Worst of Stephen King - Worst books or stories

[Constellationzero]

The Tommyknockers is widely regarded as his worst novel, and while I haven't read much of his output past 2004, it's not hard to see why.

I thought Rose Madder was regarded as his worst.

@The Un-Clit:

Re: The Wikipedia. I don't like whoever decided King re-wrote Quartermass and the Pit. I don't know anything about Quartermass, but I think Tommyknockers is more Color Out of Space.

I think he dwells too much on the mind reading stuff and there's still too little about the ship. I was disappointed in the flying saucer. I wanted more ball to the wall Geiger-eque Juggernaut which would've made his story more horrifying.
He somewhat went there with the shed. But he was more fascinated with the stupid ass mind reading and bullshit gadgets with zero thought behind any of them.

I also was bored as hell with the fleshing out of Gardner at the party fucking with the Power and Electricity guy. What that had to do with anything, I don't know. Same with Patricia McCardle. Okay, he "showed her," SO?

I know King is a fan of Lovecraft, Chambers, and Bierce. I think he could've made better use of his inspiration behind the story. But there are a lot of elements I DO like, so I keep reading.

Next after Tommyknockers: I have Clive Barker's Mister B. Gone.

 

[The Un-Clit]

I thought Rose Madder was regarded as his worst.

@The Un-Clit:

Re: The Wikipedia. I don't like whoever decided King re-wrote Quartermass and the Pit. I don't know anything about Quartermass, but I think Tommyknockers is more Color Out of Space.

I think he dwells too much on the mind reading stuff and there's still too little about the ship. I was disappointed in the flying saucer. I wanted more ball to the wall Geiger-eque Juggernaut which would've made his story more horrifying.
He somewhat went there with the shed. But he was more fascinated with the stupid ass mind reading and bullshit gadgets with zero thought behind any of them.

I also was bored as hell with the fleshing out of Gardner at the party fucking with the Power and Electricity guy. What that had to do with anything, I don't know. Same with Patricia McCardle. Okay, he "showed her," SO?

I know King is a fan of Lovecraft, Chambers, and Bierce. I think he could've made better use of his inspiration behind the story. But there are a lot of elements I DO like, so I keep reading.

Next after Tommyknockers: I have Clive Barker's Mister B. Gone.

I can get behind all of that. Particularly that entire segment with McAardle and Arglebargle. Okay, Gard's a nuke hater who can't control his spergery when he's got a load on, and he's ALWAYS got a load on. We get it. That whole segment went on FAR too long, and the poem sucked. Bobbi's sister was totally wasted too. A good setup to create an infamous bitch-queen who could have gone on to fuck up Bobbi's plans but had a bus dropped on her instead, like King just lost interest in her. Utterly wasted character. Would have liked to see more of the saucer as well, again some wasted potential there, but other then that I REALLY liked almost everything else in the book.

Mister B. Gone was an interesting read too. Not Barker's best, like most of his later output but still well worth the read.

 

[Mola Ram]

I thought Rose Madder was regarded as his worst.

They tend to share the spot. Do a little poking around and you'll find listicles, reddit threads, and forum posts where Tommyknockers is held in very low regard. (I'd love to read something more authoritative or critically incisive.) King himself has shit on the book as being bad because it was the result of being coked out of his mind, and it was the last book he wrote before getting clean.

For my own part, I think Rose Madder is more bland than terrible, and Tommyknockers is such a trainwreck it winds up being unintentionally entertaining. I can't remember if it was in this thread, but I recently heard someone say a lot of King's stuff works better as cheesy comedy, and hoo boy is that the case for Tommyknockers.

can get behind all of that. Particularly that entire segment with McAardle and Arglebargle. Okay, Gard's a nuke hater who can't control his spergery when he's got a load on, and he's ALWAYS got a load on. We get it.

That's actually one of the segments of the book I unambiguously enjoy. The problem is it's a short story about a writer on the bubble succumbing to his own demons and nuking the last shreds of his credibility and reputation (it even has an ambiguous "clean start" ending with Gard waking up hungover on a beach) that's jammed into an already-too-long novel with very little payoff. I guess it just goes to show why Gard might have felt stuck in Haven no matter how weird things were getting.

the poem sucked.

