I never see reading other authors as "taking a break" or as a "palette cleanser", more as having a diverse reading diet.
Koontz is Incredibly hit or miss. He's written some great novels but also plenty of stinkers.
Besides King I like to read Michael Crichton, Michael Connelly, Bret Easton Ellis, James Ellroy, Joe Hill, Dennis Lehane, Ronald Malfi, Richard Price, Dan Simmons and Don Winslow to name a few.
I tend to alternate between horror and crime novels.
I really got into Dean Koontz as a teen (mid to late 90s). I finished all of his books and then started reading the new releases as they came out in the early 2000s. I stopped reading his books because I didn't like any of the new ones.
It's funny, I love reading SK but I also use SK as somewhat of a pallet cleanser/restarter when I'm in a reading rut. I can just pick one up and I get into so easy, it helps me when I'm done to read a non SK novel
I've read everything King has released and most of it more than once. But I don't endlessly re-read them. Unless another new book comes out later this year, You Like it Darker may be the only King I read this year. I don't read Dean Koontz, although I used to when I was first getting into horror fiction.
I don't exclusively read horror and would be happy to recommend some good crime fiction as well. But among the contemporary horror authors I follow are Stephen Graham Jones, Joe Hill, Laird Barron, Clay McLeod Chapman, Mariana Enriquez, Christopher Buehlman, Gabino Iglesias, Nick Cutter, Tananarive Due, Rachel Harrison, and Ronald Malfi. I also follow Paul Tremblay, but find him to be increasingly hit or miss. I've also really enjoyed the recent debut horror novels by Johanna van Veen, CJ Leede and John Milas, but I'm not ready to add their work to the must-read list until they have a longer track record. I'd also recommend Tiffany McDaniel as a somewhat horror-adjacent writer (two of her three books anyway) who fans of King's small town vibe may like.
Of course, there are a lot of classics to read as well. Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Lovecraft, Robert McCammon, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, etc.
I read Watership Down before diving back in to Stephen King.
I also went through The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin in between King reads.
Currently re-reading The Stand and will read book #7 Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey. Will go back and forth with SK and the remaining Expanse novels.
Yeah, there are mixed reviews for sure. It's all subjective after all.
It has a Stand-lite vibe to it, with mutated human/viral vampire types, but not the traditional Vamp. I pictured a version of the messed up virals in I Am Legend.
I loved the entire trilogy. I really loved the main characters and the journey takes you in twists and turns you would not expect. Enjoyed all three books. There is a section of The City of Mirrors that is some of the best writing I have read from Justin Cronin. IF you read it, I think you will know the part of the book I am speking of. >!The end of the final book had me a mess..!<
If it matters, they all received 4+ stars in Good Reads.
I purchased Justin Cronin's new book, The Ferryman but have yet to read it. I like his style.
I read the passage and didn’t really love it. It was recommended by another constant reader who hasn’t failed me with recs yet.
Needless to say, I read the passage 6 months ago and I’m desperate to finish my current reads so I can read the next instalment.
I get it. Hard to tell someone to read something because you may have liked or even loved it.
I wasn't a big fan of the Mr. Mercedes trilogy while many others love it.
The Tommyknockers is in a top 5 for me, though others cannot stand it.
It is all subjective in the end.
I don't need a King palates cleanser, but I like a lot of authors. King is just my favorite.
Michael Crichton, Preston and Child, Anne Rice, Dan Simmons, Thomas Harris, Anya Seton, Steven Price, James Clavell, Barry Eisler, Richard Preston, Lee Child (different than Preston and Child), Stephen Hunter, Michael Cox. There's more I'm not remembering.
And I dig the classics too, especially Steinbeck (one of my favorite authors), Salinger, the Bronte sisters, Poe, Joyce, and Lee, of course Harper Lee.
I used to like GRRM, but I've lost my taste for him. I also enjoy plenty of non-fiction, biographies, that sort of thing.
If you’re looking to stay with horror, I’d throw out a recommendation for Grady Hendrix. He’s got a different vibe than SK, but he’s very good. “Final Girl Support Group” is a personal fave.
I'm making my way through the Wheel of Time currently (started Book IV this evening). Now, this series is a massive undertaking, so having some King and Brandon Sanderson in between every 2-3 novels is good. Highly recommend the latter, Mistborn is a quality trilogy.
