Hey Bookworms! Yes, for those who saw it before I editied it out, I almost broke one of the Content Creator Overlords rules and mentioned The Virus That Shall Not Be Named and I just laughed and forgot to edit out the 3-4 seconds while I collected my thoughts. Maybe I should make a blooper reel for the end of the year. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
You are my hero, Mike, and I’m a 75 year old woman!!!! Stephen King is my favorite author like you. Your rankings were totally on target. I watch all of your videos, and have learned a lot about fantasy, which is my new genre. Keep ‘‘em” coming! Regarding SALEM’s Lot I have a story. I was a young married woman in my early twenties and my mother in law told me about a book she was reading by an author named “King” that was so scary that she wore her rosary beads around her neck while reading! Of course, it was Salem’s Lot and I’ve been reading “King” ever since!
@@markymarkeaton I am a father, so yeah I don't think I will ever have the mindset to read this again. This line will stay with me forever: "his grief came for him fully... It came and dissolved him, unmanned him and took away whatever defenses remained."
Stephen King’s early horror was on a whole different level. Not just from a scare factor standpoint, but because of how emotional and human his stories and characters are. Love them.
I loved the tier list. For me The Dead Zone is one of my first Stephen King books. I heard it in audiobook format and I enjoyed it a lot. It had of course the psycho killer part I was looking for and the political aspect was just gold.
I wish i had read The Shining before seeing the movie because for personal reasons the movie resonates with me in a way that the book just couldn't live up. On the other hand Salems Lot is up there with I am Legend for vampire books and it also introduced me to Shirley Jackson who is another of my top tier authors.
I would definitely put The Shining higher than Salem's Lot. I just recently read The Shining and found it extremely disturbing, particularly the thoughts of Jack Torrence.
I stumbled on your channel due to my love of Stephen King. I have to tell you that I agree with virtually 100% of what you say about Stephen King’s books. The only disagreement I have is you rank the Dark Tower books much higher than I would. I sort of enjoyed The Gunslinger as an introduction. I liked The Drawing of the Three. I enjoyed The Wastelands up until the end, then I had to force my way through the rest of the series. Like you said in one of your videos, the ending of the last book turned me off of Stephen King completely. I avoided everything he wrote until I decided to see what he was going to do with the Kennedy assassination in 11-22-63 so I read it and lived it. Now I’m hooked again, going back and reading everything I missed previously. Keep up the great videos. I enjoy watching/listening since my friends don’t appreciate King like I do. It feels like I’m able to discuss his works by listening to you since you have about the same thoughts about his books as I do. Subscribed!
Shining in KA....Rage in shitters... everything else...spot on. Rage is very overrated, and roadwork is the worst I've ever read by him! Can't wait for more videos..new subscriber.
I really enjoyed Salem's lot and the Shining was also very good. I really didn't like The Stand - the plot was just moving too slowly and I felt like it wasn't going anywhere. After about 600 pages I had to give up and I'm glad I did because I heard a synopsis of the ending and I would've been really disappointed in that ending after reading 1,200 pages. Currently reading the Long Walk and at first I was really enjoying it but I feel it's starting to drag around the half way point but I have hope that it'll get better.
Out of this list Cujo is my favourite, being my second favourite SK book, but I would definitely agree that The Stand and Salem’s Lot are better books 😅
I'm reading the Dark Tower series for the first time, and I really REALLY disliked Book one. I hope I look back at it more fondly as I make my way through the last 6 books.
Carrie - Ka and then everything else Salems lot - Ka and then everything else The shining - Ka and then everything else Rage - Shitters The Stand - Ka and then everything else The long walk - you’ve got the shine The Dead zone - you’ve got the shine Firestarter - my heart burns there too Roadwork - you’ve got the shine Cujo - my heart burns there too The running man - dirty birdie The gunslinger - you’ve got the shine
Can you refer to a 'P-word' as Captain Trips without setting off the youtube alarms? Just a thought. The awkward pause when you almost said it has me laughing.
I've always loved Kings Richard Bachman books. Most have a grittiness and realism to them. Those are the books I think about the most from King. The Long Walk especially.
I feel like they have that pulp vibe too. The Long Walk is personally my favorite. Just today I finished reading Thinner, for me the book is three stars and a half, while The Long Walk is five stars.
