Rating: 
Summary: Stephen King: Just a great writer, not just a horror writer
Review: Let's face it, as a horror novelist, Stephen King is far from original. He wrote a novel about a haunted car, for Pete's sake. Clive Barker and Ramsey Campbell write truly original dark fantasy. But what makes King so special is that he can write people better than any of them. The characters in Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and The Body are so real that they could step out of the book into reality. And Apt Pupil explores the dark side of the human face so well that most writers wouldn't even have the guts to read about, much less write about. King examines the Holocaust in a way that makes the reader very uncomfortable, but too compelling to stop. I agree with most of the reviews here, that The Breathing Method is a weak entry, probably better served in Night Shift or Skeleton Crew, two of Mr. Kings short story compilations, but that doesn't take away anything from the complete work. This is highly recommended to beginner readers of King, and a great work in it's own right.
Rating: 
Summary: Kings BEST work--by a MILE
Review: Im no fan of Steven King. Most of his novels tend to be overly spooky, or just too tedious to read. These four stories prove to me that King really is a talented writer. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank redemption was an excellent work of both character and hope. Apt Pupil was chilling and VERY spellbinding. I couldnt stop until I was done. The Body was a great coming of age story an stirred some emotions. The weakest story was The Breathing Method but it was still a good, interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Read This and Tell Me He's Not The Master
Review: I have no patience anymore for people who say, "Stephen King is not much of a writer." How can they say that? Because he is succesful? Because his books sell? Because he has chosen horror (primarily) as his genre? Please read this collection of short works (4 novellas? 4 longish short stories?) and tell me that he is not the master. Yes, he has written some loopy stories at times; yes, he has written books that seem self-undulgent or just plain weird. But if you read these classic scribblings (Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, The Breathing Method, Apt Pupil, The Body), you will begin to see why Stehpen King is the most successful writer who has ever lived: (success = every book he has ever written is still in print, still on the shelves, and this goes way back to Carrie in 1973-74; he has earned over a billion dollars in sales, not counting film royalties). Read these stories and you will begin to see the first of the two particular talents he has in abundance: humanity. He writes HUMAN characters. He knows PEOPLE. He can put a mirror up to the human condition like the best literary writers. His second talent is that he can and does tell a story. This is how he gets under the literary writers' collective skins and surpasses them and everybody else in the marketplace. In short, he is successful because he has the talent of the literary writers and he has the plot ambition of the popular writers. He's the writer who has it all. All hail, the master! I am proud to be numbered among his fans.
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Summary: The lack of horror makes no difference.
Review: I've said it before and I'll say it again: even without using any supernatural elements in his stories, Stephen King is a brilliant author. The strength of his storytelling is in his characters and the first three stories in this book make that very apparent.I've seen the movie SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION a couple of times, so I knew the ending. Nevertheless, I found this novella to be engrossing. The first person narration gives the story a personal feel, even if the narrator isn't who the story is really about. Using this technique, the reader doesn't really get into the head of the main character, but that makes the story all the more intriguing since we don't know what he's planning or thinking or even what his true motivations are. APT PUPIL (I haven't seen this film) was scary because it was so realistic. We see the characters going from a respectable student and a quiet old man to two people giving in to their base desires. While one of them welcomes this as a return to things familiar, we see the other one struggle against them, knowing that they are wrong, but not being able to do anything about it. This is a truly horrific story, but it contains none of King's usual supernatural elements. The third story, THE BODY, is the best in the book. I've only seen the first twenty minutes or so of STAND BY ME (which is based on this story), so I didn't really know what to expect. Some of King's best work comes when he is telling coming of age stories of teens or pre-teens. IT and CHRISTINE were brilliant and I now have to put this story in that category. No true horror here, just a story about four ordinary friends in middle America spending the last weekend of the summer together. This is King's trademark brilliant character interaction and development. The story itself isn't all that exciting, but watching these boys together makes the story a very enjoyable read. Finally, we have THE BREATHING METHOD. While not as engrossing as the other stories, it does get back to King's supernatural twist at the end. I enjoyed reading it, but it just didn't grab me the way the others in this book did. I'm not sure I can really pinpoint why because the characters were just as developed. Anyway, if you're a King fan, you'll definitely enjoy these stories. If you haven't read King before, don't read these expecting to be surrounded by the macabre. These truly show off King's strengths as a storyteller by stripping away all the horror and supernatural elements. He's probably one of the best writers in America today and these stories prove it.
