Rating: 
Summary: King strikes again.
Review: From a Buick 8 I think is one of Stephen Kings finest. It keeps you quessing until the very end, and then it leaves the ending up tp your imagination. I really felt as though I was the main character. I felt the emotions he had, Ned Wilcox was a teenage boy, a very impatient one and he was learning the story of the Buick and how it came to be just as the reader is. If there was a boring part in the story Ned was anxious and only wanted to hear about the exciting parts as I, the reader did. The story itself is about an old "car", well thats what it looks like but everyone whos come and gone from the barracks of pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, knows looks can be decieving. The "car" can create things to "dissapear" or make things from another world something so horrible and foul smelling appear in the shed where it is stored. It makes you wonder if the things that dissapear from our world die, or become part of another world. This car is the worst thing that has ever happened to Troop D. It creates lightening flashes and can hypnotize the troopers to want to go in the shed, even though rules and regulations of troop D ban anyone from going in there alone and with out a rope tied to something solid from our world. Whenever the buick was ready to create a lightening storm all the radio signals would become un audible, a foul smell would linger through the air of salt and rot, the lightening flashes where so bright to needed welding googles to wear, it could blind the human eye. Ned Wilcox only witnessed one of the shows, but his father witnessed many. His father was fasinated by the "car" he spent most of his time examining the thing and disecting objects that appeared out of the "car" from another world. Ned's father had died while serving for Troop D, but many believe it had a lot to do with the "car" even though he was run over when he pulled someone over, the troop believe the car that hit him somehow had a force from th buick. Many troopers strangefuly died in the time of the Buick, and many of the troopers believe it had to do with the buick being in the barracks, in shed B.
Rating: 
Summary: I think this was an awful book
Review: I finished this book only due to my respect for King. I think it was just dreadful. It is boring, goes nowhere, has no revelation or climax. The historical action is told through a present conversation among people who are boring and pathetic. I was not compelled at all to keep reading and when done threw it in the trash, something I never do with books. The car and what comes from it is annoying. We never learn anything about it and there is no explanation for it. The characters are not developed beyond what occurs at the trooper station. I think reading this book was a complete waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: The longest ghost story ever told.
Review: This one is about half the length of "Dreamcatcher", so I was actually able to finish, but I think I had the same fundamental problem with both books. King's grasp on how people speak to each other is slipping further and further into one of those creepy alternate dimensions he always writes about. This is a novel told in flashback, with a few narrators who all have the same "voice" -- their paragraphs all go on for a couple of sentences longer than they should have in real life.Case in point: when the Pennsylvania State Trooper sergeant, who's the principal storyteller, finally gets thirsty on page 100, his communications officer miraculously arrives bearing a pitcher of iced tea -- and a tray of sandwiches for the boys. Not only that, but she delivers a speech about how men love to drink, and how men love to eat, and how women like the food and the drink too, and, oh, by the way, skinny kid, you need to eat at least two of these sandwiches. One of the things I've always liked about Stephen King in the nearly twenty years I've been reading his books is that he juxtaposes horrific situations wtih genuine, down to Earth people. But in "From a Buick 8", the characters (all of them state troopers, or related to state troopers) rapidly become a cloying bunch of law enforcement cliches. The first half of the book contains about a million variations on the concept that troopers can only trust each other, and that they're a family, and that single troopers are married to the troop, and... you see where this is going. Another point is that our expectation of how books and movies capture "real" speech has changed in the last ten years: with the demise of moralizing sitcom speeches, and the emergence of Tarantino-style screenplay and "The Sopranos". The basic story behind "From A Buick 8" is really creepy, as only King can provide. The monsters are just around the corner, so you can't see them right away. All you start with is the sense that this Buick doesn't belong... it looks like a car on the surface, but when you look closer, the details don't add up. The detailing is wrong, the car doesn't get dirty, the driver vanished. This sense of reality warping is one King visited many times, in different ways: Leland Gaunt in "Needful Things", the vans in "The Regulators", and the Dark Tower passages in "Insomnia" (if not the whole of the Dark Tower series itself!). Horror is not vampires and demonic clowns and foul-mouthed spirits: it's about the sense that your very down-to-Earth life is being invaded by your nightmares. But, every time the horror starts to generate some traction, the real-life stuff gets in the way. There's a character with an Armenian surnmae (Arkanian), but the guy's actually Swedish, and not only are all his lines written in dialect, but so is the chapter that he narrates! This drives a stake into the heart of credibility as much as, say, Kevin Costner's accent in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves". There's also a glaring continuity error (about what a particular character was wearing when he disappeared) once our heros finally get to look through the Buick at what lies on the other side. "From a Buick 8" was not an unabashedly enjoyable read. I found myself fighting the State Troopers and their Shakespearian, or Tom Hanksian, ethos. We few, we cloying few, we band of brothers. I don't remember having that reaction to Sherrif Pangborn's crew in "Needful Things". Since the characters are really what "From A Buick 8" is about -- how it takes a family united to beat back a menace -- it didn't help my appreciation of the book when I started rooting for the bad guys to win.