It's really amazing that King didn't have one bad book in that era, The Stand would be the top of this list with Salems Lot and The Dead Zone rounding out the top 3. I would put Gunslinger at the bottom but still a good book.
Love the rankings Mike. The only book I disagree with you on is Rage. When it came out in The Bachman Books in the 80’s, I was roughly the same age as Charlie Decker. I identified with Decker in many ways. He obviously had issues that no one was equipped to help him with. At times funny, and mostly tragic. To me, Charlie Decker was the teenage Anti Hero of the 80’s.
I'm a massive King fan and I can also fully admit that there are a few of his books that aren't for me. I think that makes us more legitimate fans. For me, I didn't get on well with Revival. First third of the book I was getting on well, but something about the pacing wasn't right for me and it was hard to drag myself through to the end.
I have started reading Stephen King with the Bachman books and the more someone rates it lower than other King books the more excited I get for the rest of the journey.
That was my entry to Stephen King. I love The Gunslinger. I reread it last year so I could finish the DT series. Still working my way through the series slowly, but because of Mike, I have way too many things on my TBR lol. Love it though!
Yess,please continue with these tier-lists,I love this video.Don't know why but I can watch two hours long videos about Stephen King without being bored.😅Only read Carrie,Salem'S Lot and The Shining and I loved all three.
yeah same, i’ve only read the shining and i’m almost finished per semetary but i love watching videos about king and i’ve already bought myself salem’s lot and his new one fairy tale and honestly i’m so excited to read them
Rad status distinction with the 'Tiers' man. Props for going beyond the letters and stoked you implemented the Bachman stuff here. Your King perspective legit inspires and makes me reposition my own. Only alter take is that I adore ROADWORK, although it is very much a bummer of a tale. Super Bach in it's hopelessness.
Omg! Loved it!!! 😂 loved the ranking. I would’ve moved the shining up to Ka but I haven’t read all of SK’s novels to do a fair comparison. This is a great way to prioritize your SK TBR.
this is great. For me, I really enjoyed Roadwork, and I liked Running Man slightly more than Long Walk. I didn't like that King seemed to just end the book without any real conclusion. I need to give Salem's Lot a reread. I thought it was fine after my initial read, but nothing earth shattering
This is a massive endeavor, Mike, so thank you for providing this content for us. I've got a lot of catching up to do in order to attain the status of a Constant Reader!
I really enjoyed Roadwork. Probably because I work for a highway department, haha. Also loved the ending of The Running Man. Read it over 7 years ago, I still remember it.
Favorite SK book is the unabridged "The Stand" which I read in pocketbook format. Second favorite is "11/22/63 listened to on audiobook....loved it. I have never read "It."
You just made me want to reread Salem's Lot. I'm home with "unspecified virus of unknown origin" and first time I read it I found it boring, outdated. Not scary at all. I love Pet Sematary and The Shining, they frightened the hell out of me but Lot fell flat. We shall see tonight if the opinion holds. :)
This is so encouraging! I just read Carrie earlier this year and it was my first King. I didn't know at the time that it was his first book so I decided to read them all in print order. BIG task but I am excited. Glad to see you give many of the first dozen such praise. Time to dive into Salem's Lot! Wish me luck. Also, if you could read a King novel again for the first time what would it be??
Awesome list and video. Maybe you've done so already, but I think a video of top/best Stephen King villains would be a great companion to this series you're doing.
Excited to see a return to King content. I rank the cut and uncut versions of The Stand differently. IMO, King cut the wrong parts when he abridged it. There are things in the uncut version I would cut, but my favorite parts are omitted in the cut version, so I rank the cut version very low. Also, I think the story has some flaws anyway, so I don't rank it nearly as highly as you have (I know, that's an unpopular opinion!). Like you, I also rank The Gunslinger very high (probably just slightly higher than where you have it). I first read that book when I was 16 or 17, and the end melted my brain. I love the rest of the Dark Tower, and I think there are better books than The Gunslinger in the series, but, in some ways, I don't think the rest of the series ever paid off the promise of the end of The Gunslinger (don't get me wrong, I understand the problems people have with the end of the series, and I agree in some cases, but I still love the whole series...but, man, I love when King goes all metaphysical...it's one of the reasons I love IT). Excited to see the rest of these videos.
