Rating: 
Summary: A real page-turner!
Review: Since I was 14, I have loved Stephen King's works. There is just something about a King work that is powerful. This book will draw you in, page after page, just as the Buick draws the characters in the novel. For the true King fan (a.k.a. Constant Reader), this book will not dissapoint. The characters are memorable and the story is interesting. And just like every other work by Stephen King, there are several lessons behind the horror. Let me say this one last thing if you're still not convinced to read this book. I just had a baby 4 months ago and still finished this book in about a week's time!
Rating: 
Summary: Ranks as one of his worst
Review: SK is still the master and this book is still a decent read, but it is not one of his best and I would only recommend it to SK fans. If you are just getting into the world of SK, please put this at the bottom of your list and read "The Shining" "Salem's Lot" "The Stand" "The Dead Zone" "Carrie" and the "The Talisman" before this one!
Rating: 
Summary: There's Just Something About This Book.....
Review: that never really got me into it. I love Stephen King, he's the greatest author of modern time but the story and characters never interested me. If you want classic King buy the Green Mile, Stand(if your up to reading that much), or the Dead Zone.
Rating:
Summary: Hopefully not King's last novel...
Review: As a longtime fan and Constant Reader, I hope "From a Buick 8" doesn't turn out to be King's last stand-alone novel. Not because it isn't one of his best (though, to be honest, it isn't) but rather because it does manage, at moments, to offer glimpses of just how good a storyteller Stephen King can be. There's a familiarity of voice and narrative ease at the beginning of the novel that promises an enjoyable and even transcendent reading experience. It's a promise, unfortunately, that "From a Buick 8" has a hard time keeping.Stephen King publicly prophesied before it was published that "From a Buick 8" would be seen as a retread of his earlier haunted car novel, "Christine." It isn't, though. Although both novels feature an old, menacing gas-guzzler at the center of the action, it can be argued that neither book is actually about the car. "From a Buick 8" is set in a Pennsylvania State Police barracks and tells of a bizarre secret that has been kept by the men and women of Troop D for just over twenty years. It all begins in the summer of 1979 when a vintage Buick Roadmaster is found abandoned at a gas station and towed back to the barracks. The Buick has to be towed because the engine doesn't work and, as further examination will prove, it isn't really a car at all, but some unknown thing trying very hard to look like a car. Most intrigued by this baffling find is Curtis Wilcox, a rookie trooper who has more than a little healthy curiosity about the unknown. Over the years, Curt's curiosity gets warped into a dangerous, eventually lethal obsession. In the present day, after Curt's untimely death, his son Ned comes to volunteer at Troop D, hoping to learn something about his father from the men and women who knew him best. Sandy Dearborn, his father's closest friend, decides it's finally time to break the silence and spill the secret the troop has been keeping for so long. King tells the story of the big bad Buick in a series of flashbacks, recounted, Faulkner-style, through multiple first-person narrators. The jumping back and forth in time and point of view unfortunately only serves to dilute the novel's momentum. The best parts of the book end up as isolated bits of fluid story that never get the chance to gel into a cohesive whole. Problems of pacing and plot movement notwithstanding, King does manage to touch on some interesting notions. His characters are like lemmings, drawn hypnotically to the edge of the cliff, forced, against their better judgement, to stare into the void. King has always had a talent for giving everday ojbects an ominous frame of reference. In this case, the Buick, with its menacing chrome grin, stands in for the unknowable in life. It's death or it's fate or it's the heart of the person that shares your bed. "From a Buick 8" has some great parts under its hood, but none of the wiring is connected and, like the title character, it never goes anywhere. Longtime King fans should give this one a test spin, but casual readers might want to look for a ride elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: A Buick ate my aliens
Review: I've always thought of Stephen King as a great storyteller consistently unable to wrap up his yarns. He often seems to write without knowing where it will lead him, and it shows. His strong points are characterization and description, but many of even his best novels (The Stand and It come to mind) meander through a chilling landscape to a prosaic conclusion.
In From a Buick 8, King wisely abandons conclusions. He gives himself over to atmosphere and character, and at long last stops trying to tie everything together in the end. King doesn't KNOW what the car is, and it doesn't matter. (He didn't KNOW what IT was, and it did matter, spoiling a long and very chilling book. I sometimes think the only novel he ever wrote with its ending in mind was Pet Sematary.) In King's world, weird things happen to nice people. If you're looking for more in a book, why in the world are you reading King?
