Author:Stephen King Binding: Paperback Published: 2004-05-04 ISBN: 0451180232 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
"A Bizarre Mix of Good and Bad"
"Not Free SF Reader"
"Great Stories Collection"
"Fun Collection of King's Short Stories, Read Introductory Essay"
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Editorial Review:
Wonderful...an illusionist extraordinaire, King peoples his fiction with believable characters. (Publishers Weekly)
Many people who write about horror literature maintain that mood is its most important element. Stephen King disagrees: "My deeply held conviction is that story must be paramount.... All other considerations are secondary--theme, mood, even characterization and language."
These fine stories, each written in what King calls "a burst of faith, happiness, and optimism," prove his point. The theme, mood, characters, and language vary, but throughout, a sense of story reigns supreme. Nightmares & Dreamscapes contains 20 short tales--including several never before published--plus one teleplay, one poem, and one nonfiction piece about kids and baseball that appeared in the New Yorker. The subjects include vampires, zombies, an evil toy, man-eating frogs, the burial of a Cadillac, a disembodied finger, and a wicked stepfather. The style ranges from King's well-honed horror to a Ray Bradbury-like fantasy voice to an ambitious pastiche of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald. And like a compact disc with a bonus track, the book ends with a charming little tale not listed in the table of contents--a parable called "The Beggar and the Diamond." --Fiona Webster
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A Bizarre Mix of Good and Bad I am an avid reader of King and have read him enough to say that Nightmares and Dreamscapes is definitely worth reading. Probably second best after Night Shift. It has horror as well as Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Literary, Crime, even a Sherlock Holmes Story! Some of my personal favorites are Suffer the Little Children, The Moving Finger, You know they got a Hell of a Band, Home Delivery, Crouch End, and The House on Maple Street. For those of you who say this is one of King's worst collections or most of the stories... more info
Not Free SF Reader Here's a collection of 20 short stories, a script, a poem, a parable and an article on... Little League baseball. Which is the best thing in the book, amazingly enough. You realise this after forgetting how long you had been reading it, wondering what the hell will happen to this motley team of kids. Personal interest in this situation obviously raised Mr. King's work to a championship level well above your average local sports reporter's scribblings. There are three standout, excellent... more info
Great Stories Collection This is the book for you if you like short stories, actually "You know they got a hell of a band" is a good one. Not all the stories are good, but you can have a good time reading them. If you like long stories I would recommend you another books like "The Shinning" or "It".
Fun Collection of King's Short Stories, Read Introductory Essay I would recommend this book just for the introductory essay (see below). [Note: I made some Mormon angry because of my negative reviews of books out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews almost as fast as they are posted.] So your "helpful" vote is greatly appreciated. Thanks King is a master writer, and I enjoyed this collection. I loved "Umney's Last Case" (evocative of 1930s crime fiction). Also liked the "House on Maple Street" (it kept me turning the... more info