Sounds like I’ll be enjoying my time reading Salem’s Lot! I finished (and loved) Wizard & Glass a few days ago and plan to read Salem’s Lot before continuing the Dark Tower series. Great idea to break these videos down by years!
About Carrie, it's kind of a myth bc Tabitha only saved the first pages of a manuscript, not the whole thing, and then helped him with the "Teen Stuff" that Stephen had no clue about. Now the tier, this would be mine... Ka: Salem's Lot, The Stand, The Long Walk, The Gunslinger My Heart Burns There Too: The Shining, Cujo, Running Man You've got the Shine: Carrie, The Dead Zone Dirty Baby: Shitters: Rage Haven't read yet: Firestarter, Roadwork
My ratings are about the same. I haven't read the Long Walk (I will based on your rating) or road work. The Gunslinger is a good story after you've finished the Dark Tower. It makes more sense, especially with how the series "ends".
I am hoping The Tommyknockers ranked somewhere in the bottom. For 50 pages the heroine of the story was digging and digging and digging. She made a sandwich….which took a whole damn page, and then ate it, which took another. And she dug some more. I bailed after that. Now watching your vid…,,
I read The Long Walk after picking it up at Walmart, having literally no clue what it was about. I knew nothing about it and had never heard of it. When I started it I felt like the words were running away from me, like I had to keep up with the pace. After discovering the plot of the book, I was so surprised. I still wonder if the pacing was intentional or if it was just coincidental for me. Such a great book.
I really love your shelves, how you place your books, your books and those Pops, the Mugs and the other keepsakes.........Oh this was a tier list thing...........Uhhhhhhh......Any thoughts on the Dark Tower series????
My favorite book of Stephen King is The Shining. I just finished Firestarter and it was really good. Right now I'm reading Salems Lot and it is really suspenseful and spooky.
Thanks Mike for posting this. I’ve been a fan of Stephen king since I was a teenager. Think my favourite ones were written in the 80s late 70s. I was late in reading the dark tower series. Read it in the wrong order to begin with and missed books.Then at the beginning of last year I started to read the whole series from the gunslinger to the final dark tower book. Wow! What a journey. I just finished the last one 4 weeks ago. I’ve got my favourites. Your channel is great. You’ve got yourself another subscriber!
I recently did a twitch stream where i talked about my fave short stories from each collection book. it was a lot of fun. I was debating doing a ranking video from each decade where i roll a dice to determine the book's initial seeding like a ncaa bracket and then I pick my faves and have an overall winner, if that makes sense.
Just two points I disagree with (purely subjective of course): - The Long Walk is not S-tier worthy - Firestarter feels like a better version of Carrie, so definitely A-tier worthy
I agree with the chapter about room 217. I Read The Shining long after seeing the movie and already knew about the differences so was just reading it to say I did and Truthfully I didn't enjoy it, it was just too boring in most parts, BUT! That one chapter was the scariest shit I've ever read!!
I really think we need a prequel to Salem's lot covering the story of Hubert "Hubie" Marsten. thats sounds like it would make such and incredible story
I won't include them all, but my Ka And Everything Else Row is, in this order: Salem's Lot, The Long Walk, The Stand. My Heart Burns There Too consists of The Gunslinger and The Shining, also in that order. Great stuff Mike! Your S.K. videos are still my favorites!!!
I'm one of the people who disagrees about Roadwork. Personally, it's my favorite Stephen King book and the novel that made me want to be a writer. What makes it so powerful, for me, is its depiction of a man who has completely given up on his life, and resigned himself to a pointless, futile downward spiral because he cannot recover from the death of his son. He views his life as a failure, and only wants to barrel towards oblivion. It's like looking up at someone about to jump off a building, pleading with them to get off, and they ignore you.
I accidentally read The Drawing of the Three first as a teenager not knowing it was part of a series. It was fine to start there, a little out of the loop but not much. Tried to read The Gunslinger and failed multiple times, found it easier to digest by audiobook. Hope this helps anyone who is nervous about reading The Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger provides a lot of lore, but it is really dry and it is mostly a monologue. The reader is trapped in Roland's head and it can be boring. I recommend finding a way to get the information from the first book in whatever way works for you. Drawing is a very good book, one of King's best.
