Customer Reviews

The Sun Dog: Four Past Midnight

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I never thought I'd pick up a Stephen King book. The macabre is not an area which interests me; paper cuts produce enough blood to give me nightmares, thank you. However, after watching "Langoliers" on television one evening, I decided I would take a peek at the source material just to see how it compared.

I was honestly amazed. King may be hailed as the Master of the Macabre, but this man is first and foremost a *good writer*--all four of his novellas in this volume drew me in and gave me no choice but to keep turning pages to find out what happened next. It was a pleasant surprise to find so much wit and humor buried amidst the horror, and I can't help but be in awe of a man who can make you laugh out loud in a library one moment and make you hold the book out at arm's length with a mutter of, "Ew," the next.

Like so many others, I would call "Langoliers" my favorite--clever, engaging, and well-paced, it has a delightful coterie of characters and a Twilight Zone-esque plotline. Next would be a toss-up between "Secret Window, Secret Garden" and "Library Policeman." I'm not certain why so many people dislike SWSG; Mort Rainey was perhaps the most strongly drawn character of the lot. And while LP is certainly excellent, it had too much gore for sheer gore's sake to win an unchallenged second favorite slot. (Some say that LP is nothing but perversion. I would disagree. Its scenario is revolting, yes; disconcerting, yes... and entirely too plausible in real life.)

"Sun Dog" is probably the story that cost the book a star in my rating, for while chilling in its way and well-written by all accounts, it seemed the most shallow and downright absurd in retrospect. (Yes, I take the licorice from "Library Policeman" into account when I say that. At least the licorice had symbolism going for it.)

At any rate, I'd suggest that any fan of psychological horror give this book a go. I haven't been converted into a solid Stephen King fan myself, but I have a new respect for him and his talents after reading _Four Past Midnight_.

I liked all the stories, some more than others.

The Langoliers - This was definitely my favorite story out of them all. It was interesting and different from the other things that I've read. Sometimes the characters got a little boring though. I think the ending seemed a bit rushed so it was a let down from the rest of the story. You should read this if you're on the plane or if you're planning to fly soon... it'd make you think again.

Secret Window, Secret Garden - At first I found this story quite boring and simple, but then it turned out to be much more. My favorite part of this story was the ending because it was just completely unexpected. It was a nice twist.

The Library Policeman - I think that this story just progressed too slowly. Many parts seemed to drag on forever.

The Sun Dog - Like "The Library Policeman", this story progressed too slowly. Some parts of it were interesting, but there were a lot of parts that I just wanted to skip! The ending was a disappointment as well

What I like about all the stories is the detail that Stephen King often includes. While reading certain parts, you can see the whole scene happening in front of you in slow motion because of the detail.

The shorter Stephen King keeps his stories, the better they often are. "Four Past Midnight" is very effective because he doesn't have room for unnecessary flourishes and simply sticks to the story. The first of the four stories, "The Langoliers," is one of his most imaginative and all time best. The other three stories are also quite good. Frankly, King would be an even better writer if he told all of his stories with the economy of words that he gives the tales in "Four Past Midnight."

Truth be told, I am not a great Stephen King fan. The first book I ever read from him was Desperation and, unfortunately, I did not like it. By nature, I am more into the Michael Crichton type of authors.

Nonetheless, about two or so years after reading Desperation, I was searching around for a book to read and came upon this by Stephen King, so I asked myself why not? I was pleasantly surprised by how well written and exciting the stories contained with this book are.

Let me break it down story by story.

1) The Langoliers - A fine story by any measure. I started reading this sometime in the afternoon and I simply couldn't put it down until I finished late in the evening

Not only is the premise of the story incredibly interesting, but the execution was well appreciated. The pace of the story and the character development (save for a few characters) left little to feel disappointed about, but the plot was especially deserving of praise.

Normally, it is advise that one saves the best for last but the Langoliers is hardly a small feat of story telling. Great story no matter how you look at it!


2) Secret Window, Secret Garden (SWSG) - Also a finely written story. Has a finely woven plot and I consider a great second read about finishing the Langoliers.

