I haven't read many (only 2, it's not my genre), but I wholeheartedly recommend 11/22/63 - it seems different from his other books, and i really enjoyed the time travel theme.
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
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The Dark Tower series. I would also recommend reading Insomnia at some point in the process. The Talisman is another good story with ties to the Dark Tower. The Dark Tower links a lot of King's stories over his career, including The Stand.
The series really is King's magnum opus, the culmination and gathering point of all his stories.
He explained right after when people got salty about it:
Did Epstein traffic young girl? Yes, of course. Is there a client list? Doubtful. Conspiracy fodder.
I've actually been deliberately not using the phrasing "client list" for this exact reason. Trump admin people talked about a specific client list, of course, and there were surely multiple lists of people involved in Epstein's files, but the idea that there is a single master list of "clients," with people either on it and guilty, or not on it and innocent, is almost certainly false and probably a harmful oversimplification in both directions.
Perhaps it was poor judgement of him to try and convey that in a single sentence twitter post, in fact even using twitter at all.
Using Twitter is indeed always a mistake.
for someone who's all his deal is being able to write good, that sucked.
like a lot.
definitely didn't imply that there isn't a file named "Epstein's client list. docx", but there's no doubt that there's info about all his clients.
That's nitpicking. We know they know who fucked kids, and regardless, they said they had the "client list" and were going to release it, so semantics are irrelevant at this point.
It's just strange that, despite criticising Trump constantly, he'd choose this specific thing to defend him on.
He could have said nothing.
He could have reasonably assumed that "client list" is short hand for data on who the clients are; a list formed posteriori by the investigators.
But instead he said "people who think there is a way to learn the identity of the clients are crazy".
For a successful author, such poor grasp on the language is suspicious.
He's not defending Trump. He's just clarifying an important point of truth.
If you have the habit of wanting simplistic ways of looking, simply because in this case it'll make your enemies look bad (even if they are, as in this case, very very bad people), you should break that habit. Sooner or later it will turn on you.
I have no idea why so many people are snatching onto this thing as a reason to say bad things about him. I sort of suspect it is because of addiction to "gotcha!" and being able to be superior to people. He made an important point unclearly, and than clarified. That's okay. It's Twitter. He's way ahead of the curve even for a normal social network, and he's been using his Twitter account to publicly shit on Trump for quite a long time. You should give him credit for also being committed to precise truth at a time when it's not very popular at all.
Its not clarifying anything.
His point is only valid for the most literal pedantic interpretation of "client list". An interpretation that any author should be embarrassed about insisting on.
So, between the choices of
"this prolific and renowned author has literal interpretation and refuses to accept any other interpretation"
or
"author infamous for including child SA in a novel, supports defense of child predators"
I know which one I lean towards
I can recommend almost all of his stories. However, I kinda hate the way in which he writes. Meanwhile, Dean Kuntz's stories kinds suck, but I like the way he writes.
If Dean Kuntz rewrote a Stephen King story, that would he amazing.
I forget the name of it, but he wrote one about a guy who adopts an intelligent Golden Retriever who escaped from a scientific research center, and they're stalked by an intelligent, evil monkey who escaped from the same place. I liked it a lot.
Watchers I believe. They made a couple movies based off the book as well. They were not great, but the first one was still fun and campy if I'm remembering it well enough.
Watchers is the one, you are correct. Great book.
The Dark Tower really really really resonated with me as a teenager. As did It and the stand. I liked goosebumps and horror in general. In recent years I read the Stand again and I realised I have a lot of questions about the story I didn’t have when I was young. So it really depends when in life you read them.
But one I haven’t seen mentioned much is Tommyknockers. I really liked it and of course you follow an author. Running man, the longe walk I liked too. Rage is an odd read, maybe because of the context of its legacy.
I prefer his older books. But only because I don’t like Krimis (Crime fiction). Therefore Mr Mercedes and later the Holly stories don’t work for me as good as his older books.
Joe Hill (his son) writes similar stories located at the east cost. Initially I thought I read his dad’s work.
I saw the advert for the film of the long walk, it looks great
So I've only read probably 15 or 20 King books... which would be A LOT if you're talking about literally any other author. :)
He has this 8 book series called "The Dark Tower" which is phenomenal, but it ties together all of his books in a kind of "Steven King Universe" kind of way.
You can read it by itself, but when you realize there are all these hooks that tie into The Stand, and It, and Salem's Lot, and Insomnia... well, you get more out of all of it.
The Gunslinger
The Drawing of the Three
The Wastelands
Wizard and Glass
King's Car Accident
Wolves of the Calla
Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower
The Wind in the Keyhole
I separate out the two halves because, frankly, if I'm being brutally honest... the last 4 aren't as good. I think facing his mortality scared him and while he paced the first 4 books about 5 years apart (that cliffhanger ending on book 3 was a 5 year nightmare!) he really rushed through the rest of them and it shows. 😢
Dark Tower related, in the order I'm remembering them:
The Stand
It
Rose Madder
Insomnia
Desperation
The Regulators
The Talisman* - Not really, but the sequel ties it in.
Black House - Sequel to the Talisman that ties both to the Dark Tower
Talisman 3 - upcoming book. This year?
Salem's Lot
The Shining
Doctor Sleep
Eyes of the Dragon
Hearts in Atlantis
Fairy Tale* - Not really, but close enough!
