Skeleton Crew

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Summary: Great Short Stories
Review: The Mist was probably the greatest short story ever written

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Summary: Very Interesting
Review: A pretty good book. "The Mist" is one of the best short stories I've read by Mr. King. You can't begin a book better than that

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Summary: Get a Stephen King "Quick Fix"
Review: Most book critics are less than enthusiastic over Stephen King's short story collections; but if you're a fan, you probably don't much care. If you haven't read any of King's books, then this collection is the perfect medium for an introduction not only to the Master of Horror, but also to fiction writing at its finest. Whether you're looking for entertainment, or for a crash-course in superior writing technique, Skeleton Crew is well worth a look. The stories range from the eerie to the unsettling to the downright terrifying. What makes them so effective is their believability; the mundane "family-next-door" quality that so many of King's characters possess. These are not the brilliant lawyers, hard-boiled private eyes or blushing debutantes that form the character base of so much of today's popular fiction. King's characters are regular folks conducting their day-to-day lives in the same way we all do, and it is this quality which reaches into your imagination and takes hold of your personal fears with a grip hard to shake loose. "The Mist" is the signature piece of this collection. More of a novella, it is so poignantly authentic in its creation that you cannot help seeing your own family, summer cottage and small town as the cast and character of the tale. The pace of the story is akin to the snowball rolling downhill; slow and benign at first, speeding up to a pitch that is maniacal and devastating, testing the limits of your sanity. Whether you're looking for your next Stephen King fix, or just a shot of pure adrenaline riding the crest of crisp prose, this book is for you!

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Summary: About one short story in it.
Review: The Raft is the best story I ever read and the most disturbing one, too

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Summary: A Different Type of Frightening and Touching Masterpiece
Review: I was at first quite skeptical with "Skeleton Crew". I had just finished reading every novella and story from one of Stephen King's "Night Shift", which impressed me to no compare. I am an avid Stephen King fanatic, but I don't let that come in front of my judgement of his books. I do believe King is a genius and a brilliant mastermind of an author, but he has dissapointed me before. Skeleton Crew seemed a little, well hoky before hand. I read the back, and the comments, and wondered if it could live up to "Night Shift". I opened up the book and picked a story called "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet", because it sounded so intresting. I became hooked. That one story was so intriging, that I put the book down after reading it to interpret it in my head. The next story I chose was "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut", and then I fell in love with the book. "Shortcut" was touching and heartfelt. I won't babble on too much further, but the stories in the terrific masterpiece that stick out are the incredibly captivating and frightening "The Jaunt", the rose morse and sullen "Nona", the bouncy camp schlock-ness of "The Mist" and "The Raft", the alluring and terrfying "Gramma", and pretty much every story in this wonderful book. King lives up to his standard of excellence.

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Summary: the mist...super scary
Review: wow - this book has some of the creepiest stories ever..the mist especially so..don't read it at night when you are home alone!

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Summary: Some real gems here
Review: This is the second collection of short stories by Stephen King, and if it had been published later in his career, it's possible that the best entry, "The Mist," would have been published on its own as a short novel (it clocks in at around 130 pages).

A collection of short stories is always hit or miss, and that's a fact that carries it's own special brand of charm. We not only get to read the Grade A masterpieces that King is known for, but we also get to see some of his quirky ideas, done for fun. Stories that stand out to me include:

"The Mist," which is a terrific creepy story in which a mist hiding all sorts of weird Lovecraftian monsters rolls into town, forcing a group of strangers to band together in a grocery store for mutual protection. I love stories where a group of unaffiliated people are brought together to hold off a seemingly insurmountable threat, and King gives the idea royal treatment here (better than in, say the Langoliers).

"The Raft," which was adapted for a Creepshow short, is about a group of teens who find themselves stranded on a raft in a lake after a death-dealing film of pond scum surrounds them. The characters are very realistic, and King scores major points by taking a familiar situation and turning it into a chilling nightmare.

"The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands" is an odd little story that has the gentlemanly tone of a classic horror story from Poe's age, featuring a man who refuses to shake hands because he fears the consequences of those who come into contact with him.

"Survivor Type" is another great story filled with awesomely creepy imagery (it's stuck with me for over a decade now); it's about a doctor who finds himself stranded on a desert island with little hope of rescue or prolonged survival.

"Nona" is a long story that is probably one of the weaker pieces, using the familiar device of an alluring dangerous not-quite-human female, who seeks to seduce the hero as part of a larger scheme.

