Stewart O'Nan, Author, Stephen King, Author . Simon & Schuster $26 (432p) ISBN 978-0-7432-6752-6
Of all the books that will examine the Boston Red Sox's stunning come-from-behind 2004 ALCS win over the Yankees and subsequent World Series victory, none will have this book's warmth, personality or depth. Beginning with an e-mail exchange...
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Stewart O'Nan, Author, Stephen King, Author, Ron McLarty, Read by , read by Adam Grupper and Ron McLarty. Simon & Schuster Audio $49.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-3951-7
"Why do you suck so much?" O'Nan shouts at his TV. Until the 2004 baseball season, this had been the query of many a Boston Red Sox fan. But 2004 was not only the year in which they broke the "Curse of the Bambino," it was also...
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Robert Silverberg, Editor, Orson Scott Card, Author, Stephen King, Author Tor Books $27.95 (715p) ISBN 978-0-312-86787-4
Microcosmic glimpses of broadly imagined worlds and their larger-than-life characters distinguish this hefty volume of heavyweight fantasy. Silverberg collects 11 previously unpublished short ""novels"" by genre celebrities, each a window on a...
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Stephen King, Author . Scribner $28 (464p) ISBN 978-0-7432-3515-0
Eyebrows arched in literary circles when, in 1995, the New Yorker
published Stephen King's "The Man in the Black Suit," a scorchingly atmospheric tale of a boy's encounter with the Devil in backwoods Maine. The story went on to win...
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Stephen King, Author . Scribner $28 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7432-1137-6
A tinted review in adult Forecasts indicates a book that's of exceptional importance to our readers, but hasn't received a starred or boxed review.FROM A BUICK 8Stephen King. Scribner, $28 (368p) ISBN 0-7432-1137-5King, we learn in an author&
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Stephen King, Author , Pat Conroy, John Grisham, Peter Straub. Simon & Schuster Audio $20 (, unabridged, two cassettes, 2 hrs., $20 ISBN ) ISBN 978-0-7435-2736-1
Audiobook lovers know Frank Muller's voice well. The expert reader has recorded hundreds of novels, and his performances range from the side-splitting to the spine-tingling. He suffered severe head trauma and sustained multiple fractures after a
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Stephen King, Author . Hard Case Crime $5.99 (184p) ISBN 978-0-8439-5584-2
[Signature]
Reviewed by Orson Scott Card
The Hard Case Crime series is a wonderful idea: a mix of original and reprinted hard-boiled detective novels by some of the best writers in the field, packaged to look like lurid 1940s and 1950s thrillers....
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Stephen King, Author . Scribner $26.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9233-7
What if a pulse sent out through cell phones turned every person using one of them into a zombie-like killing machine? That's what happens on page six of King's latest, a glib, technophobic but compelling look at the end of civilization—
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Stephen King, Author . Scribner $28 (528p) ISBN 978-0-7432-8941-2
Following King's triumphant return to the world of gory horror in Cell
, the bestselling author proves he's still the master of supernatural suspense in this minimally bloody but disturbing and sorrowful love story set in rural Maine. Lisey&#
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Stephen King, Author Scribner $28 (611p) ISBN 978-1-4165-5251-2
In bestseller King’s well-crafted tale of possession and redemption, Edgar Freemantle, a successful Minnesota contractor, barely survives after the Dodge Ram he’s driving collides with a 12-story crane on a job site. While Freemantle...
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Stephen King, Author . Scribner $28 (367p) ISBN 978-1-4165-8408-7
In the introduction to his first collection of short fiction since Everything's Eventual
(2002), King credits editing Best American Short Stories
(2007) with reigniting his interest in the short form and inducing some of this volume's...
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Stephen King, Author , read by various readers. Simon & Schuster Audio $49.95 (
, unabridged, 13 CDs, 15 hrs., $49.95 ISBN ) ISBN 978-0-7435-7531-7
, unabridged, 13 CDs, 15 hrs., $49.95 ISBN ) ISBN 978-0-7435-7531-7
King’s latest anthology reminds readers that while his many works contains supernatural elements, his true skill as a writer lies in his ability to tap into the minds of his characters and, more importantly, his readers. The story topics are...
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Stephen King, Author Scribner $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-684-85352-9
""No one ever asks [popular novelists] about the language,"" Amy Tan once opined to King. Here's the uber-popular novelist's response to that unasked question a three-part book whose parts don't hang together much better than those of the...
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Stephen King, Author Viking $23.5 (320p) ISBN 978-0-670-84452-4
Described by the publisher as a companion piece to King's last book, Gerald's Game , this new novel surpasses it in every way, and shows that King, even without the trappings of horror and suspense, is a magnificent storyteller whose greatest...
