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Everything's Eventual : 14 Dark Tales

Everything's Eventual : 14 Dark Tales

List Price: $28.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Everything's Good!
Review: This fourteen short stories book of Stephen King's is a definite winner among his fans and anyone who likes good ole' short, scary, dark, and humorous stories.

One of my favorites of the book is "1408," in which a writer, whose specialty is disproving of haunted places, daringly enters a "supposedly" haunted hotel room. The owner urges him not to, and the man stubbornly refuses. When he does enter the room, he finds it more than haunted... he finds more than he ever wanted to.

"Autopsy Room Four" is a darkly humorous tale of... well, autopsy. I won't say much of it, since it'll probably spoil the story, but I'll that is it reminicent to that of Poe's "The Premature Burial."

Like one reviewer said, though, the masterpiece of this collection is "Lunch at the Gotham Café." It's about a maitre d' gone mad, and it's my favorite so far.

EVERTHING'S EVENTUAL is an absolutely excellent collection of King's last fourteen short stories, and says that King should publish short stories more often. It'll hit the bestsellers' list in no time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Finally... King returns to his former glory
Review: Stephen King, Everything's Eventual (Scribner, 2002)

Rumors of Stephen King's demise have been greatly exaggerated. 2002 is gearing up to be another highly productive year for King, and he starts us off with his first short story collection since 1993, Everything's Eventual. It sure is nice to know that King doesn't feel the need to turn everything into a novel, and while his short stories have gotten longer, they still pack the punch that the early tales did. However, they pack it in a more literary style. This is great stuff. It's still recognizably King, but it's New Yorker King rather than bargain-basement porn-mag King (check the prepub credits in Night Shift).

After reading the title story in this collection, I briefly fantasized about a world where the millions of people who reflexively buy King's works who've never so much looked inside a literary magazine would bring away from this (and other such tales in this volume, notably "Luckey Quarter" and "Lunch at the Gotham Café") an understanding of the complexities and ambiguities of the modern short story such that they could crack the binding on the new issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, say, and not feel out of place. (From there, it's one step to getting them to like poetry, and than I can take over the world at leisure.) I came to my senses a few minutes later, but there's still something to be said for it. Up till now, King's stories have always been well-defined pieces of work, with strong beginnings and endings and enough happening in the middle to keep people reading. No one would ever accuse, say, "Survivor Type" or "Grey Matter" of being an ambiguous piece of writing. But King was already showing his literary hand as far back as Skeleton Crew (with the haunting story "Nona"), and he tipped it last year with the brilliant "Blind Willie." Now comes Everything's Eventual, and he's laid it on the table; this is the new King, the one I've been waiting for during the last couple of transitional releases. These stories are ambiguous, they require thinking (and sometimes leaps in logic) from the reader, and they're simply better-written than his early work. King the literary author has finally caught up with King the storyteller.

As seems almost obligatory these days, yes, there's a Dark Tower story. However, it doesn't feel as invasive as most recent Dark Tower references, because it's actually set in mid-World (rather than showing up as a reference, as in "Low Men with Yellow Coats" or Bag of Bones). It's also very much in the style of early King, despite actually being in a series, and thus begging for loose ends. Oddly, "The Little Sisters of Eluria" stands on its own more than any Dark Tower material since the first book. Go figure.

