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Nightmares and Dreamscapes (Nightmares & Dreamscapes)
by
Stephen King
New to Pocket Books’ Stephen King backlist—the short story collection containing the story "Dolan’s Cadillac," soon to be released as a feature film starring Christian Slater and Wes Bentley.
With numerous unforgettable movies based on his short stories—including Shawshank Redemption, 1408, and The Green Mile—readers will be delighted to rediscover this classic collection,...more
With numerous unforgettable movies based on his short stories—including Shawshank Redemption, 1408, and The Green Mile—readers will be delighted to rediscover this classic collection,...more
Paperback, 897 pages
Published
June 30th 2009
by Pocket Books
(first published January 1st 1993)
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Ever read a story out loud to a friend -- knowing it's not the kind of story they'd read on their own?
I do that all the time (even snippets of novels to give them a taste). I read "Crouch End" out loud to one of my sisters, in a weird Scotts/English accent that I tend to use when reading Lovecraftian horror. She accused me of robbing her of sleep for a week. That's the sign of a good story.
I've read several of these out loud to friends and family and I love the way they react to the tone of the...more
I do that all the time (even snippets of novels to give them a taste). I read "Crouch End" out loud to one of my sisters, in a weird Scotts/English accent that I tend to use when reading Lovecraftian horror. She accused me of robbing her of sleep for a week. That's the sign of a good story.
I've read several of these out loud to friends and family and I love the way they react to the tone of the...more
I was afraid to go to the bathroom after reading this book.
14 likes · like · see review
I'm giving it between 2 and a half and 3 stars. I was actually fairly disappointed. There were some good stories, but most of those I'd read before. Most of the rest just seemed to drag on way too long. I'm not in a King mood of late, it seems
2 likes · like · see review
Jul 01, 2011
William Johnson
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2011,
since-joining-goodreads
The title is a tad bit misleading as there are very few nightmares and hardly any dreamscapes. I bought the book thinking that, perhaps, the stories would be aimed at more psychological/dream-like horrors, but instead you get a very random collection of short stories that make the title simply something to grab the eye.
King has his fair share of horror in here but there is also some metaphysical stuff, a straight up caper-esque story, a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and, to make nightmares and dreams...more
King has his fair share of horror in here but there is also some metaphysical stuff, a straight up caper-esque story, a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and, to make nightmares and dreams...more
Stephen King talks a lot. I swear I only got through this one on sheer stubbornness. 14176 locations, what does that translate to in pages? 8000? Now I remember why I never used to read anthologies in tree book. Why do authors (or publishing houses, who knows which,) insist on putting so many short stories in a single volume, that you could easily use the tome to reinforce your home's retaining wall?
I have at least two more of these bricks on the bookcase (one by Lewis Shiner that contains 41 s...more
I have at least two more of these bricks on the bookcase (one by Lewis Shiner that contains 41 s...more
1 like · like · see review
This is one King book that I will have to replace when it finally collapses in tatters from overuse.
The thing I love about this book is that in most of the short stories, there is no reason for the events to occur- they just DO. And what a frightening concept that is. There is no reason that a man looks down his sink to see a finger sticking out, a finger that continues to grow in size and soon attacks him. There is no reason for dead rock and roll legends to congregate in a town in the middle o...more
The thing I love about this book is that in most of the short stories, there is no reason for the events to occur- they just DO. And what a frightening concept that is. There is no reason that a man looks down his sink to see a finger sticking out, a finger that continues to grow in size and soon attacks him. There is no reason for dead rock and roll legends to congregate in a town in the middle o...more
this is where the little pop-ups next to those stars really feel misleading.
do i like that i still sometimes fear the toilet? not especially. but i have to recognize the mad skills of a writer who was able to do that to me.
there are a few stories here that really messed me up. the worst by far was The Moving Finger. we don't know why there's a moving finger, a multi-jointed, aggressive, waggling finger complete with scratchy, scrapey nail coming out of the sink (in my mind over the years i rep...more
do i like that i still sometimes fear the toilet? not especially. but i have to recognize the mad skills of a writer who was able to do that to me.
