Rating: 
Summary: All these naysayers can go ...
Review: This is another outstanding rumination on life, death and the nature of being human from America's most underrated storyteller. Oh no, it doesn't move like a bullet! Oh no, there isn't a horrific slaughter every 22 pages!... King's lyrical, moving account of a group of highway patrol officers and their long acquaintance with an elemental mystery of the universe is exactly the kind of thing I want from Big Steve after all these years. Yeah, PET SEMATARY's still the most frightening novel in human history, and yeah, THE SHINING is the one they'll be teaching in classrooms 50 years from now. But FROM A BUICK 8 is a nice addition to the library of mature, life-affirming tales King has been delivering for the past decade or so. I for one hope his retirement plans aren't gonna last... but this ain't a bad one to go out on (so long as the DARK TOWER conclusion follows soon, as promised!)
Rating: 
Summary: From A Buick 8
Review: Once I started reading this book, I found it extremely hard to put down until I had finished. For any
Stephen King fan, this is a must have book. From beginning to end the reader is spellbound to find out what is going to happen next. I was expecting something along the lines of "Christine" but this is totally diferent, and in my opinion better.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts out strong...
Review: Over his career, Stephen King has written dozens of books that amaze, terrify, and intrigue his readers. With "From a Buick 8", he fails in comparison to his former outings such as "The Stand", "The Green Mile", and "The Shining." That being said, it's not entirely a bad read.The original premise was interesting. In particular, I enjoyed the troopers' amazement as they explored the oddities of the car. The bit about the bat coming out of the trunk was creepy, and King begins to develop some of his characters, in particular Sandy. However, after he sets the stage with this opening, King does something unusual for him- he fails to go anywhere with the story. After the beginning, the story trails down to a series of boring events and a terrible, boring ending. It's a book where you get to the middle and realize that you are no longer enjoying the story. To tell the truth, it seems as though King lost interest in the story fairly early and banged out the rest of it to try and make some money. It's a letdown after such a promising start. For a better book, pick up one of King's earlier outings.
Rating:
Summary: King at the top of his game!
Review: Stephen King again shows why all of his books are instant best sellers. While this story certainly contains lots of Horror and supernatural elements, it is the human elements that drive the story. A young mans quest for answers to questions that simply can't be answered. One of Kings greatest stories to date.
Rating:
Summary: She's No Christine
Review: Stephen King's last (?) opus tells the story of the hearty souls of Pennsylvania State Patrol Troop D and how they come into possession of what, initially, appears to be a vintage Buick 8 automobile. But we know Stephen King and this car isn't all that it seems to be and yet is also more than it appears to be. The doors and trunk show us a link between our world and what, another star system? Another dimension? This book will be devoured by King's many devoted fans - and I'm one of them. I read this book on a business trip to Austin, Texas. The inevitable comparisons will be made to "Christine", his other vehicular story. Unfortunately, there's really nothing to compare. Christine had personality and pizzaz ( I'm talking about the car here, not necessarily the novel ). This car is devoid of any personality and is pure evil. In the novel Christine, we see the development of the boy who owns her. There is no development here. This book reads like a short story that is 356 pages long. For one, the scenery never changes. We never see the troopers at home. We don't even see a couple of them head to the university for some equipment to test on the Buick. For the most part, we are at the station house and the parking area behind it. Still, as a somewhat saving grace, King still can write about mokes you can care about. And they are here - Sandy, Shirley, Arky, Eddie, Ned, etc. Speaking of Ned, heck, I even went to Pitt, so that should count for something. But, without any real in-depth dialogue and a plot where empty answers - or no answers - is the tour de force, I have to say, well, Stephen, maybe retirement isn't so bad after all.
Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite Writer out of Gas
Review: Hard to resist all the car references "out of gas " "wreck". Hard to believe this is the same writer who wrote The Stand,The Shining,It and Salem's Lot. Where's the mystery, where's the horror -good lord where's the story ? Sorry Steve , guess it is time to retire -maybe a few years off ,will refresh your enormous talent . This is one of the most tedious books ,I ever finished [only finished because it was written by Stephen King].Is full of adjectives and page fillers ala Dean Koonce ,but is pretty dull stuff. Happy retirement Steve and thanks for the memories.
Rating:
Summary: Good Story But Goes Nowhere
Review: King has given us a new version of "Christine," a car with supernatural qualities. While he is an excellent story teller, King ends this one with a disappointing whimper rather than the "bang" it deserves.
Rating:
Summary: They're right; it's not Christine
Review: Christine was much better . . . It is a shame that authors sell based on who they are rather than what they write. If you or I wrote this book it wouldn't be given a glance; it would be tossed in the heap by every publisher lest they be sued for plagerism. Stephen King hasn't written anything innovative since Pet Semetary, unless you liked the Green Mile. In either event he has been writing by rote mentality in formulaic King prose for quite some time. But since it all walks off the shelf, why should he stretch himself? It becomes apparent that his earlier works were helped greatly by the editors he now rejects, because this book just ran on. Pages of descriptive narrative that revealed nothing. I've heard he is hanging it up soon, and that is good. Like all greats, talents wither when expended and he has obviously run out of new things to write. In this novel, he is not only knocking off himself, but he has "borrowed" many stereotypical, age old horror gimmicks. This tale wasn't original when it was on the Twilight Zone. Enjoy your retirement Stephen and bask in you past glories . . . I know your readers will . . .
Rating:
Summary: Strange Story
Review: I am an unabashed fan of Stephen King - so I bought this book as soon as it came out. In reading it, I found that King had come up with an interesting premise - a car - but not a car - maybe a portal to another universe might be more like it. King tells the story using flashback techniques - and you have to be really observant in reading to have even a wild guess at how this story ends. If you are not familiar with King's other books, this isn't the one to start your experience. Try reading "Christine" or "The Shining" first to see how King does things. All in all, I enjoyed the book - but it is not for new readers of King.
Rating:
Summary: From a Buick 8: A Novel
Review: Why does King (Dreamcatcher, 2001, etc.) write such gross stuff ("I have the heart of a small boy . . . and I keep it in a jar on my desk")? His latest is less gross-out than police procedural. A strange "man" in a black coat and hat pulls up to a nearly deserted gas station in rural western Pennsylvania in a weird Buick 8 Roadmaster and, while his tank is being filled, disappears behind the station. Troopers come and move the Buick to Shed B out behind their precinct house. Why? Because the car is only a poor simulation of a car: the battery's not hooked up, the dashboard is stage-dressing, and most of the car seems made of unknown materials. Then the vehicle starts to make local earthquakes and gives off a purple light that outlines the nails in the shed walls. All this began 20 years ago, and the troopers have watched the car go through otherworldly shifts: it gives birth to a big batlike thing; a sofa-sized fish; unfamiliar green beetles; a lilylike plant; and it has sucked one trooper into its trunk, teleporting him God knows where. Then a girl-battering tattooed kid gets sucked in. Lead investigator is Trooper Curtis Wilcox, who dissects the strange bat and finds egglike one-eyed baby bats inside. This year, Curtis Wilcox has been killed on the highway after hailing a tractor-trailer, and now his teenaged son Ned wants the lowdown on the station's cover-up about the Buick 8. The novel gives the history of the car-or would that it did. Instead of following it's fairly gripping premise, King stuffs his tale with endless police procedure and some of the most truly dull characters this side of a 1930s Soviet proletariat play. The writing's not bottom drawer, but this is truly a miscalculation after the emotional wonders of The Green Mile, Hearts in Atlantis and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Seven-tenths filler, three-tenths story.
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