The Langoliers
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''Four Past Midnight'' is a collection of novellas written by
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...
in 1988 and 1989 and published in August 1990. It is his second book of this type, the first one being ''
Different Seasons ''Different Seasons'' (1982) is a collection of four Stephen King novellas with a more dramatic bent, rather than the horror fiction for which King is famous. The four novellas are tied together via subtitles that relate to each of the four seas ...
''. The collection won the
Bram Stoker Award The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing. History The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since ...
in 1990 for Best Collection and was nominated for a Locus Award in 1991. In the introduction, King says that, while a collection of four novellas like ''Different Seasons'', this book is more strictly horror with elements of the supernatural.


Novellas


''The Langoliers''


Plot

Pilot Brian Engle, immediately after a difficult flight from
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, learns that his ex-wife Anne has died in an accident and boards a
red-eye flight In commercial aviation, a red-eye flight refers to a flight that departs at night and arrives the next morning, especially when the total flight time is insufficient for passengers to get a full night's sleep. The term derives from red eyes as ...
to
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
as a passenger. A flight attendant speaks of an unusual phenomenon over the
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
that resembles an
aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...
. Brian falls asleep during takeoff, having been awake throughout his previous flight. Dinah Bellman, a young blind girl with
psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...
abilities, also falls asleep, and awakes to find that her aunt and several other passengers have disappeared. Dinah, mistaking a wig for a scalp, screams and awakes Brian and nine other passengers: teacher Laurel Stevenson, English
diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
Nick Hopewell, writer Bob Jenkins, violinist Albert Kaussner, recovering addict Bethany Simms, businessman Rudy Warwick, mechanic Don Gaffney, mentally ill bank manager Craig Toomy and an unknown heavily intoxicated passenger. The passengers find that the crew and the passengers who were awake have disappeared, leaving the airliner under the control of the
autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allow ...
. Brian takes control of the plane but is unable to make any outside contact, and the passengers can only see a dark void below. Brian manages to land in
Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's List of municipalities in Maine, third-most populous city, behind Portland, Maine, Portland ...
, despite furious protests from Toomy, who insists on reaching Boston for an important board meeting. Upon arrival, the group finds the
airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...
deserted. The clocks have stopped, there is no electricity and the environment seems generally lifeless. As all products and substances have lost their quality, fuel does not burn, thus preventing further flight. Dinah hears an approaching and threatening sound, and the group agrees to leave before it arrives. The unhinged Toomy considers the situation to be a conspiracy against him and takes Bethany hostage at gunpoint, but the environment has robbed the gun of its potency, and the passengers subdue Toomy. Bob concludes that the aforementioned phenomenon was a "time rip" that has sent their plane into the past. As Dinah reports that the sound is growing closer, Toomy relates to Dinah and Laurel that the sound is emitted by the "Langoliers", which were said by his abusive father to hunt and devour negligent and unmotivated boys. Albert theorizes that time is still flowing inside the plane, which is proven when food brought on board is restored to its normal properties. With the realization that fuel pumped into the airliner will also return to normal, Brian has the plane refueled and manages to start the engines. Meanwhile, Toomy frees himself from his bonds and stabs Dinah, perceiving her to be a Langolier. Despite this, Dinah insists that Toomy must not be killed because the group needs him alive. As Albert and Don search for a stretcher for Dinah, Toomy kills Don before Albert subdues him. Dinah, while being transported onto the plane,
telepathically Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...
leads Toomy to the runway, where he hallucinates his board meeting. The Langoliers appear in the form of toothed spherical creatures, and they are distracted from the departing plane as they devour Toomy and the surrounding reality. Bob proposes that the Langoliers' purpose is to clean up what is left of the past by devouring it. Dinah succumbs to her injuries, and the plane approaches the time rip. Bob realizes that the passengers must be asleep when passing through the rip, otherwise they will disappear. Albert suggests lowering the cabin pressure to induce unconsciousness, which would require one passenger to sacrifice themself by remaining conscious to restore the pressure just before the plane passes through the rip. Nick volunteers, wishing to atone for mistakenly shooting and killing three Irish children, and asks Laurel to go to his father to ask forgiveness. Nick, wearing an emergency oxygen mask, flies the plane through the rip and disappears. Brian awakes and lands the plane at Los Angeles, but the passengers are again met with a deserted airport. Realizing that they are in the near future, the passengers take shelter against a wall to avoid the airport's human traffic and wait for the present to catch up to them. A wave of rising noise and motion hits them and they find themselves in the present again.