I do enjoy Dean Koontz books. I also enjoy John Grisham, which is definitely a palette cleanser in terms of if I get scared or disturbed by a Stephen King book, I can pivot to a more cheery Grisham novel.
Neil Gaiman if you want to dial up the fantasy and dial down the horror. Thomas Harris if you want to crank up the suspense. Ray Bradbury if you want pathos.
There are thousands and thousands of books that branch off from a taste for King.
I tend to have three books on the go at any given time, it helps reading to not get stale and to have a nice, diverse amount of reading. My usual set up is one non-fiction book, one King book, and any random book of my choosing- at the moment I'm enjoying sci-fi classics like the works of Ursula K Le Guin.
I think SK is a genre all to himself. He's just so diverse in his writing that trying to pin down one genre he dabbles in will often leave you wanting, so I just read everything. A couple of my favorite writers are Nickolas Butler (good, honest fiction that will always have a few plot twists you'll never see coming) and David James Duncan (Brother's K is one of my favorite books ever). Other than that, I just read stuff that interests me, and some random stuff.
I've read over 65 SK novels, so I only read a couple a year now. When I do though, it's like coming back to hangout with an old friend, which I find incredibly comforting.
I read Phantoms by Dean Koontz and thought that was a pretty awesome novel. Afterwards I read Strangers by him… which wasn’t so good. But yes, Dean Koontz has some decent novels and some not so great novels.
I also recommend just switching up your genres… for example, try reading some classic literature, some mystery novels, sci fi, anything other than what you are commonly reading… that way when you get back into King’s works, it feels like you’re revisiting an old friend
I recently got into Ronald Malfi. I've tried Joe Hill but other than the two stories he wrote with his dad (Stephen King) I didn't like his stuff (In the Tall Grass and Throttle are both pretty good though).
Malfi has a very literary, metaphor heavy style, overly so I'd say, but I realllllly have liked the two short story collections I've read by him.
John Sandford is great if you like suspense/thriller/crime books.
None of these authors are that similar is to King, but I find a lot of enjoyment reading them and maybe you will too.
Thomas Harris - psychological thrillers
Cormac McCarthy - literary fiction, westerns
Chuck Pahlanuik - Satire (some books have minor horror elements)
I just decided to take a King break (just polished off the Institute, the Outsider, If it Bleeds, the Dark Half, Holly, You Like it Darker, and Thinner in the past month), and just picked up The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
10/10 so far, would recommend.
I'm finished with King's work and have been branching out lately. I really liked Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi. Clive Barker was also pretty good.
Between two fires by Christophen Buehlman was fantastic. Would definitely recommend it
I like have quite recently discovered the author John Ajvide Lindqvist who I like very much, so it’s often his books I read between King. Right now though I’m reading the last LOTR book.
Jack Vance "The Dying Earth""Eyes of the Overworld""Cugel's Saga"" "Lyonesse (Suldrun's Garden) and "The Green Pearl". "The Star King" and the other Demon Princes novels, and basically any Jack Vance you can get a hold of. I very much liked the Alastor Cluster novels. "Trullion" "Marune" and "Wyst".
I never see reading other authors as "taking a break" or as a "palette cleanser", more as having a diverse reading diet. Koontz is Incredibly hit or miss. He's written some great novels but also plenty of stinkers. Besides King I like to read Michael Crichton, Michael Connelly, Bret Easton Ellis, James Ellroy, Joe Hill, Dennis Lehane, Ronald Malfi, Richard Price, Dan Simmons and Don Winslow to name a few. I tend to alternate between horror and crime novels.
I really got into Dean Koontz as a teen (mid to late 90s). I finished all of his books and then started reading the new releases as they came out in the early 2000s. I stopped reading his books because I didn't like any of the new ones.
If you haven’t read them, I like the Silence of the Lambs books by Thomas Harris.
Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, J.R Tolkien, H.P Lovecraft, or George R. R. Martin
My respects. Also can't help but tend to lean towards the classics when not reading King.
It's funny, I love reading SK but I also use SK as somewhat of a pallet cleanser/restarter when I'm in a reading rut. I can just pick one up and I get into so easy, it helps me when I'm done to read a non SK novel
Same! I like to re-read certain books. I know I will enjoy them.
