Customer Reviews

Skeleton Crew: Selections

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Before I shifted in literary tastes from mostly science fiction and fantasy to Tom Clancy-style military thrillers, I was a regular reader of Stephen King's macabre masterpieces. I have about two-thirds of his literary output, and if books were not as expensive now I'd still be a regular reader of King's works.

One of my favorite books by Steve-o is Skeleton Crew, his second collection of short stories, including the novella "The Mist." And as in any collection of short fiction, some of the 22 stories stand head and shoulders above the rest.

The creepiest, by far, is "The Mist," which begins with, as in all good King works, with a seemingly normal event (a storm) and a routine occurrence (a trip to the supermarket) and slowly but surely morphs into a situation which becomes scarier as the story progresses. While not wanting to give anything away, I can tell you this much -- I'll never go to the Kash n' Karry and look at it quite the same way again, particularly in the spaghetti sauce section.

"Survivor Type" is King's take on Robinson Crusoe. Its protagonist is Richard Pine, a surgeon who, unfortunately, has also been involved in the narcotics "business." Now, after he is shipwrecked and marooned on a desert isle, Pine is forced to face his inner demons and, by the way, cope with the problem of what to eat in a place where there is no viable food source. Suffice it to say that in his desperation he will have to use his surgical training to solve this dicey problem.

While there are other stories that give me the willies, I am always drawn to "Word Processor of the Gods." I first read it before I ever owned -- or even used -- a personal computer, and its premise involving a word processor with supernatural powers, while silly on the surface, was very compelling to me as an aspiring writer. King asks: What if you simply typed a sentence like "I wish I were married to the loveliest, kindest person on earth," and by pressing ENTER, it came true? Maybe in the hands of a lesser writer the premise is silly, but King tells his story with a fine balance of spookiness and wit. The closing paragraph is a gem.

The beauty of an anthology like Skeleton Crew is that you can read as much or as little of it as you like, choosing whatever story strikes your fancy at any given moment. If you are a newcomer to King's storytelling and don't want to commit yourself to a major novel such as IT or The Stand, this is a fine place to start.

SKELETON CREW is mostly a collection of Stephen King short stories (there are a couple of poems). The collection was published around 1986. King had been a world-wide publishing phenomenon for just over a decade at that point. The stories are mostly hits, including a few bona fide classics, including "The Mist", "The Monkey", and "The Raft" with just a few lackluster tales. Most of the stories are works that were published previously in various print sources. The stories are prefixed with an introduction by King explaining why he still writes short stories. The works in the book are as follows.

"The Mist"--recently published as a stand alone novella and adapted by Frank Darabont into a motion picture. "The Mist" is probably the strongest story in the collection and one of the better known and well-liked stories from SKELETON CREW. "The Mist" tells the story of a group of people that find themselves stranded at a local shopping center when a mysterious mist covers the town and surroundings and brings with it creatures from a prehistoric age. If you've seen Darabont's film, you really should read the story. The story has an ambiguous ending, but literally ends in "hope".

"Here There Be Tygers"--a little boy has to go to the bathroom but is scared because he believes that there is a tiger inside the stalls. Not everything is in one's imagination and children don't cry wolf as often as many adults think they do.

"The Monkey"--this is probably the best known tale from SKELETON CREW, after "The Mist". "The Monkey" is a story about a man who believes that a mechanical, cymbal-crashing monkey is cursed. He believes that every time the monkey crashes its symbols someone close to the man dies. The man tried to get rid of the monkey before, but it keeps coming back.

"Cain Rose Up"--this story reminded me quite a bit like King's novel RAGE and the novella APT PUPIL. A young, seemingly together college student goes on a shooting spree after taking his finals.

"Mrs. Todd's Shortcut"--a homespun yarn told by an elderly man about the wife of one of the "summer people" who used to go driving and was able to find all kinds of shortcuts through Maine, the United States, and even beyond. King is known for writing scary and horror stories, but he really shines as a writer in stories like this.

"The Jaunt"--a sci-fi story about the dangers of traveling through time in order to travel through space.

"The Wedding Gig"--a Prohibition-era story about a group of musicians who go to play at the wedding of the sister of a local gang boss. The festivities turn violent, but the narrator witnesses the turning point in the life of a female gang boss.