I love the Dark Tower books but totally agree that the latter 4 are definitely weaker. I think it is worth a read despite the time commitment but it definitely slowly gets worse towards the end with a bit of a Meh ending. My second turn of the wheel was definitely better in terms of the ending though.
Also the majority of that list you've written there are fucking great books.
Insomnia I thought was a bit over rated but not really bad.
Hearts in Atlantis and Doctor Sleep were eh.
And Fairy Tale wasnt bad but also j don't think worth the time.
I was originally disappointed by the ending as well. But the more I thought about it, the more I came the conclusion that it's the only ending that works. Anything more... definite would've been a much bigger letdown, I'm sure. And besides... he now has the Horn!
I do agree. I still think the last few books aren't as strong as the first 4 which are fucking awesome but like you say the more I thought about it the more I like it.
It has been a couple of years and I think I will go through all the books again sometime within the next year and I am confident that my third go around will be even better again. I would genuinely enjoy reading how the horn would change things!
I read Hearts in Atlantis for what amounted to 2 pages. Hehe.
I think I can definitively say why the others are weaker too...
In the first four books, you have flashbacks to the young Roland and his friends, it's not a straight narrative. Book 4 is virtually all flashback, but you do have the "present day" narrative resolving the cliffhanger from book 3, and other bits with Jake, Eddie and Susan.
Starting with book 5, there are no flashbacks and barely any mention of previous times. It's like King used the flashbacks in 1-3 to foreshadow book 4, worked it all out of his system, and went "Welp, done with that now!"
5-7 are all straight narrative with nothing to break them up and I think they're lesser for it.
You have ALL these hints about the Young Roland and his friends and what happened at Jericho Hill and no payoff for any of it. I had figured that the final book would also have the Jericho Hill story and... nothing.
There was a comic book version, but that was written by someone else. I know, I know, King "approved" it, but it's not the same thing. :(
I heard there was a comic book but I hadn't checked it out, do you not think it is worth it?
I too also always wondered what happened at Jericho Hill.
Marvel did a BUNCH of Dark Tower comics, some adaptations, some original like Jericho Hill.
The art is amazing, but the original stuff is not King.
His old short story collections are absolutely top-notch. "Skeleton Crew" and "Night Shift." "Different Seasons" is also quite good but doesn't have the rawness and variety that the shorter stuff has.
Nightmares and Dreamscapes is another collection of short stories. I really enjoyed the short stories Dolan's Cadillac and the Langoliers.
Edit: The Langoliers might have been from a different collection.
Yeah. "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" was out of the cocaine days and into the normal period, so I don't have the same level of love for it as I do for the earlier stuff, but it still had some absolute gems. It was still in the golden age.
They also made a made-for-TV miniseries of "The Langoliers" which was far better and more accurate than it had any right to be. Whoever did the CGI for it clearly had basically nothing to work with and still did their best lol.
"Quitters, Inc." really stuck with me, from Night Shift
"The Last Rung on the Ladder," "The Mangler," "Gramma," "The Raft," "The Jaunt," "Graveyard Shift"...
I've only read one book by Stephen King and it was The Institute. It was really great, I couldn't put it down.
At some point I'd like to try The Stand and 11/22/63 which I've heard are both excellent :)
The Stand was amazing! I love post apocalyptic stuff and I was GRIPPED. It's really long though
The 1994 miniseries they made from it is pretty good. Also pretty bad since acting was still in the initial stages of being invented judging by several performances.
Haha I can imagine
So many people here loved the stand, so I guess I'll give the dissenting opinion that it was boring as fuck. There are huge swaths of that novel where nothing is happening.
His novels are very hit or miss for me, but he shines as a short story author. Even still there are 10+ of his pre-2000 books (I basically stopped reading him after the 90s) I'd recommend before the stand.
The Institute was such a great book. If you liked it, you should read Fairy Tale.
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I really like pretty much all of his books.
Some of my favourites are:
Desperation
The Regulators
Black House
The Talisman
The Shining
Needful Things
IT
11/22/63
I haven't read as much of his more recent stuff post 2010 and what I have was OK.
If I have to recommend one book (which is really fucking hard) I would say probably The Talisman. I think...... Hahaha
cheeky edit I just remembered Under The Dome, fucking loved that, we'll ignore the TV shoe however.....
Great list thanks
If you like post apocalyptic settings then you may like "Cell", I've hears that people didn't think that much of it but I think it is really good so maybe check it out if you want that kind of setting again :)
I just googled that's so far up my street! Thanks so much
Insomnia is pretty good. It also ties in with the Dark Tower saga, which is another recommendation, but you said nothing too long and heavy, and that series is exactly that. On the other hand, if post-apocalyptic is your cup of tea, Dark Tower's got that covered in droves.
i like a lot of them, but i remember Desperation really twirling my brain around.
a little more obscure than his other books, and very weird, but i expect it'll make an impression on you.
if i remember, it wasn't too long either.
If you haven't read it check out The Regulators too, it is a sort of tie in book to Desperation.
tak
thanks, yeah it looks good, I'll definitely check it out.
I liked Desperation quite a bit as well. Definitely one of my favorites from his work.
I've only read a few of his books but I remember The Shining, Pet Sematary, and Firestarter all being good.
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