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Stephen King, Author Viking $27.95 (704p) ISBN 978-0-670-86836-0
If the publishing industry named a Person of the Year, this year's winner would be Stephen King. Not only is he writing the first modern novel to be serialized in book form (The Green Mile), but with the publication on Sept. 24 of The Regulators (Dut
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Stephen King, Author Scribner $28 (544p) ISBN 978-0-684-85350-5
Carrying galley copy that avoids the h(orror) word while touting its ""O. Henry Award-winning author,"" King's latest novel features a marketing campaign in accord with the distinguished pedigree of his new publisher. But has King written a book...
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Stephen King, Author Simon & Schuster $16.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-684-86762-5
""The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted."" King's new novel--which begins with that sentence--has teeth, too, and it bites hard. Readers will bite right back. Always one to go for the throat, King crafts a story that...
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Stephen King, Author Scribner $28 (528p) ISBN 978-0-684-85351-2
By ""Atlantis,"" King means the 1960s, that otherworldly decade that, like the fabled continent, has sunk into myth. By ""hearts,"" he means not just the seat of love but the card game, which figures prominently in the second of the five scarcely...
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Stephen King, Author Scribner $28 (624p) ISBN 978-0-7432-1138-3
In an author's note to this novel, the first he's written since his near-fatal accident, King allows that he wrote the first draft of the book by hand. So much for the theory that it's word-processing alone that leads to logorrhea. Yet despite its...
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Stephen King, Scribner, $27.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4391-9256-6
Eerie twists of fate drive the four longish stories in King's first collection since Just After Sunset (2008). In "1922," a farmer murders his wife to retain the family land she hopes to sell, then watches his life unravel hideously as the...
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Stephen King, Author Signet Book $8.99 (1168p) ISBN 978-0-451-16953-2
Survivors of a chemical weapon called superflu confront pure evil in this updated and even more massive version of King's 1978 saga. ``The extra 400 or so pages . . . make King's best novel better still,'' said PW. `` A new beginning adds...
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Stephen King, Author Signet Book $7.99 (496p) ISBN 978-0-451-16731-6
The protagonist of King's ``top-notch'' novel is literary novelist Thad Beaumont, whose greatest success has come with three gory thrillers written under the pseudonym George Stark. Beaumont is threatened by a blackmailer who may reveal Stark's...
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Stephen King, Author Signet Book $7.99 (768p) ISBN 978-0-451-17038-5
Jet passengers are stuck in a time-slip, a psychopath accuses a writer of plagiarism, a man with an overdue book encounters a demonic librarian and a boy's camera snaps photos of a huge and nasty dog in these four horror novellas. According to PW , `
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Stephen King, Author Signet Book $7.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-451-17709-4
King's portrait of a Maine housekeeper accused of her employer's murder--a nine-week PW bestseller--shows him to be a magnificent storyteller. (Dec.)
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Stephen King, Author Signet Book $7.99 (663p) ISBN 978-0-451-18496-2
Celestial forces of good and evil wage an apocalyptic war in a small Maine town in this 14-week PW bestseller. (Sept.)
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Stephen King, Author Viking Books $29.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-670-81364-3
King's new novel, about a writer held hostage by his self-proclaimed ""number-one fan,'' is unadulteratedly terrifying. Paul Sheldon, a writer of historical romances, is in a car accident; rescued by nurse Annie Wilkes, he slowly realizes that...
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Stephen King, Author Scribner Book Company $2.5 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7432-0467-5
E-publishing takes a giant step with the release of this grandly entertaining ghost story. Not only is it the first original e-publication by a megaselling author, but it may be the most accomplished work ever to appear only in cyberspace--and it's...
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Stephen King, Author Signet Book $4.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-451-14293-1
This hefty sampler of King's shorter works, from all stages of the horror master's career, demonstrates the range of his abilities. Some of the stories here rank among his best, and ""even the less successful ones are fun,'' PW observed. (June)
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Stephen King, Author McGraw-Hill Companies $0 (211p) ISBN 978-0-07-065759-5
""My soul must be very black, indeed,'' observes King, virtuoso of horror fiction, but these 30-odd interviews do not lay bare his soul. They do, however, reveal some interesting things about his insomnia and persistent fears (he hates darkness),...
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Stephen King, Author Signet Book $7.99 (692p) ISBN 978-0-451-18023-0
King's cornucopia of short tales, each accompanied by an introduction from the author, was a 15-week PW bestseller. (Sept.)