I have read and enjoyed a lot of King's books. However, something that a lot of King fans need to recognize, is that King is way, way past his prime as a writer. Much like my own favorite writer, Robert Heinlein, the early and middle work was thoroughly enjoyable (and sometimes even excellent), but later work degenerated into repetitive and derivative crap that hamfistedly pushed a message rather than sought to entertain. King's wheels fell off the cart in his later years and he became a vinegary, intolerant, d-bag selling new books due to name recognition and past greatness rather than due to any particular merit of the new books.
How many evil cats or cat torture books does he have, all? How about magical negroes? All? Okay okay how about authors being lead characters? Most? It is scary as a kid as a movie, read Dracula and that’s a better book and obviously was a rip off.
I was worried about the length of the stand, but people ought to know it's in chapters, 78 of them, but it makes for an surprisingly easy ready. The only problem I have it's like several novelette strung together but rotating, so at the start when you don't have the names in your head, it's like, who's this again.
Are you familiar with Kurt Vonnegut and his works? The sirens of titan and slaughterhouse five are some good examples of his more popular stuff. I'm a huge fan of his writing and would love to see a tier list if you're familiar. Best wishes and thanks.
Aewsome video idea! Salems lot is one of my favorites however I might be alone in not seeing where the "scary" is in those vampires, it came across as more emotionally scary to me.
Hey Bookworms! Yes, for those who saw it before I editied it out, I almost broke one of the Content Creator Overlords rules and mentioned The Virus That Shall Not Be Named and I just laughed and forgot to edit out the 3-4 seconds while I collected my thoughts. Maybe I should make a blooper reel for the end of the year. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
YES a blooper reel please LOL
You are my hero, Mike, and I’m a 75 year old woman!!!! Stephen King is my favorite author like you. Your rankings were totally on target. I watch all of your videos, and have learned a lot about fantasy, which is my new genre. Keep ‘‘em” coming!
Regarding SALEM’s Lot I have a story. I was a young married woman in my early twenties and my mother in law told me about a book she was reading by an author named “King” that was so scary that she wore her rosary beads around her neck while reading! Of course, it was Salem’s Lot and I’ve been reading “King” ever since!
Great story Kathy!
OMFG YESSSSSSS JUST WHAT I WANTED. Can’t wait to see how you feel about all the other decades of his works. Thanks for uploading!
I finally read Pet Sematery and my heart is shattered, that's real horror.
One of his best for sure! Haven’t been able to reread it since I read it
@@markymarkeaton I am a father, so yeah I don't think I will ever have the mindset to read this again. This line will stay with me forever:
"his grief came for him fully... It came and dissolved him, unmanned him and took away whatever defenses remained."
Best of king’s book I have read
RIght? I re-read King all the time, but I can NOT re-read Pet Sematery. It's too hard, to awful, too, too much.
This is a story I need to "nope" out of. I know it would be horrible for my headspace.
Salem's lot is definitely a great vampire book 😊🧛♀️🧛♂️
I went to Goodwill a couple weeks ago and found a ton of well loved Stephen King novels. I grabbed each and every one.
🙏🙏🙏
So glad you did this, Mike! Excited to see the rest of the videos!
My favorite glimpse is your mug "M-O-O-N. That spells coffee..." 😆 ☕️ 🌕
Stephen King’s early horror was on a whole different level. Not just from a scare factor standpoint, but because of how emotional and human his stories and characters are. Love them.
I loved the tier list.
For me The Dead Zone is one of my first Stephen King books. I heard it in audiobook format and I enjoyed it a lot. It had of course the psycho killer part I was looking for and the political aspect was just gold.
I wish i had read The Shining before seeing the movie because for personal reasons the movie resonates with me in a way that the book just couldn't live up.
On the other hand Salems Lot is up there with I am Legend for vampire books and it also introduced me to Shirley Jackson who is another of my top tier authors.
I loved the shining movie, and disliked the book unfortunately:(
Carrie, salems lot, the shining are the greatest debut trilogy in history. Never get tired of reading those three
I would definitely put The Shining higher than Salem's Lot. I just recently read The Shining and found it extremely disturbing, particularly the thoughts of Jack Torrence.
