Stephen King is happy to describe his stories like they're a burger-and-fries combo meal. It's a fair self-assessment; King's writing is cozy and approachable in how it tells us about horror and mystery, saving the rare moments of his more lyrical art for the pages where it punches the most. His characters are often familiar to the middle class of the past decades, everyday folk put at odds with something beyond their experience. Many of them do what they must, then fade. King is best at ideas and structure, but his endings -- and even the characters that carry them -- are sometimes weighed down with flaws.

That never stops one of his books from being great fun to devour, and sometimes, some of King's characters get a shine to them that makes them stand out. We're going to have a palaver with 15 of his best, a ka-tet of men...