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Stephen King. Scribner, $35 (864p) ISBN 978-1-4516-2728-2
High school English teacher Jake Epping has his work cut out for him in King’s entertaining SF romantic thriller. Al Templeton, the proprietor of Al’s Diner in Lisbon Falls, Maine, has discovered a temporal “rabbit hole” in the diner’s storage room...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $27 (320p) ISBN 978-1-451-65890-3
King returns to the Mid-World of his Dark Tower series in this gory but hopeful set of nested tales. As gunslinger Roland Deschain and his companions quest toward the Dark Tower, Roland tells a story of his early days as a gunslinger, hunting down a
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (416p) ISBN 978-1-4767-7038-3
This spellbinding supernatural thriller from MWA Grand Master King chronicles one man’s efforts to, as narrator Jamie Morton phrases it, “tap into the secrets of the universe.” Charles Jacobs, a Methodist minister in rural Harlow, Maine, loses his...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (448p) ISBN 978-1-5011-0007-9
Bill Hodges, the retired detective hero of King’s Mr. Mercedes (2014), stars in this taut thriller about the thin line separating fandom from fanaticism. In 1978, Morris Bellamy murders his literary idol, John Rothstein (clearly modeled on J.D....
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (512p) ISBN 978-1-5011-1167-9
Renowned author King’s impressive latest collection (after 2010’s Full Dark, No Stars) wraps 20 stories and poems in fascinating commentary. Each work’s preface explains what inspired it and gives readers insight into King’s writing methods, with...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (496p) ISBN 978-1-5011-2974-2
After two straightforward crime thrillers, MWA Grand Master King (Finders Keepers) torques this third and final novel featuring retired detective Bill Hodges into his trademark terror territory. Hodges has long suspected that Brady Hartsfield, the...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (528p) ISBN 978-1-9821-7361-6
Ex-Army sniper turned hit man Billy Summers, the protagonist of this tripwire-taut thriller from MWA Grand Master King (Later), who views himself as “a garbageman with a gun,” decides his 18th assassination will be his last. But he rightly smells...
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Stephen King, Author, Morgan, Author Viking $27.95 (832p) ISBN 978-0-670-85503-2
Forget the lean, mean King of Misery, Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne. This is the other King-the Grand Vizier of Verbosity who gave us It, The Tommyknockers and Needful Things. There's much of everything in these 800 pages, including the worthy.
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Stephen King, Author, Butterworth, Author Viking $27.5 (832p) ISBN 978-0-670-85108-9
This is a wonderful cornucopia of 23 Stephen King moments (including a teleplay featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, a poem about Ebbet's Field and a brilliant New Yorker piece on Little League baseball) that even the author, in his...
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Stephen King, Author, Stephen King, Read by , read by the author. Simon & Schuster $35 (0p) ISBN 978-0-671-58236-4
As his diehard fans know, King is a member of a writers-only rock 'n' roll band (Amy Tan is also a member), and this recording starts off with a sampling of their music. It may sound unsettling to some, but King quickly puts listeners at...
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Stephen King, Author, Stephen King, Read by , read by the author. S&S $15 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-2004-1
Audio Reviews reflect PW's assessment of the audio adaptation of a book and should be quoted only in reference to the audio version.FICTIONLT'S THEORY OF PETSStephen King, read by the author. S&S, unabridged, one cassette, one hour, $15...
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Stephen King, read by the author and multiple narrators. S&S Audio, unabridged, 16 CDs, 19 hrs., $49.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-8850-5
A dream team of talented performers reads these 18 tales and two poems by master fictioneer King. Several of the stories—including “Blockade Billy,” a baseball yarn with a predictable violent punch line, and “Under the Weather,” an exploration of...
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Stephen King, Author, Stephen King, Read by, William Hurt, Read by Simon & Schuster Audio $59.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-671-58235-7
This collection of five thematically linked short stories dwells on the legacy of the 1960s. They share a collective moodiness, a feeling of depressed hangover coming after youth has been lost and the nation has suffered troubled times. Read aloud,...
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Stephen King, read by William Dufris, Brilliance Audio, unabridged, 15 CDs, 18 hrs., $29.99 ISBN 978-1-4418-3105-7
King’s 1987 disquisition on the nature, quality, and substance of the horror genre from 1950 to 1980 gains new life as an audiobook, and listeners will enjoy (and enjoy disagreeing with) King’s conclusions and seeing which ones have held up. A new...
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Stephen King, read by Kirby Heyborne, Penguin Audio, unabridged, nine CDs, 11 hrs., $39.95 ISBN 978-0-14-242783-5
Ray Garraty—along with 99 other teen boys—has entered the Long Walk, a grueling march at four miles per hour that continues until only one person is standing. The losers receive bullets to the head. As the march progresses, the numbers dwindle, the...
