Nightmares and Dreamscapes

At 692 pages, "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" is a doorstopper of a book. I planned to read it a story at a time over a period of weeks, but as usual got hooked on King and read it straight through, right from his usual folksy introduction (each of which I am sure he writes solely for me!) to the charming little moral folktale tacked on at the end. The stories are to say the least, diverse. I would call this collection "King's Scrapbook."
"Dolan's Cadillac" highly regarded by most Amazon reviewers is very hard tech for King. Interestingly, he says in his notes that technical stuff bores him, but it had to be done for this story. I have no more interest than he does in the proper "arc of descent;" I would have been just as mindlessly satisfied if he had shot the Cadillac out of a cannon, so it's not one of my favorites.
"Clattery Teeth" I just know SK had a hoot of a time writing it. He lovingly sets the scene and characters and then puts them at the mercy of a set of not-so-funny joke teeth (that wear spats). It's 80 degrees more grotesque than the "Young Frankenstein," and I felt guilty for laughing.
"The Moving Finger" Mr. Mitla is the perfectly normal man living a perfectly normal life when one morning he goes into his bathroom, and a finger is emerging from his bathroom sink drain and tapping on the porcelain. No one can see this finger except Mr. Mitla, and he slowly goes bonkers and his entire life is in a shambles. Unlike "Clattery Teeth" this one is terrifying. See for yourself.
"My Pretty Pony" though highly acclaimed, didn't much interest me UNTIL I read in Notes that the exquisitely sensitive little boy, Clive Banning, grew up to be a hardened killer in an unpublished Richard Bachman novel. We leave Clive at 7-years old in the Pony story.
"The House on Maple Street" delighted me because children are empowered and the bad guy gets his just desserts in a most explosive fashion. I was all-around satisfied.
"Umley's Last Case" is my favorite. SK takes a spin in Raymond Chandler land. He sets the scene meticulously and the characters are perfect. I was reminded of Nathaniel West's "Day of the Locust." Then things start going askew in a very King-like way. What if the author of P.I. books decided he liked the detective's life better than his own, and decided to swap places? What would happen? Would it be too far out if the detective who has never lived outside a book set in the 1930's had to spend a week toilet training himself? (Characters in hard-boiled novels never have to go to the bathroom.)
There are 20 stories in "Nightmares & Dreamscapes." It is not as brilliantly crafted as "Everything's Eventual" nor is it as well organized as "Skeleton Crew" and "Night Shift." I don't think many readers will like ALL of the stories, but there are such a variety, that most of the readers will like SOME of the stories, and some will like MOST of the stories. Chances are everyone will find one or two that will stay with them forever.

This collection of stories is typical King--you may not like every single one, but you're sure to find at least one that scares you and one that makes you laugh. My favorite was "Dolan's Cadillac," a chilling tale of painstakingly-plotted revenge. Also intriguing is "The 10 O'Clock People," a must-read for every smoker who has cut back but who just can't seem to quit completely. In "Sorry, Right Number," King tries something new by writing the story in screenplay fashion; the gimmick doesn't necessarily add anything, but the plot itself is engaging nonetheless. On the scary side, l found "Night Flier" to be extremely creepy--the final scene will definitely make you want to sleep with the lights on!--and for a more light-hearted offering, there's "Clattery Teeth." Each story here is likely to have its fans; you'll have to read them all to find your own favorite.

Like most people, I own a stack of Stephen King books, and for some reason I've never gotten around to review the ones I liked best, which makes me sort of ashamed of myself, since I keep saying that the quality of King's writing is often underrated. This is not the usual Stephen King book, this one is actually pretty mellow, compared to Carrie, for example, (that was the first of his books I read, and I hadn't read anything that gory before), but it still has its share of scary stuff, like The Ten O' Clock people, and The Moving Finger (after I read that one I really felt kind of nervous about the bathroom sink for a few days). I only could't get through the essay at the end, Head Down, because I don't understand absolutely anything about baseball. My favorites were Dedication, The End of the Whole Mess, The Ten O'Clock people, The House on Maple Street, and Popsy (oddly funny if you think about it). I suppose hardcore fans of King's horror will be sort of confused by this book, but I think any lover of short stories, like me, is bound to enjoy it.

This collection of stories from King spans several genres most notable of which are the vampire stories (Popsy, The Night Flier), human-eating frogs (sort of gives a new twist to the term "raining cats and dogs"), a hand in the drain which had me looking at the drain in my shower room, a city of famous dead musicians and his own foray into sportswriting in "Head Down" where he describes the exploits of his son's Little League Team in Bangor Maine (I think he's more than qualified to cover his favorite Red Sox).

What makes King's writing particularly effective is that he tells tales of common people(like you and me) experiencing extraordinary things. When you put this book down, you can't help but wonder if the same thing will happen to you. I also have the sense that these stories were written for the sheer joy of writing regardless if it makes the author a quick buck.

While watching "Jeopardy" in his New York apartment, Howard Mitla hears the sound of a finger tap-tap-tapping in his bathroom sink. Is it coming from the drain? Why doesn't his wife notice anything wrong? Is this a job for Drano or a pair of hedge-clippers?

Mitla's situation can only mean one thing: We are in the world of Stephen King's imagination. This 1994 collection of King's shorter works is his most diverse ever, and while some, like the above story, "The Moving Finger," deliver King's typically creepy chills, there is also a Sherlock Holmes mystery, a poem, a journalistic account of his son's Little League team, even a religious parable. Not everything is terrific, but nearly everything works at least a little, and several approach the level of King's best writing.

