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Post by sean on Aug 10, 2008 9:24:24 GMT
The fourth collection of Stephen King's short fiction. First published 2002 (Hodder and Stoughton hardback 2002) BLURB: The first collectionn of stories Stephen King has published since Nightmares & Dreamscapes nine years ago includes one O. Henry Prize-winner, two other award winners, four stories published by THe New Yorker and 'Riding the Bullet', King's original e-book that attracted over half a million on-line readers and became the most famous short story of the decade.
'Riding the Bullet', published here on paper for the first time, is the story of Alan Parker, who's hitch-hiking to see his dying mother, but takes the wrong ride, farther than he ever intended. In 'Lunch at the Gotham Cafe', a sparring couple's contentios lunch turns very, very bloody when the maitre d' gets out of sorts. '1408', the audio story in print for the first time, is about a sucessful writer whose speciality is 'Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Graveyards, 'Then Nights in Ten Haunted Houses', and though room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel doesn't kill him, he won't be writing about ghosts any more.
And in 'That Feeling, You Can Only Say What it is in French', terror is deja-vu at 16,000 feet.
Wheteher writing about encounters with the dead, the near dead, or about the mudane dreads of life, from quitting smoking to yard sales, Stephen King is at the top of his form in the fourteen dark tales assembled in Everything's Eventual. Intense, eerie, and instantly compelling, they announce the stunningly fertile imagibnation of perhaps the greatest storyteller of our time. Contains:Autopsy Room Four The Man in the Black Suit All That You Love Will Be Carried Away The Death of Jack Hamilton In the Deathroom The Little Sisters of Eluria Everything's Eventual L.T.'s Theory of Pets The Road Virus Heads North Lunch at the Cotham Cafe The Feeling You Can Only Say What It Is In French 1408 Riding the Bullet Luckey Quarter More later...
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Post by benedictjjones on Aug 18, 2008 10:04:05 GMT
the weakest of all his short story collections for me. 'the road virus heads north' and '1408' were my favourites in here.
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Post by erebus on Feb 24, 2009 18:40:03 GMT
The Man in the Black suit....Is that the one with the kid fishing ? I liked that tale.
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Post by benedictjjones on Mar 7, 2009 10:01:15 GMT
^that's the one.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 3, 2013 11:50:46 GMT
Another Sunday purchase from friend back-of-the-van man. Already had more than my 25p's worth from the haunted hotel story, so anything else of remotely similar quality will be a bonus. 1408: Despite the misgivings of Mr. Olin the manager, ghost-buster Mike Enslin, author of the best-selling Ten Nights in Ten Haunted/ Houses/ Castles/ Graveyards series, insists on spending the night in the shunned room on the13th floor which has supposedly claimed upwards of thirty lives since the Dolphin Hotel opened in 1910. Enslin's tame non-adventures at Gartsby Castle, H. P. Lovecraft's graveside and the Rilsby House, Kansas - scene of multiple axe murders - were a piss poor preparation for the real deal, and he's very fortunate to escape 1408 with his life, though he'll need to invest in a new shirt (and Sudocrem by the crate-load). Luckey Quarter: As a one-parent family, hotel chambermaid Darlene Pullen relies on the generosity of well-heeled guests to get by, so she's less than thrilled when, by way of a tip, the tight git in 322 leaves a measly quarter and a note to the effect that its "luckey." Not exactly a second The Monkey's Paw - he already achieved that with the magnificent Pet Sematary - not exactly 'spooky' either. Reminds me of the more questionable entries in Peter Haining's Detours Into The Macabre
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Post by mattofthespurs on Apr 3, 2013 16:49:33 GMT
I'm one of those people who grew up reading Stephen King (The Shining, 1977 was my first) and nearly always find him good value for money. Whilst this collection is not his strongest I found something interesting to take away from each story. From the shameless pilfering of Autopsy Room 4, to the Dark Tower shorts (Everything's Eventual, and Little Sister's of Eluria) In fact this collection feels, to me at least, like a collection of stories from The Twilight Zone (the 1980's incarnation at least). Little tales that whilst the majority don't quite come outright and bite you on the arse they do leave a nagging sensation in you're brain...Ok, I'm not making much sense, I realise. It's a difficult book to pigeon hole and that, to me, is part of the beauty of it. A solid, entertaining book.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 6, 2013 7:39:32 GMT
