There are only so many ways you can introduce Stephen King, time and again, so how about this for something new and bold: he might be the most consistently entertaining author of all time. Or if that’s too hot a take, maybe he’s the most broadly entertaining author of the last 50 years… or the last 52 years, because going back to his first published novel takes you that far into the past.
The matter of quantity over quality is a thing if you tackle his whole body of work, sure, because it’s huge, and not everything he’s had published is a winner. Yet most of his books have something to offer, and many of his best ones have, like, a lot to offer. The following are among his best, but are highlighted here because, most importantly, they’re the most entertaining Stephen King books. There are classics excluded below, yet if you want novels of his that are especially compelling and easy to digest in surprisingly short periods of time, they’re particularly worth tackling (if you haven’t tackled them already).
10
‘Needful Things’ (1991)
Overall, Needful Things stands as a surprisingly important Stephen King book, even if it might not always be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of The Shining, Cujo, and most of the other soon-to-be-addressed novels. It’s about the town of Castle Rock (also the setting of Cujo) being reshaped by a mysterious figure named Leland Gaunt, who opens the titular shop, and begins selling items that are too good to be true to the people who make up the town’s population.
Buying these items involves various contracts that the townsfolk have to carry out, and these acts are what tear things down and apart, bit by bit. It’s morbidly fun to watch everything deteriorate over the span of about 700 pages, and it’s probably more entertaining having things drawn out to that extent, versus a hypothetical Needful Things where things only play out over 300 or 400 pages, and then get resolved much more hastily.
9
‘The Dead Zone’ (1979)
The Dead Zone was a pivot from horror, to some extent, relatively early on in Stephen King’s writing career, because it’s got more of a focus on the sci-fi and thriller genres. It’s about a man who gains the ability to see visions (including glimpses of the future) after an accident, and how he uses such abilities to assist in the hunt for a serial killer before he then sets about trying to assassinate a dangerous man who aspires to one day be president.
It feels a little like Stephen King had two ideas he crammed into the one book, with one thread in The Dead Zone ultimately being more compelling and well-developed than the other. Still, throwing in both keeps you on your toes, as a reader, and might well help The Dead Zone in never feeling boring or predictable, which is worth quite a lot when the book’s ultimately decently lengthy.
8
‘Carrie’ (1974)
Needful Things and The Dead Zone have already been highlighted, and some even chunkier Stephen King novels are going to get mentioned shortly, but here’s Carrie, which qualifies here because it’s straight-to-the-point and fairly easy to read, as a result. Like, those longer novels are also surprisingly easy to get through, make no mistake, yet there’s also something to be said about a quick read that’s tempting to devour in just a sitting or two.
This was King’s first published novel, and it’s about… well, it’s Carrie. You know Carrie. Everyone knows Carrie. It’s about a particularly hellish high school experience for the titular character, and what happens when she’s pushed to the edge while harboring telekinetic powers that are gradually getting stronger. Carrie is one of the simplest Stephen King novels, and a genuinely great entry point, both because it’s a quick read and because it comes first in his whole bibliography.
7
‘Salem’s Lot’ (1975)
After Carrie came Salem’s Lot, which was a good deal more ambitious, not to mention considerably lengthier. You could finish it fairly quickly if you were committed, but it’s more than twice as long as Carrie, and there are a good deal more characters, since it has a focus on an entire town being torn apart by a supernatural threat, a little like Needful Things and another King novel about being under a dome or something.
Even if it’s a bit of a slow-burn getting to the vampires, Salem’s Lot does still spend a lot of time on that “burn” part of “slow-burn,” too.
It’s a vampire novel, which might’ve been a spoiler once upon a time, but not so much now. It takes a little while before it really starts feeling vampire-related, though not so early that you’ve got the whole thing ruined if you know vampires will show up. Even if it’s a bit of a slow-burn getting to the vampires, Salem’s Lot does still spend a lot of time on that “burn” part of “slow-burn,” too, rest assured.