"Paranoid: A Chant"--a poem about paranoia.

"The Raft"--four college students, two males and two females, set out for a swim and a little excitement out on a raft in a private pond on the last warm day of autumn. They think they are alone, but there is something in the water that is hungry and just won't let them leave. This story was adapted into a film short as part of CREEPSHOW 2.

"Word Processor of the Gods"--a young man is married to a woman he that no longer loves him and has a good-for-nothing son. He's brother married the girl of his dreams and his nephew was like the son he never had. But they were killed in a car accident. His nephew made a special gift for his uncle and it's delivered to his writing studio not long after they die. The gift is a word processor of enormous power that changes his life forever.

"The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands"--a club of elderly gentleman gather together to tell stories (the group also appears in "The Breathing Method" in DIFFERENT SEASONS). George Gregson tells a story about a murder he witnessed caused by a man who would not shake hands.

"Beachworld"--a sci-fi story about a group of future astronauts from a different world crashing into the desert of an unknown world. All the have to do is wait for rescue, but they aren't alone because the desert sands are alive.

"The Reaper's Image"--there is a mirror that seems to be normal. However, it is incredibly valuable because there is only one other like it known to exist in the world. It is said that the mirror is cursed because if you look into the mirror and see the Reaper, you disappear forever.

"Nona"--a young man meets a dark and mysterious young woman and begins a night of intense violence that ends in the shed of a graveyard.

"For Owen"--a poem

"Survivor Type"--a story about a man shipwrecked on an island who eats himself to death.

"Uncle Otto's Truck"--an ancient broken-down antique truck left in the fields to rust causes a man to die and another to go insane.

"Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)"--the milkman delivers milk, but he also delivers death.

"Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2)"--this story connects with "Morning Deliveries" and illustrates what happens to one of the people the milkman delivers to.

"Gramma"--young George is left alone with his gramma when his mother has to leave when George's brother breaks his arm. George doesn't like gramma. She's been dying for several years, but people say there isn't something right about gramma. People are scared of her because she's a witch.

"The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet"--an aging editor tells the story of the greatest story he never got to publish and how it caused him to go insane.

"The Reach"--a ghost story about an old woman who lives on an island who has never been to the mainland.

The stories are followed by a series of notes where King expounds upon some of the stories in the book. Out of all the stories in the book, the ones I liked best are "The Mist", "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut", "The Raft", "Word Processor of the Gods", "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands", and "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet".

Overall, a great short story collection full of tales from a variety of genres. A must read for fans of Stephen King. Also recommended for anyone who likes reading short stories (and who doesn't mind a few minor frights).

Stephen King makes a wonderful effort in this, his second collection of short stories. All of the stories in this novel had been published in various magazines before they were collected together in this marvellous adventure into the unknown depths of King's imagination.

The first story to appear in the book, "The Mist", definetly is the cherry on the top. Where else could you see a supermarket being the site for one of the last battles for humankind?

The Jaunt is another amazing story, with parallels to "The Fly". The Jaunt invovles transportation technology, and the length of time a human mind experiences having to pass through it while being conscious.

The Raft and The Reach are also most noteworthy creations from King's mind. The Raft was actually a re-written version of a story King had written earlier called The Float, but the idea was similar. King's The Reach show's that he can write all kinds of genres, not just the horror.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Stephen King, and anyone who wants to be. An excellent place to start if you are new to the world of Stpehen King, or a great book if you have read King before, and are looking for more.

I picked this novel up and decided to save it, Stephen King I have found is like a candy, something that should be stored and savoured.

The first story in this collection "The Mist" is in my opinion the best. It is classic King - slow in its rise before the true nature of a terror is known, terrifying and possibly (though not as plausible as The Stand) real. Other stories are quite good, such as "The Word Processor of the Gods" (immediately comes to mind).

Overall however, I must say this is not my favourite piece of his work. Of his other short story/novella collections, I enjoyed Four Seasons, Night Shift and Four Past Midnight more. Many of these stories are either less polished, less frightening or worst of all less interesting than I have come to expect of Stephen King.

Nevertheless this is Stephen King. Although this might be my least favourite piece of his, it is his still his, he is a master storyteller. These just happen to be some of his lesser stories.

