Skeleton Crew by Stephen King – Part Two

Part Two of this review of the Skeleton Crew will now continue. Here’s the other 11 piecesthat comprise the whole of the book. You can find Part One of the Skeleteon Crew review right there.So sit back, relax and read on down…

"Beachworld" – Here’s another science fiction story with a horror twist. It was first
published in Weird Tales in 1985, just a year before Skeleton Crew was published. The story involves a starship crashing into a planet made entirely of sand. Only Rand and Shapiro, both crew members of the Federal vessel, survive the disaster. They each have a different approach to their situation. For some reason, this one seems somehow to be a rebellion against the whole beach fetish in the 80’s in a very vague way. I remember the title had me expecting something totally different from what I ended up reading, but also that it was a fun, if quick, read.

"The Reaper’s Image" – This story, centering around an antique mirror, was first published in Startling Mystery Stories in 1969. In this one we’ve got the antiques collector Johnson Spangler visiting the Samuel Claggert Memorial Private Museum, basically a sprawling mansion full of the kinds of items that’d make a junk shop dealer salivate. Spangler has come to buy Delver’s looking-glass, an Elizabethan mirror of much renown. Of course, the mirror is you know, haunted. You can probably guess fairly accurately what one might see within said mirror just by reading the title. I enjoyed the atmosphere King creates in this one because it ends up feeling like a longer story than it actually is – in a good way! That or maybe I’m just fond of all that old junk. Hard to say, really.

"Nona" – First published in the 1978 anthology Shadows, this is the tale of a college
dropout running from the shipwreck of his life so far. He’s thumbing it somewhere when he encounters an enchanting and adventurous girl who’s known as Nona. Of course, straight romance isn’t really why we read Stephen King. Don’t worry he delivers quite a tale that’s a damned fun read. You might find yourself as surprised by where the new couple’s adventures lead as I was. In the end, they’re so alike that it’s clear they were meant for one another…

"For Owen" – The second poem in the book, this one is dedicated to Mr. King’s own son. It’s a rather whimsical piece that captures the wonderous imaginings of childhood. It concerns father and son walking to school together as the little boy weaves the tale of a school full of… well fruitlike people. Or maybe it’s peoplelike fruit. It’s just thirty-four lines of free verse, so if you’re not into it you don’t have to deal with it for too long. Personally, I thought it sort of broke up the flow of the book, but I do believe that the intent was not just to memorialize Owen at a young age. I think it was placed there as a reminder that even the grand minds of authors like King begin with childhood fantasies just like this one before the grow into the adult versions are capable of earning a person’s livelihood and fame.

"Survivor Type" – Originally, this story appeared in a 1982 horror anthology called Terrors, which was edited by Charles L. Grant. It’s written in a diary style that serves its purpose extremely well. This is the tale of one Richard Pine, a medical school dropout who’s turned to smuggling heroin while on a cruise. Like the venerable Robinson Crusoe, he too finds himself marooned on a desert isle. A very small desert isle where he is the largest occupant. That poses a problem because when you’re at the top of the food chain, it’s not as glorious as it might at first seem. If you combine that with the whole issue of having a large supply of heavy narcotics, well, you can probably see the dangers awaiting Mr. Pine. The diary will detail what he does and over time, you’ll learn what happened to him. This is a highly disturbing story that you may want to avoid if you’re a bit weak in the stomach. It’s beyond grisly and yet at heart, a psychological thriller. The saying goes, "You are what you eat."

Perhaps poor Richard is just dyslexic.

"Uncle Otto’s Truck" – Yankee magazine (which is not a "men’s magazine" as I’d thought, but rather a publication specializing in New England life) first publishes this story in 1983.

It’s about a dilapidated truck that’s been abandoned by its owners after it fell on a Castle Rock businessman by the name of George McCutcheon. Otto Schenck has since become absolutely obsessed with the vehicle since that event and this is the tale of his madness. You get to revel in the terror of a Christine-like nightmare of a truck creeping steadily towards poor old Otto.

The artist Glenn Chadbourne will be bringing this story to The Secretary of Dreams, a
collection of comics based on Stephen King’s short fiction. It’s just been published by
Cemetary Dance this summer, in fact. It’s selling like crazy already, which I imagine is due to the awesome artwork so I’ll provide the link to their site at the end of this review.

"Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)" – I’ve never personally utilized the services of a milkman (don’t be sick!), but I’ve seen enough black and white TV shows to know what they’re about. A bit like the postman, if you actually had to rely on him to deliver your daily sustenance.

Obviously there’s a lot of trust here that things aren’t being… tampered with. Spike
Milligan is a milkman who’s about to break some trust. His customers aren’t going to get milk this morning, they’re going to get a wild assortment of unique "prizes". It’s definitely a fun read, even if it is fairly disturbing.

"Big Wheels: A Tale of The Laundry Game (Milkman #2)" – This is the sequel to the previous story, yet it was first published in 1982’s New Terrors 2, an anthology edited by Ramsey Campbell. Spike is still ye olde milkmane, but there’s a couple other characters involved, too. These two are focused solely on two goals: getting a car licensed before midnight and drinking themselves a few yards past completely plowed. Of course, the narratives must meet, atleast by the end. It gets weird and it’s a great read just to see the continuation of Spike alone, not to mention the additional boneheads. Written the way only a true drinker could do, I found this one to be quite a good story overall and a bit faster paced than some.

"Gramma" – Published first in Weird Book magazine in 1984, this story is about a young boy named George. He’s a kid who’s been left alone with his grandmother during a stereotypical dark and stormy night. That in itself is creepy enough, but when you add in the twist that lil Georgie’s gramma gained some voodoo powers by reading some unspeakable ancient texts? Well, it all gets just a little Lovecraftian. Clearly, it’s a tale destined (if not designed) for The Twilight Zone and it was in fact an episode in 1985 with its screenplay having been written by Harlan Ellison. King always excels at realistically painting childhood fears and if you doubt that, this story will paint it to you. If you were left alone as a kid or had creepy grandparents, this one may dredge up a whole lotta icky memories. If you’re bent the way I am, you’ll love it!

"The Ballad of The Flexible Bullet" – This one is probably more of a novella than a short
story. It was originally published in 1984 by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The gist of the story is that an editor and a writer meet. The writer is a bit weird, but the editor takes it in stride. Afterall, artist-types have their quirks, right? Well, this writer certainly tests the boundaries of eccentricity by sharing that he’s got "fornits" dusting his typewriter with magic dust. Fairy elf-type things. It’s incredibly good with plenty of humor but just enough realistic craziness to keep you a bit unnerved overall. This is probably one of my absolute favorite stories ever penned by Stephen King. You’ll never guess how it all unwinds.

"The Reach" – Finally, we have another story published in that damned Yankee magazine. This time the year is 1981 and originally, this story was titled "Do the Dead Sing?" which sounds a bit better to me. The tale here is pretty much perfectly suited for closing the book. It revolves around an elderly woman known as Stella Flanders. She is the oldest living woman on an island off the coast of Maine which has the ironic name of Goat Island. She’s an old Goat Island resident – get it? So in this story we get to bear witness to the coldest winter on record which freezes "The Reach" (the water between the island and the coast) solid so that Stella is able to make like Jesus and walk across it. It last froze like this way back in 1938, so despite her age and health condition, Stella is going to make the trek to the Maine land. This is another of the stories to be included in The Secretary of Dreams collection.

In closing, I’ve got to say this book has many, many memorable tales. Much more than you or I really deserve. You should read it anyways, though. Oh! I promised a link to that cool graphic novel, didn’t I? Well, I suppose that’ll teach you to trust me, won’t it? Just teasing… here ya go:

Secretary of Dreams

So, I must now fade back into the gnarly shadows. Until such time as I spring upon you once more, I shamelessly remain GlowStormLion, hung like a rabbit with the libido of a moose!

Wait… I think I got that backwards… Damn you Richard Pine!

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

This article was donated from a site that no longer exists.

Originally published: June 26, 2006

"So which is better, the book or the movie?"

This seems to be a common question among fans of almost any book based on a film or vice-versa. Generally this question is followed by a raging argument. There are those purists who insist that no film can possibly do any book justice and there are those film fanatics who couldn’t possibly stand to read through an entire book just to get the story they feel they can get live on screen. I fall into a third category. I enjoy both. To me, it’s like comparing cats to dogs or apples to oranges. Both mediums have their strong and weak points when it comes to story telling entertainment value.

I saw Dreamcatcher the movie before I ever read the book. I enjoyed the hell out of the movie and you can be sure I’ll review it right here on Happy Horror in the not so distant future. When I first got a copy of the book from the library, I wasn’t entirely thrilled. I was worried that knowing the basics of the plot might ruin the joys I normally experience from the first time I read a book or watch a movie.

