Rating: 
Summary: Great Characters, Great Horror
Review: Way back in the old days all I ever read was Stephen King novels. I must have read nearly all of them over the years-until about four years ago. Moderately irritated with what I deemed an increasingly banal succession of books, I decided to abandon the horror master. I saw new King books come out in hardback and move on to paperback while I moved on to other authors and other genres. With the exception of "Dreamcatcher," which I did like to some extent, my interest in Stephen King's new efforts precipitously waned. Then I picked up "From a Buick 8" on a whim, deciding to give it a chance and see if the king of horror still had any sparks left in him. Other reviews and general opinion certainly did not inspire me to read this book. Most disliked "From a Buick 8," claiming that it was not scary enough. I am here to tell you I loved this book. I do not know if this great experience will cause me to rush out and read his other newer novels, but based solely on this book I say that King penned a winner."From a Buick 8" is a story about a state trooper's barracks in Pennsylvania. Troopers have come and gone over the years, but enough personnel remains to know the full story about the horror contained in Shed B behind the barracks. When Trooper Curt Wilcox died after being hit by a drunk driver, his son Ned begins to show up around the barracks looking for odd jobs. The cops recognize the boy is the spitting image of his father, so they befriend him and adopt him as a fixture of the station. But Ned is there for another reason, one recognized by the old timers who knew his father. For Curt's son, working with the troopers is a way of holding on to the memory of his departed dad. After the boy gets accepted to college, Commanding Sergeant Sandy Dearborn pulls some strings and finds Ned summer work as a dispatcher. It isn't long after that when Ned notices what is in Shed B and starts to ask questions. The book is a shifting narrative account of the horrible incidents leading up to Curt Wilcox's death. What resides in this shed is a car, a Buick of old vintage. The troopers impounded the car in 1979 after a strange man abandoned it at a local gas station. The car is eerie, with a body impervious to damage and a steering wheel the size of tire. The engine isn't an engine in the normal sense, but a strange casing with "Buick 8" painted on the sides of it. The cops have a strange feeling about this car, with special interest shown by then Commanding Sergeant Tony Shoondist and Ned's father, rookie trooper Curt Wilcox. When the car lights up like a Christmas tree (referred to as a "lightquake"), the two take an even stronger interest in this weird object. This being a Stephen King book, the strangeness doesn't stop with unknown lights. Things start to emerge from the trunk of the car, things no human eyes have ever seen and likely will never see again in this world. The troopers quickly assume the role of caretakers and protectors, shielding the world from the potential horrors of the Buick. And believe me, despite the grumbling of some who have read this book, there are horrors aplenty in this gripping, character driven horror novel. The reason many people probably do not like this book is because King buries the horrific elements under intensively drawn characters. The car takes second fiddle to Ned, Sandy, Curt, Tony, and the other major and minor characters in the story. At one point in the narrative, Sandy tries to emphasize to Ned how minor the car really was in the lives of the cops at the station. Ned doesn't want to here this, of course, because he is more interested in the story of the Buick and its effects on his father than listening to accounts about the personal lives of police officers. The car is important, but those readers who pay attention recognize that the Buick serves as the nexus for a constantly shifting cast of people, with all the aspirations and all the failings of life. Human tangibles such as family, friendship, and honor matter more in life than obsession with an object that has few if any answers. As for those who complain that King doesn't take the easy route and give us answers about the car, wake up! He shows you what the car is and even has one of the characters witness the strange dimension linked to the automobile. Why do you need to know more than that? A few years ago there used to be a thing called imagination. It isn't Stephen King's problem if your ability to imagine no longer exists due to MTV and mindless television shows and movies. In the end it doesn't matter where the horror comes from. Evil is as evil does. King provides ample descriptions of the horrors of the Buick that this
reader is more than satisfied with the story. Fans of Stephen King, myself included, really should not be as hard on the old boy as we have been in recent years. This guy really appreciates his fans and tries to please them whenever he can. I have heard that "From a Buick 8" might be his last effort. If it is, instead of just calling it quits here's a guy who is going ahead and finishing his Dark Tower series. He certainly doesn't have to do this, but he wants to conclude what he started because he knows his fans want closure. "From a Buick 8" would serve as an adequate swan song for a great author, but the book is so good I hope he sees fit to continue churning them out.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what it seems
Review: In the same way that the Buick which features in this story is not a real car, "From a Buick 8" only looks like a novel - in reality it is a short story padded out to inordinate length. Essentially SK follows a lather rinse repeat formula - the same spooky events occur over and over again padded out by a lot of boring waffle. For example about 4 pages are taken up by a description of two characters spilling coffee on a woman's skirt and buying her flowers to make up! And this has NOTHING to do with the plot. Most of the story is told in flashback by a number of narrators to a young boy, whose impatience with their refusal to get to the point could be seen to reflect the reader's growing impatience ... SK takes the opportunity to rebuke these readers via the narrator chiding the boy for being obsessed with supernatural events - nothing is ever that tidy in real life, blah, blah ... At this point I began to suspect that the book's ending would be a major disappointment with nothing explained or resolved - and I was right! Actually I don't mind novels that digress from the main storyline ("3 Men in a Boat", is one of my favourite books) but in "From a B8" these digressions simply aren't interesting and do nothing to add depth to the leading characters in the book who are all one-dimensional. Also I don't need SK to tell me that real life is not full of tidy resolutions but I expect better things from fiction! Kind of hard to believe that this is from the same author who wrote 'The Body' ...
Rating:
Summary: Well Written But No Story
Review: I'm a big King fan but this book has no story. Granted, King knew that when he wrote it, and perhaps he is tired of conventional plots. But the level of dread he tries to invoke, in the absence of anything really happening, does not work. Just my thoughts...
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly King's Worst. Zero rating.
Review: I think before this even came out, people were saying, "What? Another book centered around a car?!" But, you still have to have an open mind; it could have been good for all we knew ... right? Wrong. The first 100 pages of this book will put you to sleep, going on and on about the backstory of how this car from another world, found it's way into the lives of some very boring state troopers. If you don't fall asleep buy then, the rest is equally, if not more boring and time spent when you could have been reading some authors that WILL scare you, and write more complex in the process: Clive Barker is the first to come to mind, even The Manhattan Hunt Club, by John Saul was better than this. Also check out, Bentley Little for a good scare. pass this one up. I love King's old stuff, this has got to go. Sorry, Stephen. Zero rating. 0000000000.
Rating: 
Summary: Satisfaction brought him back
Review: Good, it was a little differnet then most of King's stuff but it had a Christine feel to it. To tell the truth I didn't want to put it down, I wanted the answers.
Rating:
Summary: I kept asking "So where is this going?"
Review: I had to try to start reading this book 3 times before I could force myself to read it completely. I am a big fan of Stephen King, however this book is his worst work. There is far too much description of things that have nothing to do with the story. I found myself skimming over pages just to hurry the story along. It is an easy book to put down, unlike most of his work that keeps you on edge and turning the pages. I would not recommend this book to a King fan. However, if you feel you must purchase it, wait a short time. I'm sure you will fine a lot of used/bargain bin copies of it.
Rating:
Summary: Dull story, dull climax, disapointing ending.
Review: Stephen King's most recent novel was perhaps his worst. The story is more of a series of stories all reflecting upon a rather dull, old, Buick which, frankly, isn't scary. The flat plot gradually leads to vapid climax and finally an ending which cannot even satiate the reader's longing to discover some information about the curiously entriging Buick. Instead of suspence and terror, King points out the human proclivity to inquire about the unknown and question questions that cannot be answered. This leaves the reader unsatified upon closing the book because he/she is without any knowledge explaing the Buick's strange behavior; only the fact that it was their natural desire to question something that could not be answered.
Rating:
Summary: Dreadful
Review: The man who wrote "From a Buick 8" also wrote "Pet Sematary." Think about it. How the mighty have fallen...
Rating:
Summary: One-idea book tires -- way too long for small plot
Review: Like a burlesque sketch that is funny for a minute or two but gets boring when nothing new happens for another half hour, King gives us an interesting premise that goes almost nowhere for the rest of the book. An old Buick is left at a gas station by a mysterious person who disappears, as does one of the investigating State Police of Troop D in Western PA; thereafter, the car is stored at the barracks and occasionally puts on laser light shows, emits strange creatures from its trunk, and similar horrible stuff. The story is told through the voices of the many troopers who have watched it over a period of twenty years or so. Other than drawing out the characters of that diverse group, as well as that of the young dead trooper's son, Ned, sort of the central listener, we're not treated to much other action or plot development. Sure, signs of King's effective rendering of scary events sparked our interest from time to time, but overall the whole book was like a one line gag repeated ad nausea. As far as we're concerned, this tale would have fit nicely into one of Kings many short story compilations; but we didn't feel the story and events were meaty enough to warrant some 350 pages, culminating in a fairly lackluster ending. This was by no means one of King's scary, suspenseful, gripping novels of the bizarre and terrible -- it was just one small idea that burned brightly for a few minutes then went out. For our money, we'd skip it.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Think of This One as King's Christine
Review: Behind a police station in rural Pennsylvania is a shed which holds a secret. One that is shared only among the state police of Troop D. It is a secret that would be unexplainable if the public were to find out about it. It's a secret about a car. A Buick 8, to be precise...or so it appears at first. Years ago, the car was abandoned at a local gas station. The owner was never found. The troopers quickly learned that the Buick 8 is no ordinary car. In fact, it just might not be a car at all. Young Ned Wilcox is spending a lot time with Troop D as he struggles with the recent death of his father, a state trooper who was run down by a drunk driver. Soon enough, he discovers the old Buick 8 behind the barracks in Shed B. He becomes especially fascinated when he learns his father had a special interest in it that neither he nor his mother had ever known about. Each of the officers in Troop D has a part in telling the bizarre story about the Buick 8 and Ned must learn to accept their account, even if it isn't exactly what his itching ears want to hear. But the one thing that is made clear is that when the temperature goes down in the shed, a phenomenon is about to occur. Moreover, when the phenomenon manifests, strange things come out of the Buick 8. Things that no one has ever seen before. Sometimes things even disappear. Like people. Forget about picking up this novel with Stephen King's "Christine" in mind - and other stories like it - because "From A Buick 8" is unlike any other horror car story. At first the plot may appear to be slow-moving, and just like the character Ned Wilcox, you may find yourself eagerly awaiting the punch line. But when it is finally revealed, you'll quickly realize it was worth the wait.
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