I stumbled on your channel due to my love of Stephen King. I have to tell you that I agree with virtually 100% of what you say about Stephen King’s books. The only disagreement I have is you rank the Dark Tower books much higher than I would. I sort of enjoyed The Gunslinger as an introduction. I liked The Drawing of the Three. I enjoyed The Wastelands up until the end, then I had to force my way through the rest of the series. Like you said in one of your videos, the ending of the last book turned me off of Stephen King completely. I avoided everything he wrote until I decided to see what he was going to do with the Kennedy assassination in 11-22-63 so I read it and lived it. Now I’m hooked again, going back and reading everything I missed previously. Keep up the great videos. I enjoy watching/listening since my friends don’t appreciate King like I do. It feels like I’m able to discuss his works by listening to you since you have about the same thoughts about his books as I do. Subscribed!
Shining in KA....Rage in shitters... everything else...spot on. Rage is very overrated, and roadwork is the worst I've ever read by him! Can't wait for more videos..new subscriber.
I really enjoyed Salem's lot and the Shining was also very good. I really didn't like The Stand - the plot was just moving too slowly and I felt like it wasn't going anywhere. After about 600 pages I had to give up and I'm glad I did because I heard a synopsis of the ending and I would've been really disappointed in that ending after reading 1,200 pages. Currently reading the Long Walk and at first I was really enjoying it but I feel it's starting to drag around the half way point but I have hope that it'll get better.
Out of this list Cujo is my favourite, being my second favourite SK book, but I would definitely agree that The Stand and Salem’s Lot are better books 😅
I'm reading the Dark Tower series for the first time, and I really REALLY disliked Book one. I hope I look back at it more fondly as I make my way through the last 6 books.
Carrie - Ka and then everything else
Salems lot - Ka and then everything else
The shining - Ka and then everything else
Rage - Shitters
The Stand - Ka and then everything else
The long walk - you’ve got the shine
The Dead zone - you’ve got the shine
Firestarter - my heart burns there too
Roadwork - you’ve got the shine
Cujo - my heart burns there too
The running man - dirty birdie
The gunslinger - you’ve got the shine
Love the ranking names, Mike the Shitters...absolutely love it!
Thankee-Sai ! read 65 of his Novels....and YES It's my real last name..lol
Just finished the stand it was amazing does not read like a typical long ass book. Baby can you dig your man.
Can you refer to a 'P-word' as Captain Trips without setting off the youtube alarms? Just a thought. The awkward pause when you almost said it has me laughing.
I must be one of the weird ones because Gunslinger is my favorite book in The Dark Tower
There's dozens of us! What a wild ride that book is!
I've always loved Kings Richard Bachman books. Most have a grittiness and realism to them. Those are the books I think about the most from King. The Long Walk especially.
Yes! The Long Walk and Running Man were my favs out of that collection.
I feel like they have that pulp vibe too. The Long Walk is personally my favorite. Just today I finished reading Thinner, for me the book is three stars and a half, while The Long Walk is five stars.
I'm not a huge fan of King, but I may try to read your top 1 or 2 of each segment... we'll see!
It's really amazing that King didn't have one bad book in that era, The Stand would be the top of this list with Salems Lot and The Dead Zone rounding out the top 3. I would put Gunslinger at the bottom but still a good book.
Only read Carrie of these books, but I'm definitely interested im checking out some of these soon
Pretty much the same as I would rank them, but salem's lot was so boring for me... Not bad just notgood enough
Yaay! Stephen King ! Awesome video. Can't wait for the next one.
Let me just move Salem's Lot and The Long Walk a little higher up my tbr...
This is how I’d rank the ones I’ve read so far:
6. The Shining
5. Firestarter
4. The Long Walk
3. ‘Salem’s Lot
2. The Running Man
1. Rage
Love the rankings Mike. The only book I disagree with you on is Rage. When it came out in The Bachman Books in the 80’s, I was roughly the same age as Charlie Decker. I identified with Decker in many ways. He obviously had issues that no one was equipped to help him with. At times funny, and mostly tragic. To me, Charlie Decker was the teenage Anti Hero of the 80’s.
are you including his collections? (night shift, different seasons, etc.)
