A master storyteller at his best—the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story.
Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short … of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.
There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. “Afterlife” is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win.
Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King’s finest gifts to his constant reader—“I made them especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”
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A collection of short stories that will bend your mind in ways that only “The King” of horror can. I can’t say I have one favorite story within this book, I love all of them. It is a quick read and something to curl up with on a rainy day or a hot cup of coffee.
This anthology by Stephen King is a must read. I mean, everything SK writes is gold. Fun to cozy up and have a quick story.
First of any of King’s short stories I’ve read and I wasn’t disappointed!
The Bad Little Kid had my knuckles white with anticipation and fear (I was mostly driving). Drunken Fireworks had me cracking up.
Was pretty good book but Stephen King’s novels are always the best.
A friend bought me the hard cover of this book and I have been savoring the stories one by one as an addict enjoying his last fix. Mr. King is no question the king of horror and I recommend each and every one of his books!!!
I have loved Stephen King’s short stories since Night Shift, and this is another collection that doesn’t disappoint. King has a tendency to write long, swollen novels, and I appreciate his shorter fiction in which he strips away everything but one controlling idea. (Of course, “short fiction” is a relative term, and King’s “short fiction” has grown longer and longer since the years when he was writing and selling to sleazy men’s magazines, but I still like his short stories in any way I can get them.)
I have to say I always love Stephen King’s short stories. I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes peeks King provided for each of the stories in this collection. I had read several of the stories previously, but King pulling back the curtain gave those a new perspective.
Like so may other King stories I’ve read, I’m always surprised that the stories that stayed in my mind since reading it. On the surface, they’re sparkly moments in time, but they become more, sometimes much more and dark, after they’ve had time to settle into your subconscious. Those are the best kind of stories!
You can never go wrong with Stephen King. I listened to the audio version and appreciate that Mr. King narrated the beginning of each short. He is quippy and insightful; someone you wouldn’t mind having a front porch conversation with at sunset with a beer.
Each theme in each tale differs. Each narrator lends life to the characters in the story; some good, some not so good. It’s definitely worth the 20 some odd hour length to listen to.Stephen King
one of his best books, read it twice and will definetly read it again
The stories range from anywhere from about 10 pages-50 pages. One of the longer ones is one of the ones I didn’t like much – it just seemed to drone on. But like I said, most stories in this 700 page book were good.
What I liked the most is before each short story, Stephen King did a small introduction about when he wrote the story and how it came about. It gave me a little more insight into one of my favorite authors. It helped me understand his thought process for the story he was writing, and I thought that was great.
Give this one a try. Because it is short stories, you could pick a few and read them, and put it down and come back to it whenever you want.
Enjoy!
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories by Stephen King. But I especially appreciated the notes in between which offered insight into his writing life.
So perfectly King
Love his short stories.
It’s Stephen King … What more is there to say … Other than master story teller & his short stories are awesome (short stories are underrated in general) … If you’re new to his short stories … Be sure to read Night Shift (all time fav) + Skeleton Crew to really get you started …