there are a few stories here that really messed me up. the worst by far was The Moving Finger. we don't know why there's a moving finger, a multi-jointed, aggressive, waggling finger complete with scratchy, scrapey nail coming out of the sink (in my mind over the years i rep...more
11 likes · like · see review
Jun 10, 2010
Bobby Bermea
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
the-blood-is-the-life
In King's earlier collections, the wildness of his imagination makes up for the rawness of his technique. Here, the Master couldn't be more assured and on top of his game. King is unafraid to re-visit standard plot fare, and in the always interesting author's notes he talks about this aspect of writing as being like a musician playing the blues and using the same three chords. It's not the notes but the passion with which notes are played that makes the difference. The same can certainly be said...more
I'm pretty big into Stephen King, but I'm learning that interest is in his novels, not the short story collections. Personally, I think I struggle with these collections because I don't have enough time to get into the characters. By the time I'm familiar with them, the story is over. I've made it through other collections in the past, but this was too slow of a read for me to force my way through it. I'm still a big fan, and I love all of the ideas King comes up with. I just don't like when rea...more
I am not going to say much about this book other than expressing my opinion that I like his Novels a lot more than his short stories. (I found the second last story, Head Down, the worst read from this book and some of the other stories also do not carry the same 'flare' that the novels do.
Quite a few of these turns out to be some in depth reading with disappointment waiting for you when you complete a story... I found myself wondering "I had to read all of THAT just for THIS???!"
Quite a few of these turns out to be some in depth reading with disappointment waiting for you when you complete a story... I found myself wondering "I had to read all of THAT just for THIS???!"
1 like · like · see review
Wonderful...an illusionist extraordinaire, King peoples his fiction with believable characters. (Publishers Weekly)
Amazon.com ReviewMany people who write about horror literature maintain that mood is its most important element. Stephen King disagrees: "My deeply held conviction is that story must be paramount.... All other considerations are secondary--theme, mood, even characterization and language."
These fine stories, each written in what King calls "a burst of faith, happiness, and optim
“Nightmares and Dreamscapes” is a collection of 23 short stories written by Stephen King. King is “one of the most prolific authors alive” according to Bestsellers.com. He has written well over 50 novels and short story collections and is well known for novels such as It, Misery, The Dark Tower series, and many more. Some of the highest rated movies of all time have been adapted from his work including The Shawshank Redemption, based off of a novella contained in his book Different Seasons, and...more
Jul 20, 2012
Kasey Jane
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
horror,
short-stories
It is difficult to rate a collection of short stories, but I'll give it a shot.
In King's world, career options are limited to writer or traveling salesman. Everyone smokes. After the men are no longer around (and it's always the men who aren't around), the women look after the children. Children find plenty of time to escape from their mothers' tired and less-than-watchful eyes. As King explains it in his notes for The Moving Finger: "[T]hings happen just because they happen."
Individual ratings...more
In King's world, career options are limited to writer or traveling salesman. Everyone smokes. After the men are no longer around (and it's always the men who aren't around), the women look after the children. Children find plenty of time to escape from their mothers' tired and less-than-watchful eyes. As King explains it in his notes for The Moving Finger: "[T]hings happen just because they happen."
Individual ratings...more
I absolutely love this collection. When I just need some time away from the real world but don't want to get wrapped up in a huge novel, this is one of my first choices. My personal favorite is The House on Maple Street. We all know at least one person we'd like to launch into space, after all.
Several of these stories have been made into movies. And you know, I'd watch all of them again:
- Dolan's Cadillac (starring Christian Slater) was absolutely worthwhile.
- The Night Flyer (starring Migu...more
Several of these stories have been made into movies. And you know, I'd watch all of them again:
- Dolan's Cadillac (starring Christian Slater) was absolutely worthwhile.
- The Night Flyer (starring Migu...more
Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a collection of suspenseful, fast paced, and awsomeness. The End of the Whole Mess is just twenty-four measley pages established emotions for the characters and suspense like you would not believe. I cant sing its praises enough it was just amazing. The concept was so origional it was refreshing. I being an older brother myself thought that Bobby Howies little brother was teribbly funny and just quite likable. without even realising while your reading stephen king...more
I'd never before read Stephen King, and I figured it was about time to meet the man (or at least the mystery) when this volume appeared at a library sale. It wasn't a bad collection, exactly, but I was surprised to discover that King's core story concepts aren't on "another level", and I was kind of expecting that they would be given the length and breadth of his career. Instead, I discovered that the kernel of his stories are no more imaginative than what anyone would come up with, given the ri...more
Apr 14, 2012
Cassandra Miller
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Scary-story lovers
This is by far my favorite collection of Stephen King short stories. Each on was different, but equally scary. My two favorite short stories were "Sorry, Right Number" and "Umney's Last Case".