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Stephen King, read by Jessica Hecht and Craig Wasson, Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, 12 CDs, 14 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-3576-9
King leaves the supernatural behind to find the macabre in stories of ordinary misfortune. In each, ordinary people discover how their choices define who they are and what they can become. As usual, King's characters are multidimensional and...
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Stephen King, read by the author. Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, 10 CDs, 10.5 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-4696-3
With his dry, New England accent, Stephen King would never be mistaken for a professional narrator. But that hardly matters when he’s reading his own work, especially a novel as flat-out entertaining as his new addition to the Dark Tower series....
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Stephen King, read by David Morse. Simon & Schuster Audio, , unabridged, 11 CDs, 13 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-7276-4
King’s new thriller begins in Maine the summer of 1962, when its narrator, Jamie Morton, at age six, meets a charismatic young minister named Charles Jacobs, who soon becomes something of a mentor. Years later, as Jamie pursues a career as an...
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Stephen King, read by Tim Sample. S&S Audio, 2 CDs, 1.5 hrs., $14.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-8964-9
This short, humorous tale, about a Fourth of July fireworks competition that gets magnificently out of hand, will not appear in print until November, when it arrives as part of King's collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. Its narrator, Alden...
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Stephen King, read by James Franco. S&S Audio, unabridged, 14 CDs, 17 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-5082-1864-7
In the audiobook debut of King’s classic 1979 thriller, a car accident sends Maine high school teacher Johnny Smith into a multiyear coma, from which he emerges into a changed world with the unwanted ability to see people’s past and future just by...
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Stephen King, Author, Ron McLarty, Read by , read by Ron McLarty. Simon & Schuster Audio $20 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-5561-6
In classic Stephen King tradition, this audiobook reminds the listener that even something as ordinary as a stationary bike can have a devious nature to it. After a tongue thrashing from his doctor, Richard Sifkitz turns his addiction to fatty foods
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Stephen King, Author, Peter David, Author, Robin Furth, Author , art by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove. Marvel Comics $24.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7851-2144-2
Signature
Reviewed by
Paul Pope
This comics adaptation (including prequel) of King's Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born
follows the early days of the Gunslinger, Roland Deschain. For the first hundred pages or so, you think you're in the...
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Stephen King, Author, Peter S. Beagle, Author, Laura Kasischke, Author . Underland $14.95 (318p) ISBN 978-0-9802260-8-9
Brockmeier (The Brief History of the Dead
) compiles 20 eclectic and exceptional stories that “graft” fantasy with realistic fiction for this third installment of the annual anthology cofounded by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Standout...
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Stephen King, Author, Peter Straub, Author, Peter Straub, Joint Author . Random $28.95 (640p) ISBN 978-0-375-50439-6
Today's literature is plagued by sequelitis; plagued because many of the offspring are abominations. But here's a marvelous exception. Seventeen years after King and Straub's first collaboration, The Talisman, comes an immensely...
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Stephen King, read by Will Patton. S&S Audio, unabridged, 12 CDs, 13.5 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-8434-7
It seems only logical that King's new crime novel, which is linked to the Edgar Award–winning success of 2014's Mr. Mercedes, should reemploy the talents of that thriller's reader, Patton. Here, the actor's deceptively mellow, vaguely Southern...
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Stephen King, Author, George Guidall, Read by, Stephen King, Afterword by , read by George Guidall. Simon & Schuster Audio $75 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-3352-2
Audio reviews reflect PW
's assessment of the audio adaptation of a book and should be quoted only in reference to the audio version.
Fiction
DARK TOWER V: Wolves of the Calla
Stephen King
, read by George Guidall. Simon & Schuster Audio
,...
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Stephen King, Author, Stan Berenstain, Author Doubleday $50 (1200p) ISBN 978-0-385-19957-5
In its 1978 incarnation, The Stand was a healthy, hefty 823-pager. Now, King and Doubleday are republishing The Stand in the gigantic version in which, according to King, it was originally written. Not true . The same excellent tale of the walking...
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Stephen King, Author, Campbell Scott, Read by , read by Campbell Scott. Simon & Schuster Audio $49.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-5433-6
It's probably a good idea not to use your cell phone while you listen to Scott's beautifully understated reading of terrormeister King's latest take on technology run amok: you might just toss it down the nearest storm drain. The...
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Stephen King, Author, Frances Sternhagen, Read by , read by Frances Sternhagen. HighBridge Audio $36.95 (0p) ISBN 978-1-59887-753-3
King’s classic tale of murder and suspicion on Little Tall Island is certainly one of his finest to date, featuring one his most complex and compelling characters ever. With her smalltown tone and pitch perfect dialect, Frances Sternhagen...
