Worst of Stephen King - Worst books or stories

[CowPox]

The worst of king is definitely his twitter.

 

[Fortunato Brown]

I'm glad you mentioned this story because it drove home for me how boring King can be. For those unfamiliar with it, the story involves a scene where a man in a coffee stop discovers his Kindle can read local newspapers from the future, and then looks out the window to see his girlfriend, who coaches a basketball team, passing by on the team bus heading to a tournament. You instantly know that he will use the Kindle look up the results of the tournament, only to find out instead that the bus will crash, killing everybody. Stories need to be somewhat predictable to be intelligible (motivations, causality, etc. need to make sense), but if you can immediately guess the outcome from the premise, what's the point in reading it? Sometimes predicting the plot can fun, but oftentimes it's just tedious if the plot is dead simple.

I guess that's one issue with his one draft plot approach. He does what comes to mind and sound good so sometimes you can tell what happens. I felt the same about a lot of horror where I know what's going to happen but it's going to take like two hundred pages to get there. There is a benefit to thriller pacing.

 

[Little oak tree]

If worst means best (horror I suppose) then I like this one

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

View attachment 3618463
If worst means best (horror I suppose) then I like this one

Worst because King chickened out after portraying rabid fangirls the way they actually are, and said that antagonist was methaphor for his drug addiction.

 

[Little oak tree]

Worst because King chickened out after portraying rabid fangirls the way they actually are, and said that antagonist was methaphor for his drug addiction.

We both chickened out

 

[Jason Wynn]

What about the worst of his short stories? I always found The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands one of the corniest things he’s written.

TL;DR guy can kill people after shaking their hands. He commits suicide by shaking his own hand

C’mon Steve. Really?

 

[Tootsie Bear]

What about the worst of his short stories? I always found The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands one of the corniest things he’s written.

TL;DR guy can kill people after shaking their hands. He commits suicide by shaking his own hand

C’mon Steve. Really?

That one was... okay. Well, I liked it better than the story of the ridiculously long finger in the sink or the man who turned himself into a grey blob by drinking contaminated bear.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

That one was... okay. Well, I liked it better than the story of the ridiculously long finger in the sink or the man who turned himself into a grey blob by drinking contaminated bear.

They both work in a wtf kinda way. It was the 70's.

 

[Internet War Criminal]

I really really really like The Talisman. Between that and The Dark Towers it's a shame that he doesn't write more fantasy/horror. I hope the sequel is good too.

The Talisman would make for a really good two part movie. First part up until he escapes the house for wayward boys and starts walking again, start the second movie after that.

 

[Jason Wynn]

I hope the sequel is good too.

Black House is pretty good. It ties more clearly into the Tower mythos, but is more of a potboiler thriller than a pure fantasy. The Albert Fish styled killer and what he does is pretty visceral, even by King standards. If you’ve read Hearts in Atlantis it also ties pretty heavily into the Low Men in Yellow Coats portion. Not as good as The Talisman (one of my favorites as well) but definitely worth a read.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

The worst of king is definitely his twitter.

I think it's half him and half trying to not get canceled considering the content of his novels.

Making fun of periods, school shooting, boys running a train on a girl in the sewer, magical retard, retard stung to death by bees, magical negro, magical negro retard

Yeah he...really needs to stay ahead of that.

 

[Internet War Criminal]

Or his constant, and I mean constant use of the word nigger. He uses it more than the average A&E shitposter.

Also, it seems that my wish for more Stephen King fantasy is coming true, he has a book coming out in a week literally called Fairy Tale which is fantasy and possibly connected to either Talisman/Black House or The Dark Tower

 

[Constellationzero]

So... I just found a first edition hardback of The Dark Half at Goodwill. Started reading it last night. The idea that he got "inspired" after being outed by a fan as Richard Bachman is interesting (the write what you know deal).

So far, it's fairly easy to read and the story about Thad's "twin" is interesting. We'll see how it goes...

RE: Twitter.

King needs to just SHADDUP and write freaky stories involving his crunk and alcoholism and whatever other malfunctions of the moment he's trying to work out. That's where he shines. No1curr what, or how woke, he is.

 

[Quijibo69]

So... I just found a first edition hardback of The Dark Half at Goodwill. Started reading it last night. The idea that he got "inspired" after being outed by a fan as Richard Bachman is interesting (the write what you know deal).

So far, it's fairly easy to read and the story about Thad's "twin" is interesting. We'll see how it goes...

One of my least favorite of his books, even Tommyknockers was better.

 

[Atomic Age Animal]

• Any of his fiction where the protagonist is a writer. I generally dislike fiction where writers navel-gaze about their craft and King is no less tedious when he does it. (Any of his non-fiction where he muses on the same is also pretty meh but fair play).
• The artless SJW stuff.
• The lazy reworking of an earlier story that he's already written.

Elevation is an example of those last two, imo; it's a loose reworking of the plot of Thinner and features a town replete with caricatures who hate the one lesbian couple in town because 1. Trumptards and 2. god hates fags and that's good enough for me, gol'durnit! (One of the lesbian characters is written to be hateful — but only as a response to bigotry, King assures us! Heaven forfend a member of a sexual minority group should just authentically be cunty, like a fully-rounded person, instead of a perpetual victim of oppreshuns).

I also agree with those who said that his short stories and novellas are more consistently good than his novels. I second the 40-60 good-bad novel split someone else mentioned upthread. That said, I liked The Tommyknockers and have never been able to get through The Stand, so what do I know?

As a citizen of Britbongistan I liked to read about stores and products that weren't available to me and remember wishing so badly to be able to peruse an L.L. Bean catalog.

I often have to look up the Burgerlandian junk food he mentions. (That might also be because some of the references are before my time though).

Rage gets a little bit weirder when you start to consider King was a high school English teacher

Even weirder when you remember that in one of his intros he recounts a story where he held a grudge against one of his own teachers who told him his writing would never amount to anything.

INNYWAY! Does anyone have any recommendations for other horror authors for those of us who don't find King's new stuff to be readable?

 

[Internet War Criminal]

Black House was also really fucking good. On to Fairy Tale.

King's new stuff to be readable?

Billy Summer (hard crime) and The Institute were very good imo

 

[Constellationzero]

One of my least favorite of his books, even Tommyknockers was better.

Funnily enough, before I got on here to see your comment, I'd already stopped reading by chapter 3. He should've stopped at the prologue.

 

[Quijibo69]

On to Fairy Tale.

That was pretty much like Ready Player One in SK form after the first half is done. Get ready for disappointment.

 

[Internet War Criminal]

That was pretty much like Ready Player One in SK form after the first half is done. Get ready for disappointment.

Fuuuuuuu

I knew I shouldn't have bought it right away but after Eye of the Dragon, Talisman and Black House I was like, fuck yeah more fantasy stuff, and the first reviews were good too.

 

[Black Light Red Panic]

• Any of his fiction where the protagonist is a writer.

Consistently outmatched by Thompson and Bukowski in this.