Rating: 
Summary: Stephen King is not a PROFESSIONAL reader...
Review: I stopped listening after 5 minutes. His voice sounds so fake, that I could actually "see" him read. They should have gotten a professional to read this. Stephen King should stick to writing books, not reading them!
Rating: 
Summary: Love those short stories.
Review: I am a big fan of Stephen King's short stories. There are just some plots that would be ruined if expanded over 500+ pages. 1408 was a good story and other two were average. Stephen King has a good (though not great) reading voice. Although I could do without his Mexican accent from the Deathroom. Overall, this is well worth listening to.Just keep in mind that all these stories are in printed form in "Everythings Eventual".
Rating:
Summary: Stories are good, but . . .
Review: Blood and Smoke is an audio collection of three Stephen King short stories. All three are great. Lunch at the Gotham Cafe concerns the events than transpire when a divorcing couple meet at a restaurant where the Maitre'D isn't quite dealing with a full deck. It's a good but not great story. The Deathroom is a claustrophobic and probably improbable tale of a journalist taken in for questioning by a third world government. 1408 is the real prize on this collection -- a chilling tale of a haunted hotel room that cost me several hours of sleep. BUT. But. All three stories are now available in written form in the collection Everything's Eventual. You do not have to buy this audio tape if you plan to buy that book -- that is unless you have a yen to hear King read his stories (and do a fairly good job of it).
Rating:
Summary: awful
Review: I guess I'm missing something but I was barely able to even finish the Blood and Smoke story. I didn't even listen to the other tapes--I donated them all to my local library to sell in their bookstore. I thought the story was nothing and King's voice drove me to distraction--he rolls his "L's" in the back of his throat.Maybe I would've liked the story better in written form. Sorry-can't recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: great Tape.
Review: I got this tape for christmas and I loved it. The only downside it that I thought the tape was short.
Rating:
Summary: great for the road (but not at night)
Review: This is King at his best -- writting dark and scary -- he is a master at making the skin on the back of your neck crawl as you fear for the next horror to unfold -- Of the three short but very chilling stories -- the 2nd is great -- it reminded me of the terror of IT as he draws that perfect picture of the unknown -- Many writters can scare you with a monster that they summoned up from their twisted imagination -- but King lets your mind close around your own fears and terrors like no one else can -- Grab this one for your next road trip -- just don't play it when your alone at night
Rating:
Summary: A good read (listen)
Review: I really enjoyed this Stephen King collection; listening to all 4 CDs in a single road-trip day. These 3 stories were just right, not graphic gore, but with more intrigue than I'd expected.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Enjoyable
Review: This trilogy of tales, loosely framed around smoking and narrated by King his ownself, was surprisingly fun. I had been expecting at best a dull narration of latter day King. But Surprise! Not only does the author weave some enjoyable yarns, as narrator he is quite entertaining: often funny, often scary. The stories are Old King, the kind that will leave chills up and down your spine, stories that will leave an impression. I especially enjoyed most the first of these tales, 'Lunch at the Gotham Cafe', with King acting the roles of the various characters. I loved how he played the mad maitre de, at once coming across as darkly comical, gradually morphing into something much more deeply sinister. I also enjoyed the second story '1408', a sort of reprise on the Shining, but with the Overlook-like Hotel in NYC. The nature of the evil and why certain things happen is nver made clear, but the effects are great. The last story is a non-supernatural one about torture in a Latin American Bannana republic. I'm sure it will offend a few, especially with the overusage of 'We don't need no stinkin' badges!' Still, King's character immitations and voice inflections are fun
Rating:
Summary: Three shorts from the King
Review: "Blood and Smoke" is three unconnected short stories with a pack of Marlboros as a major plot point to each tale. Although not as engrossing or satisfying as his full-length novels, "Blood and Smoke" is definitely entertaining. The best thing about the short tales is the variety of horror contained within. "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe" is a darkly humorous, offbeat horror story revolving around a man (written from 1st person point of view) simultaneously struggling with divorce and quitting smoking. As if that wasn't bad enough, he finds himself at the Gotham Cafe having lunch with his wife, her lawyer, missing his own lawyer, and being confronted by the maitre-d from hell. This story was my personal favorite. "1408" is a classic sort of horror story, good but my least favorite of the bunch. It is about a skeptical ghost-story writer who writes about the nights he spends in various so-called haunted sites. He is about to face the real thing for the very first time. The basic plot of "1408" is very cliché (writer spending the night in a haunted hotel room), but King manages to bring it to life with an interesting opening conversation and an unexpected lack of subtlety in the room itself. "The Death Room" could be classified as part political thriller, although the modernized horror is the real focus. The main character is a reporter from New York, now in some unnamed South American country, being interrogated by the government about his knowledge of a rebel faction. It is clear from the beginning that there is no chance the reporter will leave the room alive without a lot of luck and perhaps a cigarette. King's characters really come alive in this tale with some of his best character descriptions ever. One last note - Stephen King the reader is not as talented as Stephen King the writer, but he does a decent job (better than other works I've heard read by the author). He sounds a little self-conscious in the beginning of Gotham Cafe, but loosens up toward the end and gives the characters clearly recognizable voices.
Rating: 
Summary: Good not Great
Review: I would recommend this book to any hardcore King fans or for those that don't like to read long books. His best work has always been his longer novels (i.e. The Stand, IT, Talisman, etc.) because he is so great at developing his characters. This simply can't be done in such a short period of time. Each of these three stories are around an hour in length and carry a small theme of smoking. The best part is that King is the one reading these and his use of voices is excellent, especially in "In the Deathroom." "1408" which is about a haunted room is probably the best story and has some grotesque scenes. This isn't as good as some of his other short stories like Night Shift but I did still enjoy it.
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