Skeleton Crew [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephen King's second short-story collection ranges from the beginnings of his published career as a writer in the late 1960's to stories that were not published until the release of this collection. As always with his collections, King rewrites a lot from the originally published versions. Indeed, "The Raft" is entirely recreated: King has never been able to locate the original published story from the late 1960's, a story he was paid for but which he's not entirely certain was actually printed.

The result is a collection with more range than the first collection -- Night Shift -- but a certain drop in intensity and consistency. One negative is the inclusion of two of King's science-fiction horror stories, "The Jaunt" and "Beachworld," neither of which are particularly scary or well-imagined. The science fiction of interplanetary travel and robots and alien planets is not an area in which King is especially good. But by God, he's going to keep trying to write it even if doing so kills either him or us or possibly both.

Thankfully, both the straightforward horror and the darkly fantastic are handled a lot better. "The Reach" is probably King's best tale of non-horrific supernatural doings, a meditation on mortality set off the coast of Maine. "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut", a more Bradburyian effort, is also a lot of fun, while "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" is a solid examination of madness and writing.

On the horror front, we get the Lovecraft-by-way-of-the-drive-in romp "The Mist." "The Monkey" and "The Raft" are the best of the horror stories here, turning the mundane (a wind-up monkey toy, a popular swimming destination just a bit out of season) into the terrible. That wind-up monkey is one of King's best distillations of strange, explanation-resistant horror. I'd like to see it go a few rounds with the more benevolent wind-up Chattery Teeth of the much-later story of the same name.

Other stand-outs include the understated story of supernatural revenge, "Uncle Otto's Truck," and the murderous road-odyssey "Nona." The latter works beautifully as a gender-flipped companion to King's earlier novel Carrie, as it deals with many of the same gender and social issues from a different perspective. Highly recommended.

I've read most of the stories in this book and can safely say that this is a very diverse collection of stories from King (with whom I am a fan). Each story has its own little something to bring to the table and each story has its good points. But by far the best story in this book would have to be The Mist. I really wish King had spent more time on that and turned it into a novel, it would've been a killer book.

The Mist creates the creepiest and most frightening atmospheres of all the stories in the book. I'll give you an idea of how creepy this story was. I was working overtime at my town's community centre where the local high school was having their prom. It was basically a babysitting job so I brought Skeleton Crew to read while the kids had their fun. I picked The Mist to read and finished it over the course of the evening. When I first arrived there, ahead of the kiddies, it was a clear day and sunny outside. By the time I left it was dark and a fog bank had rolled in (...creepy). I RAN to my car and locked the doors as soon as i got in. That's the level of creepiness this story has.

Some other good stories are Gramma; suspenseful and creepy but could've been longer, and The Raft; kind of a B-Movie type of horror.
Overall a really good book.

wow - this book has some of the creepiest stories ever..the mist especially so..don't read it at night when you are home alone!