Rating: 
Summary: Welcome back mister King
Review: It was with mixed emotions that i began reading this book. I have been a fan of King for many years now, but his last 4-5 books have really disappointed me. It seems that King had run seriously out of good horrorstories to write, hitting the abosolute lowmark with the Dreamcatcher. Black House although was a great book, but i think that this was more due to the Dark Tower connection and the fact that it was co-authored by Peter Straub.
But this collection is no less than fantastic. There are hardly any misses, and some of the stories were so good that i cannot help but rate this collection as just as fine as Skeleton Crew and Night Shift. Welcome back Stephen King, may we please get more of the same quality!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Beware the empty calories, dear reader!
Review: Of all the narrative theories out there, I'm most taken with the model of fiction as "a vivid and continuous dream in the reader's mind" held by John Gardner. If you spend some time looking into studies of dreaming (or just dip into them casually, as I have) you'll probably come across the idea of "significance," that element of dreaming which shines with poignancy and screams at the dreamer: "This is it! Pay attention. This is the important thing; never forget!" The dreamer may spend an entire dream chasing frisbees with his pet collie or trekking deep into an attic to find that perfect spot beneath the roof of his childhood home where he spends an evening reattaching the limbs of his sister's toy dolls. Somehow the ridiculous and mundane acquire, in dreaming, absolute significance. As I see it, it's much the same in successful fiction.
Stephen King achieves something of this in "The Death of Jack Hamilton," one story in his new collection EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL. The story follows John Dillinger and two of his gang of outlaws, Homer and Jack, as they hide from the law while trying to nurse Jack through a messy bullet wound. In the end Jack's life cannot be saved. Homer performs his famous "fly roping" trick to amuse the dying man, and at the same time we learn just how John Dillinger's luck finally ran out, leaving him vulnerable to "the Feds" the next time they would cross paths.
While pleasantly surprised with "The Death of Jack Hamilton," I was unable to find an encouraging degree of significance in any of the other five stories I read before giving up on EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL.
"Autopsy Room Four" transports the old buried-alive storyline to an autopsy room where a man finds himself conscious but paralyzed by a snake bite as a coroner prepares him for dissection. King seems content here to contrive a simple "will he survive/won't he survive?" scenario, jerking his audience along a jarring and unenjoyable roller coaster ride during which we are expected to bite our nails and quiver in anticipation. Worse, King slaps pop culture references around his narrative shamelessly. The autopsied man looks like Michael Bolton; cue the dull Michael Bolton puns. One of the autopsy room orderlies looks like he belongs on BAYWATCH, another on MELROSE PLACE. We also manage to fit in references to ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, GENERAL HOSPITAL, and JEOPARDY. From all appearances King finds it too much trouble to create a character or a mood from scratch. He'd rather apply prefabricated exteriors--elements easily and cheaply acquired by himself and effortlessly (read: "without exercise of the imagination") accessed by his audience. Pop culture inbreeding, ugh. Is there anything worse?
Sure, someone might argue that these references are actually appropriate, even necessary, for the mode of this story. But does it make for interesting prose? No, it does not. And anyway, why does King do this same thing in so many stories?
"Lucky Quarters" is little more than a sketchy, ambiguous little story garnished with some NATURAL BORN KILLERS references and a bad Tex Avery pun. Oh, also King tries to make us believe that he's a real writer by tackling the melodramatic anguish of a single mom cleaning rooms at a casino hotel. Ho hum.
"In the Death Room" is one of those revenge stories about torture in a third world country. A tortured man turns the torture device on his tormentors. Yada, yada. References: BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, E.R., Roadrunner cartoons, the Hanson boys.
If there's one story more unpleasant than "Death Room," it has to be "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away"--another attempt by King to be veddy veddy literary. This is the story of Alfie, a travelling salesman who checks into a motel to kill himself. Alfie has found his only joy in life for the past few years in the strange act of recording the restroom graffiti he sees on his travels. The story ends with Alfie making an absurd challenge to mother nature, a challenge we never see the result of... and so maybe he kills himself, maybe he doesn't--we'll never know. The most deeply unpleasant moment of the story comes when Alfie worries what would happen if someone found his corpse beside his pathetic notebook of bathroom poetry:
"Yet the notebook might be a real embarrassment once he was dead. It would be like accidentally hanging yourself in the closet because you were experimenting with a new way of j**king off and got found that way with your shorts under your feet and s**t on your ankles."