Most book critics are less than enthusiastic over Stephen King's short story collections; but if you're a fan, you probably don't much care. If you haven't read any of King's books, then this collection is the perfect medium for an introduction not only to the Master of Horror, but also to fiction writing at its finest. Whether you're looking for entertainment, or for a crash-course in superior writing technique, Skeleton Crew is well worth a look. The stories range from the eerie to the unsettling to the downright terrifying. What makes them so effective is their believability; the mundane "family-next-door" quality that so many of King's characters possess. These are not the brilliant lawyers, hard-boiled private eyes or blushing debutantes that form the character base of so much of today's popular fiction. King's characters are regular folks conducting their day-to-day lives in the same way we all do, and it is this quality which reaches into your imagination and takes hold of your personal fears with a grip hard to shake loose. "The Mist" is the signature piece of this collection. More of a novella, it is so poignantly authentic in its creation that you cannot help seeing your own family, summer cottage and small town as the cast and character of the tale. The pace of the story is akin to the snowball rolling downhill; slow and benign at first, speeding up to a pitch that is maniacal and devastating, testing the limits of your sanity. Whether you're looking for your next Stephen King fix, or just a shot of pure adrenaline riding the crest of crisp prose, this book is for you!

Hard to believe that sometimes when the author's name is three times the size of the book title, but Stephen King short-story collections do make for fine reads. The tales are generally more unsettling than his longer works, cutting to the bone quickly and leaving you wondering for hours later what the outcomes might mean, if indeed the story provides one at all.

On the whole, Skeleton Crew is a gathering of just such yarns. The first one, The Mist, more approaches the length of the novellas in The Bachman Books than a short story. But you won't be looking at your wristwatch with this one, as it alone is practically worth the price of admittance...a spooky and electrifying story of a group of people trapped in a supermarket facing off against an oppressive fog swirling around it...and the vapourous but deadly inhabitants that dwell within. My other favorite of the collection is The Jaunt, a SF narrative who's science King himself describes as "wonky". But this doesn't detract in the least from the ominous undertones of this description of the invention of teleportation...and the terrible psychological price it can exact on the traveller.

I have more faves, and there's nothing I'd like better than to describe each one in loving detail. I'll spare you THAT frightening ordeal, but suffice it to say that out of the 22 stories gathered here, The Monkey, Cain Rose Up, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, Beachworld, Survivor Type, Gramma, and The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet are the exceptional standouts. And there is also another visit to that gentlemen's club all King fans know and love, 249B East 35th, where the members reveal their own brushes with the supernatural to the flickering colours in the fireplace. Plus we get a fun introduction by King on the reasons for his shorter fiction forays, as well as facinating endnotes on many of the individual tales themselves.

Of course they can't all be gems, and there are a couple...not clunkers really, but ones that fail to live up to the power of the others. And quite a few of the stories deal with inanimate objects come to evil life, a favorite topic with King and one that wears thin in spots here. The other relentlessly creepy trips through the madhouse make it all worthwhile, however. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to shove baloney in through my CD-ROM drive, as the elves are getting restless. Fornit Some Fornus.

Skeleton Crew is Stephen King's second collection of short stories, a follow-up to the also-excellent Night Shift). It contains many haunting, gripping tales, although those who are familiar with King's short story style will know that while some of his stories are amazing, some will leave you wondering "huh?" For King fans, however, this book is a must-read.

As in King's other collections, the best stories here are the longer, almost novella-type works. Tales such as "The Mist" and "The Jaunt" combine the horror and sci-fi traditions to perfection. Other excellent eerie stories are more in the psychological suspense genre, including "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" and "Survivor Type." Finally, this collection includes some true horror tales which will bring a chill to your spine, particularly "The Raft" and "The Monkey."

Although some of these stories come off a bit dated for today (e.g., "Word Processor of the Gods"), this is still a classic collection which should not be missed. Highly recommended for King fans and others with a taste for the macabre.

