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This makes it an ideal vehicle for enticing neophytes into reading their first e-book.
— Wall Street Journal
Dubbed the Master of the Macabre for his domination of the horror genre, King has also written bestselling thrillers, mysteries, fantasies, novellas, and short stories, many of which have been turned into blockbuster films and miniseries (A partial list includes Carrie, The Shining, The Stand,, Misery, It, The Shawshank Redemption, The Langoliers, Stand by Me, and The Green Mile). He also has two works of nonfiction to his credit: a gorgeously crafted memoir/scribbler's how-to (On Writing) and Faithful, a chronicle of the Boston Red Sox' stellar 2004 season, cowritten with Stewart O'Nan. In 2003, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
In between books, the indefatigable King performs in the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band that includes among its rotating personnel fellow authors Dave Barry and Amy Tan; attends as many Boston Red Sox games as is humanly possible; and contributes with his wife, Tabitha, to many local and national charities.
King is probably one of the most easily recognizable authors alive, and it's not just because of his string of bestsellers. King has appeared in a number of films based on his work, including Pet Semetary, Thinner, and The Stand.
If you've ever wondered why Stephen King has written several books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, there is actually a very simple explanation: King is so prolific that he felt it necessary to create an alter-ego so that he could publish more than one book a year. The name was a hastily hobbled together combination of writer Richard Stark (ironically, a pseudonym for Donald Westlake) and Randy Bachman of rock group Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
Anything at all.
I was a junior at the University of Maine when Mrs. McCurdy called about ma. My father died when I was too young to remember him and I was an only child, so it was just Alan and Jean Parker against the world. Mrs. McCurdy, who lived just up the road, called at the apartment I shared with three other guys. She had gotten the number off the magnetic minder-board ma kept on her fridge.
"'Twas a stroke," she said in that long and drawling Yankee accent of hers. "Happened at the restaurant. But don't you go flyin off all half-cocked. Doctor says it wa'ant too bad. She's awake and she's talkin."
"Yeah, but is she making sense?" I asked. I was trying to sound calm, even amused, but my heart was beating fast and the living room suddenly felt too warm. I had the apartment all to myself; it was Wednesday, and both my roomies had classes all day.
"Oh, ayuh. First thing she said was for me to call you but not to scare you. That's pretty sensible, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah." But of course I was scared. When someone calls and tells you your mother's been taken from work to the hospital in an ambulance, how else are you supposed to feel?
"She said for you to stay right there and mind your schoolin until the weekend. She said you could come then, if you didn't have too much studyin t'do."
Sure, I thought. Fat chance. I'd just stay here in this ratty, beer-smelling apartment while my mother lay in a hospital bed a hundred miles south, maybe dying.
"She's still a young woman, your ma," Mrs. McCurdy said. "It's just that she's let herself get awful heavy these last few years, and she's got the hypertension. Plus the cigarettes. She's goin to have to give up the smokes."
I doubted if she would, though, stroke or no stroke, and about that I was right -- my mother loved her smokes. I thanked Mrs. McCurdy for calling.
"First thing I did when I got home," she said. "So when are you coming, Alan? Sad'dy?" There was a sly note in her voice that suggested she knew better.
I looked out the window at a perfect afternoon in October: bright blue New England sky over trees that were shaking down their yellow leaves onto Mill Street. Then I glanced at my watch. Twenty past three. I'd just been on my way out to my four o'clock philosophy seminar when the phone rang.
"You kidding?" I asked. "I'll be there tonight."
Her laughter was dry and a little cracked around the edges -- Mrs. McCurdy was a great one to talk about giving up the cigarettes, her and her Winstons. "Good boy! You'll go straight to the hospital, won't you, then drive out to the house?"
"I guess so, yeah," I said. I saw no sense in telling Mrs. McCurdy that there was something wrong with the transmission of my old car, and it wasn't going anywhere but the driveway for the foreseeable future. I'd hitchhike down to Lewiston, then out to our little house in Harlow if it wasn't too late. If it was, I'd snooze in one of the hospital lounges. It wouldn't be the first time I'd ridden my thumb home from school. Or slept sitting up with my head leaning against a Coke machine, for that matter.
"I'll make sure the key's under the red wheelbarrow," she said. "You know where I mean, don't you?"
"Sure." My mother kept an old red wheelbarrow by the door to the back shed; in the summer it foamed with flowers. Thinking of it for some reason brought Mrs. McCurdy's news home to me as a true fact: my mother was in the hospital, the little house in Harlow where I'd grown up was going to be dark tonight -- there was no one there to turn on the lights after the sun went down. Mrs. McCurdy could say she was young, but when you're just twenty-one yourself, forty-eight seems ancient.