I read "Sorry, Right Number" at my parents cabin by myself and everytime the phone rang I was terrified about what I would hear on the other end. I think I reason I love this story so much is I have always wondered if I could call my past self and change something, would I and how would my past self react....more
I read "Sorry, Right Number" at my parents cabin by myself and everytime the phone rang I was terrified about what I would hear on the other end. I think I reason I love this story so much is I have always wondered if I could call my past self and change something, would I and how would my past self react....more
Easily my favourite of the King short story collections I've read so far. I ate up about ninety per cent of it, (sorry but My pretty pony and Head down didn't really appeal). This is the collection in which King proves his versatility - with the exception of Popsy and Night Flier, no two stories are alike. My particular favourites were The end of the whole mess (moving, funny and clever); Suffer the little children (stories about inexplicably evil children are always scary, but King has enfused...more
King is an incredibly good story teller, reading his stories is so vivid that when I think back to reading them it's like remembering a movie I watched in the theater. Several of the stories in this book are nothing short of excellent. King is an excellent judge of human nature, and he can sum up a complex behavior pattern in a single sentence that is so "right on the money" it's astounding, more than once I've read a single sentence he used to describe a particular way a character had of doing...more
I would give this collection of short stories an A+, just because of the baseball essay, "Head Down." That essay is an amazing testament to true grit. I would have thought it was fiction, but because it's not, it's even more powerful. King manages to capture that palpable, electric feeling that happens at nail-biter games. The other stories are not bad at all. There are a few true gems, like "Dolan's Cadillac," "Chattery Teeth," "Homy Delivery," and "The House on Maple Street." There are a few t...more
Feb 18, 2011
Anthony
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
halloween-reads,
short-story-collections
As with any short story collection, whether single-author or multiple, there were some hits and some misses for me in this, Stephen King's third short story collection. I listened to all of these on cd during my various trips around the country throughout the summer, with the last batch keeping me company on my one business trip in November. With 24 stories (one hidden in the end-notes) and an introduction, there's a lot to read through (or listen through) and there is bound to be something for...more
What a ride! I read this collection when it first appeared, and have come back to it from time to time. Some thoughts (minor spoiler alert):
As a smoker, the exact kind King describes in "The Ten O'Clock People" (one who's cut down his consumption to about ten a day, give or take), I keep expecting to see the bats any day now.
Are you claustrophobic? Squeamish about the thought of being buried alive? Who isn't? That's why I can almost feel sorry for the titular character in "Dolan's Cadillac." Al...more
As a smoker, the exact kind King describes in "The Ten O'Clock People" (one who's cut down his consumption to about ten a day, give or take), I keep expecting to see the bats any day now.
Are you claustrophobic? Squeamish about the thought of being buried alive? Who isn't? That's why I can almost feel sorry for the titular character in "Dolan's Cadillac." Al...more
Most of my close friends already know I’m not a big fan of Stephen King’s work. He tends to go on a bit to long with his back story and things of the like for my taste, but this collection of short stories--short of course being a relative term when used along side the name Stephen King--reminded me of why so many fans of horror practically worship the man. Most of the tales in this heavy volume aren’t just good. They are captivating.
No two stories were quite the same, though elements, such as t...more
No two stories were quite the same, though elements, such as t...more
Drawn to engaging stories, Different Seasons was my first Stephen King exposure, a collection of four novellas, three made into movies - The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and Stand By Me. It wasn't till I went back to college for a Master's in Liberal Arts degree when King resurface as a required read for a course in Gothic fiction - Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary, and The Shining - novels strongly laden with the macabre, but with powerful themes and credible characterizations.
Ten years later, I d...more
Ten years later, I d...more
I liked about half of the stories. There were a few that I couldn't get into at all. At the end King made a comment that I thought was interesting about critics thinking he could not be very good because he is popular with the masses. I think that is true for all types of art. The most played and popular music I find crappy. The mass produced pictures that you see on your friends walls ( note: not any of my friends of course) are considered popular but not really very interesting. So that takes...more
Incubi & Deliri è una raccolta di racconti di Stephen King pubblicata nel 1993; raccolta che va a completare la triologia composta da "A volte ritornano" (1978) e "Scheletri" (1985), raccogliendo insomma tutti i racconti rimasti della produzione di King fino al 1992.