"The Monkey" is, simply put, pretty bad. Maybe it was fresh when it was first conceived (or maybe it wasn't), but the idea of a cursed children's toy is so played out that the self-referential Chucky movies now seem stale. King doesn't bring enough to this plot to make it interesting.

King also sneaks in a couple of horror-themed poems in "For Owen" and "Paranoid: A Chant." To me, they weren't very interesting, and I doubt that a serious student of poetry would give them much acclaim either (but then again, what do I know?).

Again, it's difficult to rate an array of stories as a group, but I would have to say that the three best pieces mentioned above are worth the price of the book on their own.

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Summary: King as his mesmerizing best!
Review: Stephen King has written some powerful, scary, touching novels. But his best fiction remains, arguably, his short fiction. His love for the short story is obvious--he has thrown together several collections, each one about as thick as one of his novels.

The stories in "Skeleton Crew" are horrifying and touching. There's "The Mist," a tale of a strange fog that beseiges a small town...and the deadly creatures it shrouds. In "The Wedding Gig," a jazz band plays for the Mafia...and makes some unusual acquaintances. "Survivor Type" details how far a man is willing to go in order to survive, while the poem "Paranoia: A Chant" is both amusing and disturbing. "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" dives into a writer's psyche, and ponders just where all those stories come from. The power of God is imprisoned in a typewriter in "Word Processor of the Gods" and a toy monkey in "The Monkey." "The Jaunt" is a horrifying tale of science fiction, while a woman finds the ultimate shortcut--through Hell--in "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut."

Some of the stories in here are fun and entertaining, such as "The Mist" and "The Wedding Gig." Others, such as "Cain Rose Up" and "Gramma", are downright disturbing. Stephen King shows his skills here, in "Skeleton Crew"--a collection of stories spanning decades, all from the same master of modern fiction.

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Summary: A classic King collection
Review: Skeleton Crew is Stephen King's first collection of short stories, and it contains many haunting, gripping tales. However, those who are familiar with King's short story style will already know that while some of his stories are amazing, some will leave you wondering "huh?" For King fans, however, this book is a must-read.

As in King's other collections, the best stories here are the longer, almost novella-type works. Tales such as "The Mist" and "The Jaunt" combine the horror and sci-fi traditions to perfection. Other excellent eerie stories are more in the psychological suspense genre, including "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" and "Survivor Type." Finally, this collection includes some true horror tales which will bring a chill to your spine, particularly "The Raft" and "The Monkey."

Although some of these stories come off a bit dated for today (e.g., "Word Processor of the Gods"), this is still a classic collection which should not be missed. Highly recommended for King fans and others with a taste for the macabre.

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Summary: Earlier stories by Stephen King: some are good, some are not
Review: "Skeleton crew" is one of the first collection of stories by Stephen King. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, some are not even stories at all. I have stated in my review of "Everything's eventual", another Stephen King collection of short stories, that his novels and lengthier works are much better than his shorter ones, and "Skeleton crew" seems to confirm this theory.

Mr. King has a tremendous gift: he has a huge imagination capacity; his plots are usually awesome, and many of his characters are unforgettable (the kids from "It", for example). But he has to have time (pages, actually) to develop both his plots and his characters. In short stories, that is more difficult, and the final results usually are not as good as his full-lenght novels.

Not that "Skeleton crew" is not a good book. There are some real good stories. The longer ones, mostly. "The mist", which can be considered the "presentation story" of the book, is a terrifying sort of "camp tale", scary, dark, but the ending is not good. Among the better stories are: "The monkey" (classic King tale of death based on an innocent-looking object), "The jaunt" (a sci-fi attempt that worked well), "The raft" (another King horror classic), and "Word processor of the gods" (the usual what-if, in this case, what if what I typed in the computer became true in real life?). On the other hand, some of the stories are completely forgettable, like the two attempt of poems (if they can be called that) "Paranoid" and "For Owen", and the pointless "Cain rose up" (something like Richard Bachman's "Rage", but not that well developed) and "Beachworld" (another sci-fi, but this one didn't work).

In my opinion, the two best stories are "Survivor type" and "The reach". "Survivor type" is something like the diary of a man stranded in a tiny island after the ship he was in sunk. The reader watches the protagonist go insane as he has no choice but to eat what, literally, is at hand. And "The reach" is a very touching tale of old age, life and, ulitmately, death.

I guess short stories appeal to each reader in a different way. You have to read the whole book and decide which ones are good and which ones are not.

Grade 7.5/10