From the shameless pilfering of Autopsy Room 4, to the Dark Tower shorts (Everything's Eventual, and Little Sister's of Eluria) In fact this collection feels, to me at least, like a collection of stories from The Twilight Zone (the 1980's incarnation at least). Little tales that whilst the majority don't quite come outright and bite you on the arse they do leave a nagging sensation in you're brain...Ok, I'm not making much sense, I realise. On the contrary, I think you've nailed it. It's not like SK can do raw these days - he's far too knowing even to pretend - but, Autopsy Room Four aside, those I've read to date are surprisingly understated postcards from, well, The Twilight Zone will do very nicely. Agree with his publisher at The New Yorker re the ending of All That You Love Will Be Carried Away. King's original would have been too rosy for the subject matter. Autopsy Room Four: Howard Cottrell, 44, stockbroker and Michael Bolton lookalike, collapses, presumed dead of heart failure, at the nineteenth hole. The body-bag is premature. His is an extreme case of paralysis, but Dr. Katie Arden and her pet pupil, Pete, are too busy flirting to spot the bite mark on his leg (A second student, 'Rusty' is dismissed from the room on account of a truly despicable gag). An increasingly terrified Howard can only watch helpless as they scrub up, exchange sick one-liners and whack on the Rolling Stones Rewind compilation. Dr. Arden gives Pete the go ahead to get cracking on his first ever autopsy ... A sex comedy of sorts, and a frightening advertisement for the mortician industry. You can almost hear King giggling over your shoulder as you read. Pop culture references include Quincey, M.D., Baywatch, and Breakdown 1955, an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents which King readily acknowledges as the influence for the story. Lunch at the Gotham Café: Diana's curt note informing him that she's filing for divorce and any future communication between the two will be conducted via her lawyer knocks Steven Davis sideways. He didn't see it coming, nor, for that matter, would he ever have imagined that he'd quit smoking two days after her departure. Her lawyer, the highly killable William Humboldt, suggests lunch at a New York hotel for an exchange of paperwork. Unfortunately, they pick the very day when Guy, the maître d', loses his mind over an imaginary dog and goes berserk with a butchers knife. All That You Love Will Be Carried Away: Alfred Zimmer, 44-year-old travelling salesman ('gourmet foods' aka frozen dinners) settles on a motel in Lincoln, Nebraska as the setting for his suicide. On taking to his room, Alfred rereads his notes for an intended book - a compilation of obscene graffiti scrawled in Men's Rooms across the States, working title I Killed Ted Bundy: The Secret Transit Code Of American Highways. Whoever finds it will surely conclude that he was a lunatic, and the final, incongruous entry - "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" - is his suicide note, which will guarantee a miserable school life for his little girl. To Alfred it now comes down to a straight choice; he either write the book or keep his appointment with Smith & Wesson. How to decide?
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Post by dem bones on Feb 21, 2017 20:27:14 GMT
Stephen King Goes To The Movies (Subterranean Press, 2009) Vincent Chong 1408 The Mangler Hearts in Atlantis (Low Men In Yellow Coats) The Shawshank Redemption (Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption) Children of the Corn
My 10 Favourite AdaptationsThis turned up in local charity shop. Couldn't work out where to put the thing, but as it opens on 1408 guess this is as appropriate a thread as any. Blurb: None. Inner jacket merely informs reader that this is a "deluxe limited edition" retailing at $75. By way of introduction to each story, a single page commentary by King and an original Chong painting. It's very beautifully produced. King completists have a hard, very expensive time of it, don't they?
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