Skeleton Crew
by Stephen King
List Price:
Our Price: $4.47
You Save: $3.52 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen KingEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1986-06-03
ISBN: 0451168615
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of Skeleton Crew
Book Review: A Great Collection
Summary: 5 Stars
This is quite a huge book - at almost 800 pages - but it's definitely worth your time.
"The Mist" is the size of a novella (almost a novel by itself) and if you can get yourself into that B-movie mode, you should enjoy it. As King makes clear in his notes (at the end of this book), this story should be read the way one watches a classic horror flick. Not aware of that, but aware that Stephen King enjoys B-movie-like stories, I found the characters to be very stockish, the plot pretty good for a short story (but kind of a let down for a story of this size; by the end, you expect more closure than what you get), and the overall feeling was precisely that of a short story gone swollen. I didn't dislike it, but it's by far not my favourite of the lot.
"The Monkey" is yet another story in which an inanimate object seems to come to life - Stephen King is obsessed with those - and so far, I haven't read a story based on this concept that worked well for me.
I'm not going to review all of them, by the way, just a couple. Let's continue.
"The Jaunt" is pretty splendid. If you play videogames, it'll remind you of Portal. This story is a mix of sci-fi and horror, thoughly mostly sci-fi, and it was a good read. Recommended.
"The Raft" is about a group of young people who get chased by some eerie entity as they find themselves trapped on a raft. Another good one.
"Beachworld" is another sci-fi piece. It takes place in the distant future, on a planet seemingly made of nothing but sand, where two spacemen got stranded... Nicely done.
"The Reaper's Image" is a story that I actually found chilling, and that almost never happens to me, sadly. But this one had it going.
"Nona" is a VERY impressive story. The writing is stellar, the story is gripping. Throughout this one I was impressed by King's literary abilities. This is the sort of story that lets me know King doesn't nearly get the amount of respect he deserves as an author. Highly recommended.
"Survivor Type" is another jewel from this collection. It's about a man who gets stranded on a strip of rock in the ocean. All he has is a couple of matches, a knife, and lots of heroin. It's a fun story in a very sinister way, a true master-piece of dark humor, and I very highly recommend it.
The two "Milkman" stories are good stuff.
"Gramma" is another chilling piece, about a dead grandmother that may not have said her last word...
"The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" is an extraordinary piece about a writer and his madness. This is a very imaginative story, very enjoyable.
"The Reach" is another of these stories that show King's true literary talent. This one is about an old lady who never left her island for the mainland. In her old age she doesn't have much to live. This is a beautiful story.
This was a rather dry review of most of these stories. But on the whole, it's a great collection. I haven't liked all of them, but none of them bored me. Having read some of the negative reviews on this site, I have to insist on the fact that Stephen King is a real author, and that you'll appreciate his stories better if you read them as stories, and not as scripts for horror flicks.
This book was a perfect follow-up to NIGHT SHIFT, another collection of stories. If you're into short stories, you won't go wrong with this one.
Summary of Skeleton Crew
Twenty-two stories from the "wildly imaginative" #1 Bestselling AuthorIn this brilliant collection of stories, Stephen King takes readers down paths that only he could imagine....A supermarket becomes the place where humanity takes its last stand against unholy destruction...a trip to the attic turns into a journey to hell...a woman driver finds a scary shortcut to paradise...an idyllic lake harbors a bottomless evil...and a desert island is the scene of the most terrifying struggle for survival ever waged.
In the introduction to Skeleton Crew (1985), his second collection of stories, King pokes fun at his penchant for "literary elephantiasis," makes scatological jokes about his muse, confesses how much money he makes (gross and net), and tells a story about getting arrested one time when he was "suffused with the sort of towering, righteous rage that only drunk undergraduates can feel." He winds up with an invitation to a scary voyage: "Grab onto my arm now. Hold tight. We are going into a number of dark places, but I think I know the way."
And he sure does. Skeleton Crew contains a superb short novel ("The Mist") that alone is worth the price of admission, plus two forgettable poems and 20 short stories on such themes as an evil toy monkey, a human-eating water slick, a machine that avenges murder, and unnatural creatures that inhabit the thick woods near Castle Rock, Maine. The short tales range from simply enjoyable to surprisingly good.
In addition to "The Mist," the real standout is "The Reach," a beautifully subtle story about a great-grandmother who was born on a small island off the coast of Maine and has lived there her whole life. She has never been across "the Reach," the body of water between island and mainland. This is the story that King fans give to their friends who don't read horror in order to show them how literate, how charming a storyteller he can be. Don't miss it. --Fiona Webster
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in literary stories
Button, Button: Uncanny Storiesby Richard Matheson
Tor Books; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.69
Price in other shops:
Nightmare At 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories By Richard Mathesonby Richard Matheson
Tor Books; Published: 2002-01-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
Richard Matheson: Collected Stories, Vol. 1by Richard Matheson
Gauntlet Press; Published: 2003-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.23
Price in other shops:
The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories (Library of Modern Jewish Literature)by Cynthia Ozick
Syracuse University Press; Published: 1995-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.15
Price in other shops:
Park City: New and Selected Storiesby Ann Beattie
Vintage; Published: 1999-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops:
Everything's Eventual : 14 Dark Talesby Stephen King
Pocket; Published: 2003-01-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.19
Price in other shops:
Skeleton Crewby Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1986-06-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
Different Seasons (Signet)by Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1983-08-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
Nightmares and Dreamscapesby Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1994-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.56
Price in other shops:
Just After Sunset: Storiesby Stephen King
Scribner; Published: 2008-11-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.40
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Desperationby Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1997-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.63
Price in other shops:
Just After Sunset: Storiesby Stephen King
Scribner; Published: 2008-11-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.92
Price in other shops:
Duma Key: A Novelby Stephen King
Pocket; Published: 2008-10-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.45
Price in other shops:
Itby Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1987-08-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.10
Price in other shops:
Four Past Midnight (Signet)by Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1991-09-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
The Stand: Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut (Signet)by Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1991-05-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.15
Price in other shops:
Everything's Eventual : 14 Dark Talesby Stephen King
Pocket; Published: 2003-01-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.74
Price in other shops:
Different Seasons (Signet)by Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1983-08-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.37
Price in other shops:
Nightmares and Dreamscapesby Stephen King
Signet; Published: 1994-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.93
Price in other shops:
Night Shiftby Stephen King
Doubleday; Published: 1993-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.98
Price in other shops: