Haven’t read Dark Tower series or most of his newer stuff, but among the ones I’ve read:
- Dreamcatcher
2 - 3. (tie) Desperation/The Regulators - Insomnia
- Rose Madder
I am not especially well read with regards to Stephen King. For example, I haven’t read: Salem’s Lot, Gerald’s Game, Rose Madder—most of his newer stuff, in fact. I tried to start From a Buick 8, Desperation, and Insomnia, and just couldn’t get into them. Discovering Pterry and some of the newer Brit Sci-Fi writers, coupled with my slow reading pace, meant that many of his books are still on my shelf, waiting.
Of the ones I’ve tried to read all the way through, my picks for worst are:
[ol]
[li]Cell. Which I’ve bitched about repeatedly on other threads.[/li][li]Dark Tower 7. Just pure shite, and that’s without mentioning the ending(s). The fates of Walter and Mordred, never mind how the Crimson King is handled, are just insulting to the reader.[/li][li]Dark Tower 6: Dumb and dumb squared. Felt rushed. And I detest how the powers of the Gunslingers seemed to wax and wane with the demands of the plot. And let’s not even get into the whole writing yourself into the story thing.[/li][li]The Dark Half Hated the ending, and couldn’t quite come to grips with the idea of a pen name coming to life. Too bad, as George Stark is an interesting character to follow. (From a distance)[/li][li]Dark Tower 5. Though I don’t hate it, I just don’t like it as much as say, the first 1/4 of Tommyknockers. The fight with the riders/wolves is just straight up, drooling, hockey helmet-wearing, retarded though. Thrown dinner plates? Really? If thrown plates were so deadly, half my relatives would be in the morgue by now. [/li][/ol]
A lot of the rage I have for the end of the Dark Tower is because the first 4 were so good. I love the first one, and understand why the tone shifted to a more conventional one for the next three.
It badly needed an editor, but I didn’t hate it. When will authors learn that a tightly plotted 350 page story is much more satisfying than a bloated, sprawling 1000 page one?
Oddly, I don’t remember Needful Things being the crock of shit that the rest of you do, and I actually liked Cujo. Firestarter, OTOH, was just a straight, formulaic potboiler. And I’m glad he seemed to abandon “The Shop” entity. Leave the X-Files stuff to writers who do it better.
The beginning of the Tommyknocker’s was pretty good and had one of my favorite “character studies” of a minor character - Becka Paulson and the bit about Jesus on the TV. It totally lost me by the ending, though.
My list:
Dreamcatchers (WTF!)
The Cell (started so good, too!)
Rose Madder (ugh, the painting)
The Dome (couldn’t finish, bored)
Duma Key (the ending enraged me, so many plot holes - wish I could find the thread where we discussed this)
Lisey’s Story - honorable mention, I didn’t read enough to really critique it, was so bored.
Books that just bored me
Hearts in Atlantis
Bag of Bones (once again, all the metaphysical la la land bullcrap turned me off)
Buick 8
Needful Things
I guess this list makes it sound like I hate Stephen King. On the contrary, I loooove his earlier stuff. Salem’s Lot, The Stand, Firestarter, The Shining, It, Eyes of the Dragon…LOVE. I also really like it when he adds forwards/afterwards where he talks to the reader. He just seems like a fun guy it would be fun to have a drink with and just talk.
I have missed a lot of his books, I’ve only read a couple since Bag of Bones, though nearly all the ones before that I read as they came out, because my mother would buy them immediately and religiously. 
Tommyknockers is definitely one of my least favourites, I tend to prefer his earlier to mid-career stuff for the most part. Some I absolutely love, a few I hate and some are relatively indifferent. Dunno if I could pick the 5 best, but the worst of the ones I read were
Misery
Tommyknockers
The Dark Half (though I liked the joke about how many sparrows does it take to screw in a lightbulb)
Dreamcatcher (OMG shitweasels WTF)
Gerald’s Game/Rose Madder
Forgot about that one. Yup, hated it.
Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut. I actually really like this one.
I read The Talisman first, and remember liking Shadowland after, though I can’t remember what it was about. Guess I won’t be reading Black House, from the sound of it.
I haven’t read anything since Dreamcatcher and I don’t remember most of the short stories.
Tommyknockers
Insomnia
Dreamcatcher
Gerald’s Game
Needful Things
I agree except I would remove Cujo and substitute it with Needful Things.