Rating: 
Summary: Formulaic
Review: The subject of the book is interesting. It is about a conduit between worlds. The Buick transports people, animals and things to and from Earth. It has a mind of its own, and apparently a rather evil one. Why that should be is a mystery. Why would a conduit between worlds be evil? I guess it has to be if it is in a Stephen King novel. A foolish answer, but the right one. Compare it to an evil subway that viciously wants to take you downtown. We are introduced to a number of characters, mostly policemen. The two main characters are Sgt Sandy Dearborn (our hero) and young Ned Wilcox (our sympathy figure). You need a hero, you need a villain, and you need a damsel in distress. Ned is the damsel in distress. Instead of being a female, he is the son of a great cop who died in the line of duty. Is that enough for you? Can you love him and fear for him now? You better. Otherwise, King has no book. We are informed that one might possibly cheat the evil Buick by tying a rope around one's waist and having some husky cops holding the end of the rope. Then if you are sucked into the vortex, you will be held back by the rope. Those are the rules of the game. To our amazement, the book builds to a climax when Pretty Polly, I mean Ned, is in danger of being sucked into a Buick, and it is up to hero Sandy to pull him back. Let me tell you, it's touch and go there for a while. Stephen King should be ashamed of himself for writing this predictable and formulaic story. He took an interesting concept, made it sinister because that is what he does, and pushed it through the obvious, leading to the obvious conclusion. This was my first Stephen King book. I'm not impressed with his writing. Or maybe he's just getting lazy. Maybe his other books are better. Other reviewers think so.
Rating:
Summary: Very readable but without true substance
Review: I believe we King readers judge the great author harder than we grade other authors. If anyone other than Stephen King had written Buick 8, I'd have written this as a four star review and said it was a very original, engaging, well composed story. Masterfully told using different narrators and points of view. A perfect combination of science-fiction, horror, suspense and nostalgia. But this novel was written by Stephen King and as a fan of his work, I've read better books by him. Much better. For King, this book is not especially original and reminded me of many of his others. Still, it was, like I find all his others, very readable but without the true substance I always hope I will find between the book covers of a novel authored by Stephen King.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes What You See
Review: Sometimes what you see is not what you get. This is supposedly the last free standing King novel before he finishes the Dark Tower epic and he retires. From a Buick 8 is not even a classic Stephen King novel. It is more subtle than most of his other work. This can be compared in style to the Dead Zone. Not true monsters, but there is evil afoot. This is a story about a car impounded by the Pennsylvania State Police, but not really. It is a car, but in name only. It is actually a door into another dimension. The story is about obsession by the troopers and the story of their encounters with the vehicle as told to the son of a trooper slain in the line of duty. How they came to have the car, why they kept it and who died because of it are all revealed. This is a stand alone novel, but if you are a King fan, you will notice that it is weaved into his Dark Tower world as he has done with most of his work. As all of King's work, it is a great read and you won't be able to put it down. It is certainly not his best work, but it is still very good. If this is his last free standing novel, then it is not a bad way to wind down. The ending of the book will make this last statement obvious. Read the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it! Why's everybody whining?
Review: "Buick" is a wonderful book, and confirms my theory that
Stephen King was abducted by aliens as a child or young person. And that is not a joke. I think he's been writing this experience out of his system for years, and continues to this day. Where he comes from...upper New England...was the scene of many reported abductions from the forties to the seventies. It is my contention that "Salem's Lot," King's first (and some believe) greatest novel, was situated in Salem, New Hampshire, the site of the "American Stonhenge," where abductions were said to proliferate back in the fifties and sixties, and the home of Betty and Barney Hill - the first "famous" abductees. I had the privilege of "reading" this book by listening to the Simon & Schuster audio version of it, with a variety of well-known actor-readers, and it came across as "pure" King to me: a homespun tale about state troopers in a rural, slightly out-of-time place, everyday heroes thrown into something way beyond their ken, and yet responding to that "something" with heroism and humor. Folksy catch-phrases abound, along with stomach-roiling descriptions of E.T.'s emerging from a strange contraption. It's got enough anecdotal trooper/highway escapades to keep the average reader engaged. Hey, I loved it. I was just glad it didn't end up like "Dreamcatcher" or "The Regulators," books that sound like King started them (to get you roped in) but were finished by some kid who plays a lot of video games. Many of King's latest books have bogged down into "a boy thing." I get so far with them, then grumble and leave them in the laundromat for some...boy. In any case, I was pleased that I wanted to go all the way with the Buick. Felt like I got my King back again. And no, I don't think he should retire, but I do think he deserves it.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF HIS BEST!!!!
Review: What's wrong with you people? FROM A BUICK 8 is one Mr. King's greatest books. It ranks right up there with THE GREEN MILE, DOLORES CLAIBORNE, CARRIE, CUJO and THE DEAD ZONE--and what do all these books have in common? They're short. Well, relatively short compared to some of Mr. King's weightier novels, and this a good thing. Where the author sometimes goes astray is when he passes the 400 page mark (ie, INSOMNIA, BAG OF BONES, HEARTS IN ATLANTIS). But when he strips away the fat and gives us a lean and muscular story as he does with FROM A BUICK 8, wow! You can't read fast enough! Some of you who have read the book sound like "Ned Wilcox", impatient for answers that just can't be given. But I think, all in all, Mr. King gives us a satisfying read, an absorbing narrative and a thrilling conclusion. If this isn't enough for you, Constant Reader, then I feel sorry for you.
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