Adaptations

''The Langoliers'' was adapted for a two-part TV movie in 1994. The TV movie stars
Kate Maberly Kate Elizabeth Cameron Maberly ( ; born 14 March 1982) is an English actress, director, writer, producer, and musician. She has appeared in film, television, radio, and theatre. Early life Maberly was born in Reigate, Surrey, England. She is ...
, Kimber Riddle,
Patricia Wettig Patricia Anne Wettig (born December 4, 1951) is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Nancy Weston in the television series '' Thirtysomething'' (1987–1991), for which she received a Golden Globe Award and three ...
, Mark Lindsay Chapman,
Frankie Faison Frankie Russel Faison (born June 10, 1949) is an American actor known for his role as Deputy Commissioner, and, later, Commissioner, Ervin Burrell in the HBO series ''The Wire'', as Barney Matthews in the ''Hannibal Lecter'' franchise, and as Su ...
, Baxter Harris,
Dean Stockwell Robert Dean Stockwell (March 5, 1936 – November 7, 2021) was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned seven decades. As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he appeared in '' Anchors Aweigh'' (1945), '' ...
, David Morse,
Christopher Collet Christopher Collet () is an American actor and voice director. He starred in the lead role in the 1986 film '' The Manhattan Project''. Early life, family and education Christopher Collet was born in New York City, New York. Career Collet ent ...
, and
Bronson Pinchot Bronson Alcott Pinchot (; born May 20, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Balki Bartokomous on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC sitcom ''Perfect Strangers (TV series), Perfect Strangers'' (1986–1993). He also perform ...
. The movie version of ''The Langoliers'', produced for broadcast on ABC-TV, was filmed almost exclusively in and around the
Bangor International Airport Bangor International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport on the west side of the city of Bangor, in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. Owned and operated by the City of Bangor, the airport has a single runway measuring . ...
in
Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's List of municipalities in Maine, third-most populous city, behind Portland, Maine, Portland ...
(where author
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...
attended college) during the summer of 1994.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
King himself, echoing
Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
's famous numerous cameos, made a cameo appearance in the film as Craig Toomy's boss during Toomy's
hallucination A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming ( REM sleep), which does not involve wakefulness; pse ...
. In 2021, Greek filmmaker Aristotelis Maragkos created an experimental film using footage from the miniseries of ''The Langoliers'', titled ''The Timekeepers of Eternity''. Maragkos re-edited the series to a single hour to focus more closely on Toomy’s deterioration, and printed each individual frame onto black and white copy paper in order to hand-animate each scene with stop-motion. The audiobook of this story is read by actor
Willem Dafoe William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...
.


''Secret Window, Secret Garden''

''Secret Window, Secret Garden'' is similar to King's earlier novel ''
The Dark Half ''The Dark Half'' is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1989. ''Publishers Weekly'' listed ''The Dark Half'' as the second-best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's '' Clear and Present Danger''. The novel was ada ...
''. Both are about authors who are thinly veiled analogues of
King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
himself— Thad Beaumont in ''The Dark Half'' and Mort Rainey in ''Secret Window, Secret Garden''.


