When an author has been writing for as long as Stephen King and has been so prolific, it’s inevitable that their readers will debate which decade of their career has been the best. For some writers, that’s an easy task, but for King, who has been writing for well over half a century and whose career spans six decades with no signs of slowing down, it’s a little more challenging – but still a heck of a lot of fun to tackle, as all things involving aStephen King book rankingshould be.
That said, this list will focus solely on his literary career and won’t factor in the many, manyStephen King movie and TV adaptationsout there. One, it would make for an entirely different list. Two, it’s not necessarily fair to include any adaptations since there are plenty that Stephen King had no hand in, and a few, likeThe Lawnmower Man, that King outright hated. So I’ll just focus on his books, viewing each decade through the lens of how they fit into his overall career, how his writing evolved during the time, and the overall quality and reception of his books. Let’s see how they stack up.
62000s
Notable Works: Black House, The Dark Tower V-VII, Lisey’s Story, Duma Key, Under the Dome
Most authors would kill to have an entire career even half as successful as King’s 2000s decade was. But compared to the rest of the author’s eras, the 2000s come up short for a few reasons. That’s not to say there aren’t some great books in those ten years – for example, Stephen King wrote one of his own personal all-time favorite books withLisey’s Story, and we got a long-awaited sequel to his novel co-written with Peter Straub,The Talisman, withBlack House. Still, most of his books from the aughts just don’t have the staying power or trademarks that make a true Kingian read.
Undoubtedly, some of the uneven quality of the 2000s is due to it being in the post-accident era of King’s life. That accident happened on June 11, 2025, and his recovery was grueling and long. He has also been open about being on necessary painkillers at that time, and the excruciating pain and discomfort he was in when he tried to write in the aftermath of the near-fatal accident. Any decade that saw the finish of King’sDark Towerseries can never be considered a lost decade, but it simply doesn’t pack the punch of other years.
52020s
Notable Works: If It Bleeds, Holly, You Like It Darker, Gwendy’s Final Task, Fairy Tale
In fairness, it might have been more accurate to put the current decade at the bottom of the list. We’re only halfway through it, so it’s impossible to determine how it will stack up against the other decades of King’s career in the end. Still, through the first five years, it’s off to a pretty strong and interesting start. The strength of King’s 2020s, so far, has lain in the variety of books he’s published.
The strength of King’s 2020s, so far, has lain in the variety of books he’s published.
In five short years, he’s released two excellent collections, one of short stories and one of novellas, the final collaboration with Richard Chizmar in theirGwendyseries, a throwback dark fantasy adventure in the vein of The Talisman with Fairy Tale, and a continuation of his crime novel era withBilly SummersandHolly, withKing’s next Holly Gibney book,Never Flinch, due out this year. It’s true that some of his longtime readers don’t love his crime books as much as his horror novels, but nonetheless, it’s impressive to see him master so many different genres.
41990s
Notable Works: Needful Things, Gerald’s Game, Insomnia, Desperation, The Regulators, The Green Mile, Hearts in Atlantis, On Writing
The 1990s are a controversial era in Stephen King’s career, with many viewing it as the weakest in his timeline. And that’s fair. It was a decade in which he experimented with actually outlining and plotting his books, as opposed to his usual method of simply seeing where the story goes. King would be the first to say that the results were mixed, and he wasn’t always happy with his books written in the ’90s. But it’s exactly that experimentation that made me bump it higher up on the list.
The decade quietly includes some of Stephen King’s best books, includingThe Green Mile, which he initially released in an experimental serial format. He also released his mirror image books ofDesperationandThe Regulators, one written by himself and one underKing’s long-dormant pseudonym, Richard Bachman.Hearts in Atlantisfleshed out the world ofThe Dark Towerin significant ways, with each story tying together, andInsomniaadded a big piece of the puzzle. And he wrote his seminalOn Writing,which was half-how-to and half-memoir. That’s a heck of a decade by any measure, and even though not all the experiments worked, it’s earned this spot on the list.
