Anyone else find Stephen King overrated?

OK, I read my first Stephen King book when I was in 6th grade (Pet Cemetary) because people were like ''Oh, his books are SOOO GOOD.''



So I read it and thought it was OK and thought I was a Stephen King fan so I read another one like ''Eyes of the Dragon'' and ''Carrie'' and I tried to start the ''Shining'' but it was too hard and I tried to start the Dark Tower series and thought it was too boring.



And then finally in 9th grade, I started to read another one and I looked at it and thought, ''You know what, I don't like these books. I don't like Stephen King. Why am I reading this?''



So I guess it took me a while to realize that I didn't like him. It was like an epiphany, a small one, kind of.



Anyone else find this dude over-hyped?Anyone else find Stephen King overrated?
no i think his books are okayAnyone else find Stephen King overrated?
If you are are as popular as King you will always have hatred be higher and love higher than usual. Whatever. He's a writer and many people really like his books. Nobody is loved by 100% of the people.
Out of curiosity, how old are you?



Once you hit your twenties, you'll probably find that more people crap on him than celebrate him. I find that very few people are willing to say that they find his stuff legitimately ''good,'' and that most just belittle his stuff.



Personally, I think his work is very uneven. He's written a bunch of books that were great, a few that were absolutely fantastic, and a whole bunch that just sucked. I guess that's what happens when you write as much as he does.



Also, Carrie and Eyes of the Dragon aren't exactly great books to read if you want to get an overall impression of King. Carrie is his first novel, and is thus really raw and pretty basic. Eyes of the Dragon is basically a high fantasy novel and totally unlike anything else King has ever written, to this day.



The best King novels to start with are probably the Shining and Firestarter. Then work your way to ''It,'' or maybe ''the Stand,'' both of which are longer than they need to be, but fairly rewarding and probably his best/most ambitious works. Or you could just read the Dark Tower series.
[QUOTE=''Nifty_Shark'']If you are are as popular as King you will always have hatred be higher and love higher than usual. Whatever. He's a writer and many people really like his books. Nobody is loved by 100% of the people.[/QUOTE]

I don't dislike him because he's popular, I don't like him because I don't like his books.
The Dark Tower series is amazing, as is Salem's Lot, other than that his stuff ranges from bad to pretty good.
I'm OK with his books. Pet sematery was boring, but the others are OK. I'm a big fan of horror novels :D
But your liking/no liking him has nothing to withhim being overated. And I think his works are fine as an author. As a HORROR writer,not so much.
No. Stephen King is actually underrated. He has his written his fair share of crap, but some of his horror books are classics (think Misery, It, the Shining, etc.) and he's made non-horror fiction that is as good as anything any high-brow author has written: The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body (which was made into the movie Stand By Me)are shockinly high calibre and are extremely sophisticated for a horror fiction writer.Also, Stephen King is extremely adept at writing kids. It just seems to come so natural to him.Is Dean Koontz overrated? Definitely. To even say his work is decent is giving him too much credit IMHO.
I'm personally a huge fan of Stephen King. But, whatever, we all have our opinions :).
[QUOTE=''44-gun''][QUOTE=''Nifty_Shark'']If you are are as popular as King you will always have hatred be higher and love higher than usual. Whatever. He's a writer and many people really like his books. Nobody is loved by 100% of the people.[/QUOTE] I don't dislike him because he's popular, I don't like him because I don't like his books.[/QUOTE]I know. My last sentence basically was pointing that out. No problem for disliking his work.
[QUOTE=''Tragic_Kingdom7'']No. Stephen King is actually underrated. He has his written his fair share of crap, but some of his horror books are classics (think Misery, It, the Shining, etc.) and he's made non-horror fiction that is as good as anything any high-brow author has written: The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body (which was made into the movie Stand By Me)are shockinly high calibre andare extremely sophisticatedfor a horror fiction writer.

Also, Stephen King is extremely adept at writing kids. It just seems to come so natural to him.

Is Dean Koontz overrated? Definitely. To even say his work is decent is giving him too much credit IMHO.[/QUOTE]I Love the snide dig at koontz. I think I really enjoyed your post because of that.
[QUOTE=''mattykovax'']But your liking/no liking him has nothing to withhim being overated. And I think his works are fine as an author. As a HORROR writer,not so much.[/QUOTE]Although I don't entirely agree, I think this is an interesting point mainly because his non-horror work seems to be better plotted and have stronger characters, etc. The plots don't seem as contrived and the characters seem to drive the story moreso than a strange event.
Nah, I love his writing. His books are great. The only one that I've found to be disappointing and/or overhyped was The Stand.
I've always thought he was overrated.
I think his books are alright, some of them put me to sleep even.
King is a hit or miss writer to me. (like others have posted.) I love Carie, Cujo, and a few others.
[QUOTE=''mattykovax''][QUOTE=''Tragic_Kingdom7'']No. Stephen King is actually underrated. He has his written his fair share of crap, but some of his horror books are classics (think Misery, It, the Shining, etc.) and he's made non-horror fiction that is as good as anything any high-brow author has written: The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body (which was made into the movie Stand By Me)are shockinly high calibre andare extremely sophisticatedfor a horror fiction writer.Also, Stephen King is extremely adept at writing kids. It just seems to come so natural to him.Is Dean Koontz overrated? Definitely. To even say his work is decent is giving him too much credit IMHO.[/QUOTE]I Love the snide dig at koontz. I think I really enjoyed your post because of that.[/QUOTE]:lol: I'm glad my posts have the power to provide enjoyment. After this comment you've just made, I dare anybody to call my posts overrated.
[QUOTE=''Tragic_Kingdom7''][QUOTE=''mattykovax'']But your liking/no liking him has nothing to withhim being overated. And I think his works are fine as an author. As a HORROR writer,not so much.[/QUOTE]

Although I don't entirely agree, I think this is an interesting point mainly because his non-horror work seems to be better plotted and have stronger characters, etc. The plots don't seem as contrived and the characters seem to drive the story moreso than a strange event.[/QUOTE]Well whta my point is I think he is the greatest author out of the Horror bunch,and while i take heat for this i think he is actually quite close to literature. I just think there are others that do not write as well,but tell a better horror story.



I think the problem with king is the popular authors hate him because he si popular and sells but is actually quite literary and quick to point out those he considers hacks. And the literary crowd dont like him because unlike them he is read by more than three people.
I dont think anyone really calls him a great writer, but as a storyteller he is one of the best around. His stories always interest me and he is one of the few mainstream writers who still writes fantastic short stories. His last book Duma Key was one of his best by far and his non fiction book On Writing has been a huge influence on me and has helped me alot in my own writing so I do not think he is overrated at all. In fact it might sound odd but in some cases I think people underrate him, for some reason tons of people I know refuse to read his books yet they say he is trash. People like to sound smart by telling others they only read classic books like Dickens and Tolstoy but really they just sound arrogant and narrow minded. I don't think Stephen King gets much appreciation as a writer and a storyteller by many and so I do not think he is overrated.