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Stephen King, Author, Mare Winningham, Read by , read by Mare Winningham. S&S Audio $49.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-5600-2
King's latest bid for literary respectability is read by acclaimed actress Winningham, best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in Georgia
. Winningham glazes King's novel in multiple coats of Southern honey, her voice shimmering with...
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Stephen King, Author, Mare Winningham, Read by Simon & Schuster Audio $19.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-7118-0
Em has become a runner. Maybe it's to get away from her unheroic and all-too-sensitive husband, the memory of her baby, who died, or maybe even her passive life. Inevitably, her training provides the endurance she needs to escape the sadistic and...
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Stephen King, Author, Kathy Bates, Read by , read by Kathy Bates. Penguuin $39.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-14-314389-5
From the vault of horror master King comes a terrifying tale of Desperation, Nev., a place ruled by a maniacal man in uniform and haunted by deadly secrets. In true King fashion, the story features a small cast of likable yet deeply flawed...
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Stephen King, Author, John Slattery, Read by , read by John Slattery. Simon & Schuster Audio $49.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-6974-3
King's latest novel is a fantastically eerie tale in line with his best psychological thrillers. John Slattery offers a triumphal performance—his firm, gripping tone perfectly suits this story of the darker side of human memory and...
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Stephen King, Author, Willem Dafoe, Read by HighBridge Audio $36.95 (26p) ISBN 978-1-59887-747-2
When passengers aboard the American Pride flight to Boston awake to discover that most of the other passengers have disappeared, fear and panic ensues. After managing to land the plane, they find the world abandoned. While Willem Dafoe is a powerful
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Stephen King, Author, James Woods, Read by HighBridge Audio $29.95 (0p) ISBN 978-1-59887-748-9
When first confronted by John Shooter, famous novelist Mort Rainey sees him as nothing more than an avid, albeit slightly eccentric, fan. However, Shooter's accusation of plagiarism and his overbearing attitude of malevolence send Rainey scattering...
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Stephen King, Author, Robertson Cooper, Author Viking Books $27.95 (448p) ISBN 978-0-670-82982-8
The protagonist of King's top-notch new novel is literary novelist Thad Beaumont, whose greatest success has come with three gory thrillers written under the pseudonym George Stark. (King himself wrote five novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
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Stephen King, Author, David Palladini, Illustrator Viking Books $21.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-670-81458-9
Advance publicity hails this ""story'' (not labeled a novel) by the popular writer as appealing to ``readers of all ages,'' although its genesis was in a story King told to his children. King's legion of fans are likely to find that a restrained...
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Stephen King, Author, Bram, Author Plume Books $16.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-452-26214-0
Elaborating at great length on Robert Browning's cryptic narrative poem ``Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,'' the second volume of King's post-Armageddon epic fantasy presents the equally enigmatic quest of Roland, the world's last gunslinger,...
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Stephen King, Author, Gowen, Author Viking $29.95 (804p) ISBN 978-0-670-83538-6
The self-described ``America's literary boogeyman'' here serves up four horror novellas; none is wildly scary, and only one offers King's typical, colloquial, hard-driving conversational style with its compulsive readability. A jumbo jet flies...
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Stephen King, Author, Cronin, Author Viking $23.5 (352p) ISBN 978-0-670-84650-4
While this is one of the best-written stories King has ever published, it will offend many through sheer bad taste. Jessie and Gerald Burlingame have been married for 20 years. Kinky sex is Gerald's game; lately he has taken to handcuffing his wife...
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Stephen King, Author, Cayne, Author Viking $35 (704p) ISBN 978-0-670-83953-7
With the ``Last Castle Rock Story'' King bids a magnificent farewell to the fictional Maine town where much of his previous work has been set. Of grand proportion, the novel ranks with King's best, in both plot and characterization. A new store,...
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Stephen King, Author, Ned Dameron, Illustrator Plume Books $17.95 (432p) ISBN 978-0-452-26740-4
King's third volume on Roland the gunfighter's search for the Dark Tower offers charming bits of whimsy, some splendidly tense moments and one rip-roaring horror scene. At times, however, it is pretentious and the direction of the sprawling plot...
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Stephen King, Author, Sexton, Author Viking $25.95 (432p) ISBN 978-0-670-85869-9
Relentlessly paced and brilliantly orchestrated, this cat-and-mouse game of a novel is one of King's most engrossing and topical horror stories. At the center of the action is heroine Rose McClendon, a battered wife who starts life anew by leaving...