I'm a massive King fan and I can also fully admit that there are a few of his books that aren't for me. I think that makes us more legitimate fans. For me, I didn't get on well with Revival. First third of the book I was getting on well, but something about the pacing wasn't right for me and it was hard to drag myself through to the end.
I really loved Revival but can see why others didn't.
@@mikesbookreviews that's the great thing about how varied and numerous his stories are isn't it, there's something for everyone ☺️
I've read most of these, except the Long Walk... looks like I need to add that to the tbr!
I have started reading Stephen King with the Bachman books and the more someone rates it lower than other King books the more excited I get for the rest of the journey.
I would never skip the gunslinger I really enjoyed it I don't understand the hate for the book 🤨🤔 it's definitely one of my favorites in the series
That was my entry to Stephen King. I love The Gunslinger. I reread it last year so I could finish the DT series. Still working my way through the series slowly, but because of Mike, I have way too many things on my TBR lol. Love it though!
I agree with you I liked The Gunslinger.
@@kaylaqueen6640 yeah I have many books on my tbr list thanks to mike 🙂👍
Love this as a tier list. It's less dogmatic than a top 10. My personal S tier would be Gunslinger, The Long Walk, Salem's Lot and The Shinning.
Yess,please continue with these tier-lists,I love this video.Don't know why but I can watch two hours long videos about Stephen King without being bored.😅Only read Carrie,Salem'S Lot and The Shining and I loved all three.
Keep reading him! None of those are even in my top 10! He has so many good books
yeah same, i’ve only read the shining and i’m almost finished per semetary but i love watching videos about king and i’ve already bought myself salem’s lot and his new one fairy tale and honestly i’m so excited to read them
Rad status distinction with the 'Tiers' man. Props for going beyond the letters and stoked you implemented the Bachman stuff here. Your King perspective legit inspires and makes me reposition my own. Only alter take is that I adore ROADWORK, although it is very much a bummer of a tale. Super Bach in it's hopelessness.
When I put Roadwork there I said “Jaime won’t like this” ha ha
Omg! Loved it!!! 😂 loved the ranking. I would’ve moved the shining up to Ka but I haven’t read all of SK’s novels to do a fair comparison. This is a great way to prioritize your SK TBR.
This is sooooo fun!
The stand is my favourite book from him but it was also the frist I read so kind of biases 😅
this is great. For me, I really enjoyed Roadwork, and I liked Running Man slightly more than Long Walk. I didn't like that King seemed to just end the book without any real conclusion. I need to give Salem's Lot a reread. I thought it was fine after my initial read, but nothing earth shattering
Salems lot and the stand are bucket list books for me to read
This is a massive endeavor, Mike, so thank you for providing this content for us. I've got a lot of catching up to do in order to attain the status of a Constant Reader!
Are you going to do the short story and Novella collections?
More king content. Always .Anyday.
Cujo will always be my sentimental favorite as it was my first King novel. Very underrated.
I really enjoyed Roadwork. Probably because I work for a highway department, haha. Also loved the ending of The Running Man. Read it over 7 years ago, I still remember it.
Favorite SK book is the unabridged "The Stand" which I read in pocketbook format.
Second favorite is "11/22/63 listened to on audiobook....loved it. I have never read "It."
You just made me want to reread Salem's Lot. I'm home with "unspecified virus of unknown origin" and first time I read it I found it boring, outdated. Not scary at all. I love Pet Sematary and The Shining, they frightened the hell out of me but Lot fell flat. We shall see tonight if the opinion holds. :)
I found the same thing, I’m reading the shining right now and im finding it way more scary or at least more tense than Salem’s Lot
Blasphemy!!! Lol It is my favorite book of all time, pet sematary is my #2 from King. Salems Lot and Shining I enjoyed, but neither crack my top 10
salems lot takes a long ass time to take off but once it does it doesn’t slow down
“Shitters” might be the best tier list option I’ve ever seen
This is so encouraging! I just read Carrie earlier this year and it was my first King. I didn't know at the time that it was his first book so I decided to read them all in print order. BIG task but I am excited. Glad to see you give many of the first dozen such praise. Time to dive into Salem's Lot! Wish me luck. Also, if you could read a King novel again for the first time what would it be??