But as they say, even the best stories has its fair share of flaws. SGSW's most obvious flaws, at least for this reader, lies in the pacing of the given clues and the ending.

By the pacing of the clues, what I mean is how King spread out the clues to the final answer. SWSG contains an a very enjoyable mystery to solve and like any good mystery stories, the clues were given out accordingly. However, one of the most important clues in the entire story was not given (only slightly hinted at) until extremely late in the story. I felt this was a poor judgment

The other flaw was the ending. The ending, as some may say, was extremely obvious. I had correctly guessed it ¼ of the way through the story (lets just say it hit me as the answer). Nonetheless, King obviously didn't want readers to guess the answer too easily so he left a twist.

The twist, I felt, was another poor judgment. The twist, while not at all unpleasant, had a compromising effect on the rest of the story, I felt. The plot would have been a lot stronger and much more effective without it.


3) The Sun Dog - Let me tell you, the first time I read this story, I was terrified. It was an incredibly scary story.

Unfortunately, the same may not be said for everyone. The reason why it scared me so much was probably because it hit so close to home. I also recently purchased a camera and it is roughly the modern equivalent of what Kevin had. It almost even cost the same.

Despite this, however, I found that the story became increasingly silly near the end. Too illogical, so to say. Perhaps this was the story's greatest fault and, unfortunately, it made the story so much less appreciable than the previous two.

It may just be my opinion, but the ending words of the story was more comical than horror.


4) The Library Policeman - Sad to say, but I did not like this story at all.

To start off, I had thought the premise was interesting enough. Turning a library into a place of fear? Why not?

However, as I had suspected he would, King failed in succeeding in that task. It's not that making that library appear scary is difficult as I've seen some extraordinary storytellers done much more amazing things, but I suspected King would failed from his introduction.

From his intro, I had suspected King would attempt to make readers fear the librarian. As a person who have read many stories from many other authors who attempted to do the same, I can tell you that, for some reason or another, most can't seem to succeed in this task. Perhaps it's just me personally as I've been a fan of libraries and librarians for a long time, so perhaps I find it exceedingly difficult to imagine them in a frightening light, but nonetheless, I did not find it scary at all.

This one aspect ruined much of the story for me. Aside from that, however, I also find the protagonists very difficult to connect to. In the other stories, I was able to connect with many of the characters on some level if not a deep level, but in this story, I was not able to connect with anyone at all. Somehow, I see characters like Naomi and Sam to be more caricatures than actual humans. At so many points in this story, it became difficult for me to imagine them as real people and I was unable to immerse myself in the story like I did with the previous ones.

Finally, the last big complaint I have about the story is that I believe King placed too much trust in the shock value of one aspect of the story. Unfortunately, moreso for me, the subject matter is one in which I find little shock value in. King was obviously hoping this one aspect would make the readers uncomfortable and perhaps raise the terror value a notch or so, but I merely raised an eyebrow. I was surprise at the audacity alright, but shocked? Not so much.

It's a shame about this story as I had high hopes for it after reading the previous ones.


Anyway, concluding my review, I recommend this book to any readers looking for some stories to pass the time. I may not have liked one of the stories but the others were simply delightful!

The first two stories in this collection were excellent, but the final two were just plain awful. "The Langoliers" was the most viscerally exciting story I've read in years, and "Secret Window, Secret Garden" featured some astonishing characterizations I didn't believe Stephen King could muster, but, after these two bonafide gems, it all goes downhill. "The Library Policeman" started off intriguingly enough, and "The Sun Dog" featured the fascinating Pop Merrill, but in my humble opinion, the disgusting rape scene in "The Library Policeman" would have been deemed child pornography if it'd been published elsewhere (like in, say, a men's magazine), and "The Sun Dog" displays King at his most narratively inept and incompetent. Both of these pathetic stories climax with eye-rollingly laughable showdowns, one involving licorice and the other a pair of Polaroid cameras duking it out, so to speak. For crying out loud, when is Stephen King going to realize that Coke machines and Polaroid cameras are NOT terrifying?

