Stephen King's "Buick" hardly provides a thrilling ride

Stephen King is in a slump. His latest novel, From A Buick 8, is just another book in a long line of mediocre works by the former master of horror in suspense. Former because King seems to have lost his knack for both horror and suspense. From A Buick 8 lacks all the elements that once made King's books fun and exciting to read.\nThere is no looming evil in King's latest novel. It is simply the story of a Pennsylvania police troop and a mysterious Buick in a shed. The members of the troop reveal the long and dull history of this Buick through a series of stories that for some strange reason all seem to have the same voice. King apparently did not have the time of day to interweave the characters' voices throughout their independent stories, so instead each one channels the spirit of King.\nBehind the basic plot is the story of Ned Wilcox, a soon-to-be college freshman whose father served on the troop but died when he was struck by a Buick. No, not the same one. Notice the not-so-subtle irony that King is so good at. It is to Ned that the troop reveal the Buick's story, along with a few odds and ends about Ned's dad who had an obsession with the car. \nNot that King has gone all literary. Character development is still King's weakest points; without even a decent plot, Buick struggles then drowns. He does little to define the psychological nature of his characters; so when they do something out of the ordinary, it feels gimmicky and unbelievable. There's no emotional aspect to the characters, King might as well have left them out completely and stuck to telling a story about the car.\nKing recently told Entertainment Weekly that this would be his last published novel before finishing the Dark Tower series. This series' presence has appeared in many of his recent works (most notably Hearts In Atlantis and Black House), and the idea persists throughout Buick. The idea of alternate dimensions and weird creatures appearing from nowhere is a bit overdone now for King, and just goes to show that a writer can only rehash material so many times. It's likely he'll revisit the characters (or at least the car) from Buick in the remaining Dark Tower books, what a shame.\nAfter that, King said he plans to retire from publishing (but not from writing). While this may disappoint some fans, it's probably for the best. King's work is uninspired and unexciting. While he had a brief stint in literature with a few of his short stories in Everything's Eventual, he never reached quite the literary level to reclassify himself from "genre fiction." King puts plot before characters, but now it seems he can't even create a decent plot.