An uneven collection, but King has plainly had a ball writing these stories.
King (Duma Key, 2008, etc.) returns with his first volume of short stories in six years.
The author explains in his introduction that the opportunity to edit the annual Best American Short Stories anthology reignited his interest in the form, which had supported him when the fledgling novelist submitted stories to men’s magazines. His afterword provides contextual comment on each of the 13 selections, including the revelation that “The Cat from Hell”—about a killer feline and the hit man hired to bump it off—dates back 30 years to those pulp-fiction days. Yet most of the rest are recent, allowing King to exorcise demons (the fear of being trapped in a porta-potty in “A Very Tight Space,” the ambivalence about interfering in a violent domestic quarrel in “Rest Stop”) and dreams (the marital entropy of “Harvey’s Dream,” the mushroom cloud of “Graduation Afternoon”). Though much of this lacks the literary ambition of King’s recent novels, “Stationary Bike” provides a compelling portrait of creative psychosis—how a metaphor suggested by a doctor to describe an artist’s high cholesterol inspires a painting that becomes the artist’s reality—while the contagious obsessive compulsive disorder in “N.” ranks with King’s best work (it is also the newest story here). There’s also an obligatory 9/11 response (“The Things They Left Behind”) and a story that blurs the distinction between the living and the dead (the opening “Willa”). Like episodes from The Twilight Zone, many of the stories hinge upon “a small but noticeable hole in the column of reality.” As King writes, “[I]t’s how we see the world that keeps the darkness beyond the world at bay.” And he tells the reader, “I hope at least one of [the stories] keeps you awake for awhile after the lights are out.”
An uneven collection, but King has plainly had a ball writing these stories.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4165-8408-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
A short preface by Philip Young explains the raison d'etre of this presentation of the Nick Adams stories which here are arranged chronologically and therefore provide a continuity — from child to adolescent to soldier to writer — and reveal the character developmentally. There are eight new stories constituting 40% of the book and extending its interest as unpublished rather than merely republished Hemingway.
Pub Date: April 17, 1972
ISBN: 0684169401
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Visionary speculative stories that will change the way readers see themselves and the world around them: This book delivers...
Exploring humankind's place in the universe and the nature of humanity, many of the stories in this stellar collection focus on how technological advances can impact humanity’s evolutionary journey.
Chiang's (Stories of Your Life and Others, 2002) second collection begins with an instant classic, “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” which won Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novelette in 2008. A time-travel fantasy set largely in ancient Baghdad, the story follows fabric merchant Fuwaad ibn Abbas after he meets an alchemist who has crafted what is essentially a time portal. After hearing life-changing stories about others who have used the portal, he decides to go back in time to try to right a terrible wrong—and realizes, too late, that nothing can erase the past. Other standout selections include “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” a story about a software tester who, over the course of a decade, struggles to keep a sentient digital entity alive; “The Great Silence,” which brilliantly questions the theory that humankind is the only intelligent race in the universe; and “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny,” which chronicles the consequences of machines raising human children. But arguably the most profound story is "Exhalation" (which won the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Short Story), a heart-rending message and warning from a scientist of a highly advanced, but now extinct, race of mechanical beings from another universe. Although the being theorizes that all life will die when the universes reach “equilibrium,” its parting advice will resonate with everyone: “Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so.”
Visionary speculative stories that will change the way readers see themselves and the world around them: This book delivers in a big way.Pub Date: May 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-94788-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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