32010s
Notable Works: 11/22/63, Joyland, Doctor Sleep, Mr. Mercedes, Revival, The Outsider, Gwendy’s Button Box
If the 2000s were the rough decade after his accident, then the decade immediately after that, the 2010s, could be considered Stephen King’s rebound era. If it weren’t for his earliest decades, it could easily be the top of the list, and would be for any other author. The 2010s were arguably when King really became a true master of his craft, experienced enough to elevate his writing, but humble enough to know what doesn’t work for him. His books of the ’10s exhibit an ease and confidence that can only come when a writer knows exactly who they are and what they’re capable of, and it really felt like a decade when he hit a new gear.
The broad variety of writing that continued in the 2020s was really established in this decade, with King churning out a galaxy of intent, never missing anything he aimed at. This was the decade that saw him launch theGwendytrilogy with Richard Chizmar in 2017, as well as his crime era withMr. Mercedesin 2014, and, in the same year, one of his bleakest and most masterful horror stories withRevival. The decade kicked off with his classic sci-fi alt-history novel11/22/63, and he finally penned a long-gestating sequel toThe ShiningwithDoctor Sleep. There’s a reason that even though it was only a decade ago, more than half of his books from the 2010s have already gotten or are getting adaptations. It’s just that strong.
21970s
Notable Works: Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Night Shift
To be frank, you could flip-flop this decade and the first on the list for the number 1 and 2 spots and be totally justified in whichever order you choose. The 1970s were the decade that started it all, the one that kicked off the career of the most prolific and influential writer of the modern era. Unlike many other writers and creatives who have a sophomore slump, Stephen King hit the ground running when he releasedCarriein 1974, and he only got stronger as he went on. The world hadn’t seen a literary mind that burned quite as brightly or as strangely in a while, and his works from the first few years of his career showed it.
The first five books of Stephen King’s career were instant classics, immediately immortalized in the horror hall of fame. Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, and The Stand: few authors could ever hope to turn out such books in their entire career, let alone the first five books they ever wrote. Stephen King even squeezed in the now out-of-printRageat that time, the first book he wrote under the Richard Bachman pseudonym. Still, it was a shortened decade, and he didn’t truly hit his stride until the next, putting the 1970s at the #2 spot on the list.
11980s
Notable Works: Cujo, The Dark Tower I-III, Different Seasons, Christine, Pet Sematary, The Talisman, Skeleton Crew, It, Misery
Undoubtedly, the 1980s reign supreme as the best decade of Stephen King’s career so far. While he had an incredibly strong start to his career, by the ’80s, King had settled into a groove and became a prodigious machine of novel-writing – though, admittedly, a lot of that was fueled not just by his fertile imagination, but also the copious amount of drugs he was on at the time. Drugs or not, King had settled firmly into the driver’s seat in the second decade of his professional career, and the works he produced in that time proved it.
Drugs or not, King had settled firmly into the driver’s seat in the second decade of his professional career, and the works he produced in that time proved it.
Stephen King wrote almost a dozen and a half books in the 1980s, and a solid 80% of them are classics, if not masterpieces, and not even the release ofThe Tommyknockersin 1987 could kill that momentum. Just consider the following books he released during the decade:Cujo,The Running Man,The Gunslinger,Christine,Pet Sematary,The Talisman(co-written with Peter Straub),The Eyes of the Dragon,It,The Drawing of the Three,Misery– and that’s with me leaving out a few books. That’s an astonishing run, let alone for a writer who was still early in his career.
Beyond just the quality of the books, the 1980s were the decade that well and truly established the iconography ofStephen King, as well as the breadth of his talent. The decade saw him dive into sci-fi, horror, human drama, Western, fantasy, cosmic horror, and epic adventure, handling each one adroitly. It was also the decade that established some ofStephen King’s most enduring villainsin Annie Wilkes, Christine, Cujo, and Pennywise the Dancing Clown, as well as installing Randall Flagg as the villainous throughline of King’s universe. He might have been King before, but the 1980s were the decade that made him the King of Horror.