The poem is a piece of shit and I can't tell if the standing ovation "My god what a beautiful genius!" reaction from the crowd was King miscalculating or a sly jab at how stupid and pretentious poetry readings are. Given how coked up he was, I lean toward the former.

 

[Jerri's Kid]

I would never consider The Tommyknockers to be his worst book, especially after some of the stuff I've read post accident. Cell was much dumber and the only thing good about it was that it was mercifully short.

I actually have a soft spot for The Tommyknockers in spite of its flaws because it was the first time I had read a story that depicted aliens as dangerous idiots and I found that amusing. I also liked the crazy inventions they made such as the killer vending machines and the typewriter that responds to thoughts. Needful Things is better if you like dark humor, but The Tommyknockers had some similar moments like 'Becka Paulson's story.

I finished Under the Dome recently. It was better than Cell and Revival but it has a weak ending like many of his stories. There was an unintentionally funny part when the protagonists remember moments in their lives when they did something horrible like torturing an animal and participating in the murder of a POW. One protagonist remembers making fun of Hillary Clinton when she lost the 2016 election, so apparently King equates animal abuse, and the torture/murder of human beings with ridiculing a shitty politician.

 

[Mola Ram]

I would never consider The Tommyknockers to be his worst book, especially after some of the stuff I've read post accident. Cell was much dumber and the only thing good about it was that it was mercifully short.

Cell was so bad it's the only book of his I couldn't finish (as opposed to ones I never picked up in the first place). Short as it is, it was too fucking stupid to waste my time with.

If we're talking post accident, I have to mention Dreamcatcher, which might be worse than anything he wrote up to that point and which retreads the ground from at least four different books and has yet another Magic Retard at its center. I don't think anyone likes that book, but I think everyone gives it a pass because it was the first thing he wrote after the van creamed him.

so apparently King equates animal abuse, and the torture/murder of human beings with ridiculing a shitty politician.

At least he's moved on from sucking Gary Hart's cock, which he was doing as late as 2004 where Hart being President is a sign Susannah has reached a Very Nice Ending For the Black Lady.

 

[Billy Bob Dick]

I finished Under the Dome recently.

I read the first 250 pages, then gave up and skipped to the end. UTD was about 1000 pages too long. Dude is better when he lets people edit his books.

"Revival" was so stupid, man. God, what a disappoinment. Such a great read right up until the end. "The Null" - wow, everyone goes to hell, how very original. Make it stop, jesus

 

[The Un-Clit]

Cell was so bad it's the only book of his I couldn't finish (as opposed to ones I never picked up in the first place). Short as it is, it was too fucking stupid to waste my time with.

If we're talking post accident, I have to mention Dreamcatcher, which might be worse than anything he wrote up to that point and which retreads the ground from at least four different books and has yet another Magic Retard at its center. I don't think anyone likes that book, but I think everyone gives it a pass because it was the first thing he wrote after the van creamed him.



At least he's moved on from sucking Gary Hart's cock, which he was doing as late as 2004 where Hart being President is a sign Susannah has reached a Very Nice Ending For the Black Lady.

Cell was fucking awful. That's one thing we can all agree on. Dreamcatcher was again a good concept and could have been a great novel. The insane general was a great character but the book was badly ruined by 'Duttits' and the utterly cringe fellating of the Magic Retard. What a shame. So many of his books could have been world beaters but get hung up by something awful and end up just good instead of great.

 

[Mola Ram]

The insane general was a great character but the book was badly ruined by 'Duttits' and the utterly cringe fellating of the Magic Retard.

The general is a great character, like someone who strolled in fresh off the cover-up of Project Blue. But as long as we're on the book's flaws, let's not forget the long, extravagant descriptions of the brain-melting farts caused by the "shit-weasels," something which is inappropriately hilarious and which immediately destroys any tension the story might have built up. I know King lurves taking silly or mundane things and trying to make them horrific, but he fails more often than he succeeds and this might be the single worst attempt he ever made at such a thing.

 

[McMitch]

so apparently King equates animal abuse, and the torture/murder of human beings with ridiculing a shitty politician.

King has always been emotionally dependant on the Democratic Party, to the point where the only way he could justify Lee Harvey Oswald (i.e. The Dead Zone) was by making JFK a republican.