Awesome list and video. Maybe you've done so already, but I think a video of top/best Stephen King villains would be a great companion to this series you're doing.
Always here for Stephen King content 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Excited to see a return to King content. I rank the cut and uncut versions of The Stand differently. IMO, King cut the wrong parts when he abridged it. There are things in the uncut version I would cut, but my favorite parts are omitted in the cut version, so I rank the cut version very low. Also, I think the story has some flaws anyway, so I don't rank it nearly as highly as you have (I know, that's an unpopular opinion!). Like you, I also rank The Gunslinger very high (probably just slightly higher than where you have it). I first read that book when I was 16 or 17, and the end melted my brain. I love the rest of the Dark Tower, and I think there are better books than The Gunslinger in the series, but, in some ways, I don't think the rest of the series ever paid off the promise of the end of The Gunslinger (don't get me wrong, I understand the problems people have with the end of the series, and I agree in some cases, but I still love the whole series...but, man, I love when King goes all metaphysical...it's one of the reasons I love IT). Excited to see the rest of these videos.
I could tier rank this video on Ka, and Then Everything Else.
Amazing, cant wait for the next ones🔥
"Spoiler Free" ...Cujo ending is way different, he had that killer attitude, he would kill kids, kill women,... ok thanks.
Sounds like I’ll be enjoying my time reading Salem’s Lot! I finished (and loved) Wizard & Glass a few days ago and plan to read Salem’s Lot before continuing the Dark Tower series. Great idea to break these videos down by years!
I hope you will enjoy Salem's lot ☺️
@@angelaholmes8888 Thanks! I'm excited hearing your praise for it too! 😊
About Carrie, it's kind of a myth bc Tabitha only saved the first pages of a manuscript, not the whole thing, and then helped him with the "Teen Stuff" that Stephen had no clue about.
Now the tier, this would be mine...
Ka: Salem's Lot, The Stand, The Long Walk, The Gunslinger
My Heart Burns There Too: The Shining, Cujo, Running Man
You've got the Shine: Carrie, The Dead Zone
Dirty Baby:
Shitters: Rage
Haven't read yet: Firestarter, Roadwork
As somebody who’s favorite King book is the Long Walk, it’s nice to see someone else who appreciates this amazingly sad book.
Salem’s lot is my favorite so far!
My ratings are about the same. I haven't read the Long Walk (I will based on your rating) or road work. The Gunslinger is a good story after you've finished the Dark Tower. It makes more sense, especially with how the series "ends".
I am hoping The Tommyknockers ranked somewhere in the bottom. For 50 pages the heroine of the story was digging and digging and digging. She made a sandwich….which took a whole damn page, and then ate it, which took another. And she dug some more. I bailed after that. Now watching your vid…,,
I read The Long Walk after picking it up at Walmart, having literally no clue what it was about. I knew nothing about it and had never heard of it. When I started it I felt like the words were running away from me, like I had to keep up with the pace. After discovering the plot of the book, I was so surprised. I still wonder if the pacing was intentional or if it was just coincidental for me. Such a great book.
i always love your Stephen King videos. I am looking forward to the next into the multiverse :D
Really dug the chronological approach!
Great stuff, thanks!👍😎
Brilliant video Mike.
I really love your shelves, how you place your books, your books and those Pops, the Mugs and the other keepsakes.........Oh this was a tier list thing...........Uhhhhhhh......Any thoughts on the Dark Tower series????
My favorite book of Stephen King is The Shining. I just finished Firestarter and it was really good. Right now I'm reading Salems Lot and it is really suspenseful and spooky.
Yes yes yes!!! This is great!!
Cujo was fantastic!
Thanks Mike for posting this. I’ve been a fan of Stephen king since I was a teenager. Think my favourite ones were written in the 80s late 70s. I was late in reading the dark tower series. Read it in the wrong order to begin with and missed books.Then at the beginning of last year I started to read the whole series from the gunslinger to the final dark tower book. Wow! What a journey. I just finished the last one 4 weeks ago. I’ve got my favourites. Your channel is great. You’ve got yourself another subscriber!
