I did a quick search for similar threads but didn't see one. So if this is like the millionth thread on the same topic I apologize 
Anyhoo, from my experience it seems like there is the core of Kings most respected works from your average reader or general audience like Carrie, Salems Lot, The Shining, The Stand, IT, The Dead Zone, Pet Sematary, Cujo, Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, Different Seasons....and then you get the typical "King lost his mojo" people who never really seem have read past the one book they may have not liked all those years back and openly dismiss anything past his so-called prime.
A lot of casual readers of his work (I don't mean to sound like I'm looking down on people who aren't as rabid as us, cuz I'm not. I swear) never give an concrete reasons as to why he lost it, they just state it like fact and draw an arbitrary line through the sand with his older 70s/early 80s as the best and everything else is forgettable.
Now I'm not so rabid as to think every single word he's published is gold. But I am rabid enough to think that most of his stuff is good to great. And really, for every well received/famous book of his I think there is one equally great book that is either forgotten or unfairly poo-pooed on.
So let me just make my list here of Kings most underrated books in no real order:
-Dolores Claiborne
-Lisey's Story
-Roadwork
-Rose Madder
-The Long Walk
-Dreamcatcher
-The Regulators
-The Running Man
-From A Buick 8
-Duma Key
-Gerald's Game
-Needful Things
-Rage (by virtue of it's out-of-printness. I have no clue how it would be regarded today if it were still in print)
Honorable mentions are Firestarter and Christine. they aren't on the official list because they fall into the "Old Good Stuff" and are well known by the public, but at the same time I rarely seen them mentioned with the others.
Most of those listed above are equal to just about any of his tried and true classics imo. What do ya'll think?
Anyhoo, from my experience it seems like there is the core of Kings most respected works from your average reader or general audience like Carrie, Salems Lot, The Shining, The Stand, IT, The Dead Zone, Pet Sematary, Cujo, Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, Different Seasons....and then you get the typical "King lost his mojo" people who never really seem have read past the one book they may have not liked all those years back and openly dismiss anything past his so-called prime.
A lot of casual readers of his work (I don't mean to sound like I'm looking down on people who aren't as rabid as us, cuz I'm not. I swear) never give an concrete reasons as to why he lost it, they just state it like fact and draw an arbitrary line through the sand with his older 70s/early 80s as the best and everything else is forgettable.
Now I'm not so rabid as to think every single word he's published is gold. But I am rabid enough to think that most of his stuff is good to great. And really, for every well received/famous book of his I think there is one equally great book that is either forgotten or unfairly poo-pooed on.
So let me just make my list here of Kings most underrated books in no real order:
-Dolores Claiborne
-Lisey's Story
-Roadwork
-Rose Madder
-The Long Walk
-Dreamcatcher
-The Regulators
-The Running Man
-From A Buick 8
-Duma Key
-Gerald's Game
-Needful Things
-Rage (by virtue of it's out-of-printness. I have no clue how it would be regarded today if it were still in print)
Honorable mentions are Firestarter and Christine. they aren't on the official list because they fall into the "Old Good Stuff" and are well known by the public, but at the same time I rarely seen them mentioned with the others.
Most of those listed above are equal to just about any of his tried and true classics imo. What do ya'll think?