King's back, and better than he's been since The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I knew he'd get there sooner or later...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Classic "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe"
Review: This is a solid book of short stories. It may be that King works best these days in briefer, sharp doses rather than in his more recent longer novels. I want to single out what I think is a new American classic, a story that deserves to be famous--"Lunch at the Gotham Cafe." It's both artfully bloody and artfully literary (it's the story that is featured on the illustration for the book jacket.) The sheer mayhem of what happens is staggering, but the deeper, more disturbing and shocking element of the tale is what the man and woman characters do to each other emotionally. It's like the violence in the story is a mirror of the real horror; what supposedly civilized, mature adult couples are capable of. As a portrait of the barbarism that can lurk beneath the "normal", middle-class surface of life it rivals anything written by Shirley Jackson or Paul Bowles. A satisfying collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of King's stronger works
Review: It's been a while since King has put out a collection of short stories, and usually when he does they are more like short novels than short stories. I've said before that I feel King's strong points aren't in his short stories, that he needs a couple hundred pages, at least, to really get a good story going. But this collection of 14 stories was astonishingly good. Maybe even some of his best work. It starts with a short introduction in which King pretty much just defends his e-publishing and other "gimmicky" ventures. The first story, "Autopsy Room Four" is the standard 'I'm not dead, though everyone thinks I am' story, almost straight out of Twilight Zone, with an interesting King twist on the end. Nothing spectacular, but not bad. "The Man in the Black Suit" is his O. Henry award winning story (first place), and yeah, it's a good story (though I think others in this collection are much better) about a child meeting the devil. Very Hawthorne-ish. Next is one of the best stories in this collection, "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away," which I first read in The New Yorker. Not a typical King story, and proof that he can write outside his genre. And do it well. It's a story about a man who is unhappy with the choices he made in life and ready to kill himself. And King keeps the ending very ambiguous (which he does quite often in this collection), and that may be what really tops the story off. "The Death of Jack Hamilton" is another story I first read in The New Yorker. This one reminds me somewhat of "The Body" in that it isn't horror and surprises you that Stephen King wrote it. It's a about John Dillinger. "In the Deathroom" is a story of torture in Central America (very good). "The Little Sisters of Eluria" is the capstone of the collection. It is a story about the Gunslinger that takes place before any of the books and early in his quest for the Dark Tower. It deals with the Little Sisters that appeared in Black House and is a bit of a love story. By far the best in the collection. Next is "Everything's Eventual" that almost takes us back to Firestarter with it's secret government agencies. It's a story about self-esteem and moral choices made in life. "L.T.'s Theory of Pets" is a wonderfully touching story with a horrorfying ending. The reality of this story makes it what might be one of King's most chilling pieces. The humor of the story doesn't prepare you for what comes at the end. Previously, King released this as an audiobook, and I think it might be interesting to hear him read it. "The Road Virus Heads North" is a typical King short story. Nothing great about it, nothing spectacular, very mediocre. "Lunch at the Gotham Café" is about a divorcing couple (that just happens to get put into a bad circumstance). It's entertaining. A little funny. And a good story. "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French" is King's existentialist story about hell. One that you almost wish he hadn't wrote. Could be the worst in the collection. It's too repetitive, which I know was the point, but it doesn't carry well. "1408" is a ghost story of sorts. The haunted hotel story. It started off in a way that made me think I wouldn't like the story too much, and even though it never reached the level of the best stories here, it turned out to be a good read. "Riding the Bullet" is King's e-book. (And shows that a little patience pays off, for those of us who waited and didn't download the story) It's an excellent story about love, guilt, and choices wrapped in King's mean little world. I'm not sure if the point to the story was ever made, at least not the way he intended it, but this story makes you think about the choices you would make if you were in the same situation. At what point does your life become more or less valuable than your mother's? The final story is "Lucky Quarter" which is really a touching little story. No horror, just a lot of feel-good. This collection contains both of King's audiobooks (Blood & Smoke; L.T.'s Theory of Pets) his e-book (not The Plant, but then he never finished that for us), the story from his computer program F-13 and stories he's published elsewhere (everyone here has appeared somewhere else before). It's a solid collection. Every King fan will own it, and even those who aren't fans of King or his genre will find that at least half of the stories will be to their liking. This collection shows King's skill and maturity as a writer and should further add to the literary respect that is finally coming his way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Everything's Eventual will eventually make history
Review: Well, I don't have much to say, just that Stephen King is still going strong. I heard a rumor that he'll be retiring soon, but this book shows that he still has a lot of upward momentum. Vivid and imaginative, " Everything's Eventual" is without a doubt a monument of supernatural fiction.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of King's very BEST: 14 dark tale gems
Review: If a hideous monster with an evil leer and razor sharp teeth tore Stephen King apart limb-from-limb, Everything's Eventual would go down as one of the FINEST works of his life.

Quite often authors, singers, writers and performers fall into a rut, repeating themselves until they unwittingly almost become parodies of their own successful styles. They stop growing and mark time (while collecting the $$$).

You CANNOT say that about Stephen King in Everything's Eventual. In this book of 14 highly-polished little literary gems you can SEE how he has expanded on his huge talents and advanced his art. Some of the stories are more-or-less horror stories. Others don't quite fall into that classification. But not a single one of them is stale.

For instance Autopsy Room Four is a modern-day twist on the Hitchock-type tale of a man who's alive and considered dead. I'm NOT giving anything away by telling you that -- and as soon as you read it you'll howl with delight at the surprise ending (there are almost two endings to this story and both are a great).

King's stories move like guided missiles, climbing to new heights in plot and style, swerving in brand-new twists (funny and sad) -- and all the while he seems to be (respectfully) playing with the genre he has helped to popularize. If you ever thought King was repeating himself rest assured: he does NOT here. I love short stories and this is now my most prized collection (I will NEVER sell it or lend it...but I WILL re-read it).

Without listing them all, my favorites here include the book's title story, Everything's Eventual (a tale about a 14-year-old with an unusual talent; his narrative from the kid's
point of view sounds JUST like a 14-year-old I know...King gets inside the kid's head); The Death of Jack Hamilton (about gangster John Dillinger); In the Deathroom (a story about a captive with a twist with a great ending); LT's Theory of Pets (do you laugh or cry...or both?); the Road Virus Heads North (classic suspense from start to finish); Lunch at the Gotham Cafe (he got the idea seeing a couple argue at a cafe); and 1408 (offspring of The Shining?).

