Blockade Billy/Morality

Very happy with shipping and the condition of this book. It looks brand new! Thank you!

Great story for fans of baseball or of King. Love how the story is told in this book. Much different than others. Definitely worth checking out!

Great story(s); the perspective of the old man was spot on! not your typical Stephen King, but Variety is the spice of life. If you like anything he's done, this is right up there.

Two Great stories in one little book from Stephen King! Stephen King has been known to write 'huge' books that may seem daunting to the casual reader. In "Blockade Billy" King has written a perfect story to introduce new readers into the Stephen King legion of fans while providing his loyal readers with something to hold them over until his next 'big' one! "Blockade Billy" combines King's passion for baseball with his ability to provide that sinister atmosphere he is so famous for! The baseball Titans are a Major League team during the Golden Era of baseball and on the eve of opening day they find themselves 'catcher-less'! Their two catchers lost in 48 hours for two different reasons! They need someone and they need him fast! A few hours before game time on opening day their new catcher arrives from Iowa. He has never played a major league game in his life but in the next few weeks he will become a legend: Stephen King style!(I will not give away any of the plot specifics.) The second story of this doubleheader called "Morality" has King introducing us to a married couple trying to cope in today's modern world. Like many of us they are having financial problems and look at ways to pay their debts. The husband works part time as a substitute teacher and thinks of using that experience to write a book... but the advance may not be enough. The wife is a private nurse for an individual who just happens to be a minister. It is here that King takes the 'ordinary' in everyday living and provides that 'pinch' of the extraordinary he is noted for to provide the basis for the story. What if you cross that thin line called morality... that line between good and evil... what happens next? That is what our married couple now faces as the wife accepts a 'special' contract with the minister... a contract that just might change their marriage and their lives forever!

Throughout his career, King has avoided slipping into repetitive mediocrity. He released Different Seasons, a collection of (very fine) non-horror novellas, in the mid-eighties, when his publisher was trying to type him as the "master of modern horror." Throughout the nineties he experimented with mainstream fiction in works such as Dolores Claiborne, Gerald's Game, and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Insomnia was a long, complicated, experimental novel. Bag of Bones was, at heart, a love story. I say this to reinforce my opinion that King is a fine writer--a genuinely GOOD writer-- that, despite his unbelievable success, has always been several notches above his pop-culture competition in terms of honest talent and productivity. James Patterson has never written anything as good as Bag of Bones or "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption." Dean Koontz has slipped into the abovementioned repetitive mediocrity and no longer carries the creative torch that he used to. John Grisham strives for literary relevance by dipping his toes into non-courtroom, William Faulkner-esq. waters, but none of these efforts reach the artistic heights that King has reached in much of his fiction, horror and non-horror alike. "Blockade Billy" is another feather in King's cap. A small, minor feather, of course, because this little story is probably not going to sell anywhere close to a million copies... and King knows that. He wrote it because he wanted to, and he published it because many of his fans will enjoy reading it. The former point is the most important question to consider when judging art. WHY was the work produced? For those questioning the price/length of this book, consider this... King, for many different reasons, is one of the most important writers of his time. Most King limited editions are priced in triple digits--whether the book is two hundred pages or a thousand. The limited edition of this book was in the neighborhood of thirty dollars. A Stephen King RARITY for thirty dollars! Not bad. The mass-marked edition, a very nice little hardback, can be found for less than ten dollars-- the price of a throwaway paperback. And for those calling this work a short story, it is somewhere in the range of 15-20,000 words. That is a novelette, not a short story.

When it comes to Stephen King, there isn't a price to high to pay for any of his books. He's a BEYOND GREAT author!! Blockade Billy was a very well written short story...I read it in a hour. I'm not a big baseball fan, however, I read this story and I found myself entertained from beginning to end. I was pleased. It was simply a quick thrill that lingers awhile after you finished reading it. 5 Stars for Blockhead Billy..I mean Blockade Billy..lol.. That's my two-cents.....toodles :)

I'm going to keep this as spoiler free and as informative as possible. "Blockade Billy" is the latest release from Stephen King. Its announcement in March 2010 was a surprise for everyone, and I know that I wasn't expecting any new King for another six months or so. First, some info about the book itself: Overall, this book is a novella, the physical book clocks in at a little over 100 pages with some excellent Alex McVey illustrations. There are a few editions of this book (some forthcoming). Cemetery Dance Publications had the 1st edition 1st printing of Blockade Billy with only 10,000 dust jacketed copies that was officially released April 20, 2010. This came shrink wrapped with a bonus William "Blockade Billy" Blakely baseball card (that looks like a Topps 1957 card, very cool). They also had a limited slipcase available at an additional cost. Cemetery Dance will also be doing a second printing of 10,000 that is for libraries only. Scribner's version of Blockade Billy will be a non-dust jacketed trade hardcover edition and it will be coming out at the end of May, 2010. Sadly, it will not have the awesome Alex McVey illustrations, but they are adding Stephen King's short story "Morality" that was released last year in Esquire magazine. In the summer of 2010, Lonely Road Books is releasing a Signed Limited Edition and a Lettered Edition of Blockade Billy. Both of these will come with the same William "Blockade Billy" Blakely baseball card that came with the Cemetery Dance Publications version, and they will also come with a SIGNED Stephen King baseball card (how cool is that!?)! There will also be an audio book read by Craig Wasson (Blockade Billy Audiobook), a Kindle version (Blockade Billy for Kindle), and other e-reader versions. Now, to the story.... Yes, this is a baseball story. If you aren't a fan, some of the passages will go over your head like foul ball, but the thing is, you won't care. You'll be too engrossed in the story. The next thing you'll know, the story will be over and you will feel a sense of satisfaction and completion. This novella is a very fun and very fast read. For sports fans that love King, this book will probably be a dream come true. For King fans that don't like sports... it is a new King story! I'll admit, I don't really care too much for baseball. I know it. I've played it, but I don't watch it. Yet, I still really enjoyed this story. In the end, it is a story about the people, not the game. Yes, the book is short, but you will enjoy it. This is a lot more than can be said for many much longer books out there. Stephen King told the entire tale that he wanted, and ended it where it ended. There are no rabid beasties, Dark Towers, or possessed cars, but you will revel in the telling of this tale as if your grandfather were telling you a story about his childhood (one of the good ones that make all the grandkids gather round). I don't want to give away the plot, but here are