That about sums up the novel Four Past Midnight by Stephen King. The book contains four novellas, The Langoliers, Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Library Policemen, and The Sun Dog. The first two stores in the novel are the good. The Langoliers is a scary imaginative story that could only come from the mind of Stephen King. The plot is unique as is the theme of the story. Very well written. Secret Window, Secret Garden is a familar story from King. Boy he just loves to reak havoc on those author characters of his doesn't he? I have not read The Dark Half, so I can not comment on how similar the two stories are, but Mort Rainey is a great character and King tells this story well. The final two stories in the novel really ruin the book. The Library Policemen is dumb and really luaghable when you get right down to it. The Sun Dog is done so much better in Cujo that we don't much care for it here, and are bored becuase of how long the story needs to take off. So an overall mix of good and bad here, with a final rating falling somewhere in between there.

"Chilling" is the best description for this trip into the imagination of Stephen King and his characters. You hate 'em, you love 'em and you feel the beads of sweat on their foreheads.... This was a grimy read, and I was amazed at my discomfort and growing anxiety as the plot developed and then exploded... What a trip!!! Highly recommend it.

Hello Dear Readers,

I'm just finishing a King novel. I devote myself to just reading one a year. That all my constitution can take. It's not that the writings is bad, but my sanity limits me from reading more.

King again frightens me with "Four Past Midnight."

Beginning with "The Langoliers," which I had the misfortune to read while travelling cross-country by air, the terror fest mounts. "The Langoliers," which had been made into a fair TV mini-series starring Michael Morse, delves into suppositions concerning rips in time and how it affects unprepared travelers. King's characters rely on their wits and luck to set things right. "The Library Policeman" shows King's power to seek out fright with any subject at any place. How could anywhere as innoculous as the library elict fear? Read and find out. Something truly sinister is involved here. Saturated with horror, "The Library Policeman" also dives deeply in some human foibles too! "Secret Window, Secret Garden," delves into the darker interior of man. King displays his understanding the human psyche into this story. Finally, "The Sun Dog" hit us head on in this tale from King's fictional town Castle Rock. The supernatural is studied as a boy's birthday camera take very unnatural pictures indeed. "The Sun Dog" prefaces King's novel "Needful Things."

I enjoy all four short stories and found each were separately scary each in their own way. It would depend on your own threshold and tolerances to determine which frighten you the most. I guarantee each will hold you from the first to last page though. My favorite was "The Library Policeman." I didn't expect that to be so. I almost expected it to be funny! However, it was anything but as the story progressed. I liked "The Langoliers" also because I'm a fan of Science Fiction and King infused some sifi whimsy into it. I think King probably was a fan when he was younger. There aren't any monsters present except that which you invent in your own imagination. The other two stories were in fine style, but didn't bring out as much interest to me.

I hope my review helped a little with your purchase. solo.

If you're a Stephen King fan, this is a must read. Its four novellas that take you on very different rides, all ending at the same junction: death and an acceptance of that not all things can be explained.

My favorite is the Langoliers. I've read this book a long time ago and have still remembered each story. I am now hunting through my bookshelves to find it so I can reread!

If this is your genre, then you should get it.

This book contains four short stories however the one I am going to review is the thiller of air travel, The Langoliers.

This is a real Stephen King dusey involving an airliner's accidental flight through a rip in the space and time continuem and arriving at it's destination with half it's passengers missing including the crew save for an off duty pilot, who like the other survivors -and lucky for them - had the common sense to be asleep at the time.

At the airport there is no one to meet them and they soon discover the horror of the situatuion they are in. All the while a crunching sound is resonating through the stale air they are breathing...The Langoliers, the evil cousins of Pac Man are eating the used up time and space and are closing in on them. All the while psycotic passenger is casing them grief. There is always one.

The Aeroplane and it's passengers make a hair raising escape and attempt to return to normal time, but there is a catch, they must find the rip in space and to pass through they must all be asleep...How will they do it? Someone will have to make the ultimate sacrifice. The ending has a little humor in it, a passenger who had to much to drink at the airport lounge before boarding finally wakes up none the wiser as the intrepid voyagers arrive at their intended destination, albeit a little early for time, safe and well.

This story was made into a B Grade TV movie in 1995 with surprisingly good results although given the budget of a blockbuster, would've been a real thriller.