"Be careful, Alan. Don't speed."
My speed, of course, would be up to whoever I hooked a ride with, and I personally hoped that whoever it was would go like hell. As far as I was concerned, I couldn't get to Central Maine Medical Center fast enough. Still, there was no sense worrying Mrs. McCurdy.
"I won't. Thanks."
"Welcome," she said. "Your ma's going to be just fine. And won't she be some happy to see you."
I hung up, then scribbled a note saying what had happened and where I was going. I asked Hector Passmore, the more responsible of my roommates, to call my adviser and ask him to tell my instructors what was up so I wouldn't get whacked for cutting -- two or three of my teachers were real bears about that. Then I stuffed a change of clothes into my backpack, added my dog-eared copy of Introduction to Philosophy, and headed out. I dropped the course the following week, although I had been doing quite well in it. The way I looked at the world changed that night, changed quite a lot, and nothing in my philosophy textbook seemed to fit the changes. I came to understand that there are things underneath, you see -- underneath -- and no book can explain what they are. I think that sometimes it's best to just forget those things are there. If you can, that is.
Copyright © 2000 by Stephen King
PW Talks with Ralph Vincinanza
Ralph Vicinanza is the literary agent who arranged for the e-publication of Stephen King's Riding the Bullet.
PW: Why is Stephen King publishing an e-book?
RV: We had planned, in 1999, on my doing a deal for the electronic publication of a bridge story between The Talisman and that novel's sequel, which Peter Straub and Stephen King are writing now. I think we'll still go forward with that. But I would like to see that done closer to when the book will be published, which probably won't happen until mid-2001. So I said to Steve, "It would be nice to get an idea of what this market is like now." He said, "Let me think about it," and then he came back the next day and said, "I think I have a story that's perfect for this." I thought it was a really good story in terms of subject matter, but also in terms of length. I didn't want something that would overwhelm the reader, and its length is one reason why we were able to put such a nice price on it. We don't want the price to be any kind of a barrier-and there were no production costs.
PW: It's no surprise that it's Stephen King who's the first really high-profile author to publish electronically. But it is a bit surprising to see S&S involved. Why didn't he go to a bona fide e-publisher, or publish the story on his own?
RV: That was my call. I have been taking meetings with a number of e-book publishers and people who have Web sites. Stephen King has credibility. Stephen King has a huge readership and a cachet all his own. He's a brand name. Many of these companies are new companies-even the ones that have considerable financing are new companies. If Stephen King chose one over the other, that would give that one an imprimatur that may not be deserved. We don't know how this technology is going to pan out. There are lots of people who would pay enormous amounts of money to attract King to do business with them. I have been in meetings where CEOs have said to me, "We will give him 40% or 50% of our stock just to have a regular business with him." But that's not what we were interested in. We were interested in being published electronically in all of the various formats available on all of the various platforms. And S&S has been very aggressive in pursuing relationships with these people. It's important that people don't allow their paranoia to get the best of them. Electronic books and downloading from the Internet is a new and exciting way to present writers. I don't think it's going to destroy the publishing industry. It's very much like the development of the mass-market paperback. Hardcover publishers went crazy back then, thinking, "Oh my God, we're going to be run out of business." You were going to have the same books out there for very cheap prices. But that's not what happened.
PW: But there is a major difference. Now any author can go and post material online, for almost cost.
RV: The problem with any author publishing on the Web is, how do you get readers to go to that Web site? I think that publishers will remain very important as portals, saying, "We offer books by...." Authors like Stephen King and John Grisham and Tom Clancy are in a unique position in the sense that they are portals themselves. It won't surprise anyone to hear that these men, through their writing, have earned enough money to buy publishers if they really wanted to do it themselves. I don't think Stephen King wants to be a publisher. I think that, if he'd wanted to, he would have been able to buy Putnam several years ago, and not have Pearson buy Putnam.
PW: Riding the Bullet is encrypted so that it not only can't be copied, it can't be printed out. Why?
RV: On the Web, you can download material, copy it and send it to hundreds of people. The purpose of the encryption is that, when the material is downloaded, if I try to send it on to someone else, or have somebody download it into their own e-reader or Palm, or to print it out, the file will know that it's been downloaded already, and will corrupt.
PW: I wonder how long it will take before the story appears illicitly on the Web. Because you know someone can have it on their Rocket and type it from there on to their laptop.
