Rating: 
Summary: A bad way for an amazing author to end his career
Review: Now i picked this book very happy this was reportedly King's last novel and i wanted to know how King bowed out but this novel which is decent but far from his best work, had little action characters without much personality and a not so great story line. Could have definetly been worse could have been a lot worse though!Thank god we still have the 2 final dark tower books to look forward to!!!
Rating:
Summary: Not Much Action
Review: I did like this book better than 'Christine'though. I liked the setting the story was in and the characters were more likeable as well. However, while there were supernatural elements, the story itself was pretty slow going. There were only a few scenes that had you biting your nails. This isn't one of King's scariest.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than a lot of his most recent work
Review: To begin with, "From a Buick 8" is by no means a perfect novel. It lacks depth and the story pretty much stays on a straight course without becoming mired in detail. However, it is most certainly entertaining, and at <400 pages, the story moves along very quickly. I'm not quite sure what many reviewers are expecting from Stephen King (another "The Stand"?), but I personally enjoy a straightforward horror story. He hasn't written anything like this in years, and I personally am very happy with this as the last novel that he ever writes. An unusual object with strange behavior. Monsters spewing forth from another dimension. What else do you want? After laying the eggs "Everything's Eventual", "The Black House", and (god help us) "Bag of Bones", I would think that long-time Kings fans would gobble this book up. I guess that shows how very different people are. The good news for all the nay-sayers is that King has said that he will not write any more novels after this. This may or may not be true, but I would definately bet that he won't write any more horror books. The bad news is that we are now stuck with Dean Koontz. Again, God help us.
Rating: 
Summary: doesn't stephen king have enough money yet?
Review: he was my favorite author for a number of years. i still consider the shining the most frightening book i have ever read and the stand simply one of the best. but at a certain point his work began to become somewhat derivative - i think it was around "needful things", which itself is now pretty far back, and i stopped buying his books, although i would still get them out of the library. now i read them if they happen to catch my eye while i'm there. i don't mean to make light of his contribution to american fiction - he has created many masterful works centered around truly unique and fascinating ideas (the langoliers comes to mind immediately) and deserves the title of a master of the genre. but it is disappointing that he didn't choose to go out while on top of the game, although from what i read here i guess he is calling it quits. this novel certainly takes on a more cerebral tone, in a way, than many of his others, and there's nothing wrong with that. however, it reads as a forum for his indulgence in the idea that there are mysteries which will forever go unexplained; that there are limits to the extent of human perception. yes, so? nothing groundbreaking there. it's not badly written, but it's ponderous and repetitive - the phenomena occurring in and around the car are basically of the same type, so it seems as though you are essentially reading the same passage over and over. while he interweaves character development and introspection around these instances, the two aspects don't gel to create a satisfying whole. the story is simply not very interesting, and it's not very interesting for a span of, 20 years, i guess, and hundreds of pages. real life is sometimes not very interesting, and things can drag on without dramatic denouement(s). but a novel which remains true to that premise doesn't deliver entertainment, and this one doesn't even deliver original food for thought as compensation. some of the reviews that i've read express a contrary view, and i believe people who have that view would say i've "missed the point." i don't believe that's the case. there isn't really a point. he's an immensely talented author overall, but he wrote this book to hear himself talk, and, unfortunately, with not a whole lot to say.
Rating:
Summary: The writing makes it good
Review: I have read many reviews on this site, but never felt compelled to write one until now. I felt the need to defend this book and one of the best writers around today. I'll admit that this is not an edge of your seat horror/thriller like some of King's past books, but for me the thrill of his books has never been about that. The thrill comes from King's amazing story-telling ability. I know a lot of people who refuse to read a Stephen King book no matter how much I push it, simply because they don't like the horror genre, and I feel sorry for them. They are truly missing out. This man knows how to tell a story!! I've never found another author who makes me feel like I know his characters or am part of his story like Stephen King does. He really is a master at his craft.
I don't feel the need to go into what this book is about; that's been done enough here. I simply want to say, if you're looking for a great story pick up this or any other Stephen King book. You won't be sorry (a little spooked maybe, but not sorry.)
Rating:
Summary: PEOPLE
Review: King draws pictures of all of us with expertise!!! What a gift to be able to take ordinary humans and remind us we are not so ordinary after all!!
Rating:
Summary: should've been a short story
Review: I have to agree with others that say it's really too long for a novel. The basic idea was ok but although it's always a pleasure to read King's prose, it takes too long and is repetitive.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Creepy/Confusing !