To be perfectly honest, I've never been a huge fan of King's novels, but his short stories are truly incredible. This was the first King collection I read, and it's still the best.
Let's start with the best story here, and quite possibly the best short story ever: "The Mist". Brilliant. Worth the price of the book itself. A great story about a curtain of fog that sweeps over a small town in Maine, trapping a very diverse group of people in a local supermarket while the mist--which, by the way, contains some very big and nasty otherworldly monsters--slowly tries to get in. Human nature fills in the rest as tension mounts. At over 150 pages this could have been a novella, nevertheless it stands as one of King's best works in my opinion. No explenation for the mist or the horrors it conceals is ever given (though it's hinted it may be connected to a government project called "Arrowhead" that was being conducted in the nearby wilderness), and this lovecraftian story ends absolutely perfectly.
My second favorite story in this collection was "The Raft". Everything about the story--which follows four teen trapped on a raft by a giant jellyfish with the concentration of battery acid in the middle of nowhere--is deceptively simple, but it's raw, nasty, scary, and features an ending that will haunt you long after you've finished the book. The creature itself can also be read as a metaphore for what drugs can do to you (swirling colors, hypnotyzing it's prey, eventually moving in for the kill, etc...remember it was first written during the big drug boom) that's still effective even today.
"The Jaunt" is a sci-fi story about teleportation, and even though the science is sketchy at best (King himself has pointed this out), it remains a haunting and intelligent cautionary tale.
"Survivor Type"...oh my God, pardon my language but this story is f*cked up, big time. Just read it and you'll agree.
Another sci-fi entry, this one fun and a tad creepy, is "Beachworld", which follows two space travelers stranded on a barren desert planet that really, really doesn't want them to leave. This is a quirky and enjoyable story, that actually gets quite exciting near it's conclusion.
There were of course a couple vestigial entires in the book, like "Here there be Tygers" or another one about a femme fatal that sends a man on a senseless killing spree (name escapes me), but this is a must own if you love King or horror in general.
Great stuff.

...

In his second and comparatively subdued anthology of short stories, King's distinctive prose comes off as more haunting than all-out horrifying; a deliberately paced walk through a haunted mansion rather than an amusement-park simulation thereof. The stories are no more or less effective for the wear, but <i>Skeleton Crew</i> doesn't so much grab you by the lapels and order you to be frightened as shrewdly offer you the option to be...and, should you accept it, you are methodically jangled from gut to psyche, and left to reverberate once the last word glides across the page. This is something an evolutionary jump for the Stephen King anthologies, somehow darker and far more intimate than its predecessor. Self-image, paranoia, and survival are recurring themes (The open-ended question "Do you love?" is sprinkled throughout the book like an ancient yet timeless chant of infinite power and potential)...whereas <i>Night Shift</i> focused primarily on society's external structure and surreality overlapping the real world. In these writings, you'll find only what you choose to take with you.

THE BALLAD OF THE FLEXIBLE BULLET: A poignant and complex tale with massage both universal and deeply personal.

BEACHWORLD: Science fiction as interpreted by King; somewhat superficial in contrast to other stories, but can easily get under your skin. The futuristic pidgin lingo is a tough go, but I gotta admire the man for having the patience and skill to create a universal dialect in the first place.

BIG WHEELS: A TALE OF THE LAUNDRY GAME (MILKMAN #2): Something of a day-in-the-life that abruptly crescendos into a revenge drama. Not the best this collection has to offer, but solid entertainment.

CAIN ROSE UP: An unnerving tale of cynicism, disenchantment and impulse, eerily foreshadowing the acts of school violence prevalent from the late twentieth century to now.

FOR OWEN: A breezy and touching poem dedicated to his youngest son, showcasing King's elusive sentimental side.

GRAMMA: A harrowing tale focusing on youth and the unknown, raw and evocative.

HERE THERE BE TYGERS: A strange, juvenile but effective mini-study on the parallels between a child's everyday concerns versus the perils that could potentially befall us out of the clear blue nowhere.

THE JAUNT: Another slice of sci-fi a la King, every bit as twisted as Beachworld, but far more purposeful/cautionary overall. Tinges of Cronenberg's <i>The Fly</i>. This one scared the [daylights] out of me--I thought about it for literal DAYS afterward.

THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT SHAKE HANDS: A brief meditation on paranoia; it seems alost satirical to me.

THE MIST: An apocalyptic novella that takes the classic final-showdown-of-mankind scenario and transports it into a most unusual locale. Hints of <i>Jurassic Park, Dawn of the Dead</i> and John Carpenter's <i>The Fog</i>.

