Nightmares and Dreamscapes

This was the first Stephen King novel that I read. I really liked this one. I think this was a great introduction into his writing style as it highlighted different genres all by the master of horror. I thoroughly enjoyed the short stories about the vampires! While some of the stories felt more silly than scary, it still was a great book! This reminded me a lot of the R.L Stein books I used to read as a kid.

Just like the rest of America, I found Stephen King when I was about 14 and thought he was a genius. His early novels were unique and scary and would absorb my total attention for several days. But starting with "The Stand" I noticed that he started to repeat himself (sometimes word for word) or that his plots were developing holes in them. (He stated that the cut the deaf guy received would kill him, but it was something else entirely). Since I had not read anything by him in years, I gave this collection of short stories a try. Same old same old. I think Mr. King should buy himself and his wife a gorgeous mansion on the Maine coast and retire.

I would recommend this book just for the introductory essay (see below). [Note: I made some Mormon angry because of my negative reviews of books out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews almost as fast as they are posted.] So your "helpful" vote is greatly appreciated. Thanks King is a master writer, and I enjoyed this collection. I loved "Umney's Last Case" (evocative of 1930s crime fiction). Also liked the "House on Maple Street" (it kept me turning the pages). The book is worth it for the introductory essay by Steven King. Here are some of the great lines from that essay, and I hope they make my short review worth reading. Steven King wrote: "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. I knew even then, you see, that there were people in the world--too many of them, actually--whose imaginative senses were eight numb or completely deadened, and who lived in a mental state skin to colorblindness." Robert McCammon said something similar his brilliant coming-of-age novel, "Boy's Life" "See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic they knew made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in themselves."

I love taking long drives, and when I take those long drives, I love listening to audiobooks. Let me set the stage: when I listened to Nightmares and Dreamscapes, I was on my way to 29 Palms from Texas, all by myself, via back roads. Dark, unlit, deserted back roads. Somewhat unwisely, I popped this tape in around 8pm, somewhere in New Mexico, just as the sun was starting to set and make everything shadowy. Needless to say, the stories were a bit scarier than they would have been had I read them safely in my own, well-lit house with the alarm system at the ready. I credit (blame!) the actors for this, for they were outstanding! For example: Crouch End: read by Tim Curry, quite possibly the scariest man in existence. I was familiar with the Cthulu myth, but to hear it through the imagination of Stephen King and the excellent, creepy and threatening Mr. Curry was terrifying. Rainy Season: the very idea of maniacal toads raining from the sky is absurd, and the voice of Lisa Simpson doesn't seem scary at all. But put the two together on a dark, deserted road and you have a recipe for real fear. The rest of this volume of stories is very good, if thought-provoking rather than terrifying. Vengeance lovers, rejoice! Dolan's Cadillac is a must-read (listen), as is The House on Maple Street.

i havent read the entire book yet, i read a story or two between the novels i'm reading, but i'll tell waht i think so far. Each story i've read have either shilled or scared me in a way that when the story ends so soon, being short stories and all!, your left to think about it even more. Not to say that they end too quickly or incompletely though. King gives all his short stories as much attention as his novels, and novellas. Popsy, Nightflier, Sorry Right Number, Suffer the little Children, and Chattery Teeth are among the ones i've read. All ranging from monster stories to vampires, Things!! and zombies, muders and mystery etc. A great book in which you can take a story from every night...if u dare that is! ;-)

Though this collection may not be quite as consistent as "Night Shift" or "Skeleton Crew," there are still plenty of chills to keep you up at night. Stories like "The Night Flier," "Chattery Teeth," "Dolan's Cadilac," "The Ten O'Clock People," and "Rainy Season" are among the best and scariest that he's written. King works best in the short story format that presents his inexhaustable supply of ideas at their sharpest and most visceral. This collection is no exception.

This book is one of the best pieces of Stephen King writing I have ever read. After you've read something like Night Shift you need something to cool yourself down with. This book does just that and it comes with a lot of non-stop reading excitement. Some of my fav stories were "chattery teeth" "the end of the whole mess" and "you know they got a hell of a band."