Stephen King Fans discussion

Hello!
I just purchased Needful Things and Desperation by Stephen King. I'm really really confused on what is a novel series and what isn't from the two. If someone could tell me the order of any of the Stephen King series, I'd love you forever.
Thank you!
Kier

I'm not sure that I 100% understand your question, but I'll (maybe) try to explain...

A series is a set of books that are supposed to be read as a whole story. Usually they are in the same world, but often they have other tie-ins, like characters, or themes. There's usually a preferred reading order so that the story makes sense.

Of the two you bought, only Desperation is part of a proper "series" - though it's only a duology. Desperation and The Regulators are the two books that make it up, but since they aren't a continuation of ONE story but rather a set of books that share characters between them, each telling different stories, (like an alternate universe), there's no reading order. They are a duology though because they were written to intertwine and were released together. Even their HC cover art matches up.

Needful Things can be seen as part of the Castle Rock "series" - but it's not really a series since the stories are all independent and the only shared feature is the setting of Castle Rock, Maine.

King's other series are...
The Dark Tower series (in publication order):
The Gunslinger
The Drawing of the Three
The Waste Lands
Wizard and Glass
Wolves of the Calla
Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower
Wind Through the Keyhole

The Talisman:
The Talisman
Black House

The Shining:
The Shining
Doctor Sleep

Mr. Mercedes will be a trilogy, per King.

Otherwise, a lot of his books tie into the Dark Tower series... but they aren't part of it.

Hope that helps... somewhat.

In regards to the Castle Rock Series, Wikipedia pretty much nailed it:

• The Dead Zone
• Cujo
• "The Body" (novella from Different Seasons)
• "Uncle Otto's Truck" (short story which appears in Skeleton Crew)
• "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" (short story which appears in Skeleton Crew)
• The Dark Half
• "The Sun Dog" (novella from Four Past Midnight)
• Needful Things
• "It Grows on You" (short story which appears in Nightmares & Dreamscapes)

While there is no real reading order, if you read them in the order of publication date you will see minor cross-over details here or there that are kind of fun.

Wow - I could have sworn there were more Castle Rock books than that!

Matthew wrote: "Wow - I could have sworn there were more Castle Rock books than that!"

The one I was thinking of was on that list. I also thought there were more though.

Nate wrote: "In regards to the Castle Rock Series, Wikipedia pretty much nailed it:

• The Dead Zone
• Cujo
• "The Body" (novella from Different Seasons)
• "Uncle Otto's Truck" (short story whic..."

Mustn't leave out "Nona," in Skeleton Crew. The narrator of that story grew up in Castle Rock, and a few local characters show up whose names you might recognize.

If you check the wikipedia site, they have a second list of all the Castle Rock related books and stories, and it is quite long. I think the primary list was just those stories that actually take place in Castle Rock.

Do at least read the 4 Castle Rock novels in order of publication as King has the awful habit of not only referencing the happenings of the previous novel but giving out the endings.What I find really irritating about this habit of his is detailing the endings serves very little purpose to the story at hand, for example a character in Needful Things reminisces about the part he played in the ending of Dark Half which adds nothing to either of the books except spoiling the ending for those who had not read it.

Thanks Aditya! It is a good thing I planned on reading The Dark Half first haha! After looking over this thread I see that I have a long way to go in my King reading! I didn't know there were sooo many Castle Rock stories...

Cody wrote: "Thanks Aditya! It is a good thing I planned on reading The Dark Half first haha! After looking over this thread I see that I have a long way to go in my King reading! I didn't know there were sooo ..."

Happy to help but you might as well start with The Dead Zone (my favorite King book) then move on to Cujo and the other two because spoilers are probably mentioned from them too and moreover none of the four books belong to the category of absolute stinkers so I don't think you will regret reading them.