Customer Rating:  
Summary: A Showcase of Genre-Hopping Stories -- Mostly Good, Some are Great
Comment: Skeleton Crew, Stephen King's second anthology of short stories, shows the breadth and depth that he is capable of reaching in the short story format. The 19 short stories and 1 novella were previously published in the late 1970s through the 1980s in scifi/horror anthologies, genre magazines, popular magazines, and men's magazines. As you can guess from this wide variety of target publications, King is quite capable of cooking up a horror tale tasty enough to whet most any appetite. The two poems, an unusual change of pace for this fan of King's work, were previously unpublished. While most of the work are different takes on contemporary horror and suspense, a few of them make notable excursions into other genres ( "Beachworld" and "The Jaunt" explore horror in a science fiction context, and "The Wedding Gig" has a Godfather/Sopranos feel to it).
King is in fine form in most of these stories. In particular, "The Mist" struck me as a fine work. The characters were a case study in conflict, and their interactions meshed with the atmosphere like finely crafted cogs in a well-oiled machine. The action was snappy, dripped with realism, and kept me engaged and turning pages. Other well written stories include "Here There Be Tygers" and "Cain Rose Up", which practically snap with energy, and "The Reaper's Image" and "Nona", which are archetypical King stories, the kind that made him famous.
A few of the story are wordy, through, and I struggled to stay with him on "Mrs. Todd's shortcut" and "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet". In each of these, King obscures the story line in mounds of back story, leaving this reader looking for a shovel and screen to excavate and sift out the plot. And I wonder exactly what he was trying to get across (or what the hell he was smoking or snorting) in "Morning Deliveries" and "Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game". Are these horror tales, or a reminiscence of high school days, or an unholy mating between the two? Maybe it would make more sense if I were drunk or stoned, which King freely admits to being during the time that these were published.
Overall, this collection of work displays a maturing King, an author who is confident in his abilities to tell a story in a variety of genres. Most of the stories showcase his ability to hook the reader into short stories that are, for the most part, excellent examples of his work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The hits just keep coming..
Comment: 22 stories to pass your time. I 'listen' to my books being a salesman/driver and have always been a fan of the short story. Favorites were, 'Jaunt', 'Raft', and 'Monkey'. The others range from "wow!" to "what?!" but (we) King fans are usually avid and forgiving and don't miss a syllable. Read it! (or listen.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: plenty of page-turning scary stuff
Comment: I have not read a lot of Stephen King novels and I
actually don't like scary movies but somehow I found
the short stories in here enjoyable.
King has a cultural shorthand, a sort of jivey patter
that substitutes for real characterization - his writing
here is full of references to rock and roll songs of the
period. If you know and like the song this creates
a sense of identification with the character.
I'm not really sure how you define horror fiction. Perhaps
King has defined his own brand of it. It's sort of
working-class folk in a world of hidden supernatural
dread.
I read this a long time ago. I think the story "The Mist"
was recently made into a film. It's a novella and it's
the part of the book that stayed with me the longest.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Skeleton Crew
Comment:
Unusually for genre authors, King has managed to master the short story as well as novel-length fiction. "Skeleton Crew" isn't one of those cash-in collections where the publisher throws together some old crap the author spun out twenty years ago, usually amounting to 300 pages of mediocre stories. Although some of the tales here are as old as King's first novels, the collection is a vast one with well over twenty stories, forming a heavy tome well worth the couple of quid you can get it for now.
It includes some great stories that have earned their fame elsewhere, such as "The Raft", "The Monkey" and "The Mist", the last of which is possibly the best example of rising terror I've ever read, and recently made into a film (which I haven't yet seen - it's probably rubbish anyway). As in most collections of this size there are a few less inspiring stories, but most are short and even if they don't give you the chills you were after, you'll never feel like you wasted your time reading them. King's narrative style and dialogue are as good as ever--
A great collection, dirt cheap now online so pick it up!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Free SF Reader
Comment: A quite strong collection, especially for 20 stories, averaging 3.58. The long novella to begin with is the standout, and a great story, indeed. Just about worth the price for that alone.
There are a couple of dodgy stories, but closer to half of this is 4 star work, with three of these to finish.
The majority is horror, of course, even when it is science fiction like the excellent 'The Jaunt' and maybe even Beachworld.
The odd crime story and fantasy to be found, too, for variety, although what different people see as horror stories will vary, I suppose.
Skeleton Crew : The Mist - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Here There be Tygers - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : The Monkey - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Cain Rose Up - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Mrs. Todd's Shortcut - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : The Jaunt - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : The Wedding Gig - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : The Raft - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Word Processor of the Gods - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Beachworld - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : The Reaper's Image - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Nona - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Survivor Type - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Uncle Otto's Truck - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Morning Deliveries - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : Gramma - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet - Stephen King
Skeleton Crew : The Reach - Stephen King
Extradimensional army experiment mistake monster siege mayhem breakout.
5 out of 5
Big Cat Piss boy loss.
2.5 out of 5
Getting rid of an evil toy at the bottom of Crystal Lake? Wouldn't be the first location i would chose. Actually, it'd be really close to the bottom. Arkham, Dunwich, 'Salem's Lot, down around there somewhere.
3 out of 5
Flunked Going Postal.
3.5 out of 5
Holey bits.
2.5 out of 5
Long Time My Destination.
4.5 out of 5
The Big Fat Kill.
4 out of 5
Screwed, then eaten, alien symbiote style.
4 out of 5
Family addition by deletion.
4 out of 5
Death touch self.
3.5 out of 5
Exit Sandman.
3 out of 5
Mirror, Mirror, you dead next.
3.5 out of 5
Crazy for rat girl.
4 out of 5
Autocannibal.
3.5 out of 5
Is gonna get me.
3 out of 5
Milk, cream, bugs, poison...
3.5 out of 5
Pulled over better than evil milkmanned.
2.5 out of 5
Ding dong, the Elder Gods spellcasting old bag is dead. Or supposed to be, so that walking around and grabbing me stuff is a worry. Learned some cool tricks though.
4 out of 5
Typewriter elf massacre.
4 out of 5
Mainland ghost, gran.
4 out of 5
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