Full Dark, No Stars

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Craig Wasson, Jessica Hecht

Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger...." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922", the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.

In "Big Driver", a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself.

"Fair Extension", the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment.

When her husband of more than 20 years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It's a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.

Like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight, which generated such enduring films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, Full Dark, No Stars proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.

©2010 Stephen King. All rights reserved. (P)2010 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved

Critic reviews

"[T]hese tales show how a skilled storyteller with a good tale to tell can make unsettling fiction compulsively readable." ( Publishers Weekly)

"King has gone on record saying he believes that American readers should pay more attention to the virtues of short fiction... if anyone can get reluctant short-story and novella readers into the swing, he certainly can with this book." ( Booklist)

Four Dark Stories

This collection includes four very dark stories about murder, rape, greed, secret lives, and the parts of ourselves we don’t admit exist but lurk not too far below the surface and can be brought out by twists of fate. Craig Watson and Jessica Hecht both lend realistic and believable narration to alternating tales with male or female protagonists. Great listen!

Horror short stories

Only one of the four short stories I found I knew the story before listening and that was A Good Marriage, I watched it on Netflix I believe. All four stories were gruesome, creepy and top quality stories. Stephen King has been a personal favorite author of mine for many years and I always enjoy finding a story of his I haven’t read yet.

Not my favorite of King's work

These stories did not intrigue me as most of his work does. Maybe because they are more short stories and not the depth of his novels, maybe not. Worth listening to I guess...but only if obtained at a low price.

Great book but...

Jessica Hecht was terrible. She read with amused indulgence the whole time. Was it cute and funny to be raped?

2 outta 3 ain't bad

The first story was the reason for my overall rating. It's painfully boring. I first purchased the book, I just couldn't get into it, thought maybe the audio version ( on sale for $5 ) would give it something extra. It did not, however the remaining stories were entertaining.

Jessica Hecht

I have to say Jessica Hecht has been amazing! Best reader so far. Her voice is beautiful to listen to and easily absorbed. She had an almost sensual voice for reading. A+I would like to know any other books she narrates. I would love to listen to them

Haunting...

Not as in ghouls or zombies, but about the evil that can live inside of a seemingly normal person. I’ve thought about these stories long after I’ve finished them. I’m quite satisfied.

Great stories from beginning to end

Just the right amount of detail and character building. Oh, and horror! Love Stephen King. When his stories are good they are really good. I highly recommend.

Love Stephen King

Very creepy and entertaining! Keeps you on the edge of your seat. The female narrator was a little lacking in authenticity, she was more subtle.

Cannot take the whining

If it were just Craig Wasson alone narrating these stories I would have given the performance a million stars but the female narrator is so whiny it drops my score. Anytime she read a character’s thoughts it sounded as if they’d been whacked on the head and were in a daze in ADDITION to the whine. If the stories hasn’t been so good I would have skipped past her sections. I found myself continually yelling at the speaker for her to speak in a normal tone.