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Stephen King, Author, Bernie Wrightson, Illustrator . Donald M. Grant/Scribner $35 (736p) ISBN 978-1-880418-56-7
"Time is a face on the water," stretching and contorting reality as gunslingers Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and their talking pet "billy-bumbler" Oy continue their quest to prevent the destruction of the Dark Tower and,...
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Stephen King, Author, Jeffrey Demunn, Read by , read by Jeffrey DeMunn. Simon & Schuster $49.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-0444-7
If you're ready to commit virtually a whole day of your life to this unabridged version of King's latest blockbuster, this is what you'll get: some of King's best storytelling, beautifully read by DeMunn, an actor of great skill and...
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Stephen King, Author, Jeffrey Demunn, Read by , read by Jeffrey DeMunn. Simon and Schuster Audio $29.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-5040-6
DeMunn offers an appropriately lighthearted reading of this surprisingly toothless mystery from King. The prerequisite is the ability to handle the pronounced Maine accent the book demands, as it features a pair of veteran newspaper reporters from...
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Stephen King, read by Craig Wasson. Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, 30 CDs, 31 hrs., $75 ISBN 978-1-4423-4428-0
In this audio edition of King’s latest novel, which uses time travel to re-examine the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, both the author and narrator Craig Wasson deliver the goods. In what proves to be an adventurous, thrilling, thought-pr
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Stephen King, Author, Rebhorn James, Read by, Davison Bruce, Read by , read by James Rebhorn, Bruce Davidson, Becky Ann Baker, Peter Gerety, Fred San Simon & Schuster Audio $49.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-2095-9
An assembly of readers performs King's latest, which is told from several different perspectives. This subdued, vaguely creepy tale is about an extraordinary force that infiltrates the lives of the people who work at a police barracks in rural...
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Stephen King, Author, Darrel Anderson, Illustrator . Donald M. Grant/ Scribner $30 (432p) ISBN 978-1-880418-59-8
There's something about a crippled, black, schizophrenic, civil rights activist–turned–gunslinger whose body has been hijacked by a white, pregnant demon from a parallel world that keeps a seven-volume story bracingly strong as it...
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Stephen King, Author, Michael Whelan, Illustrator . Scribner/Donald M. Grant $35 (864p) ISBN 978-1-880418-62-8
A pilgrimage that began with one lone man's quest to save multiple worlds from chaos and destruction unfolds into a tale of epic proportions. While King saw some criticism for the slow pace of 1982's The Gunslinger
, the book that launched...
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Stephen King, Author, Alan Dingman, Illustrator, Peter Abrahams, Adapted by , illus. by Alan Dingman. S&S/Little Simon $24.95 (16p) ISBN 978-0-689-86272-4
Chilling things pop up in this book by King, who revises his harrowing 1999 novel about a nine-year-old lost in the Maine woods. Due to the format's limited space, the exposition is condensed and rushed: Trisha, the title girl, is on a hike with
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Stephen King, Author, Lowell, Author Putnam Publishing Group $19.95 (558p) ISBN 978-0-399-13314-5
King's new novel, a numbing variation on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, offers its own best commentary on itself. Nearly one-third of the way through the 560-page book, protagonist Bobbi Anderson, a writer of westerns, describes what she has...
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Scott Snyder, Stephen King, and Raphael Albuquerque, DC/Vertigo, $24.99 (192p) ISBN 978-1-4012-2830-9
Early 20th-century America is a fitting setting for this horror drama about confronting old traditions. Two linked stories follow a woman and a man. Snyder's tale centers on Pearl Jones, an aspiring actress in 1925 Los Angeles. When Pearl chases...
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Richard Bachman, Author, Stephen King, Author Dutton/Signet $24.95 (480p) ISBN 978-0-525-94190-3
Why revive the Bachman byline more than a decade after Stephen King was found lurking behind it? Not for thematic reasons. This devilishly entertaining yarn of occult mayhem married to mordant social commentary is pure King and resembles little the...
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Edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar, read by Luke Daniels. Tantor Audio, , unabridged, 3 CDs, 3.5 hrs., $24.99 ISBN 978-1-4945-0863-0
This short anthology includes five
captivating tales of horror from great
contemporary writers, including Stephen King, Kelley Armstrong, and Ramsey Campbell. The tales are bound together by a theme of captivity in either a literal or metaphorical
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Stephen King, Author . Scribner $35 (1088p) ISBN 978-1-4391-4850-1
King's return to supernatural horror is uncomfortably bulky, formidably complex and irresistibly compelling. When the smalltown of Chester's Mill, Maine, is surrounded by an invisible force field, the people inside must exert themselves to
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Stephen King, Author . Cemetery Dance $25 (112p) ISBN 978-1-58767-228-6
The first 10,000 copies of Stephen King's baseball novella include a reproduction of the only known baseball card of Billy Blakely, the story's hero.