Why, Stephen, why? What is this supposed to make us feel? And where has the significance gone?
But, oh yes, there was one other story I read before I gave up on the book. "The Man in the Black Suit." Something about a country boy going out fishing and meeting the devil by the river. The devil chases him around for a while then lets the boy alone. Something like that; I forget.
BTW, After abandoning EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL, I picked up "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" and am finding it very enjoyable. I'm just afraid that King is one of these poor writers who can't sift his material and distinguish when he's writing well from when he's writing poorly, and it's such an exhausting job--as a reader--to do that job for him.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Fine Collection
Review: King's latest short-story collection lacks the punch of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, but every story in here is worth your while. Like potato chips, you can't stop with just one.
Rating:
Summary: Kaliley
Review: All in all, I was pretty disappointed with this book. The creativeness in the stories is not up to Kings norm. Oliver Platt's narration of Autopsy Room 4 was good however the other narrators were perticularly "dry". Hopefully Muller will be recovered enough to narrate the finals in the DT series because Boyd Gaines as Roland in The Little Sisters of Eluria was THE PITS!!
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Summary: Did I miss something?
Review: I love Stephen King and consider him my favorite author, but what does he have against endings? I thought every one of these short stories was entertaining, and I'm all for letting the reader use his imagination, but almost all of the stories seemed to end abruptly or seemed unfinished. Regardless, I thought about them long after I read them. I plan on re-reading the stories to see if I missed something. Dark Tower fans will get a "scooby snack" in this book - just enough to make waiting for the release of the next book in the series unbearable...
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Summary: Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales
Review: I am an avid King fan. I have most of his books and have enjoyed each and everyone. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment of the Dark Tower series. I am currently reading Everything's Eventual and I agree with the other reviews.....It lives up to King's high standard of story telling.
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Summary: Scary stories about escaping ... and not escaping
Review: "All the best stories are but one story in reality--the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape."--Arthur Christopher Benson (1862-1925) I recommend reading the King of Horror's latest book, Everything's Eventual, with this insight from Benson in mind. You will be surprised how many of these 14 dark tales deal with the theme of escape: those who escaped, those who didn't, and those who thought they escaped without really escaping. Everything's Eventual is Stephen King's fourth short-story collection. The previous ones were Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, and Nightmares & Dreamscapes. As usual, King excels as a master storyteller, providing tales that entertain, amuse, and frighten. o The first story, "Autopsy Room Four," is a variation on a theme found in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Premature Burial." A stockbroker has been bitten by a poisonous snake and, although fully conscious, he is completely paralyzed, unable even to blink his eyes. An incompetent physician pronounces him dead, and the coroners prepare their razor-sharp instruments to perform an autopsy. Unfortunately, King spoils the ending of this scariest story of the book by an ill-judged (albeit "arousing") attempt at humor. o In "The Man in the Black Suit" a nine-year-old "fisher boy" breaks his promise to his parents, ventures beyond the little wooden bridge and the forks of the creek, and has an eerie encounter with the Devil on the banks of Castle Stream. Written in homage to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," this story won first prize in the O. Henry Best Short Story competition for 1996. o In "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away," a world-weary salesman ponders his destiny, Hamlet-like, in a Motel 6 on I-80 just west of Lincoln, Nebraska. He puts a Smith & Wesson revolver, .38 caliber, on the pillow at the head of his bed and contemplates suicide. o In "The Death of Jack Hamilton," a wounded gangster, a henchman of the John Dillinger gang, is shot by pursuing police. He is bleeding to death and is developing gangrene. His end is not a pretty sight. o "In the Deathroom" is a Kafkaesque story about an interrogation room in the South American version of Hell. An "infernal machine" is set up to torture a Yankee journalist. o The title characters of "The Little Sisters of Eluria" are nurses of death instead of life. This novella is a prequel to the Dark Tower novels. (Note: SK has now finished DT 5, all nine hundred pages of it: "Wolves of the Calla.") o "Everything's Eventual" contains some bizarre paranormal stuff (surprise! surprise!). Richard Ellery "Dinky" Earnshaw may be a pizza delivery-boy who has flunked high school geometry (twice), but he has a powerful "gift" that is exploited by sinister forces. This story has echoes of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" o "L. T.'s Theory of Pets" is King's favorite in this collection. One wonders why, for it is not his best. A marriage is on the rocks because the wife in this story loves a dog (given to her by her husband) and the husband loves a cat (given to him by his wife). o "The Road Virus Heads North" is a scary tale reminiscent of King's "Rose Madder" and Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray." By purchasing a painting that changes in form and content, the protagonist opens a hole in the basement of the universe, from which supernatural emissaries of evil emerge to perform nefarious deeds. Moral of this story: Resist impulse buying at yard sales! o "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe" is one of the book's best stories. Three people--a couple proceeding with a divorce, and the wife's lawyer--are attacked by a berserk Ichabod Crane-like maitre d', who, wielding a machete-like butcher knife, splatters the restaurant with blood and gore. Moral of this story: Eat at home! o In "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French," a long-married couple are trapped in a time loop in which the same disaster recurs again and again. The wife's chilling feelings of deja vu, by which she foresees their doom, reminds one of Nietzsche's myth of the eternal return. o "1408" in a variation of "The-Ghostly-Room-at-the-Inn" tale. Room 1408 is on the 13th floor, and the numerals of 1408 add up to 13. If you are a bit squeamish, this haunting tale will induce the heebie-jeebies. Moral of the story: Never book a room on the 13th floor! o In "Riding the Bullet" a young man, hitchhiking to the hospital to see his mother, who has had a stroke, is picked up by the Angel of Death. Forced to face the fact of his own approaching death (which is, says King, "probably the single great subject of horror fiction"), the young man must choose whether he will live and his mother will die, or vice versa. Moral of this story: Keep your thumb in your pocket! o "Luckey (sic) Quarter" is an ironic, but disappointing, story. King should have limited this collection to 13 tales. If Stephen King were made a camp counselor, he would scare ninety per cent of the kiddies back home after the first round of campfire ghost stories. Do not read these stories right before lights-out. If you dare to do so, first check underneath your bed! Stephen King is the author of more than forty books. Among his most recent are Dreamcatcher, On Writing, Hearts in Atlantis, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Bag of Bones, The Green Mile, and Black House (with Peter Straub). He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
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Summary: Superb short stories
Review: As King admits, the art of the short story is dying. It's a real shame, but at least we have someone as talented as Stephen King to keep up the art at this time. I've always enjoyed King's short stories, more so than his novels, for some reason. 'Night Shift' being my all time fave. 'Nightmares and Dreamscapes' was an magnificient follow up. 'Crouch End' is one of the best things he's ever written. So when I heard a new book of his short stories was coming out, you could guess my reaction! As I was reading this book I noticed Stephen had lost none of his spark and it lived up to my already lofty expectations of him! There are some real chillers in here. 'The Man in the Black Suit' is a brilliant story. 'The Death of Jack Hamilton' is not really in the true King style of things but it's excellent nonetheless. That's the great thing about Stephen, whatever style he chooses to write, he does it so well. A must buy for all you King fans out there, and don't let the short story die out, get this now.
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Summary: This Date Was A Lot Of Fun
Review: In the introduction, Stephen King says he and his readers are on a date and it should be fun. An interesting way to look at the relationship between reader and writer. The more I thought about it, the more sense it seemed to make. And this date was definitely fun. In the opening story, "Autopsy Room Four", SK preys on what I think must be a universal fear. It sets the pace for the following stories. I love short story collections and this will be counted among my favorites. Even the stories I had previously read were worth a second read. It amazes me how much more I can get out of a SK story the second time around. I enjoyed all 14 of these stories, but I think "The Little Sisters Of Eluria" was my favorite. It involves Roland (the gunslinger) from the Dark Towers series. It has made me impatient for the next installment of the Dark Towers, which SK has promised will be available soon. I enjoy King's novels immensely, but his short stories are special and I loved this collection.
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Summary: Hooray for King short stories
Review: This newest set of Stephen King Short stories is wonderful. I only wish he would do more short story collections as they pack more of a punch than do most of his novels. The stories are riveting and quite good. A thoroughly enjoyable reading experience
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