 

[LateNightMuffin]

King has a lot of bad stuff, but for me The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was, though short, too tedious to finish. I got about 50 or 75 pages in, and thought, "Okay, she's lost. Is anything else going to happen?" and found the plot online to save myself wasting any more time. Reading the actual plot made me glad I didn't read any more. I know it's not the subject of the thread, but my favorite was "'Salem's Lot," but that might also be because it was the first book of his I read.

 

[Ewan McGregor]

I had a vague memory of him having health problems, and it turns out he nearly died of complications from a dental procedure back in 2012. Toxic shock syndrome, went into a 3 week coma, the works. Apparently there are conflicting rumors on just how recovered he is, but I wouldn't be surprised if that had something to do with it.

So, is it true he's an AIDS-ridden faggot?

 

[Constellationzero]

The Tommyknockers had some similar moments like 'Becka Paulson's story.

So far, my pick for favorite sub story in Tommyknockers.

 

[Flaming Carrot]

It is? That's the first i've heard. I really enjoyed it, far FAR more then the majority of his output for the next 10 years after Tommyknockers. It's not perfect, but it had a great concept, great worldbuilding, some pretty unlikeable main characters for sure, but since it all goes bad for them in the end that's fine imo. It even has an almost satisfactory ending.

What do you folks who don't like Tommyknockers dislike other then the main characters?

I believe Stephen King himself said it was his worst book, but I think he's written much worse. It's the last book he wrote while he was on cocaine, and it shows.

 

[Constellationzero]

Something else I realized about King's writing in general:

1. Watch Creepshow. The first one. The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.
2. Read Tommyknockers or the Gunslinger or Salem's Lot or any of his other pre-accident, pre-sober works.
3. Notice the excessive use/reliance on italicized exposition dumping.

I get it. He very likely grew up on, and LOVED Weird Tales, Tales From the Crypt, Amazing Stories, Mad and Cracked. I did too, as did many of you, I'm sure.
But he seems to lean on this style excessively. His writing mirrors the format of original Creepshow, but this seems to be excessive though he has called other writers hacks for using outlines, whiteboards, story boards, or other tools to keep the story on task, on track, and interesting.

And he really does do this to death in Tommyknockers.

Watch, in particular, when King himself hallucinates his father in the mirror in Creepshow. Or the fantasy of selling the meteor to the local university.

 

[std::string]

King has a lot of bad stuff, but for me The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was, though short, too tedious to finish. I got about 50 or 75 pages in, and thought, "Okay, she's lost. Is anything else going to happen?" and found the plot online to save myself wasting any more time. Reading the actual plot made me glad I didn't read any more. I know it's not the subject of the thread, but my favorite was "'Salem's Lot," but that might also be because it was the first book of his I read.

Would've been more interesting as a short story. Maybe 20 pages. Not 200 pages.

 

[Replacement Account]

Next after Tommyknockers: I have Clive Barker's Mister B. Gone.

I remember liking it, but it's been a good long while.

 

[The Un-Clit]

Does anyone else wish that some day King might get off his ass and finish The Plant? Frankly I thought it was one of the most interesting half-novels he'd come up with. Obviously he did too since he published it AS a half-novel in a couple of anthologies.

A neat concept with the empathic plant, another fucked up black family, a publishing house environment dealing with nutty lolcow fans who are actually dangerous, I really liked it and wanted moar.

 

[Prester John]

King has always been emotionally dependant on the Democratic Party, to the point where the only way he could justify Lee Harvey Oswald (i.e. The Dead Zone) was by making JFK a republican.

And yet he made Mother Abagail a Republican. I can't square that with his worldview.

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

King is an author people enjoy it they’ve never read actually good horror, or aren’t particularly literate in general.

Frankly I can’t stand this guy. I picked him up for the first time after growing up on the likes of Lovecraft and Shirley Jackson. I found his writing to be lackluster and try-hard. Not to mention, it’s a shame that his coke addiction didn’t at least masquerade his predilections for depicting deviant sex acts and discussing kids’ junk.

This is coming from someone who’s a Barker fan. At least Clive Barker is open about what he’s into, plus his prose is beautiful and the sexuality adds to his stories.

 

[McMitch]

And yet he made Mother Abagail a Republican. I can't square that with his worldview.

Because she would have been born and became an adult in a time where near 100% of black Americans were Republican. She’s not an R voter because she’s a good person, she’s a good person despite being an R voter.