10 Stephen King Stories Begging For Sequels
It's time to go back.
Stephen King is one of the most prolific authors of his time, on top of being one of the most popular. That adds up to a rather unique situation: despite consistently publishing one or more works each and every year for decades now, there still seems to be plenty of tales left for him to tell.
And while talk of retirement has circulated since the early 2000s, King, now at age 67, has shown no signs of slowing down. He recently released the second novel of his Bill Hodges trilogy, Finders Keepers, and has a new collection of short stories out this year as well in The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams.
Yet while King may very well continue to be as prolific as ever for years to come, fans surely can't help but ponder what stories need to be followed up on before he finally calls it a career. With his magnum opus The Dark Tower finally completed after several decades, what properties should he now focus his attention on, from his existing catalog?
There are plenty of candidates. Who wouldn't love to see more of Pennywise, of Kurt Barlow, of Leland Gaunt? The answer suggests exactly which sequels King needs to work on...
10. The Plant
A bit of a cheat, but it's in tenth spot for a reason.
The Plant has a long, convoluted history as far as King goes. A serial novel, King first "published" it in the 80s, as a chapbook, sending it out at Christmas to friends in lieu of a card. This, by the way, makes it King's first serial attempt, predating The Green Mile by quite a stretch.
However, after just three instalments, published by King's small publishing company, Philtrum Press, the author dropped the series - until 2000. That year, following the success of Riding the Bullet, the King story that doubled as the world's first mass-market e-Book, King opted to go back to The Plant, which was then known as a trunk novel - a work started but never finished. He released it on the honor system, asking readers pay $1 per instalment and stating he'd cease publishing if less than 75% of readers honored the deal.
Eventually, King made half a million dollars from his self-published tale of a vampire-like plant that takes over the offices of a publishing company - and then, after six instalments, he stopped again. Other projects took precedent, but King, who felt that The Plant (eventually subtitled Zenith Rising) was at least complete as a first part, stated he'd be back to it.
Thus far he hasn't been, sadly.