Plot

Morton Rainey, a successful novelist in Maine, is confronted by a man from
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
named John Shooter, who claims Mort
plagiarized Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of anothe ...
a story he wrote. Mort vehemently denies ever plagiarizing anything. Shooter leaves, but not before leaving his
manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...
, "Secret Window, Secret Garden". Mort throws the manuscript into the trash can. When his housemaid recovers the manuscript—thinking it belongs to Mort—he finally reads Shooter's story, discovering that it is almost identical to his short story "Sowing Season". The only differences are the title, the character's name, the
diction Diction ( (nom. ), "a saying, expression, word"), in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a piece of writing such as a poem or story.Crannell (1997) ''Glossary'', p. 406 In its c ...
, and the ending. Mort is disturbed by these findings. Shooter returns a few days later. Having learned that "Sowing Season" was published two years before Shooter claimed to have written "Secret Window, Secret Garden", Mort confronts him with this information. An enraged Shooter accuses Mort of lying and demands proof, giving Mort three days to show him his published story. Overnight, he kills Mort's cat and burns down the house of his ex-wife, which contained the magazine issue in which "Sowing Season" was published. Mort orders a new copy of the magazine. He also asks his caretaker, Greg Carstairs, to tail Shooter and to talk to a man named Tom Greenleaf, who drove past Mort and Shooter. Shooter, angry that Mort has involved other people in their business, kills both men and plants evidence framing Mort for the murders. Upon receiving the magazine and returning home, Mort finds that "Sowing Season" has been removed. Mort realizes that Shooter is really his own split personality. He had created "Shooter" out of guilt for stealing the story "Crowfoot Mile" early in his career and had recently been suspected of another act of plagiarism, although he was innocent the second time. Tom had not seen Shooter while driving by—he saw Mort, by himself. Mort realizes he burned down his own home, killed his own cat, and murdered two people. Mort hears who he believes to be Shooter pulling into his driveway. Desperate for any sign of his own sanity, he looks outside only to see his ex-wife, Amy. Devastated, he loses control of his body and mind to Shooter. He blacks out. Amy discovers that Mort has gone insane, having written the word "Shooter" all over his house. She goes to Mort's study, where "Shooter" attempts to kill her in an ambush. She manages to escape. "Shooter", chasing Amy outside, is shot by her insurance investigator. Mort becomes himself again, addresses Amy, and dies. Later, Amy and Ted Milner—a man she had an affair with before divorcing Mort—discuss her ex-husband's motives. She insists that Mort had become two people, one of them a character so vivid it became real. She then recalls something Tom witnessed—when he drove past Mort alone, he saw Shooter and Mort in his rearview mirror, but Shooter was transparent. Amy then reveals that while digging through Mort's house, she found Shooter's trademark hat. She left it right-side up on a trash bag. When she returned, she found a note from Shooter inside the overturned hat, revealing that he has traveled back to Mississippi with the story he came for, "Crowfoot Mile". Amy remarks that Mort had created a character so vivid, he actually came to life.


Adaptations

A 2004 film adaptation called ''
Secret Window ''Secret Window'' is a 2004 American psychological horror thriller film starring Johnny Depp and John Turturro. It was written and directed by David Koepp, based on the novella '' Secret Window, Secret Garden'' by Stephen King, featuring a ...
'' was made, starring
Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...
,
John Turturro John Michael Turturro ( ; born February 28, 1957) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his varied roles in independent films, and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers and Spike Lee. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award a ...
,
Maria Bello Maria Bello (born April 18, 1967) is an American actress and producer. Her first major film role was in 1998's '' Permanent Midnight''. She followed this with a range of supporting and leading parts in films such as '' Payback'' (1999), '' Coyot ...
and
Timothy Hutton Timothy Hutton (born August 16, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is the List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees#Youngest winners 4, youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he ...
. The storyline of the movie differs from that of the novel, most notably in their respective endings. In the movie, Mort kills his wife and her lover, while in the novel he is killed before he has a chance to do so. In the movie, after months it is shown that Mort grew corn in his wife's garden, where it is implied that he buried her and her lover, thus removing any proof that he murdered them. Another difference is the titles of the short stories: in the movie, Mort Rainey wrote a story called "Secret Window" and John Shooter wrote "Sowing Season". The story in the movie version is set in upstate New York instead of Maine. A three-episode radio adaptation was first broadcast in 1999 on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
starring
Henry Goodman Henry Goodman (born 23 April 1950) is a RADA trained British actor. He has appeared on television and radio, in film and in the theatre. Early life He attended the Central Foundation Boys' School and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Lo ...
, William Roberts, Barbara Barnes,
Lee Montague Leonard Goldberg (16 October 1927 – 30 March 2025), known professionally as Lee Montague, was an English actor noted for his roles in film and television, usually playing tough guys. Early life Montague was born in Bow, London. His family wa ...
and
Kerry Shale Kerry Shale (born 4 June 1952) is a Canadian actor based in London, England. His BBC Radio 4 comedy-drama ''The Kubrick Test'' was broadcast in 2020. He is the co-host of ''Is It Rolling, Bob? Talking Dylan'', a podcast about Bob Dylan ...
. The audiobook of this story is read by actor
James Woods James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an American actor. Known for fast-talking, intense roles on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including three Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for t ...
.