I couldn’t have been more wrong, strangely enough…

Now, Dreamcatcher is not what I would consider typical Stephen King fare – in a way. I wouldn’t normally associate Stephen King with a more science-fiction angle. Yes he’s done it and yes, it’s been fairly good in my experience, but usually he has a more traditional monster or ghosts or generally messed up human beings. On the other hand, the setting of Derry, Maine and a group of four close friends (all male), is indeed right up King’s alley. Beav, Henry, Pete and Jonesy will most likely all feel quite familiar to King fans. It’s easy to get into the rhythm of the story.

Rather than ruin the story of the book I’d like to use this review to highlight a few things. One of the primary characters in the book is a boy with Down’s Syndrome. It seems that many times authors will employ a ‘non-traditional’ character more for shock value or sadly, in exploitative ways. I didn’t find this to be the case with Duddits in Dreamcatcher. King shows a realistic sensitivity to the relationship between the four boys and Duddits which allows the story to come alive in a much more believable way. There’s humor, but not mockery. There’s observation without over analyzation. In short, it’s tasteful.

For such a long book (to me, at least), Dreamcatcher isn’t a slog of a read. Granted, I read it each night by streetlight in a parked car during the late Fall so it could happen that I had a unique reading experience. It certainly makes the book a bit creepier than it might have been if I’d read it from within the safety of a warm, well-lit room. Rest assured that the villain of the story is exceedingly disturbing in a very clever way. Seeing a new twist on a often over-used archetype like the vampire, mummy or alien is always a pleasure. You’ll have to read the book to see which of these the bad guy turns out to be.

If you’re looking for a good book that will take a bit of time but entertain you the whole way through, I can definitely recommend Dreamcatcher. The story is sound, the characters are believable and the villains (yes, there’s more than one) lend themselves to a solid 4 out of 5, as far as a rating goes. Oh… did I mention there was an element of conspiracy here, too? You betcha and that’s the sort of thing that makes a general horror story grow from a jumper/cringer right into the big leagues of great noveldom. Check it out, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it.

Until next I attempt to arrange letters into words and words into coherent thoughts, this has been GlowStormLion expressing universal truths at less than half the price of my competitors!

In Defense of Richard Laymon

It has come to my attention that several people consider Richard Laymon to have been misogynistic in his writings. Well, I’m here to set the record straight from my point of view (Note that I am in no way an offical spokesperson for the late writer just a long-time, concerned fan).

It is true that many of Laymon’s heroines find themseleves in less than ideal circumstances. It’s true, also, that most of the antagonistic males in his stories could definitely fall under the misogynistic umbrella. However, it is the circumstances these antagonists set up for these heroines that make for the best stories: their experiences toughen them, make them stronger and better prepared for the final battle.

As an example I point to the previously reviewed In the Dark. (Editor’s note: We will be re-posting this article soon as part of our site re-vamp and a link will be provided. Thank you!) Our heroine, through the course of the games that M.O.G. puts her through, becomes stronger and better able to handle herself as the games progress and become increasingly dangerous. It is my firm belief that had she been sent to one of the later games earlier she would have either backed out then or, worse, become a prisoner herself.

Next we look at Blood Games, where a group of five women find themselves in the heart of redneck country investigating the site of a major massacre. It’s through both the events at Totem Pole Lodge and through flashbacks that we find out how strong and capable these women are.

The fact of the matter is this: a strong story needs both a strong protagonist AND antagonist. Laymon’s protagonist just seem to be, more often than not, women. If we look to the history of horror movies there’s a long tradition of women being tested and overcoming their adversaries. Nancy Thompson from Nightmare on Elm Street, Laurie from Halloween, Sarah Connor from The Terminator (a fine example of how experience can change a person) and the list goes on. Oftentimes, the heroine will be alone as she fights the villain, her closest male lead having already been dispatched or incapacitated.

Well, that’s the end of my rant. My point and summary is this: Laymon put his women through hell not to torture them, but to make it all the more rewarding when the time comes for the final showdown. The worse they have it, the more you sympathize and the better you feel when the enemy gets his comeuppance.

Thanks for taking the time to read my effort to get this issue off my chest. I’d love to hear your opinions, too, because this site’s for all of us!

So until I wrestle with my next disturbing issue, this is Red Hawk signing off!