Every Stephen King Book From the 1970s, Ranked
If you want to look beyond novels, then technically, Stephen King was first published earlier in the 1960s, with some short stories that were in various magazines, and later compiled in collections. But if you’re talking about his novels/books, the 1970s was when he made his start as a published author, and he’s not slowed down in the 50+ years since, with an almost overwhelming number of books to keep up with if you want to read everything.
To not be as overwhelmed, taking things a decade at a time might be worthwhile, and conveniently, there are seven books King had published in the 1970s. One isn’t so great, while the other six range in quality from great to perfect. It was a good start to one of the most impressive writing careers in recent history, and ranking all those 1970s books Stephen King wrote isn’t easy (once you get past that obviously “worst” one), but that’s what’s attempted below regardless.
7
‘Rage’ (1977)
It’s not nearly as well-known as most of the other books here, but that’s got quite a bit to do with Stephen King willingly making Rage go out of print. It was the first of King’s Richard Bachman books (a pseudonym he used for a while), and finding a copy of it isn’t easy, since you have to get something second-hand. It’s about a student who takes a gun to school, shoots one of his teachers, and then holds his classmates hostage inside a room, threatening to shoot them too.
So, Rage is more of a psychological thriller than a horror book, and if it is horror, then it’s not of the supernatural variety, by any means. It’s more horrifying than some of King’s actual horror books, though. It’d land a bit harder – and perhaps be even more controversial – if it was written a little better, because Rage does run out of steam, at a point, and that’s a problem when it’s not particularly long. It’s easily the weakest of King’s books from the 1970s, but it’s still got more to offer than some of the author’s later works (and some of those not-so-great books are long, while Rage is a mercifully short length).
6
‘Salem’s Lot’ (1975)
It feels rotten putting Salem’s Lot second-last, but that speaks to how good his output was in the 1970s, if you’re looking at his novels. It’s in second-last and it was also the second Stephen King novel to be published, showing the first was no fluke. It’s a good deal longer than his debut, and it gets near epic territory without going there to quite the extent as some other books by King… you do get a whole town populated pretty convincingly here, though.
Even when it’s technically slow-going, it’s always building suspense and going somewhere.
There’s a supernatural threat that reveals itself slowly, and then once things really get going, Stephen King is in full-on ruthless/not-giving-a-damn mode, because there’s a great deal of death, and a sense that dying can happen to pretty much anyone. This keeps Salem’s Lot nice and unpredictable, and even when it’s technically slow-going, it’s always building suspense and going somewhere. That sense of “going” mitigates the “slow” part quite nicely. Once more, it feels kind of dirty having to rank it so low here.
5
‘The Dead Zone’ (1979)
There’s a high-concept premise here in The Dead Zone, but there are later Stephen King novels that do indeed get weirder, and some get weirder in ways that are more than a bit out of control (like Dreamcatcher and The Tommyknockers). This is the right kind of weird and high-concept, though. With The Dead Zone, the narrative revolves around a man who can see flashes of the future if he comes into contact with certain people or objects.
He uses this ability to assist in the hunt for a serial killer, and then things get more high-stakes when he starts fearing the potential end of the world after meeting a deeply disturbed politician who has aspirations of becoming president. That part, about preventing a horrible future, is where The Dead Zone really soars/shines, and if there’s a flaw here, it’s that the serial killer part feels a bit tacked-on. Still, for the sheer amount of stuff here that works, and proves undeniably entertaining, The Dead Zone is pretty great, not to mention one of King’s strongest sci-fi novels overall, too.
4
‘The Long Walk’ (1979)
A temporarily unadaptable Stephen King story, The Long Walk did get a faithful movie adaptation in 2025, or at least mostly faithful. The scope of the competition was reduced slightly, and some rules were changed, but the basic premise remained the same. Teenage boys take part in a competition that involves walking non-stop, and they’re killed if they don’t keep walking. The winner is the last person left walking, and the only person who’s not killed.
The Long Walk starts intense, inspiring dread early on before finding surprising new ways to get more horrifying. It’s hard not to feel some kind of pain while reading it, or you can go a step further and try it as an audiobook, listening to it while doing a whole bunch of physically exhausting cardio yourself for a more intense experience. It’s like one of those 4DX cinemas, but for reading/listening. Oh, and if it doesn’t go without saying, then it’ll be said right now: The Long Walk is the best of the Richard Bachman books. It has a bit of competition in the somewhat comparable The Running Man (also dystopian, and about a competition), but there’s something special/especially mortifying about The Long Walk.
3
‘Carrie’ (1974)
Carrie is responsible for tying Stephen King to the coming-of-age genre, and especially for establishing him as someone adept at blending that genre with horror. That’s what Carrie does quite effortlessly, with its titular character being a teenage girl who’s bullied at school and abused by her mother at home. All the while, she’s developing powerful telekinetic abilities, and proves able to use those powers to get revenge on those who’ve wronged her.
That might sound like things are being spoiled, but that’s not really the case, since Carrie tells its story in a way that lets you know things aren’t going to end well. The suspense, though, comes about from not knowing the details until they come around, and so there are still surprises. Distressing/sad/horrific elements aside, Carrie is a pretty effortless read, thanks to its short length and relative punchiness. It was a pretty-much-perfect first novel for King to have had published, but as its position in this ranking suggests, there were even greater books to come, as soon as the very same decade that saw Carrie’s release.
2
‘The Shining’ (1977)
At the risk of giving out a take of the hot variety, The Shining works equally well as a novel and a film, with both takes on the story being scary for different reasons. To focus on the book, though, it could well be King’s best if you’re looking for pure horror. If there are more distressing horror books of his, they’re few and far between, not to mention they all came out a bit later (arguments could be made for Pet Sematary being the actual scariest, or maybe 2014’s Revival, if you’re feeling brave and really want to dish out an actual hot take).
The Shining is about a haunted hotel, so it’s got the supernatural thing going for it, of course, but it couples that brand of horror with psychological horror, too. The interplay here is immense, and the main reason why The Shining remains so effective. It’s not a proper epic, but there is ambition here in the way it tackles more than one kind of horror incredibly effectively all at once.
1
‘The Stand’ (1978)
So, The Shining was great without being an epic, but then a year later, Stephen King had The Stand published, and this is pretty much his definitive epic. The Dark Tower is a longer overall story, but that’s a series, while The Stand is just the one book. The 1978 version of the story was sufficiently grand, and definitely worthy of being called an epic, but then the 1990 uncut version was, unsurprisingly, even bigger and grander.
But it’s the 1978 version being considered here, since that’s all there was back in 1978. It’s still worthy of being called one of Stephen King’s very best works, even with the later version offering even more. The Stand’s story is told across almost the entire U.S., with a virus killing most of the population, and the survivors joining one of two camps and then battling for the future of the world. It’s huge, it’s got some great horror elements, and it feels like one of King’s most varied and least predictable novels, too.