6
‘Under the Dome’ (2009)
Under the Dome scratches the same itch as both Needful Things and Salem’s Lot. It’s got more by way of pages than either of those, and it’s probably even darker as well, since it’s about a town that’s already got a good deal of bad things going on inside it before the titular dome comes down, out of nowhere, and cuts everyone inside off from the outside world.
The area most of the action takes place in is tiny, and also, Under the Dome has everything falling apart very fast, since it takes place over the course of about a week. Neither of these things feel like restrictions, though, because everything here is very compelling until things fall apart maybe a tad in the final stretch of the book, albeit not as much as some people might have you believe.
5
‘IT’ (1986)
It’s sprawling to an arguably ridiculous extent, but IT is also a blast. The consistency might be lacking compared to some of the other books here, yet so much of this working surprisingly well is remarkable. You take the good with the bad here, and most of this book about people battling a demonic entity as kids and then later in life, as adults, is really good (and only a few parts are bad and/or questionable, really).
Part of that engagement might be in a more detached way, as in it’s compelling to see Stephen King keep juggling everything he does while upping the stakes and jumping back and forth between two timelines. The ambition here, considering IT is just the one book, is remarkable. For better or worse (and more for better than worse, honestly), there’ll probably never be another book like IT.
4
‘Misery’ (1987)
Keeping everything contained to one small town in Under the Dome was one thing, but what about a novel that’s set almost entirely inside one room? Stephen King has technically done it more than once, because Gerald’s Game also exists, alongside Misery, but Misery does the confined premise and limited cast of characters (is it still a cast in a book? Help!) thing better than Gerald’s Game did several years later.
It’s also a bit like Carrie in that you probably know the deal with Misery and its plot, but in case you don’t: there’s an author, and a devoted fan of that author, and the fan takes him hostage and makes him continue a series he didn’t want to keep writing. It’s a great premise for a psychological horror/thriller story, and it definitely isn’t miserable to read Misery, since it’s darkly engaging/entertaining for its entire duration.
3
‘The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three’ (1987)
It’s one part of a great series, sure, and anyone who likes Stephen King is best off reading that entire series, but if you want a highlight from The Dark Tower that feels particularly consistent and engaging, it’s probably The Drawing of the Three. Roland starts to build his ka-tet in this one (a group of companions to accompany him on his quest), and he does so by going through doors that take him to different points in history in another universe to his.
That universe is our one, and hopping between universes becomes increasingly important as The Dark Tower (as a saga/series) goes on. It’s really played with in a big way in The Drawing of the Three, though, and it kicks everything up a notch in terms of entertainment value. The Gunslinger is a more-than-solid introduction to the entire saga, but The Drawing of the Three is where it becomes much easier to feel emotionally invested in the whole thing.
2
’11/22/63′ (2011)
Stephen King sincerely tackles the premise of “Why not go back in time to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy?” in 11/22/63, and makes it work bizarrely well. And that is the premise of the novel. That summarizes essentially the whole story, in just a handful of words, yet in no way is that story just a handful of pages, with 11/22/63 getting pretty close to 1000 all up.
It’s a high-concept premise that is executed well, somehow. There is technically more to it beyond just preventing an assassination, but that is what is built to, and that’s always the endgame. It’s engaging getting to that point, though, with the time travel being the kind where the main character can only go back to 1958. Him waiting around and preparing for that titular day is genuinely/undeniably riveting, though, in a way that’s hard to explain.
1
‘The Stand’ (1978)
The Stand is long but rewarding, standing at about 800 pages if you read the originally published version, and then about 400 pages longer than that if you tackle the uncut version from 1990. It saw Stephen King putting a post-apocalyptic spin on a Lord of the Rings-style epic, and he himself admitted that’s kind of what he was going for, in case that sounds like a strange or overblown description.
All the moving pieces, various characters, and shake-ups in the narrative keep The Stand very entertaining throughout, albeit it is fairly dark, and some of its heavier moments are hard to call “fun.” Still, it’s engaging, not to mention difficult to put down, once picked up. And if you’re reading a novel that hovers around the 1000-page mark, that’s honestly probably the main thing you want.
The Stand
- Release Date
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1994 – 1994-00-00
- Directors
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Mick Garris