Rating: 
Summary: A mixed bag
Review: This is a tough one for me, as I'm a die-hard fan of Stephen King and his writing. Several of his books and short-stories are included in my all-time favorite tales, periodically pulled off the shelf and read again and again. However, he falters a bit here, at least in my opinion. Several stories are excellent, Road Virus Heads North, The Man in the Black Suit, Everything's Eventual, and L.T.'s Theory of Pets are all fine reads, showing yet again that Mr. King is NOT a hack writer who got lucky but rather a skilled master of the writing craft. In one sentence he can make a character feel real and alive.Unfortunately, the quality of the stories is variable. Lunch at the Gotham Cafe, Little Sisters, etc. simply aren't up to his usual standards. They're not bad but they simply aren't as fine as what he has shown that he can write. 1408, in particular, is a heart-breaker. It's excellent until our writer enters that room, than it falls apart. It seemed that he was shooting for a Lovecraftian feel at that point and it just didn't work, sadly. All of that said, there are gems in here. However, you have to dig for them. It's worth picking up but perhaps a wait for the paperback is in order. Matt
Rating: 
Summary: An honest opinion from a diehard King fan in the makings....
Review: Staying on the straight and narrow path of "good" writing, Stephen King releases his collection of 14 Dark Tales. I am writing this review just a few hours after I finished the book, therefore, everything is still fresh in my mind, and perhaps i'll go so far as to say my opinion should be valued. Going against many of the unspoken rules, I will only speak upon the stories that I personally thought were exceptionally well written and the ones that I really enjoyed. The first story in the book is about a man that has an unlucky experience in an autopsy room. The story is basically ripped off from Alfred Hitchcock (King admits to this in his notes). But the ending is quite hillarious and if you want a quick laugh, read this one first. The story about the Road Virus is a well written story about a traveling man that made an unplanned stop at a yard sale. This stop turned out to be deadly. I would say that this story is the creepiest of the entire collection. My skin was crawlng the entire time I was reading it, and if you're a diehard King fan like I am, then that is what you expect from his writings. Not to be disrespectful to King's literary skill, but there was only one more story that really stood out in my mind and that I consider worthy of mention. Lunch at Gotham Cafe. This story is about a man that has reveived a "Dear John" letter from his wife. He is invited to lunch by his wife's attorny to work out a few details of the divorce. I don't want to reveal much of the story but let's just say that after you read this story, you will look at the maitre d of a restaurant in an entirely new aspect. If you decide to purchase this book, I have one piece of advice to you. I would like to remind you that this is a collection of short strories and they don't necessarily have to be read in the order that King has layed out for you. If someone had told me this before I started the book, I would have definitely saved a few stories for last (*hint*). Overall, this book is a great buy. It was a birthday present that is greatly appreciated.
Rating: 
Summary: As good as it gets.
Review: STEPHEN KING is, quite simply, a master storyteller, and this book, by no means, is the exception. After digesting a story you may kick back to reflect on your own life (for there are elements here that you may truly recognize within yourself), or sit up and take notice (because you have just had the bejesus scared out of you). Either way, you most certainly will be entertained.
Rating:
Summary: Chills and (blood) spills
Review: LT's Theory of Pets is reason enough to buy this (the CD is even better), although the Road Virus heads North is right up there too. Most reviewers have already given the stories' synopses so I'll just cut to the chase- King writes his best work in small doses (Skeleton Crew, Different Seasons) and these 2 stories are just some of his best.
Rating:
Summary: Quite good really
Review: I bought this book expecting to be disappointed, as I have been with much of King's recent work. Well, I had a surprise in store for me, for there is not a clunker in the bunch. Several of the stories had no real supernatural element, but they were all horrific in one way or another. I will now review each story individually. 1. "Autopsy Room Four" A man awakens inside a body bag, unable to move. Could this be what death is like? Mordantly humorous, this tale strongly reminded me of the fiction of the late Robert Bloch. 2. "The Man in the Black Suit" A small boy meets the devil while fishing in the woods one day. Apparently this one won an O. Henry award. While it was quite effective and well-written, it was not one of my favorites. 3. "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" A strange tale of a suicidal traveling salesman and his collection of rest stop bathroom graffiti. I really liked this one, the ending was perfectly ambiguous. Love the title too. 4. "The Death of Jack Hamilton" John Dillinger and his gang are involved in an eventually fatal shootout with the police. Gripping. I read it in one sitting. 5. "In the Deathroom" A slightly Kafka-esque tale (by King's own admission) about a man in a South American interrogation room. I liked the beginning, but the ending was quite unrealistic. 6. "The Little Sisters of Eluria" A Dark Tower tale, in which Roland is attacked by mutants and trapped in a "hospital" run by nurses of death. Creepy and entertaining, Dark Tower fans will love this one. Originally published in the "Legends" anthology. 7. "Everything's Eventual" A high school dropout with an unusual talent stumbles onto a dream job.... or is it? A good one to choose for the title story. 8. "L.T.'s Theory of Pets" A tale of a broken relationship that takes a shocking turn toward blood and tragedy at the end. I liked it a lot. Especially good if you can get the audio version (something I ususally hate) read by King himself. 9. "The Road Virus Heads North" One of my two favorites in this collection. A horror writer purchases a bizarre painting that seems to.... change. Insidiously scary, it stayed in my mind for quite a while. 10. "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe" Another story with no overtly supernatural element, and another one about the end of a marriage. Avoid waiters with skewed bowties! Originally published in an anthology entitled "Dark Love" 11. "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French" A woman enters into a very personal hell of deja vu. I liked it, but, in my opinion, it left me strangely unsatisfied. 12. "1408" The best of the collection, and one of my favorite King stories ever. A writer of exploitative "true ghost stories" books stays in a hotel room that is REALLY haunted. I consider myself to be an extremely jaded horror fan, but this one literally gave me full body chills that didn't stop until long after I put the book down. 13. "Riding the Bullet" If you can believe it, people once believed that this was going to start the e-book revolution. Still waiting for that one, eh? A college student meets Death while hitch hiking to visit his sick mother in the hospital. Makes you think about what choice YOU would make, doesn't it? 14. "Luckey Quarter" A very quiet tale about a cleaning lady who finds a "luckey" quarter as a tip. A good end to an altogether good collection.