Review: If you love Stephen King, you'll love this book. A wonderfully creepy, strange tale. The only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is that they never explained where the weird Buick '54 came from or what happened to the strange russian sounding man who dropped it off at the gas station. Other than that, it's really cool. Although, if you want a story that's resolved, go with Carrie or It.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen King is amazing; the story isn't quite
Review: Summary:
Ned Wilcox is the son of a former trooper of Pennsylvania State Patrol Troop D, Curt Wilcox, who was killed in the line of duty by a drunk driver in 2001. In an effort to come to grips with his father's passing, Ned begins spending a lot of time around the barracks. As he spends more and more time there he begins to become like a member of the force and eventually is accepted into their ranks as a telephone operator for the summer before he is to go to college. The present story (a large part of the book is told as backflashes to the past) takes place during the summer when Ned is working at the barracks. Sandy Dearborn, who is now the commanding sergeant, decides one day to tell Ned about the mystery of Troop D, which also happened to be the pet project of Ned's father Curt - The Buick 8 Roadmaster kept behind the barracks in Shed B. The Buick showed up at a gas station one day in 1979 but isn't a normal Buick. The engine is fake, the exhaust system is made of glass, the wheels don't turn, etc. What's more, the car cannot get dirty, can't be scratched, you can't really do anything to it, but it can do things to you. Every now and then, without any explanation as to why, the Buick will seemingly come alive, shooting lightning bright bolts through the air (though they are for the most part harmless) and act as some sort of a portal between Earth and some other planet or dimension where things are very different. Occasionally it sucks something from Earth through the portal (it sucked Curt Wilcox's partner Ennis Rafferty through just after they found the car and later sucked a criminal through, Brian Lippy, among other things, including a number of other animals) and at other times it delivers things from the other side, including animals, plants, and even alien 'monsters'. Over the years, Curt, Sandy, and the former commander, Tony Schoondist, performed a number of experiments on the car and even dissected a number of the creatures that came through from the other side. The problem is that despite their investigations they were never really able to figure anything out other than the fact that when the temperature drops in Shed B, where the car is stored, it is likely that the car is going to do something. As the recounting of the events surrounding the Buick comes to a close, Ned seems disturbed. He claims that he is going to go home, but ends up doubling back and dousing the Buick with gasoline. He is going to try to destroy the car because he believes it is what killed his father. Sandy eventually gets him out of the car, but only barely in time to save him from falling through to certain death on the other side of the portal when the car becomes active. Eventually Ned seems to accept his father's death, but college isn't right for him and he returns to work at Troop D, in essence taking his father's place. The book ends with one of the troopers committing suicide and the Buick beginning to show signs of wear as though its magical powers are finally wearing off. My Comments:
In retrospect the story is good, but not a stand out. There is no amazing ending, though there is kind of climax when Ned tries to destroy the car. But what the story does have going for it is Stephen King's writing style. He really is a brilliant writer. I was enthralled just to listen to the book. There are a couple of problems, the biggest being the transitions between characters. I thought it was an interesting method of telling the story, periodically switching from Sandy's perspective and voice to that of one of the other troopers or participants in the history of the Buick, but sometimes it got a little confusing. Also, because I was listening to this on CD as I was driving I was generally annoyed by the different voices. The actors on the CD did a decent job of portraying different voices, but it was still a little distracting. I think the book would have flowed better had the author stuck to just one voice. Also, as I mentioned above, the ending is a bit anti-climactic. But I think that is actually for a reason - sometimes you just don't understand things and, well, that's it. I think that is really the point with this story (it isn't always subtle as Sandy tries to get Ned to understand this point numerous times). Of course, this introduces another problem, which really did kind of bother me about the book: Why didn't the members of Troop B ever turn this over to a university for real study? Just because we don't understand something doesn't mean we can't ever understand it. I understand that this wouldn't have worked as well as a story if upon seizing the vehicle and discovering its mysterious powers they had immediately handed it over to someone that had a clue, but it's what I would have done. Overall, the book is engaging because it doesn't really reveal everything about the Buick until the very end. But, I have to admit that by half way through the novel you have been exposed to just about everything. I think I kept waiting for something even bigger to happen, but it never did. The book is remarkably well-written (other than the character changes) and has a pretty good plot idea, but it kind of fizzles in the end. I would still recommend this book for any Stephen King fan or for anyone that would like to read a Stephen King novel that doesn't have the sex that he often throws into the mix. I really liked the book but believe it could have been better.
Rating:
Summary: Big Reader
Review: I Love this book so far, Stephen King is a favorite!
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