Forse a causa di questa ragione la raccolta da la sensazione di essere un pò "il fondo del barile", i rimasugli che non avrebbero trovato altrimenti collocazione.
Non che tutti siano orribili e illeggibili, ma la sensazione di sca...more
Forse a causa di questa ragione la raccolta da la sensazione di essere un pò "il fondo del barile", i rimasugli che non avrebbero trovato altrimenti collocazione.
Non che tutti siano orribili e illeggibili, ma la sensazione di sca...more
Three Stephen King books in one year? I know, right? I'm an animal.
Speaking of threes, Nightmares and Dreamscapes is the third in a loose trilogy of short story collections. Combined with Night Shift and Skeleton Crew King admits that this threesome comprises everything good he'd written up to Nightmares and Dreamscapes' publication in 1992. That description of this collection makes it sound like some barrel scraping might have gone on. I don't think that's really the case: none of the stories h...more
Speaking of threes, Nightmares and Dreamscapes is the third in a loose trilogy of short story collections. Combined with Night Shift and Skeleton Crew King admits that this threesome comprises everything good he'd written up to Nightmares and Dreamscapes' publication in 1992. That description of this collection makes it sound like some barrel scraping might have gone on. I don't think that's really the case: none of the stories h...more
Nightmares and Dreamscapes is Stephen King's third book of short stories, coming after Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. I haven't read Skeleton Crew, but Night Shift is one of my favorite collections of short stories out there and thus I had high expectations for this collection. Unfortunately, this book simply didn't deliver.
That's not to say there weren't some decent shorts in here. Dolan's Cadillac is a wonderful Poesque story about a man driven by the cold desire for revenge. Suffer the Littl...more
That's not to say there weren't some decent shorts in here. Dolan's Cadillac is a wonderful Poesque story about a man driven by the cold desire for revenge. Suffer the Littl...more
In my opinion, Nightmares and Dreamscapes is one of King's most varied collections. It contains everything from the gore-streaked (Home Delivery, The Moving Finger), to the quiet and thoughtful (It Grows on You, My Pretty Pony), a sci-fi tale (The House on Maple Street), and a couple of Bachman/Stark efforts (The Fifth Quarter, My Pretty Pony again). There's also a tele-play script (Sorry, Right Number), a piece of sports journalism (Head Down), a poem (Brooklyn August), and a couple of pastiche...more
This is the third of King’s short story collections I have read, and the one I have enjoyed the most. Because it contains 23 stories and is eight-hundred-and-something pages long, I figured I would read it over an extended period of time. Pick it up and read a story or two every now and then between reading novels. Instead, I ended up getting through the whole thing in a few days. As soon as I would finish a story, I would immediately have to continue to the next. King is one of the few writers...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen King Fans: It Grows on You-N&D | 6 | 56 | Mar 13, 2013 09:21am | |
| Stephen King Fans: The Beggar and the Diamond-N&D | 3 | 33 | May 08, 2012 02:51am | |
| Stephen King Fans: The Ten O'Clock People-N&D | 7 | 40 | Jan 03, 2012 08:03pm | |
| Stephen King Fans: Home Delivery-N&D | 6 | 31 | Dec 09, 2011 08:18am | |
| Stephen King Fans: My Pretty Pony-N&D | 4 | 35 | Dec 06, 2011 03:22pm | |
| Stephen King Fans: Rainy Season-N&D | 5 | 26 | Dec 06, 2011 03:22pm | |
| Stephen King Fans: Chattery Teeth-N&D | 6 | 23 | Nov 30, 2011 08:40am |
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more
More about Stephen King...
Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his parents separated when Stephen was a toddler, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family...more
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“When I was a kid I believed everything I was told, everything I read, and every dispatch sent out by my own overheated imagination. This made for more than a few sleepless nights, but it also filled the world I lived in with colors and textures I would not have traded for a lifetime of restful nights.”
—
81 people liked it
“Better to be a mouse behind the wainscoting, nibbling at the wires. Better to be a spider, high up under the eaves, spinning its web.”
—
2 people liked it
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