Rating:
Summary: A Lot Of Fun From The Master
Review: A nice collections of short horrific stories. Every one of them a winner. I hope that King keeps writing despite his earlier comments. He does however make a comment in one of his introductions that repetition is his version of Hell. Too bad because these are a lot of fun. Strangely, the cover of the book is just as creepy as the stories as you gradually turn it from front to back things go from odd to down-right horrifying. Pretty cool. Now if we could just get him to make at least one more visit to the sleepy little town of 'salem's Lot...
Rating:
Summary: A unique King's cornucopia
Review: You find them all: the style of the Green Mile, IT, Bag of Bones... It's another King size, but you'll enjoy the variety of these short tales. A must have After Supper Ghost Stories collection...
Rating:
Summary: King at his best
Review: I've read most of Stephen King's books, but I find that his short stories, be they horror or not, are where he really shines. The best of the lot was the one set in the 1930's.
Rating:
Summary: Still the King
Review: Everything's Eventual by Stephen King, Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-3515-0. Hardback. 459 pages. This is King's first collection of short stories since Nightmares and Dreamscapes. While several of the tales included in this volume have been previously published in either print or e-book, enough new material is here to make the book well worth the price. King's introduction to the fourteen story collection discusses short story writing and publishing as well as the art of poetry, the changing marketplace and the stories in this volume and how he came to write them. Each story is also prefaced or followed by the author's notes, which are illuminating as well as entertaining. Of the stories themselves, King is still in top form. Falling under his spell is easy; dip into any of the selections here and he sweeps you away. King writes with the same simplicity and appeal that our ancient storytellers must have had when they entertained the clan around the campfire at night. He has an uncanny way of finding just the right voice for a story, which goes far beyond point of view, and in his unpretentious way, you can almost hear echoes of that long ago storyteller saying, "This is what happened...." "The Man in the Black Suit," originally published in The New Yorker, won first prize in the O. Henry Best Short Story competition, 1996. Written as a homage to Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," and told by an elderly narrator, it is the story of a strange man a nine-year-old boy met while fishing one day, a meeting that haunted him all his life. "Autopsy Room Four" is the story of a man who regains consciousness, but finds himself paralyzed and unable to speak as his autopsy is about to begin. "The Death of Jack Hamilton" is a look back at the gangster days of the early '30's when the Dillinger gang ruled. "In the Deathroom" is the story of a man's interrogation by a group of South American thugs, who use deceit, torture and murder to get the information they want. "The Little Sisters of Eluria" is a story of Roland Deschain of Gilead's younger years. Fans of The Dark Tower series will enjoy this one. "Everything's Eventual," the title story in the collection, is about a young man with a special gift, and how a certain group of unscrupulous people use him and his talent to do their dark deeds. "L.T.'s Theory of Pets," a story that begins in a somewhat lighthearted vein but turns quickly ominous, was originally recorded as an audio story. And "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe" and "1408," the story of a haunted hotel room, were previously recorded on the CD Blood and Smoke. "The Road Virus Heads North," the story of a yard sale purchase that turned out to be more sinister than the buyer expected, previously appeared in the anthology 999. My favorite in this collection is King's "Riding the Bullet," his immensely successful electronically marketed story of 2002. It's the deceptively simple story of a hitchhiker being picked up by a ghost, but on a psychological level, like many of the best of King's stories, the implications are much deeper. Everything's Eventual is a fabulous excursion into terror. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened to the Stephen King I used to know and love?
Review: Wow, talk about a disappointment! I haven't read a Stephen King book in at least 10 years, although I used to be a big fan and avidly read everything he wrote. But once I graduated from college I moved on to other authors. This book was a gift, and since I hadn't read King for so long I thought it would be nice to see what he was up to, especially as I've always preferred his short stories to his novels. What a letdown! There isn't a single satisfying story in this entire collection! One gets the feeling these are stories King knew didn't have any hope of becoming full-fledged novels (a good call on his part), but he's evolved into an author with verbal diarrhea, incapable of rejecting any of his ideas merely because they're weak. So he wrote these the best he could, and all of them fail to impress in a big way. This book should be retitled "Stephen King Cleans Out His Desk Drawer". King still has a way with words, and he even manages to elicit a few chuckles and gasps along the way. But these stories have no point to them! They don't go anywhere! There's no satisfying ending to ANY of them! Did King suddenly realize he had no idea where to take each story and so wrote a hurried ending so that he could move on to the next? I found this to be the most frustrating aspect of these stories, as several of them really held my interest as I was reading them, and I was rooting for King to find a way to end them with a flourish. But instead of a flourish what I got was a fizzle. Any other author would have had a very difficult time in getting this collection published, as it falls far short of industry standards in the horror genre. Which raises another point: the book is subtitled "14 Dark Tales". Few of these stories are dark; most are just bizarre little slices of life of different people going through different experiences, most of which are entirely unbelievable (and predictable as well). I am truly shocked that he won an O. Henry award for one of these stories. It certainly doesn't say much for the competition that year. Overall, this book is not recommended to anyone save for most diehard King fan. But then King could type 400 pages of gibberish and his diehard fans would hail the work as the new "Avant-Garde King". <sigh>
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