a patch on the original.

11-22-63 - halfway through so reserving judgement. Most enjoyable of the 3 so far. Perfect example of Stephen King the master storyteller!! Good concept. Great ideas.
I think i'd agree with you about Mr Mercedes; I did enjoy it.

Dr Sleep, i'd probably have scored that 7 or 8 rather than 5.

I've not read 11-22-63 for a while but I recall that it was a brilliant book. Certainly a different take on the whole Kennedy assassination.

I've just read Dolores Claiborne - it was one of the last few i'd not read (mainly because I didn't really fancy it tbh) but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. 8/10.

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Tuesday 23rd September 2014
quotequote all
ali_kat said:
Looking behind me at my bookcases, try

Dean Koontz
James Herbert
Peter Straub
Tried a few Koontz and Straub books and I like those. Very similar to King and well written.

Not tried Herbert as yet though - I may give one a go.

Thanks

Nezquick

Original Poster:

1,461 posts

126 months

Wednesday 18th November 2015
quotequote all
I'm about 2/3 of the way through Revival at the moment. An excellent read so far!