THE MONKEY: A classic horror story, and as close to vintage King as you'll find in this anthology. The angel of death manifests itself in the form of a mechanical monkey-doll.

MORNING DELIVERIES (MILKMAN #1): A conceptually interesting kind of horror farce, more a hypothetical situation than a telling of actual events...as with Ellis' <i>American Psycho</i>, the reader is almost led to believe the scenario exists only within the wishful thoughts of the main character. Flawed, but readable.

MRS. TODD'S SHORTCUT: A woman's desire to save time and resistance to change leads her life into a series of strange events. Deep.

NONA: Almost a love story, it seamlessly fuses the mythic images of the anima and the succubus...a theme that's been touched upon in modern literature, but not fully or effectively explored until now.

PARANOID--A CHANT: Another poem, this one brimming with kinetic imagery and dark satiric humor. A personal favorite.

THE RAFT: Another straightforward horror story featuring what could best be described as the Blob's bastard cousin, with strong subtexts of post-adolescent angst, envy and sexual (im)morality.

THE REAPER'S IMAGE: Haunting and original, yet strangely anticlimactic. Not my favorite.

SURVIVOR TYPE: A survival tale with a shocking--and sickening--twist. By no means superficial, though.

UNCLE OTTO'S TRUCK: A wealthy elderly eccentric is driven literally crazy and to poverty by his Cresswell truck. An odd premise with a webwoven theme of irony and gossip.

THE WEDDING GIG: A sad tale set in the Prohibition era, representing a refreshing change of venue in King's world. A provocative look at, of all things, family ties and prejudice.

WORD PROCESSOR OF THE GODS: An interesting take on the nagging what-ifs of life and the hypotheticals of reversing personal regrets...both disturbing, yet not without a strange sweetness.

I could write a detailed review of each story, but those reviews tend to get rejected due to length. Thing about this book, Stephen King's "Skeleton Crew," the short stories can all be pretty much divided into four categories. I'll comment on those that warrant commenting.

GREAT
+ The Raft: All out horror without being gratuitous
+ Word Processor of the Gods: One of the most innovative ideas I've read--it's outdated, yes, but the sense of bitter loneliness the main character has rings very true
+ Nona: Beautifully frightening
+ Survivor Type: Gross... but captivating
+ Gramma
+ The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet: Hilarious, sad, and scary glimpse at how little it takes to set a man on the path towards insanity

GOOD
+ The Mist
+ Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
+ The Jaunt: King handles the flashbacks with the 'real time' narrative masterfully
+ The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands: King has an excellent handle on the tension of this story, forcing the reader to turn the page to find out what happens next

OKAY
+ Here There Be Tygers: Weird little story. Not really that entertaining, though nothing--other than the sheer absurdity--sticks out as being bad
+ The Money: Interesting horror, though it drags on way too long
+ The Wedding Gig
+ Reaper's Image: Very slow build-up to a so-so twist ending
+ For Owen
+ Morning Deliveries: Milkman #1
+ Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2): Both Milkman tales are taken from a novel that King never completed, and it's pretty obvious. These read like chapters taken out of context. They almost work as standalones... but almost isn't enough
+ The Reach: The final 1/4th of this story puts the rambling beginning and middle to shame. It's sad that the entire story doesn't have the greatness of the last few pages, as this had the potential to be a great and poignant tale of accepting death.

BAD
+ Cain Rose Up: Meaningless violence. A plotless exercise in having a character--whose psychology isn't delved into--kill his dorm mates. This is like the Hostel of short stories. Never before this has King's work disgusted me, but he really crossed the line with this one.
+ Paranoid- A Chant
+ Beachworld: A failed attempt at a sci-fi/horror tale that tries to make a monster out of sand. If anyone could have done that, it's King. Oddly, this one falls flat.
+ Uncle Otto's Truck: An editor would have cut 3/4ths of this story out. That might have made it better.

It's worth a read for the good stuff, and you should probably give the okay and bad stuff a shot too, because it's Stephen King. He truly is one of the best writers, both now and back when this collection was first published. He's also one of the most helpful and interesting writers, shown by the really cool "Notes" section he provides at the end, for those interested in more insight into some of the stories.

6/10