Rating:
Summary: Four great non-horror King novellas
Review: "Different Seasons" is not your typical King horror novel. It is a compilation of 4 novellas (short stories). Three of the stories were eventually made into movies. To my surprise the stories were somewhat different than the movies. These novellas can best be described as dark philosophical journeys rather than the all-out horror one would expect from King. All of them portray downtrodden, basically good people caught in lousy and depressing lives. With the exception of "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" none of them have a happy ending. Despite the depressing tone of the stories, they kept me entertained and interested in the outcomes. This book is a good read, even though I prefer King's usual horror style over the one he uses here.
Rating:
Summary: It's the tale, not he who tells it.
Review: First off, I am a big Stephen King fan. I really enjoy his style and the diversity (more on that later) of his writing. This book, a collection of four "long stories", is truly a gem. The four stories are "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption", "Apt Pupil", "The Body", and "The Breathing Method". Most readers can relate to Shawshank and The Body, which have been made into big hit movies, and somewhat with Apt Pupil which was also made into a movie, although not as well known. (For those unaware, The Body was titled "Stand By Me" in Hollywood) Oddly enough, it was the fourth and final story of the collection that had the biggest impact on me. Shawshank was an absolutely beautiful piece of literature, and an even better movie. This, in itself, is strange when talking of King novels turned big screen. The movie followed the story very closely. The biggest difference is that the movie goes into more detail of the prisoners becoming "institutionalized" through the trials of Brooks, the librarian. For those who haven't seen the movie, where have you been? Apt Pupil is the story of a young, impressionable boy who discovers a World War II Nazi war criminal living in his neighborhood. The two develop a relationship which leads to some very dark, disturbing things occurring. It's a good story, but in my mind the lesser of the four. The Body centers on four boys who trek across Maine in order to find a dead body. Each of the four boys have a totally different family background, which I think makes for a great story. Gordie, the narrator, manages to have the reader relating to each of the four boys. Gordie, has an essentially anonymous homelife. The other four boys have problems of their own. The actual event of finding the body is sort of anti-climatic. But that leads me to the main thrust of this review. The final story really isn't much of a story, but it left the biggest impact because of my love for King's writing. In this story, the motto is.... "It's the tale, not he who tells it." It's about a club of eccentric men who meet to tell stories. This story, combined with the afterword, makes a statement about King's writings... in my opinion. King has been stereotyped as a horror writier, but those of us who have read The Dark Tower series, and The Green Mile, among others, know better. He is just a brilliant, diverse writer. But is it so much what he writes, or the tale that he tells? I'll leave that to you to decide.
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Summary: King is so much deeper than blood & guts horror
Review: It's nice to know that Stephen King can write more than just straight horror, and this book proves it. Stephen King has a way of drawing you into his stories, in much the same way Todd gets drawn in by Mr. Dussander in Apt Pupil. I consider the four novellas in Different Seasons to be among King's premiere work, and each one would get 5 stars, in my opinion.
