Got married on 10th May - happy at last!! Taking BA Hons Degree in Eng Lit & creative writing in Sep...
Got married on 10th May - happy at last!! Taking BA Hons Degree in Eng Lit & creative writing in Sept so expect practice! x
Member since:03.11.2001
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I received Stephen King's 'Skeleton Crew' last Christmas, along with 'Different Seasons', which I have already detailed in a previous op. Skeleton Crew has to be one of the few Stephen King books I have never read and though I am not a huge fan of short story anthologies, I was looking forward to having something new to read.
Skeleton Crew did not disappoint, although I found one or two of the stories a little odd, I enjoyed most of them. The book opens with an introduction from the man himself (Stephen King that is); here he attempts to explain why he loves to write and what he gets out of it. He takes one of the stories from the book and explains how the idea came to him and he also talks about how writing short stories has become harder for him over the years. He describes a short story thus:
"A short story is a different thing altogether (to a novel) a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger. That is not, of course, the same thing as an affair or a marriage, but kisses can be sweet, and their very brevity forms their own attraction."
I will include a brief description of the better stories, but as there are twenty-three of them, it would be a very long op if I described them all.
The Stories: ~ The Mist. (First appeared in Dark Forces 1980)
This is the longest story in the book and deals with the effects of a mysterious mist that creeps in over Long Lake in New England.
David is the hero and he and his young son Billy take a trip to the supermarket the morning after a terrible storm for provisions. They leave Steffy, David's wife, behind in the garden as the mist is drifting across the lake. Upon reaching the supermarket, it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary mist when people are ripped apart when they walk into it. David, Billy, his neighbour Norton and others spend the night trapped in the market whilst strange creatures attempt to reach them from outside.
It's a good story, a little fantastic with nothing to back it up and perhaps a little too long, comprised of eleven chapters as it is. ~ The Monkey. (1980)
This isn't a bad little story about Hal and his fear of a wind-up toy monkey which he hasn't been able to get rid of since childhood. His young sons find the monkey in the attic whilst they are moving and Hal relives his nightmares surrounding the monkey. This is quite good with some tension, again, it is quite fantastic and I felt that we should've been given some facts about the monkey's origins to make the story more credible. ~ Mrs Todd's Shortcut (First appeared in Redbook Magazine. 1984)
This was one of my favourites. Homer Buckland tells his tale about Mrs Todd, a woman he worked for in the summer months and her obsession with finding the quickest routes around the county in her Mercedes Sportser. Mrs Todd disappears one night never to be seen again and as the story unfolds we discover the mysteries around her disappearance. I thought this story was very well crafted and I enjoyed it immensely. ~ Word Processor of the Gods. (First appeared in Playboy magazine. 1983)
I enjoyed this one immensely too. Although it wasn't one of the best written it was a nice tale with some aspects that most of us would wish for occasionally. Richard's nephew, Jon, was killed in a car accident two weeks before Richard's birthday; before he died he built Richard a word processor. But it isn't just any old word processor, this one can have an effect on the world around Richard and it isn't long before he uses it to gain himself his hearts desire. ~ The Ballad Of The Flexible Bullet.
This tale is told from the perspective of an agent who describes how a client and his story dragged him into the realms of the 'flexible bullet', i.e.: madness. The client believes that he has things called 'fornits' living in his typewriter who actually help him write by thinking of the words for him. At first, the agent humours his client and tells him that he believes in fornits, until he realises how paranoid his client really is. By then it's too late as the agent is already on the road to the same insanity that finally drives his client to murder. I enjoyed this one too, a very well crafted story that kept me gripped to the end. ~ Now for one of the worse stories: ~ *Here There Be Tygers. (1968)
This is a very short story at just over five pages long. I disliked it immediately! This is the story of Charles, a little boy who wants to use the toilet at school but is afraid as he thinks that there is a tiger in there. He would rather use the basement, but he is also afraid of his teacher who tells him that only dirty boys use the basement. I can't tell any more without giving away the ending, suffice to say that I thought it was terrible. ~ Other stories:
~ *Cain Rose Up. (1968) ~ *The Jaunt. (First appeared in Twilight Zone Magazine. 1981) ~ *The Wedding Gig. (First appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. 1980) ~ *Paranoid - A Chant. (1985) ~ *The Raft. (First appeared in Gallery Magazine 1982) ~ *The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands. (First appeared in Shadows 4.1982) ~ *Beachworld (First appeared in Weird Tales) ~ *The Reaper's Image. (First appeared in Startling Mystery Stories. 1969) ~ *Nona (First appeared in Shadows. 1978)~ *For Owen (1985) ~ *Survivor Type. (First appeared in Terrors. 1982) ~ *Uncle Otto's Truck. (First appeared in Yankee Magazine. 1982) ~ *Morning Deliveries. (1985) ~ *Big Wheels: A Tale Of The Laundry Game (First appeared in New Terrors 2. 1982) ~ *Gramma. (First appeared in Weird Book Magazine. 1984) ~ *The Reach (First appeared in Yankee Magazine. 1981).
As you can see, there a quite a few stories in there. Some are longer than others and a couple of them are poems, after a fashion. I would recommend this book to lovers of horror and mystery stories; if you really don't enjoy the horror genre however, I would probably tell you to leave it alone. These are stories for fans and Stephen King compiled this book with his fans in mind. In all, the book is 606 pages long, but as you can put it down between stories, this doesn't make it an especially long book.
I hope this has been helpful. I have tried to give a taste of the kind of material in the book so you will know whether it is for you or not. I enjoyed the book quite a lot but even as a fan, not all of the stories did it for me and I found myself thinking WHAT?.
Thanks for reading. Kes:)
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In the introduction to Skeleton Crew, his second collection of stories, King pokes fun at ... more
his penchant for "literary elephantiasis," makes scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes (gross and net), and tells a story about g...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
In the introduction to Skeleton Crew, his second collection of stories, King pokes fun at ... more
his penchant for "literary elephantiasis," makes scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes (gross and net), and tells a story about g...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
In the introduction toSkeleton Crew, his second collection of stories, King pokes fun at ... more
his penchant for "literary elephantiasis," makes scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes (gross and net), and tells a story about ge...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
In the introduction to Skeleton Crew, his second collection of stories, King pokes fun at ... more
his penchant for "literary elephantiasis," makes scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes (gross and net), and tells a story about g...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
In the introduction toSkeleton Crew, his second collection of stories, King pokes fun at ... more
his penchant for "literary elephantiasis," makes scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes (gross and net), and tells a story about ge...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
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