Rating:
Summary: A solid example of King's writing
Review: There's something about those cars from the fifties - something that isn't quite natural, and Stephen King knows it. First, there was Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury that was simply born bad. Now, Mr King introduces us to a Buick from the same era, a Buick that is equally bad, but very different. Whereas Christine was born on a Detroit assembly line alongside her siblings, this Buick is one of a kind: an impossible, inoperable engine; a steering wheel designed for an ocean yacht and dashboard controls that don't control anything are just a few of its physical traits. But if the car can't be driven, it does have the unsettling habit of inviting guests from time to time - guests you wouldn't invite yourself, if you had the choice. The Buick 8 does have two things in common with Christine, though: it has a peculiar resistance to damage, and although it isn't literature, per se, it makes a very good read.
Rating:
Summary: Should have been short story or a"novella", but still good.
Review: Stephen King's writing seems to fall into two broad categories: 1) stories about specific situations and scenarios that are terrifiying or unsettling or evocative of SOME emotion, or 2) stories that are about a vaguely defined evil entity wrecking havoc with the main characters. The former include his very best works: The Stand, Carrie, The Dead Zone, Delores Claiborne, Salem's Lot, Shawshank Redemption, Misery, Green Mile, etc. The latter tend to include his lesser or downright bad works: Insomnia, Rose Madders, Needful Things, Dreamcatcher, etc. "IT" is the only quality novel that falls into the latter category. "From a Buick 8" falls somewhere in between- while the antagonist is a mysterious entity of undetermined origin that certainly plays havock with the main characters, it is actually fairly interesting and well written, and sometimes downright creepy. Don't let the car motif scare you away- this book is nothing at all like "Christine" (which wasn't bad, but didn't need to be repeated). The events surrounding the Buick of the title are genuinely strange and sometimes terrifying, and for once hint at an alternate universe that doesn't seem contrived and dull (unlike Insomnia, which dealt with a similar concept). My main complaint is that the book was far too long- we can only read about the Buick's "eruptions" so many times. This would have easily been more effective as a longish short story or as one of King's "novellas". There is not a tremendous amount of character development, and the bulk of the story is told as recollections and flashbacks. The concept of the mysterious car is interesting, but the characters surrounding it aren't quite as interesting as King seems to believe, and don't justify the length of the novel. However, it's an overall enjoyable read with a moderately unique premise
Rating:
Summary: Not really about a buick 8 at all.
Review: I think "some" people are missing the point of this book and as a writer it took me till the end and the authors notes to figure it out. It's not really about the car at all, it's about the lifes of pennsylvania cops and the things they go through and the hardships, the sacrafices, the good times, the bad times and family. It's also a personal fictionalized reflection of King's own accident. Not one of his better books but not bad either. I still think Desperation is his best. Because of a buick 8's shortness if you like King i suggest picking up the mass market paperback, if you like cops stories don't even hesitate to pick this book up. King's still the best writer in his genre and you gotta love the whole now and then aspect of the book , rather than just chapters. What i likes best and what really shows King's talent in this book is how he writes AS each character in the book AS they're telling the story. Everyone knows king's a great writer with normally lousy endings anyway. Decent read, i don't feel like i wasted my time.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not his best
Review: Has an interesting premise, but the narrative structure is really sloppy---he switches around between numerous characters' POV, all in 1st-person narrative, but there is no clear delineation of each separate character's voice---it sounds like the same person talking all the time, which is confusing. And the ending makes no sense. Not one of his best!
Rating: 
Summary: Just awful
Review: I love Stephen Kings books but this one has to be his worst ever! The whole time I read it I was thinking, "Is this going somewhere!?!" The beginning started out OK but then it just went down hill from there. I feel bad for saying this because King is a favorite writer of mine but this was JUST AWFUL.
Rating: 
Summary: A lesser King effort
Review: Stephen King's latest non-series novel is a passable but not very exceptional book that captures most of what makes Stephen King books great without actually being great itself. In part, this is due to the book being something of a rehash of his older books, in particular, Christine (evil car), the Tommyknockers (ancient alien artifact) and the Green Mile (a team of law officers holding a secret). Unlike the wholly mediocre Dreamcatcher - another King novel that revisits old themes - this one is at least okay, although it is not much more than that. The story is mostly related as a prolonged flashback about some small town state police who acquire an abandoned car. The man who abandoned it has disappeared and the car itself is distinctly unusual in appearance. Shortly after putting it in storage, one of the officers disappears as well. Over the coming days and years, the car does some strange things, occasionally radiating vast amounts of light or spewing out alien creatures which die quickly. The biggest problem with this current book is that not much goes on. Yes, there is a strange car, and yes, it does strange - and dangerous - things, but it only does a few actions of any significance, and there is rarely a sense of real menace about the car. Most of the story deals with trying to solve the mysteries of the car, which are considerable. Nonetheless, there is also a sense that it's little more than a mild distraction to these characters, kind of like a sleeping tiger in a cage that only represents a threat if you are in the cage with it at the same time it is awake. Otherwise, it is merely interesting. In addition, the characters themselves are almost all blandly benevolent; the few nasty characters which King does so well appear only briefly. There is a saying in the book - used several times - that curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. Unfortunately, the book itself, while peaking my curiosity, did not really satisfy. I will be back, nonetheless. King is good enough to merit additional readings, but I hope that they are better than this one.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing at best
Review: There should be a limit to how many novels an author can write about a supernatural car. King should have stopped after "Christine" which I found to be far better than this current effort.
The only way I made it all the way through this book was on the hope that it would eventually become exciting...it never happened.
I can't believe that this will be King's last novel. He has given me hours of enjoyment and terror with his previous works. It is unfathomable that this is poor effort will be his swansong.
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