King's vivid imagination > 14 tales that please and scare !

Maybe the most prolific, influential writer of our times, his name synonymous with the "horror" genre, Stephen King gives us here his sixth (depending how you count a couple of his books) collection of short stories, a medium for which he makes an impassioned plea in an introductory essay. Of the 14 tales, half are under 30 pages, which will please the folks who like "one sitting" opportunities to finish something. The longest one, "The Little Sisters of Eluria", at 66 pages, surprisingly a prequel to the Dark Tower series, featuring Roland the gunslinger, can still be handled comfortably in one session. It's a good thing, because that one especially had such a compelling, unexpected theme (the sisters were "nurses" with an interesting way of handling blood!) that we couldn't get through it fast enough for the sheer enjoyment.

The variety in this collection seemed to us more diverse than usual, from fishing stories with the devil to lunch at the restaurant, to suicide and "death by email". You practically die yourself as the victim squirms in "Autopsy Room Four"; the "happy ending" (a King rarity) made "In the Deathroom" great fun. And King's internet-only-published "Riding the Bullet" makes it into real print herein. Moreover, in a brief set of author's words before or after each story, King gives us some clue how he came up with his idea or some other gem of information about the piece -- of course very interesting and entertaining nuggets in themselves, although a couple that prefaced the story gave a little away we thought.

No doubt each reader will have their favorites and think one or two were duds, but here's the master at close to his best, in an enjoyable format -- what more do we want?