Perhaps as a testament to the quality of this book, three of the four novellas have been made into movies (Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil and The Body, renamed Stand By Me), and I wouldn't be surprised if a movie for The Breathing Method is currently in the works. For those of you who'd like to start reading Stephen King, but aren't into the gruesome-type horror, then I recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Four great non-horror King novellas
Review: "Different Seasons" is not your typical King horror novel. It is a compilation of 4 novellas (short stories). Three of the stories were eventually made into movies. To my surprise the stories were somewhat different than the movies. These novellas can best be described as dark philosophical journeys rather than the all-out horror one would expect from King. All of them portray downtrodden, basically good people caught in lousy and depressing lives. With the exception of "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" none of them have a happy ending. Despite the depressing tone of the stories, they kept me entertained and interested in the outcomes. This book is a good read, even though I prefer King's usual horror style over the one he uses here.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: The book, A Diffrent Season, is a really exciting book with a good balance of love and baseball. It is about a girl who wants to play baseball, and how the baseball star and a girl that wants to join the team start a relation ship. It is also about how they get through the season with all of the changes of a girl playing on a boy's baseball team. As you can imagine thier are many diffrent conflicts that go along with a girl playing on the boys team. Also her new, friend the star pitcher of the team, is against her playing on the boys team. He also doesn't think that a girl can make it in boy's baseball. Read this book and find out how they overcome their diffrences and become lovers. This is a good book and I really advise you to read it if you enjoy a compelling romantic baseball story. I give it two thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: This Book is A Beautiful Work of Art
Review: This book was a wild, and intense ride, and helped me look at things a a very different way. I understood (from the afterword) King's need to write something other than horrer. I myself like to write short horror stories and there's always something there telling me to write a grand fantasy or a bizarre science fiction. The books themselves were each different like the seasons they were named for. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, a book about a willfull man named Andy Dufresne who is wrongly put in jail and uses his own mind and sense of self to stay sane and escape. It was one of my favorites. Though some parts were slightly gruesome, it was all in all a hope inspiring, flax golden tale. When you think about it after you read it, it reminds you of flowers blooming and fending off sudden frosts and cold spells, just like the season of spring for which it was named.
The Apt Pupil, my least favorite, is about an adolescent boy who figures out his elderly neighbor is really an old Nazi Death Camp officer and tortures him for his own enjoyment, twisting his own mind, and retwisting the ming of the old man. This story was too long and too intense, just like summer can be. The whole book was like riding a demented roller coaster from Hell. I enjoyed the story sometimes, but sometimes it was just to violent, too demented, or at some points too corrupted. I had to put the book down for a week or two after the old man baked the stray cat in his oven. It was way too sad and mean. I guess I liked it simply because I like horror, but it was just too "icky".
The Body was the best story of them all. It was about four boys who venture far away from home to find the body of another boy their age. It was cool and calming just like fall. Everything in the story was so beautifully detailed. The author constantly said that words diminish the thoughts and sights and sounds you have seen. It is so true. I can't realy explain the reason without diminishing the thought so I won't. The most beautiful part of the story was when Gordon woke up on the morning after they had spent their first night by the railroad tracks. The morning is so sweet and calm, with the birds waking up and singing their morning songs, and the squirrels, and the deer. That was a beauitiful story and I think everybody should read it.
The Breathing Method was...interesting. Everybody says that it was horror and stuff, but even with decapitation, and premonitions of doom, I think this story was more mysterious than just plain scary. It was dark and cold like winter. It is about a man who goes to a bizarre club (for club is the only word one can describe it as) and hears a strange story of a strange birth. I think the most interesting part of the story was the club and the bartender. The club had endless rooms, and when you were alone in it suddenly everything seemed dark and frightening rather than a warm and nice atmosphere it kept when full of people. There were srtange books that existed nowhere else in the world but there, and a strange slithery liquidy bump was heard by the narrator. King leaves the club up to our wild imaginations which lets the story remain unhidden forever. I wonder if King has any ideas about the strange club of his own making. This story was definitely very good.
All in all I would've given this book a five had there not been such graphic parts in The Apt Pupil. I know most people probably won't read this whole review because it is too long, but I think you should anyway. I think that if you are a human and you are capable of reading, you should read Different Seasons. It will change the way you look at the world if nothing else. My last word: May your path be filled with corn syrup (or other sugary substances)
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