Blockade Billy
Stephen King
. Cemetery Dance
(www.cemeterydance.com
), $25 (112p) ISBN...
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Stephen King, Author, TBA, Read by, Holter Graham, Read by , read by Holter Graham. Simon & Schuster Audio $14.99 (0p) ISBN 978-1-4423-0309-6
Wesley Smith buys an Amazon Kindle to keep his mind off his recent nasty breakup, but he finds that his version is no ordinary e-reading device. Smith's Kindle has a special “Ur” option, which reveals the future and all the works...
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Stephen King, Author, Tim Curry, Read by, Rob Lowe, Read by , read by Tim Curry, Whoopi Goldberg, Rob Lowe and Yeardley Smith. Simon & Schuster Audio $14.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-9820-0
These four unabridged mini-chillers culled from King's 1993 short story collection, Nightmares & Dreamscapes
, provide their celebrity readers with the chance to show off a different, darker side. Whoopi Goldberg delivers a crisp,...
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Dave Marsh, Author, Stephen King, Author, Amy Tan, Author Plume Books $12.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-452-27459-4
Marsh documents the adventures of 15 well-known writers, including Matt Groening, Stephen King, Amy Tan and himself, who formed a rock group and toured the East Coast. (Aug.)
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Dave Marsh, Author, Stephen King, Author, Amy Tan, Author Viking Books $20.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-670-85234-5
The Rock Bottom Remainders, a group of celebrated writers smitten with rock 'n' roll glamour, gladly submitted when independent publicist Kathi Karmen Goldmark conceived the idea of forming a literary rock band to perform at the 1992 American...
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Stephen King. Cemetery Dance (www.cemeterydance.com), $25 (88p) ISBN 9781587674211
King first conceived of his most famous villain, Randall Flagg, as a college student in the poem featured here. Faceless and ominous, this man is brought to life by illustrator Glenn Chadbourne in this edition of the poem. While Chadbourne's...
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Stephen King, read by Thomas Sadoski and Edward Herrmann. Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, two CDs, 2.5 hrs., $14.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-4913-1
In King’s short story, just off the highway in Maine a mud-covered car sits quietly at an abandoned rest stop where a young boy named Pete Simmons is exploring a boarded-up burger joint. But his innocent excursion becomes a nightmare when the car...
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Edited by Ellen Datlow. Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $15.99 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-1-59780-399-1
The 18 scary stories that Datlow (Supernatural Noir) has selected as the best of 2011 hint at even worse horrors lurking beyond the fringes of their narratives. In “The Little Green God of Agony,” Stephen King profiles an exorcist and faith healer...
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Stephen King and Joe Hill, read by Stephen Lang. Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, two CDs, 1.75 hrs., $14.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-5988-8
Narrator Stephen Lang supplies plenty of chills in his reading of this eerie story collaboration between father and son horror masters King and Hill. In this bizarre tale, the road to hell truly is paved with good intentions. Brother and sister Cal...
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Stephen King. Titan/Hard Case Crime, $12.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-78116-264-4
A haunted carnival funhouse gives a supernatural spin to events in Thriller Award–winner King’s period murder mystery with a heart. In the summer of 1973, 21-year-old college student Devin Jones takes a job at Joyland, a North Carolina amusement...
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Stephen King, read by Michael Kelly. Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, seven CDs, 7.5 hrs., $29.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-5991-8
Michael Kelly begins his rendition of King’s engaging short novel sounding pleasantly satisfied, if wistful, with just a twinge of regret—precisely the mood of Devin Jones, the book’s protagonist. Now in his 60s, Devin recalls the details of how he...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (544p) ISBN 978-1-4767-2765-3
Iconic horror author King (Joyland) picks up the narrative threads of The Shining many years on. Young psychic Danny Torrance has become a middle-aged alcoholic (he now goes by “Dan”), bearing his powers and his guilt as equal burdens. A lucky break
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Stephen King, read by Sissy Spacek. Random House Audio, unabridged, seven CDs, 7.5 hrs., $19.99 ISBN 978-0-385-39428-4
The original actress to play Carrie, Sissy Spacek, narrates this audio tie-in to the new film version of King’s classic novel. Her Academy Award-nominated performance in the 1976 motion picture made her the iconic image of the author’s young heroine
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4767-5445-1
In this suspenseful crime thriller from megaseller King (Doctor Sleep), ex-detective Bill Hodges is settling badly into his retirement. Then he receives a taunting letter from someone who claims to be the Mercedes Killer—the media’s name for the hit-
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Edited by Gordon Van Gelder. Tachyon (IPG, dist.), $15.95 trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-1-61696-163-3
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction—aka F&SF—has been one of the flagships of speculative fiction since its founding in 1949. While similarly lauded magazines, like Galaxy, Galileo, and If, have fallen by the wayside, F&SF steadfastly soldiers
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Stephen King, read by Will Patton. S&S Audio, , 12 CDs, 14 hrs., unabridged, $39.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-6978-8
King’s latest foray into suspense is a no-holds-barred cat-and-mouse contest between ex-cop Bill Hodges and Brady Hartsfield, a nerdy, mama’s boy who is also a mass murderer. The two combatants are connected by a homicidal hit-and-run that occurred...