My favorite is "Dedication," a very unsettling story about a woman's devotion to her son's literary success that shows both King the gutsy gross-out artist and weaver of gripping yarns. Even if it isn't exactly frightening, it is truly unnerving in the vein of "The Shining" and "The Dead Zone" and has one of King's best-ever endings, both clever and sympathetic.

Speaking of "The Dead Zone," the obnoxious supermarket tabloid reporter from that book, Richard Dees, is back on the job chasing a vampire who flies with the aid of a Cessna Skymaster, knocking off the staffs of backwater airports in "The Night Flier," a King tale in the classic macabre mold. My favorite of these spookier stories is "Chattery Teeth," about the closest thing to "Evil Dead 2" in short-story form. King often tries to be funny in his writing, but he is seldom as successful at it as he is here.

A couple of stories ("It Grows On You", "Sneakers") begin well before petering out. Others, like "Umney's Last Case" and "Dolan's Cadillac," take too long to get started but reward the patient reader, at least somewhat. I can't think of but one or two stories here that were utterly lame, except maybe "My Pretty Pony," a story about aging, and "You Know They Got A Hell Of A Band" which telegraphs its punches from a mile away.

But the others are good reads, even the Little League article, "Head Down," which manages to be something more than the product of an indulgent father who happens to be a talented writer. There's a neat Elmore Leonard pastiche, "The Fifth Quarter," along with apparent nods to H.P. Lovecraft ("Crouch End"), Roald Dahl ("The House On Maple Street") and Raymond Chandler ("Umney's Last Case").

The best of these is a Ray Bradbury-like story called "Suffer The Little Children" about a schoolteacher who doles out more than detentions to her young charges. I thought the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Doctor's Case," was a nice try, though I can't picture Watson and Holmes discoursing about "ponces" the way they do here.

Some readers may find this less satisfying than other King short-story collections, particularly his first, "Night Shift." But "Night Shift" had a couple of clunkers, too, and if "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" fails at times, it does so for the sake of King advancing his craft. And if you find stories like "The Ten O'Clock People" and "Rainy Season" to be anything less than classic King shorts like "The Mangler" and "Quitters, Inc.," you are kidding yourself more than a little bit.

I've always loved short stories, particularly horror fiction, so as you can imagine how much I looked forward to reading Stephen King's 'Nightmares and Dreamscapes'. The only reservation I had was that I had already read much of the book in other anthologies - and in no case had I been overly impressed - but surely there would be something new to make the book worth buying? Boy was I disappointed! Most of the stories (e.g. Popsy, My Little Pony) are so weak that I doubt they would have been published at all without the Stephen King name. My guess is that they were rejects he had been hanging on to for years, until he could use them as filler when he was short of original ideas. There is NOTHING here that comes near the standard set by 'Skeleton Crew' or 'Night Shift' or even 'Four Past Midnight'. Nightmares indeed ...

As the prolific Mr. King mentions in his notes, he wishes to keep us uneasy and wary. He is a junkyard dog in that we should not fall into routine and expect the same horror story over and over.
Pieces like "Umney's Last Case" and "My Pretty Pony" seem more like exercises in different styles than the reader is used to. There is also the non-fiction piece "Head Down" which is about a Little League baseball championship from many years back.
Don't get me wrong, if you a fan of Stephen King's writing (not just of horror), this is a good book. There are also notes in the back which explain where he go the idea for most of the stories. For aspiring writers, this is probably not a detailed as you'd like, but is good nonetheless.
For diehard horror fans, there are a few stories that will chill you as only Stephen King can, but quite a bit of this book may feel unnecessary. I would recommend borrowing the book.

Ten O'Clock People, Rainy Season, Crouch End and Suffer the Children, this collection deserves a very solid 4 stars. These are solid and pure horror stories which are evidences that no one writes horror that good when King decides to write it the way he used to write when he started his career and these four stories (the first one almost a novella)are a showcase of everything that King makes good for a superp (horror) story: Spooky themes, well rounded characters even in one or two brushes of sentences, absurdly funny but to-the-point similes (very unlike that syrupy Koontz) King is a master of and a bizarre way of storytelling strangely addictive which I have yet to find in any author around the globe. While three of the stories may be tributes to other masters, Ten O Clock People is unashamedly King with over-the-top situations and with an unusual bubble of laughter when you are sweating through a chill-land waiting for the demons to rise and attack.

Among other stories of course there are some clunkers but who has not? Even Poe had some clunkers but in time they are filtered through the history so King deserves its clunkers. But do not worry this collection embraces so many that apart from those four "five star" ones, everyone will find something, mostly in Dolan's Cadillac and the Moving Finger. There is a story dealing with how the world comes to an end (I cannot remember its long name)it is highly spooky and another proof that King is not a good storyteller but a very INTELLIGENT one also.

This third collection convinces me once more that King is a very skilled author and it actually requires to have some literary taste and intelligence to grasp his essentials. Kudos from a four-year fan who used to think King was a mere schlock- meister.

This is the first Stephen King book I actually had a hard time not putting down. This book is a mix of good and bad, but the good doesn't seem strong enough to carry the burgeoning weight of the bad stories. Get this one if you like SK's short stories (frankly, I'm not wild about them, I think King excels at the longer tales).

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! ;-)