Stephen King novels that are underrated!

[mhatchett]

What is it like in Opposite World?

My favorite too, also my first. Hey Slayn, have you heard anything about the new Cameron Red Knight book?
MDH

[slayn666]

My favorite too, also my first. Hey Slayn, have you heard anything about the new Cameron Red Knight book?
MDH

Amazon UK has an October release date, though I have no idea how accurate that may be (probably not very as I can't find any other source that says more than '2015').

Also a Gollancz blog post from last year seems to indicate it will the be the last in the series, though I seem to recall Cameron himself saying there would be five (or more) books; it could be I'm parsing the info in the blog wrong and it's just the conclusion to events in The Fell Sword rather than the conclusion to the series.

[mhatchett]

I'll keep an eye out thanks. I have to say, the 2nd book, though enjoyable, felt very much like a bridge book. I've been reading his other series, The Ill Made Knight. Have you started that one?
Mike

[subie09lega]

I really like Christine but I haven't seen it on too many Best of lists.

[Dave1442397]

Many people seem to dislike The Talisman and Black House, but I just reread both of them over the past few days and had really forgotten how much I liked them. I hope they do write the third book this year.

[srboone]

I really like Christine but I haven't seen it on too many Best of lists.

It's in my top 10 favorites list, I just don't think it's underrated.

[racerx45]

The ones for me are all of The Dark Tower books. I know that one or two will show up on a top ten list from time to time and that’s great. What puts these on my underrated list is how many Stephen King fans I meet who have never read them.

[Sock Monkey]

I'll go with Lisey's Story. I loved this book but every time I bring it up to someone they always give me this blank stare like they mentioned they were a Bruce Willis fan and then I proceeded to tell them how much I liked Hudson Hawk.

(That was for illustration purposes only. Lisey's Story is WAY better than Hudson Hawk, which I do not like at all, but I have seen more times than I care to admit.)

[srboone]

(That was for illustration purposes only. Lisey's Story is WAY better than Hudson Hawk, which I do not like at all, but I have seen more times than I care to admit.)

Same here. But there's something about colossal disasters like HH that keeps me glued to the screen!

[marduk]

I'm glad nobody mentioned "Cell."

[Martin]

I'm glad nobody mentioned "Cell."

I can honestly I have never thought of "Cell" and "Underrated" together.

[divemaster]

My input for underrated novel is Roadwork. Very few seem to like it very much, and most consider it the "weakest" of the Bachman books.

But to me, Roadwork is one of King's best stories. It's one thing to be able to tell the story of a man falling apart, but quite another to enable to reader to experience that disintegration. I love the way King described the "circuit breaker" Dawes had in his head. His way to compartmentalize his life--his outside actions with how he dealt with his wife and his boss and his responsibilities; all the while the other side of his brain driving him to unspeakable actions. He's not a bad man. Just a broken man who can't deal with the compounding losses of his life. It's the proverbial snowball headed for hell. First his son, and then the highway, and then his job and his wife...

Does Dawes think he can defeat the highway? Of course not. Does he think that his actions with regard to his job will magically set things right or teach somebody a lesson? Of course not. He's not delusional--he just trips the circuit breaker to buy a few more days of sanity.

Don't we all have a circuit breaker of some sort in our brains? One side of our mind tells us what we want to hear about ourselves while the other drives us to act as The Stranger (as Billy Joel sang about).

(Oh, and for the record, put me in the camp that hated Insomnia.)

[markgunnells]

I've always enjoyed From a Buick 8, but I know it's quite hated.