Inspiration

King has been the subject of unfounded accusations of
plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...
. A woman claimed that King stole several of her story ideas and based characters from his books on her. All of her cases have been dismissed. In another incident, a deranged man broke into King's home, and when discovered by King's wife, claimed that King stole the plot of ''Misery'' from the intruder's aunt and that he had a bomb in the shoebox he was holding and was going to blow up the house. The fake bomb was made of pencils with paperclips wrapped around the erasers.


''The Library Policeman''

''The Library Policeman'' tells of Sam Peebles and his battle against an age-old fear. Peebles is asked to give a speech to his local
Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest Service club, service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, go ...
. An office assistant named Naomi Higgins directs him to the public library to check out books that might help with his speechwriting. At the library, he receives a library card and assistance in finding books from an elderly librarian, Ardelia Lortz. Having noticed a series of disturbing posters in the children's section, including one featuring a frightening "Library Policeman" character, he discusses their appropriateness with Ardelia. After being rebuffed by her, Sam checks out the books with the warning that they must be returned on time or else "I'll have to send the Library Policeman after you." The speech is a success, but Naomi informs Sam that Ardelia Lortz has been dead for many years. Ardelia, as a young woman, died by suicide in 1960 after murdering two children and a local deputy sheriff. The books are accidentally destroyed and a menacing Library Policeman terrorizes Sam at his house. Through Naomi, Sam meets Dave "Dirty Dave" Duncan, an alcoholic former sign painter and a former lover of Ardelia's. From Dave's recollections, Sam discovers that Ardelia is not a person but a being which feeds on fear and that Duncan was a sometimes unwilling companion/conspirator in helping her feed from the fear of children. Dave believes Ardelia is seeking revenge and a new host. While the trio attempt to stop Ardelia's return, Sam recalls a repressed memory: a man claiming to be a "Library Policeman" raped and threatened Sam when he was a young child in St. Louis. However, the new Library Policeman is not just a recreation of the man from Sam's past, but also an embodiment of Ardelia, who wants Sam as her new host. Dave dies defending Sam and Naomi from Ardelia. Sam and Naomi defeat the Library Policeman/Ardelia, only to discover that Ardelia has already attached to Naomi in the form of a blistery growth. Sam removes the creature from Naomi's neck and destroys it under the wheels of a passing train.


Adaptations

The audiobook of this story is read by actor
Ken Howard Kenneth Joseph Howard Jr. (March 28, 1944 – March 23, 2016) was an American actor. He was known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in ''1776'' (1972) and as high school basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the televisi ...
.


''The Sun Dog''