I recently did a twitch stream where i talked about my fave short stories from each collection book. it was a lot of fun. I was debating doing a ranking video from each decade where i roll a dice to determine the book's initial seeding like a ncaa bracket and then I pick my faves and have an overall winner, if that makes sense.
cool video Mike, love to see the rest of the list since i am currently getting into Stephen King.
Just two points I disagree with (purely subjective of course):
- The Long Walk is not S-tier worthy
- Firestarter feels like a better version of Carrie, so definitely A-tier worthy
I feel like the tier list is perfect for the multiverse. Always love me some King content
this list %100 dead on
I agree with the chapter about room 217. I Read The Shining long after seeing the movie and already knew about the differences so was just reading it to say I did and Truthfully I didn't enjoy it, it was just too boring in most parts, BUT! That one chapter was the scariest shit I've ever read!!
I really think we need a prequel to Salem's lot covering the story of Hubert "Hubie" Marsten. thats sounds like it would make such and incredible story
Can't wait for this! Can never have enough King content and you always have great insight that comes from a place of love 🙌
I won't include them all, but my Ka And Everything Else Row is, in this order: Salem's Lot, The Long Walk, The Stand. My Heart Burns There Too consists of The Gunslinger and The Shining, also in that order. Great stuff Mike! Your S.K. videos are still my favorites!!!
I think for me in this period Firestarter would be my least favourite and The Dead Zone my favourite. That might be controversial!
Yeah I have to agree about firestarter I didn't enjoy the book
I’m starting Dead Zone for the first time today I’m hyped
YES MORE KING CONTENT
Please keep the tier list
I'm one of the people who disagrees about Roadwork. Personally, it's my favorite Stephen King book and the novel that made me want to be a writer. What makes it so powerful, for me, is its depiction of a man who has completely given up on his life, and resigned himself to a pointless, futile downward spiral because he cannot recover from the death of his son. He views his life as a failure, and only wants to barrel towards oblivion. It's like looking up at someone about to jump off a building, pleading with them to get off, and they ignore you.
Can't wait to read Salem's Lot! Although, I'm surprised The Shinning wasn't higher on the list!
I accidentally read The Drawing of the Three first as a teenager not knowing it was part of a series. It was fine to start there, a little out of the loop but not much. Tried to read The Gunslinger and failed multiple times, found it easier to digest by audiobook. Hope this helps anyone who is nervous about reading The Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger provides a lot of lore, but it is really dry and it is mostly a monologue. The reader is trapped in Roland's head and it can be boring. I recommend finding a way to get the information from the first book in whatever way works for you. Drawing is a very good book, one of King's best.
I have read and enjoyed a lot of King's books. However, something that a lot of King fans need to recognize, is that King is way, way past his prime as a writer.
Much like my own favorite writer, Robert Heinlein, the early and middle work was thoroughly enjoyable (and sometimes even excellent), but later work degenerated into repetitive and derivative crap that hamfistedly pushed a message rather than sought to entertain.
King's wheels fell off the cart in his later years and he became a vinegary, intolerant, d-bag selling new books due to name recognition and past greatness rather than due to any particular merit of the new books.
Where do I start… I’m only familiar with his adaptations and Gunslinger is a DNF for me
How many evil cats or cat torture books does he have, all? How about magical negroes? All? Okay okay how about authors being lead characters? Most? It is scary as a kid as a movie, read Dracula and that’s a better book and obviously was a rip off.
I was worried about the length of the stand, but people ought to know it's in chapters, 78 of them, but it makes for an surprisingly easy ready. The only problem I have it's like several novelette strung together but rotating, so at the start when you don't have the names in your head, it's like, who's this again.
Are you familiar with Kurt Vonnegut and his works? The sirens of titan and slaughterhouse five are some good examples of his more popular stuff. I'm a huge fan of his writing and would love to see a tier list if you're familiar. Best wishes and thanks.
I remember as a teenager buying It, Shining, Misery and Carrie with my birthday money, and reading every word. No DNFs.
Just started Stephen King. I’ve read Misery and I’m going to Salems Lot next. It’s been pretty hyped, so I hope it’s worth it!
Aewsome video idea!
Salems lot is one of my favorites however I might be alone in not seeing where the "scary" is in those vampires, it came across as more emotionally scary to me.
Firestarter = shitter
More of these please