I am sad to see Stephen King come down so hard on this book. On the surface its a typical sci-fi story based on Lovecraft's 'The Colour out of Space', not extraordinary. It always felt like he was trying to rewrite Sale's Lot. But it has great characters, great references (the best one being the reference to the Pet Sematary, another book he once swore he hated) and one of the best endings in any SK book.
This story is about addiction. The people of Haven become so addicted to the power the ship offers they can't let go of it. That power is like a drug. Maybe SK doesn't like this story because he wrote it during such a dark time in his life. I think a part o him wrote this to show his own struggled with addiction.David's hand groped for the blanket, found it, and pulled it up. Ninety-three million miles from the sun and a hundred parsecs from the axis pole of the galaxy, Hilly and David Brown slept in each other's arms.