Skeleton Crew: Stories

Reading Skeleton Crew slowly for over a year now, using it as a bridge between various other novels and such to help with my SK addiction, I can say Skeleton Crew serves as possibly the best sampling of Stephen King considering the diversity and length it gives, all for under $10. The collection features a full novel, nineteen short stories, and even a couple poems to mix things up. One can see that this really does include so much of the best from SK when so many of these stories later ended up being adapted into TV show episodes or even movies.

Some notables include...

The headlining feature of Skeleton Crew is certainly The Mist, which stands as one of his fan favorites, and even though it's shorter then most of his novels, he's able to still deliver on a great balance between tension, action, and character-development better than most of his 700+page novels. This story alone almost makes it worth the price, yet it only takes up a quarter of the collection.

As many other reviewers note, Cain Rose Up sticks out awkwardly as a too simple and too violent story of a school shooting. It feels like it should actually be the end of a much more complex and interesting story (like Rage).

The Jaunt is probably my favorite out of the whole collection for it's delivery on a interesting idea, and the resulting payoff at the end, it's also cool to read one from SK that delves into some fun sci-fi aspects. This whole story can be read online for free, so if nothing else, at least do that.

The premise for Word Processor of the Gods is awesome enough, a homemade computer that is able to create anything into existence that is typed into it. However, I feel that this could've been made into something much bigger and better then it is, yet still stands as a good read.

Nona felt the most like a SK story with a near excessive amount of characters that all felt like they should be part of a bigger story (which is why most of them later show up in other stories set in the same town). It still serves as a good read, especially if recently reading Body or Hearts in Atlantis.

The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet takes some time to build up speed into a great disturbing yet subtlety comedic story. It's one of the longer and last stories in the collection and along with The Reach it's a great note to end on.

Overall, I would recommend this collection for any SK fan, as it features many of his most popular and memorable works (especially in terms of works that are not full novels) might even be the best place for a newcomer of Stephen King to start.

Look, Kings' early to mid work is amazing. Nobody, and I mean nobody, could convey horror and evil from the pages of a book directly into the souls of readers. This is exactly why I read his older works such as Skeleton Crew over and over again. The stories are original, often shocking and written with an expertise that makes them so damned entertaining. Somewhere along the way King lost it (or as some have suggested passed the torch to someone else) and became an example of why some artists should quit while they're still ahead. Does he have any idea how bad his more recent writing is? Do his younger new readers? I don't know. Still I am ever thankful to rediscover books like Skeleton Crew, Night Shift, Different Seasons and his other masterpieces like The Stand, etc. King has proven that his brilliance was not limited to the horror genre with Delores Claiborne and The Shawshank Redemption which I believe was published as a novella. What is most irking is that not only has he lost such an amazing talent but has lost it to such an extent that one has to question if this is even the same person who brought us all those fantastic stories from his earlier writing days. Some say it was his becoming sober and getting clean from drugs that caused such a plummet in his creativity. Who knows? Still for his own sake I wish King would just stop and maybe take up something else like calligraphy or coin collecting. Too harsh? I don't think so. His long time faithful readers deserve better.

Skeleton Crew is one of several books that collect Stephen King short stories. The first and longest is The Mist, a novella that starts with a sudden and dangerous storm and continues with a far more dangerous fog and what is hidden inside of it. I won't give away any more plot details but King did a masterful job of balancing the menace from outside forces with conflict among the human survivors. The Mist is the true standout in this collection and it's worth the price of the book just to get it.

The second longest story is The Monkey, and it also happened to be my second favorite in the book. A man is terrorized by a cymbal-clapping windup monkey that he believes has been responsible for a number of deaths since he was a young boy. This is his struggle to be rid of the thing to save himself and his family. It's a simple story, but a creepy one and a good example of what a short story should be.

Over 20 stories are presented here of varying quality. Most of them run between 20 to 30 pages so even if you don't fall in love with some of them, it's not like you've invested too much time. I found nearly all of them to be reasonably entertaining and several to be well above average. The book is well worth buying and I would recommend it to all Stephen King fans willing to read him in small doses.

Steven King is such a good writer. I really enjoyed most of the stories in this collection. In reading these stories, it occurred to me that King really excels at character, concept and writing voice. He creates characters we care about, he always has an interesting, novel hook, and he strikes just the right balance of writing interesting descriptions without writing purple prose. These three elements combine to create stories that begin wonderfully, draw the reader in and set up big expectations for the end. Unfortunately, this is usually where King's stories fall short. Because the stories aren't planned out with a structure, the endings are hit-or-miss. Some in this collection, like The Jaunt, The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands and Survivor Type, had great endings. Others, like The Raft, Uncle Otto's Truck, and The Milkman Stories just peter out without a strong conclusion or theme. Nonetheless, all these stories are worth reading for their imaginative concepts and characters as well as their wonderful examples of strong writing.

First of all let me say Stephen King is my favorite author except Catcher in the Rye which is galaxies above any other read. But most books I read are like marching in heavy hiking boots through mud. Always looking how far from the end. If I'm reading a few books like this it's obviously drudgery even though when I think back on the content and information I'll give it praise and have learned something. But after a few books like this the drudgery is just too much and I want to read something that I'm not looking at page numbers and get lost in the read getting away from the drudgery of real life. That's when I pick up a King book. When I read his books for the most part, I forget about everything and everybody and am only into the read and when it's over my spirit is picked up and the drudgery for awhile is easier to deal with. Like many of you, I'm a huge fan of his short stories and they have always been a better read than his books for the most part. (It and The Shining excluded) Skeleton Crew was written in 1985. That's a long time ago and the hype and awards and ratings were A+++++++++++++ and I wondered why I never read it before. I heard of it but never picked it up. So now I'm retired and have time to read and because of the aforementioned hype I bought a copy. My expectations were very high because I loved Night Shift. For the first 550 pages I would give it a good read. Not anywhere close to Night Shift but not disappointing and enjoyable. Until almost the end of the book. The Ballad of the Stray Bullitt. This short story was 60 pages. Longer than most of his other stories. To be frank, it's horrible. Just a ramble of the worst alcoholic at a BBQ rambling about 40 characters who are all over the place and going nowhere. I totally feel King was as inebriated as the lead character/story teller when he wrote this. When King sobered up with the worst hangover in the world and reread this crap, I don't understand why he didn't round file it immediately. The book would have been even more famous. I fail to understand why anyone would disagree with my opinion on this and would love for somebody to explain this jabberwocky to me. I just started the last story of the book and am jaded and fear it will be completely underwhelming. I bought one more King short story anthology. Let it Bleed but I'm so jaded I will shelve King for awhile if not forever because that one story has made me rethink his skills. Basically he publishes way too much which is obvious but if you keep making the big bucks, the true craft of writing takes a back seat. You can read this book if you want but read Night Shift if you want the absolute best of King.