Blood and Smoke

Thoroughly King.

Enter the Gotham Cafe, have lunch, experience what our protagonist in the first of three typically deep King stories is suffering. Steve Davis has quit smoking. Bad timing. His wife is asking for a divorce. They meet at the Gotham Cafe with his wife's lawyer for lunch to discuss terms. What follows is far worse than any craving for a cigarette or losing a wife can feel like. And a story you will not soon forget. In the second story, '1408', Mike Enslin is a writer whose books are about all the nights he has spent in supposedly 'haunted' houses, castles, graveyards. Now he is to spend the night in room 1408 of the Dolphin hotel. He doesn't believe anything different will happen to him here than what happened to him in all those other 'haunted' places, namely, nothing. But 'nothing' is far from what happens one dark night in room 1408 and Mike Enslin will not come out the same man who went into that room. In the third story 'In the Deathroom', Stephen King's talent for storytelling will have you believing that yes, you can feel the cold gray tile on the floor in this room, you can hear the steady hum of the torture machine, and you can smell the all pervasive odor of death that awaits a man named Fletcher, held captive here and being forced to tell all. In all three tales, told in Stephen King's own voice, the main character begins as one person, and ends up as quite another. All three men are changed profoundly, and all three men can link this change to smoking, or the cessation of. A brilliant trio of Stephen Kingness, you will at once find yourself grossed out at the Gotham Cafe, frightened to death in room 1408, and scared but hopeful in 'the Deathroom'.

Entertaining stories for the car ride

I am not much of a fan of audiobooks but this one is not too bad. The stories are entertaining and chilling also. '1408' is a great story, the best of the collection. The one bad thing I must say is that the CDs are not indexed at all. Each story has one track. Therefore, if you take the CD out and then put it back in, you have to hold the FF button to find where you left off (unless you remember to look at the timer on your CD player).

Mostly Smoke

Armistead Maupin recently said that he writes as if his story is going to be spoken. I can't honestly say that King does the same. His audio only work doesn't translate well to audio; I think that reading his type of writing adds a lot to the experience and that these stories would be the same. However, I think that King should think twice about reading his own work again. He is bad at women's voices and foreign accents, as well as having a somewhat whiney voice in general. In summary, the stories are good, but would be much better read than listened to.

Great for Keeping Down Road Rage!!!!!

Great for those boring rides to work! Just listening to Stephen King narrate his own book was treat! I laughed my way to work with the first half of the first story & was happy to get back to it on the way home. The sound effects were an added 'perk' & the packaging of the tapes was a 'giggle' too. I will be buying more of Stephen King's audio books in the future!!

Son of Jor-El, kneel before Zod!

Three (3) absolutely CHILLING tales from the master of horror, ONLY available in this audio edition. But that's just the icing on the cake...the book is read by the author, Stevie King himself! Most reviewers probably focused on the content of the stories, but it is truly King's commanding voice that breathes the life into these assorted tales of horror. True, his lisp can be a tad annoying when he attempts to say words like 'Mississippi' and 'swiss cheese', but after 5 minutes, you'll be hooked. Steven's long-publicized battle with tourette's syndrome seems to be improving as his ticks and screams are barely audible. Personally, I think the yelps are an added element to the ghoulish tales. In the third story, 'Gloria Estefan is a drag queen', there is an undocumented cameo reader: Steven Hawking! His robo-voice is the Yin to King's girlish Yang. All in all, true Steven King and Bruce Willis fans MUST give these stories a listen.

The Review Above Mine Is FALSE!!!!

This is one of the greatest collection of stories I have ever heared. My favorite is '1408' it is spine chilling and has a great ending. 'Lunch At The Gotham Cafe' is funnier rather than scary but it is a good story. 'In The Deathroom' is also very good.

One of the Worse Book in Stephen Kings Career

This book is not as good as people or reviews say. He has written many other great books. Most of the others are scarier and more thrilling.

Nobody smokes like King

I enjoyed these audio treats, though I believe the first two were the strongest. King's narration gave them a personal touch and his flare for foreign accents is ... well, you'll have to decide for yourself. Many years from now, it will be nice to have King's voice preserved for posterity. So many of the great ones are not. A good listen.

Blood, Smoke and FEAR

I thoroughly enjoyed this series on tape!! I was listening to it in my car on the way to work one night and actually jumped in my seat. The imagination, again, gets an incredible workout as with all of King's work.

Great fun!!

This collection was very entertaining. Vintage Stephen King. '1408' scared the living daylights out of me! I had to turn it off because it was too dark in the house. Bravo!

What a wild ride!

I've never used audio books before but this was great. The stories had thrills and chills. Vintage Stephen King, who ,just like fine wine gets better and better over time.

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