When Kevin Delevan receives a Sun 660
Polaroid camera Polaroid may refer to: * Polaroid Corporation, an American company known for its instant film and cameras * Polaroid camera, a brand of instant camera formerly produced by Polaroid Corporation * Polaroid film, instant film, and photographs * Polaro ...
for his fifteenth birthday, he discovers a strange defect: the only photos it produces are of a malicious black dog which seems to move closer with each shot as though to attack the photographer. On a recommendation, Kevin seeks help from Reginald "Pop" Merrill, the wealthy and unscrupulous owner of a
junk shop A junk shop is a retail outlet similar to a thrift store which sells mostly used goods at cheap prices. A low-quality antique shop may border on being a junk shop. Shoppers who frequent junk shops are often referred to as "junkers", "pickers", ...
in the town of
Castle Rock, Maine Castle Rock (sometimes referred to as the Rock) is a fictional town appearing in Stephen King's fictional Maine topography, providing the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. Castle Rock first appeared in King's 1979 ...
. While just as unsettled by the phenomenon as Kevin, Merrill sees an opportunity to further his own interests; namely, selling the camera to a
paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
enthusiast for a great deal of money. He manages to switch out the camera for another of the same model, which Kevin destroys. Much to his dismay, however, Merrill cannot rid himself of the Sun as his customers either dismiss it as a hoax or decline to purchase it due to the discomfort and unease they feel upon viewing the photos. Furthermore, he finds himself increasingly compelled to use the Sunthe dog slowly advancing and transforming into something more savage and monstrous with every picture he takes. In the meantime, Kevin is plagued by recurring
nightmare A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety, disgust or sadness. The dream may contain situations o ...
s about the dog. Realizing that Merrill tricked him and the Sun was never destroyed, he sets out to prevent Merrill from taking any more photos for fear that the dog will "break through" into the real world. By this point, the camera's influence over Merrill has caused him to lose his grip on sanity. After waking up one night to find himself holding the Sun and repeatedly pressing its trigger, he resolves to smash it in the morning. However, he hallucinates that one of the
cuckoo clock A cuckoo clock is a type of clock, typically pendulum clock, pendulum driven, that striking clock, strikes the hours with a sound like a common cuckoo call and has an automated cuckoo bird that moves with each note. Some move their wings and ope ...
s hanging on the wall of his store is really the camera and smashes that instead. Under the illusion that he is repairing a clock at his workbench, Merrill starts taking pictures again. At this moment, Kevin and his father arrive to confront Merrill, but are too late to stop him. The dog tears its way out of the final photograph, killing Merrill in the process. Inspired by his nightmares, Kevin has brought another Sun with him, and just as the dog is about to release itself, he takes its picture, trapping it once more in the "Polaroid world". In the epilogue, Kevin gets a computer for his following birthday. In order to test its
word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...
function, he types "
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is an English-language pangram a sentence (linguistics), sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet. The phrase is commonly used for Touch typing, touch-typing practice, testing typewrit ...
." Rather than a printout of this text, the page reads, "The dog is loose again. It is not sleeping. It is not lazy. It's coming for you, Kevin. It's very hungry. And it's ''VERY'' angry."


Adaptations

In April 1999, White Cap Productions and
IMAX Corporation IMAX Corporation is a Canadian production theater company which designs and manufactures IMAX cameras and Projection screen, projection systems as well as performing film development, production, post-production and distribution to IMAX-affiliat ...
announced a film adaptation of ''The Sun Dog''. The proposed film, helmed by Lawrence D. Cohen (who had previously adapted King's '' Carrie'' and '' It''), was to be filmed in IMAX's giant-screen 3D format, and distributed exclusively to IMAX theaters. Production was expected to begin in 2000, however by May of that year the project had been placed on hold. It was ultimately dropped from IMAX's production slate in October 2001. The 2016
Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...
audiobook of this story is read by Maine humorist
Tim Sample Timothy John Sample (born January 30, 1951) is a Maine humorist. Life and career Sample was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, and raised in Boothbay Harbor, where he attended local schools. He briefly attended Hebron Academy and in 2004 was given a ...
.


Reception

Upon its release, Michael A. Morrison in ''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' called the collection "exceptionally well crafted" with the exception of ''Sun Dog'', praising King's "unexpected similes" and his use of "dreams to reveal character". Robert Chatain called it possibly King's best book and "a serious, heavyweight effort", characterising the tales as "rich" as well as "fast, tricky, even perverse, like carnival rides that look easy from the ground but turn unexpectedly nasty and vertiginous when we're up in the air". However, Josh Rubins in ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' graded the anthology a "C+" and considered it formulaic with "enthusiasm" and contemporary setting. Rubins compared a novella "The Langoliers" to—quoting characters of the novella—a "stupid disaster
ovie Ovie is a given name, nickname and surname. It translates to king in the Isoko language of Delta State in southern Nigeria. Nickname * Alexander Ovechkin (born 1985), Russian ice hockey player * Ovie Alston (1905–1989), American jazz trumpete ...
and a "bad elevisionmovie." He found "Secret Window, Secret Garden" bearably suspenseful with a "gimmicky, least convincing inale" He called "The Sun Dog" the "simplest, most distinctive story" and praised it as mostly "a delicious black comedy." Andy Solomon in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' commented that King's mass appeal comes "ironically from his cliched diction," referring to the anthology's reliance on popular culture for descriptions.


See also

*
Stephen King short fiction bibliography This is a list of short fiction works by Stephen King (b. 1947). This includes short stories, novelettes, and novellas, as well as poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary ...


References


External links

* * {{Stephen King 1990s novellas American short story collections Short story collections by Stephen King Viking Press books