King explains along with each story how he got the idea and/or why he decided to end it the way he did. The bottom line: Everything's Eventual is a page-turner and one the BEST short story collections you will ever read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stunning!!! One of his best works.
Review: For the first time in many years, I found myself having to slow down my pace reading Everything's Eventual. I just didn't want to finish, it was so good! I would have to stop from continuing on to the next gem after finishing each story.
Night Shift is one of my favorite short story collections by any author, but in my mind Everything's Eventual surpasses the quality of Night Shift by leaps and bounds.
The chilling 1408 is my current favorite, but I'm sure it will change as I re-read the collection.
Absolutely incredible!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Master of the Short Story Strikes Again!
Review: I think it's fair to say Stephen King is known as a great novelist. What many people do not realize is that he is one of the great living masters of the short story. As fans of short fiction know, the skills needed for a great story are fundamentally different than those needed to develop a great novel. In these 14 stories, King manages in an average of 30 pages or less to create real people, whole worlds and in some cases horrific scenarios. The subject matter of the stories vary widely running the gambut from true gothic horror, to what King himself refers to as literary stories. A man wakes up to find himself paralyzed and lying on a slab with his autopsy about to begin! A reporter finds himself in the clutches of sadistic torturers in a South American banana republic. A high school dropout discovers he has the ability to kill through his thoughts. A secret corporation puts his powers to the use of good. Or do they? A young college student, hitchiking home to see his stricken mother, gets a ride he will never forget. A lunch meeting in a restaraunt turns into a bloodbath, literally. And many others as well. What all of these stories have in common is the feeling that the characters are real people. Earlier in his career, in other collections, King published short stories which tended to be shorter and more jolting, Twilghlight Zone-like with twist endings. Night Shift is the best collection of this type of work. These stories are longer and more involving. They will leave you with varying feelings from horror to sadness. They are a pleasure to read. I hope King continues to publish short fiction.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: King of the Short Story
Review: Stephen King is a master of the short story, there is no doubt about that (for those that don't know Shawshank Redemption was a King short story) and most of the stories in this collection are on par with some of his best. "LT'S Theory of Pets", is for the most part a pleasent story about pets and their owners until the surprising ending that just sort of creeps up on you. There are also the real chillers as always like "the deathroom" and a story about a picture that keeps changing (that I can't remember the name of at the moment) which is especially creepy.
After what I felt was the disappointment of Black House, this collection is very satisfying. If you are a King fan than you will read this anyway and for the most part love it- we are and always will be the "constant readers" - if you are not, what's wrong with you? become one.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Magic Is Gone
Review: Mr. King, what happened? Your latest collection of short stories is totally devoid of soul and reads like a collection of assignments for an MFA creative writing class at NYU!

I've been with you from the start, buddy. I cut my teeth on your work and liked you LOOOONG before it was considered to be "cool." I took a lot of flack in college for admiring your work, too. But it looks to me like your writing is now excluding all of your loyal old skool fans and is now embracing people who read the "New Yorker", have track lighting, and drink fine wines.

First of all, I don't know why this book is being billed as a collection of "new" stories. Several of the stories, including "Gotham Cafe" and "The Deathroom" were released in an audiobook form a few years ago called "Blood and Smoke". Frankly, these stories are the only ones that could be called successful in the collection. "The Deathroom" is pretty darn good, and "Gotham Cafe" is a winner. Yet, Mr. King, these stories are years old.

The other tales (the REAL "new" work), including the long-awaited new chapter to the DT series, are just ... well ... just plain BAD.

"Autopsy" is not scary at all, and the last line of the story is completely clumsy and unfunny. The old King would never write such sophomoric drivel.

"The Man in the Black Suit" is like Garrison Keillor on an overdose of Seroquel. The story relies on symbolism so heavy-handed I thought the book was going to slip out of my hands and smash a hole through my floor.

I can't address all the stories here, but I have to talk about how crushed I was by the horrible, horrible DT chapter. Gawd! Green zombies and vampire crone women, plus a hot (and completely one-dimensional) young vampire? Come ON! Maybe Mr. King could have pulled it off twenty years ago, but now ... people, it's a cryin' shame. I didn't even LIKE Roland in this story, and usually I want to marry him at the end of every book.

I saw here on Amazon that next fall Mr. King is releasing ANOTHER haunted car book. What, did Christine give birth to an SUV? That fact, plus this book, really makes me feel like I am losing a trusted friend. Mr. King ... come back to your old fans. Please?


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