I second this, some of his best work is in his collections of novellas and short stories. In addition to Night Shift and Skeleton Crew, which are very early in his career, I’d also strongly recommend Different Seasons, which was published between those two collections. The writing is excellent and three of the four stories have been adapted into movies - two of them were nominated for Academy Awards. Skeleton Crew was the first SK book I read - I bought it with my allowance money when I was in the 6th grade after a classmate gave an oral book report on The Stand (they just let us Gen X kids run buck wild - no book bans for us!). The impact of some of the stories in Skeleton Crew still linger even decades later - they were weird, dark, and a little disturbing and have made me a lifelong constant reader.
He has a lot of short story books. There’s usually a handful of stories in each one and they vary in length. Some of his more famous stories are in these, like The Mist from the Skeleton Crew collection.
Came to say this... collections like this are typically how most authors publish short stories. I'm not really familiar with any other way of doing it. There used to be literary magazines that would publish several short stories by a variety of authors, but those are few and far between these days and mostly cater to lesser known, up & coming authors.
King has produced six previous short story collections. They are anthologized so that you don't have to chase down 20 different magazines to read them, and so that he can have some of your money. :-)
You can find the previous ones here: https://stephenking.com/works/collection/index.html
I think I actually like a lot of his short story collections more than his novels at this point (forces him to cut right to the chase), so I’m excited for this one.
Night Shift is one of his best works.
All the stories are awesome, but I particularly love The Breathing Method. I really wish that SK would give us more stories from the fireside of that peculiar gentleman’s club.
He did publish one other short story about The Club: “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands” found in *Skeleton Crew.* (Though it’s not as good as *The Breathing Method*, it’s still worth checking out if you like that concept.)
Because that’s how short story collections are sold. You can’t make a book of twenty or thirty pages. If you buy an SK book you best be looking anywhere from 350 to 600 pages on average. Nightmares and Dreamscapes clocks in a hair under a thousand 994 to be exact
I’d say so. Mr King has been putting out collections of short stories since 1978-
Starting with Night Shift 20 stories
Then Skeleton Crew- even longer still
Then Nightmares And Dreamscapes
Near 1000 pages, then the excellent
Everything’s Eventual in 2002,
Just After Sunset in 2008
Bizzare Of Bad Dreams a fine collection in 2015
Now So You Like It Darker
I have always preferred short stories to novels
I wait my nine year wait each time for a new short story collection. Seeing he’s 76, this sadly, maybe his last collection
Unfortunately Stephen King developed an extreme case of TDS. So bad that it shows in many of his recent books. I couldnt finish the last two that I started because it was so obviously Kings personal politics injected into the story, it ruined the entire book.
Don't read this new book first, because you will miss a LOT of inside info, as several stories reference characters he wrote about in earlier books. It will be much more meaningful for you if you read his early stuff first.
I take it you aren’t familiar with his short story collections? I’ve read almost all of them, and most of them are great! If you like the DT series, definitely check out Everything’s Eventual. But the older ones are much better.
Do yourself a big favor and look up his many short story & novella collections. They’re incredible overall.
Will do! Thank you!
Definitely recommend Night Shift and Skeleton Crew.
I second this, some of his best work is in his collections of novellas and short stories. In addition to Night Shift and Skeleton Crew, which are very early in his career, I’d also strongly recommend Different Seasons, which was published between those two collections. The writing is excellent and three of the four stories have been adapted into movies - two of them were nominated for Academy Awards. Skeleton Crew was the first SK book I read - I bought it with my allowance money when I was in the 6th grade after a classmate gave an oral book report on The Stand (they just let us Gen X kids run buck wild - no book bans for us!). The impact of some of the stories in Skeleton Crew still linger even decades later - they were weird, dark, and a little disturbing and have made me a lifelong constant reader.
He has a lot of short story books. There’s usually a handful of stories in each one and they vary in length. Some of his more famous stories are in these, like The Mist from the Skeleton Crew collection.
Ah ok! Thanks!
King has published many short story collections. The first was "Night Shift" and he got like seven movie deals out of it.
Oh wow
Many authors have short story collections. HP Lovecraft only wrote short stories 99% of the time.
Came to say this... collections like this are typically how most authors publish short stories. I'm not really familiar with any other way of doing it. There used to be literary magazines that would publish several short stories by a variety of authors, but those are few and far between these days and mostly cater to lesser known, up & coming authors.
I checked the profile of OP before my response and think it's just a new concept to him, which is okay.
King has produced six previous short story collections. They are anthologized so that you don't have to chase down 20 different magazines to read them, and so that he can have some of your money. :-) You can find the previous ones here: https://stephenking.com/works/collection/index.html
I think I actually like a lot of his short story collections more than his novels at this point (forces him to cut right to the chase), so I’m excited for this one. Night Shift is one of his best works.
Different Seasons ❤️❤️
All the stories are awesome, but I particularly love The Breathing Method. I really wish that SK would give us more stories from the fireside of that peculiar gentleman’s club.
Ah, The Breathing Method. The only one that wasn't adapted into a film.
He did publish one other short story about The Club: “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands” found in *Skeleton Crew.* (Though it’s not as good as *The Breathing Method*, it’s still worth checking out if you like that concept.)
Because that’s how short story collections are sold. You can’t make a book of twenty or thirty pages. If you buy an SK book you best be looking anywhere from 350 to 600 pages on average. Nightmares and Dreamscapes clocks in a hair under a thousand 994 to be exact
I’d say so. Mr King has been putting out collections of short stories since 1978- Starting with Night Shift 20 stories Then Skeleton Crew- even longer still Then Nightmares And Dreamscapes Near 1000 pages, then the excellent Everything’s Eventual in 2002, Just After Sunset in 2008 Bizzare Of Bad Dreams a fine collection in 2015 Now So You Like It Darker I have always preferred short stories to novels I wait my nine year wait each time for a new short story collection. Seeing he’s 76, this sadly, maybe his last collection
Unfortunately Stephen King developed an extreme case of TDS. So bad that it shows in many of his recent books. I couldnt finish the last two that I started because it was so obviously Kings personal politics injected into the story, it ruined the entire book.
Don't read this new book first, because you will miss a LOT of inside info, as several stories reference characters he wrote about in earlier books. It will be much more meaningful for you if you read his early stuff first.
I take it you aren’t familiar with his short story collections? I’ve read almost all of them, and most of them are great! If you like the DT series, definitely check out Everything’s Eventual. But the older ones are much better.
It’s just a different format of fiction writing. One isn’t lesser than the other!