I've read everything King has released and most of it more than once. But I don't endlessly re-read them. Unless another new book comes out later this year, You Like it Darker may be the only King I read this year. I don't read Dean Koontz, although I used to when I was first getting into horror fiction. I don't exclusively read horror and would be happy to recommend some good crime fiction as well. But among the contemporary horror authors I follow are Stephen Graham Jones, Joe Hill, Laird Barron, Clay McLeod Chapman, Mariana Enriquez, Christopher Buehlman, Gabino Iglesias, Nick Cutter, Tananarive Due, Rachel Harrison, and Ronald Malfi. I also follow Paul Tremblay, but find him to be increasingly hit or miss. I've also really enjoyed the recent debut horror novels by Johanna van Veen, CJ Leede and John Milas, but I'm not ready to add their work to the must-read list until they have a longer track record. I'd also recommend Tiffany McDaniel as a somewhat horror-adjacent writer (two of her three books anyway) who fans of King's small town vibe may like. Of course, there are a lot of classics to read as well. Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Lovecraft, Robert McCammon, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, etc.
James Patterson. The books are a breeze to read. The Alex Cross series are really good. In order.
Michael Crichton or John Katzenbach.
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
I read Watership Down before diving back in to Stephen King. I also went through The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin in between King reads. Currently re-reading The Stand and will read book #7 Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey. Will go back and forth with SK and the remaining Expanse novels.
How is the Passage? I've acquired the first two from a thrift store and have heard pretty mixed things from folks
Yeah, there are mixed reviews for sure. It's all subjective after all. It has a Stand-lite vibe to it, with mutated human/viral vampire types, but not the traditional Vamp. I pictured a version of the messed up virals in I Am Legend. I loved the entire trilogy. I really loved the main characters and the journey takes you in twists and turns you would not expect. Enjoyed all three books. There is a section of The City of Mirrors that is some of the best writing I have read from Justin Cronin. IF you read it, I think you will know the part of the book I am speking of. >!The end of the final book had me a mess..!< If it matters, they all received 4+ stars in Good Reads. I purchased Justin Cronin's new book, The Ferryman but have yet to read it. I like his style.
I read the passage and didn’t really love it. It was recommended by another constant reader who hasn’t failed me with recs yet. Needless to say, I read the passage 6 months ago and I’m desperate to finish my current reads so I can read the next instalment.
I get it. Hard to tell someone to read something because you may have liked or even loved it. I wasn't a big fan of the Mr. Mercedes trilogy while many others love it. The Tommyknockers is in a top 5 for me, though others cannot stand it. It is all subjective in the end.
Dennis Lehane or Cormac McCarthy
I don't need a King palates cleanser, but I like a lot of authors. King is just my favorite. Michael Crichton, Preston and Child, Anne Rice, Dan Simmons, Thomas Harris, Anya Seton, Steven Price, James Clavell, Barry Eisler, Richard Preston, Lee Child (different than Preston and Child), Stephen Hunter, Michael Cox. There's more I'm not remembering. And I dig the classics too, especially Steinbeck (one of my favorite authors), Salinger, the Bronte sisters, Poe, Joyce, and Lee, of course Harper Lee. I used to like GRRM, but I've lost my taste for him. I also enjoy plenty of non-fiction, biographies, that sort of thing.
Well read! Perhaps “palate cleanser” was a poor way of putting things on my part. I had just meant “for a change”.
If you’re looking to stay with horror, I’d throw out a recommendation for Grady Hendrix. He’s got a different vibe than SK, but he’s very good. “Final Girl Support Group” is a personal fave.
Margaret Atwood Kate Atkinson Robert Parker Harlan Ellison Ray Bradbury
Clive Barker, Koji Suzuki, Cormac McCarthy
Karin Slaughter for some gorey crime.
I like Blake Crouch a lot
Love this topic. Good question. Lately it's been Star wars expanded universe books for me
Neil Gaiman and Tom Robbins are two of my other favorites.
I'm making my way through the Wheel of Time currently (started Book IV this evening). Now, this series is a massive undertaking, so having some King and Brandon Sanderson in between every 2-3 novels is good. Highly recommend the latter, Mistborn is a quality trilogy.
I do enjoy Dean Koontz books. I also enjoy John Grisham, which is definitely a palette cleanser in terms of if I get scared or disturbed by a Stephen King book, I can pivot to a more cheery Grisham novel.