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Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. Cemetery Dance, $25 (168p) ISBN 978-1-58767-610-9
This absorbing novella by horror giants King (End of Watch) and Chizmar (A Long December) revisits one of King’s most popular locales. It’s 1974 when 12-year-old Gwendy Peterson is offered a magic box by a man named Richard Farris, whom she meets at
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Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, read by Maggie Siff. S&S Audio, unabridged, 3 CDs, 2.5 hrs., $14.99 ISBN 978-1-5082-4204-8
Actor Siff adds dramatic flair to her reading of this supernatural coming-of-age novella set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. It’s summer of 1974 when 12-year-old Gwendy Peterson is approached by the mysterious man named Richard Farris....
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Stephen and Owen King. Scribner, $32.50 (720p) ISBN 978-1-5011-6340-1
This delicious first collaboration between Stephen King (Doctor Sleep) and his son Owen (Intro to Alien Invasion) is a horror-tinged realistic fantasy that imagines what could happen if most of the women of the world fall asleep, leaving men on...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $32.50 (608p) ISBN 978-1-66800-217-9
Bestseller King (Billy Summers) underwhelms in an overlong fantasy most likely to appeal to his YA fans. In 2003, seven-year-old Charlie Reade’s mother dies in an accident, sending his father into an alcoholic tailspin. Ten years later, a chance...
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Stephen King. Hard Case Crime, $14.95 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-1-78909-649-1
MWA Grand Master King (The Outsider) demonstrates that no good deed goes unpunished in this gruesome yet mesmerizing paranormal coming-of-age story. For as long as he can remember, 13-year-old Jamie Conklin has been able to see dead people, and...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (576p) ISBN 978-1-5011-8098-9
MWA Grand Master King wraps a wild weird tale inside a police procedural in this nicely executed extension of his Bill Hodges detective trilogy (begun with 2014’s Mr. Mercedes). Det. Ralph Anderson of the Flint City, Okla., police force appears to...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (448p) ISBN 978-1-982137-97-7
The four never-before-published novellas in this collection represent horror master King at his finest, using the weird and uncanny to riff on mortality, the price of creativity, and the unpredictable consequences of material attachments. A teenager
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (576p) ISBN 978-1-982110-56-7
King wows with the most gut-wrenching tale of kids triumphing over evil since It. In a quiet Minnesota neighborhood, intruders kidnap 12-year-old prodigy Luke Ellis and murder his parents. When Luke wakes up, he finds himself in a room identical to...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $19.95 (160p) ISBN 978-1-982102-31-9
In this surprisingly sweet and quietly melancholy short novel, King (The Outsider) weaves an eerie, charming tale of the ways that strange circumstances can bring people together. Scott Carey is losing weight, but not mass, and there’s no scientific
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Stephen King, read by Michael C. Hall. S&S Audio, unabridged, 13 CDs, 15.5 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-5082-2662-8
The first unabridged audio edition of the novel King considers his most frightening should be more than enough to lure the author’s fans, and the fact that it’s read by Hall, who played the eponymous serial killer on Showtime’s Dexter (adapted from...
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Stephen King, read by Will Patton. S&S Audio, 15 CDs, 18.5 hrs., $49.99 ISBN 978-1-5082-5221-4
Reader Patton’s steady, realistic narration adds a strong element of credibility to King’s supernatural police procedural, in which a small-town detective is faced with an apparently impossible crime. The worst day in the life of Flint City, Okla.,...
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Stephen King. Scribner, $30 (464p) ISBN 978-1-6680-1613-8
PI Holly Gibney returns after King’s 2020 novella If It Bleeds to face off against a pair of deliciously wicked predators in this lurid if somewhat plodding thriller. It’s July 2021, and the Finders Keepers detective agency is on hiatus, with Holly...
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