I never finished Lisey’s Story or From A Buick 8. I just didn’t care enough to try.
Oh, me too. You’re not alone.
Misery… really? 
I tried re-reading Lisey’s Story because of this (and the other SK) thread… couldn’t get through it. I wanted to read more about her crazy sister, but the babyluv’s and the strap it on’s and the idiocy of the main character made it so I… just… couldn’t… take it anymore.
Not to mention the horrible research - you’d think SK would’ve spent 2 minutes on Wikipedia to learn that:
a. There’s not a “University of Tennessee” in Nashville… it’s in Knoxville. (There’s not even a branch of UT in Nashville).
b. It’s called UT (“You-Tee”), not “U-Tenn” by, well, everybody.
It looks like I’m the only one that actually likes Tommyknockers :p. I don’t get the hate for it, I thought it was one of his better books. I haven’t read a lot of his newer stuff. I remember him promising to retire sometime around “The Plant”, as soon as he was finished with his “contractual obligations”. I note that most of the books and stories people have listed in this thread are newer ones.
My list is more than 5. I hope that’s ok ;):
The Dark Half (that’s when King jumped the shark for me). Just an awful book.
The Dead Zone not scary, not funny, not interesting.
Cujo
Needful Things A hell of a lot of buildup and not much of a payoff. Would have been okay as a 40-50 page short story, as a nearly 800 page book it sucked.
Insomnia Again, the last 1/3 was good, the first 2/3 could have been ripped out and thrown away without really missing anything.
Secret Window, Secret Garden - Horrible from start to finish.
The Green Mile - what pissed me off about this one was that it was released one teeny tiny 100 page book (roughly) at a time, and SK was harping on and on about how it was something really unique and different in today’s publishing world, a throwback to the days of the serial stories which used to appear in magazines, when you had to wait until the next issue to get the continuation of the story. This story would not be available in any other format, he promised. You had to buy these little books as they came out or they would be gone forever, and you’d never get another chance to read them. About a year later it came out in novel form… :smack:
In no particular order:
Black House - a sequel to a book I liked, and I couldn’t finish it. I’ve only done that with about 10 books, and I read a lot.
Under the Dome - a newer book, so I’ll spoiler it
I hate the ‘brain tumor makes someone violent’ trope. I know it happens, but so does amnesia, and that’s been done to death as well. Also, damn, Big Jim Rennie was like a cartoon character, a problem with a lot of his bad guys. King hates himself some religious authoritarians. It’'s a shame that my favorite thing was the shout-out to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character.
Lisey’s Story - Another book of King’s I didn’t finish. Dude’s ruining my record 
The Dark Tower - read the first book when it first came out, and never read any more of them. Didn’t see what he fuss was about. That was a long time ago, and maybe my tastes have changed, but after the outrage over the last book, I’ll not try it again.
Cujo- “Nothing wrong here!” my ass. A big drooling dog and way too much marriage angst. Could work as a Lifetime move with just a little rewriting.
That one surprised me too!
I guess I agree with the idea that once King quit the sauce, his writing went down the crapper. The Dark Tower books are as dull as ditchwater, and I couldn’t finish From a Buick 8. I’m too old to slog thru something just to make it thru to the end.
His other problem is that he needs a more ruthless editor. He is too successful for someone to say, “Hey Steve - I cut three hundred pages from your latest. Next time, quit farting around and get to the scary part.”
Regards,
Shodan
I haven’t read much of his recent stuff, but I seem to remember some commenting that getting hit by a van also afffected his writing somehow. Not sure when it happened - I have the vague impression it was just recently, which at this time in my life usually translates to about fifteen years ago, give or take.
I propose a (dis)honorable mention for everything written after he got hit by the van.
The all-time worst is Susannah’s Song. I know three people who are/were stuck on the Dark Tower series because of that book. I took an afternoon and just banged it out and yes, it did hurt a little.
Close. It happened in 1999.
If there was a University of Tennessee Institute, it could be UTI…
…sorry, I’ll get my coat.
I’m surprised there aren’t more votes for the last three Dark Tower books, which were exhausting marathons of blather. All three were absolutely terrible.
Then I’d nominate Lisey’s Story, which I couldn’t even get through - I gave up around Page 150 - and Insomnia, which was an excellent short story packed into an 800-page novel.