RV: You can do that with a short story now. And people have. The law eventually will have to monitor activity like that. But right now, for somebody to sit down, and to spend an hour or two typing it, rather than spending $2.50--I wouldn't get that. We want everybody involved with electronic books to enjoy this. I think it's going to be a tremendous boost in the arm for this industry.
Anonymous
Posted October 21, 2002
A good bit of spokey material. We can always count on King for that. I recommend this book King fan or not. It's entertaining and well written. Makes you feel like you experienced something weird with the main character.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This is a great short story (44 pages roughly), but don't let the shortness scare you away, it's a great story that has a perfect ratio of creepy to keep you reading through it until the end.
I wish it were actually a longer story, but the plot was great and it read perfectly, so making it longer would probably ruin the story.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 27, 2002
Ride the Bullet is the first ebook that I've bought. And it's a great one to start with. Although this story is told in very little pages, the plot is quite interesting and tells a big story. I recommend this one to every ebook reader out there.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 4, 2002
I was skeptical about buying an e-book, thought that they would be boring and hard to read. Boy was I surprised! King is usualy enthralling self. The story is quick and full of surprises. King never forgets to add the human touch to his stories, and this one is no different. Definately read this story.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 25, 2001
Fast paced and frightening little story. The editing is excellent; the scenes perfect. Oh yes read it by all means!
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 6, 2004
relly great his best
2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 26, 2000
I looked forward to reading Riding The Bullet and found the beginning very good, the middle fascinating, and the end a bit of a let-down. Usually, King's horror stories build up to quite a climax, leaving the reader spellbound. Unfortunately, not it this case. King proves that he can still write horror, and that he is a master at dream description. His main character is well written, and in a short span, the reader knows quite a bit about him. It's kind of frustrating...the first two thirds of Riding The Bullet crackle with suspense and brilliant writing, making the so-so ending that much more nerve-racking.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.dreamlessdays
Posted January 5, 2010
This book was a quick read but still good. I think that the shortness of the story took away from the emotional impact, however, I think that if Stephin King would have tried to draw it out to a longer length the story wouldn't have been as good as it was.
It was definitely worth purchasing and more than worth the time to read.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 13, 2000
I wonder how much his accident has affected him? This isn't brilliant horror but it's full of the classic King style. Ending's a little weak, otherwise more stars. Horror fits well on the E-Book, in my view. I've been buying more and more this way.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 12, 2000
There is always simething good and intriguing about a Stephen King work. He's started something great here.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 19, 2000
This was great, especially in light of it's circumstances of development. Some think it had a letdown for an ending... But isn't that how most dreams end, just kind of fading with the light of dawn? After all, if they didn't, would we survive them? I give it a '5', 'cause I enjoyed it on screen in about how long it took to download it!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 2, 2000
This is a good story with a special ending. It's a thoughtful tale, a quick 'page turner' and told with a sensitivity I found refreshing. I was never bored for a sec....and isn't that what we all REALLY like?
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 22, 2000
I have read several of Stephen's book and am usually impressed with not only the interesting subject matter but the way the writing takes me away into another world. I was very disappointed in this book. I read it in my Franklin Rocket eBook and felt it was a very derivative work and we deserved more from such a build-up. Hope to see more eBooks though.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 17, 2000
A very good read! I am not the biggest Stephen King fan,however, this story might make me one. I finished it in about 3 hours. No wasted words or storyline. A very tight and well written story. I recommend this one. Like someone mentioned in another review, this is a great first read for people who are just gettin into ebooks.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 30, 2012
Great read
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 27, 2012
Fun is fun and done is done...
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I like Stephen King. and this was a good book to read. Worth the money
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 30, 2011
Excellent short read. Never put it down.
Anonymous
Posted December 16, 2011
Not sure you can call this typical Steven King but it certainly was a quick, good read. If you are a fan of King then you shouldn't pass this one up. Easy read for a sleepless night.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.lilyskye
Posted October 14, 2011
The story was okay but I didn't love it. I don't think it was worth the money though. I was a bit dissappointed, for I bought it with high expectations. I have a friend who really loves Kings' books so I thought I'd cheack him out. I really thought this would be scarier and more exciting. I don't think I'm going to be reading any Stephen King books in the near future. :(
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
Riding the Bullet is "a ghost story in the grand manner" from the bestselling author of Bag of Bones, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and The Green Mile -- a short story about a young man who hitches a ride with a driver from the other side.