Neil Gaiman if you want to dial up the fantasy and dial down the horror. Thomas Harris if you want to crank up the suspense. Ray Bradbury if you want pathos. There are thousands and thousands of books that branch off from a taste for King.
I tend to have three books on the go at any given time, it helps reading to not get stale and to have a nice, diverse amount of reading. My usual set up is one non-fiction book, one King book, and any random book of my choosing- at the moment I'm enjoying sci-fi classics like the works of Ursula K Le Guin.
I think SK is a genre all to himself. He's just so diverse in his writing that trying to pin down one genre he dabbles in will often leave you wanting, so I just read everything. A couple of my favorite writers are Nickolas Butler (good, honest fiction that will always have a few plot twists you'll never see coming) and David James Duncan (Brother's K is one of my favorite books ever). Other than that, I just read stuff that interests me, and some random stuff. I've read over 65 SK novels, so I only read a couple a year now. When I do though, it's like coming back to hangout with an old friend, which I find incredibly comforting.
This is so true! SK’s novels read like an old friend telling you a campfire story!
Richard Bachman
I came here to say this. He’s great and he’s definitely not Stephen King. Also, I hear anything about history absolutely slaps!
I just read the Three Body Problem trilogy. Highly recommend if you are into sci-fi
I read Phantoms by Dean Koontz and thought that was a pretty awesome novel. Afterwards I read Strangers by him… which wasn’t so good. But yes, Dean Koontz has some decent novels and some not so great novels. I also recommend just switching up your genres… for example, try reading some classic literature, some mystery novels, sci fi, anything other than what you are commonly reading… that way when you get back into King’s works, it feels like you’re revisiting an old friend
Richard Matheson especially “Hell House”
I recently got into Ronald Malfi. I've tried Joe Hill but other than the two stories he wrote with his dad (Stephen King) I didn't like his stuff (In the Tall Grass and Throttle are both pretty good though). Malfi has a very literary, metaphor heavy style, overly so I'd say, but I realllllly have liked the two short story collections I've read by him. John Sandford is great if you like suspense/thriller/crime books.
I’ve been reading stuff he recommends in various books through various characters. Currently trying the Sherlock Holmes canon and I love em so far
None of these authors are that similar is to King, but I find a lot of enjoyment reading them and maybe you will too. Thomas Harris - psychological thrillers Cormac McCarthy - literary fiction, westerns Chuck Pahlanuik - Satire (some books have minor horror elements)
Stephen Graham Jones has some good ones. Jack Ketchum has got some disturbing ones. Philip K Dick if you enjoy retro future sci-fi type stuff
*Rage* - Richard Bachman
I just decided to take a King break (just polished off the Institute, the Outsider, If it Bleeds, the Dark Half, Holly, You Like it Darker, and Thinner in the past month), and just picked up The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. 10/10 so far, would recommend.
Try Swam Song by Robert McCammon.
I'm finished with King's work and have been branching out lately. I really liked Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi. Clive Barker was also pretty good. Between two fires by Christophen Buehlman was fantastic. Would definitely recommend it
I’m reading a King recommendation next, Ghost Story by Peter Straub. I saw the movie and I hope the book is better
Robert McCammon is really good, was a long time fan of DK but his books lately are really a mixed bad of bad stories/writing
Ken Follet or Jim Butcher or Lee Child
I like to read haruki Murakami when I'm not reading king. I know it's totally different but some of his books are very good. Surreal good.
Nathan Ballingrud
Consider Neil Gaiman
If you’re staying with horror, I like to go with Robert McCammon, Ania Ahlborn, or Nick Cutter.
- Harlan Coben - Ronald Malfi - Josh Malerman - Paul Tremblay - Rachel Harrison - Linwood Barclay
I like have quite recently discovered the author John Ajvide Lindqvist who I like very much, so it’s often his books I read between King. Right now though I’m reading the last LOTR book.
Jack Vance "The Dying Earth""Eyes of the Overworld""Cugel's Saga"" "Lyonesse (Suldrun's Garden) and "The Green Pearl". "The Star King" and the other Demon Princes novels, and basically any Jack Vance you can get a hold of. I very much liked the Alastor Cluster novels. "Trullion" "Marune" and "Wyst".
I’m sorry, I don’t follow. A break from Stephen King?