Different Seasons

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Frank Muller

A “hypnotic” (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas—including the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption—from Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters.

This gripping collection begins with “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption.

Next is “Apt Pupil,” the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student Todd Bowden and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town.

In “The Body,” four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me.

Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in “The Breathing Method.”

“The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, are what make Stephen King the consummate storyteller that he is,” hailed the Houston Chronicle about Different Seasons.

Four amazing short stories

Stephen King said that when he is writing his books Frank Muller's voice is the one that he hears in his head.

These are four amazing stories brought to life in audio format by the much missed and loved Frank Muller, one of the best narrators that ever lived.

Each of them is set in a different season of the year and three of them have been adapted into great movies. The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me are two of the movies inspired by these stories.

Fast paced plots and a perfect performance makes this collection a must read for all fans of Stephen King.


I hope that one day the publisher will take the time to mark the chapters for evrry book separatly.

Extraordinary listening

Intense, thrilling, thoughtful and a great performance! King at his best because it is not the usual King's horror.

3 out of 4 stories were good

I really enjoyed the 1st three stories, but the 4th (The Breathing Method) was not very good. It was really quite pointless. It was a story of a man telling a story about a time when someone else told him a story. And that story was boring.

Awesome

Frank Muller was just amazing. I love every book he did, and miss him so much.

Great set of novellas!

Excellent

Great collection of short stories - I enjoyed all of them. Shawshank was the standout in my opinion.

great book, but chapters are mistimed

the stories are phenomenal. apt pupil is the most chilling IMO. the story makes you really feel the descent into madness .

nice

I got sucked in. might have not been as good except for the narrator. I'm glad he read them.

King proves that he is more than a horror writer.

Different Seasons is an excellent collection of four novellas. Only one of these stories, "The Breathing Method" contains horror elements. Each of these stories illuminate the fact that King, regardless of what genre he is writing, is a master storyteller.
"Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" and "The Body" are rare cases where the adaptations are better, certainly more moving, than the solid, albeit long-winded novellas that inspired the films. Both stories are still a solid 4/5 stars, but they both tested my patience a bit.
"The Breathing Method" could be an episode out of the Twilight Zone. It has cosmic horror elements to it and a bit of body horror as well. It was absolutely fantastic and subtly creepy. 5/5 stars.
My favorite story in the collection though was "Apt Pupil". I love a good cat-and-mouse story, and this novella is a masterclass of the cat-and-mouse thriller. "Apt Pupil" is a horror story, not by definition, but by the fact that Kurt Dussander's and Todd Bowden's are a very real evil. 5/5 stars.

Not your typical Stephen King horror by any means

4 stories, all totally different, all very good. Not much horror, so if that's what you're looking for, move along.

Reverse order

Shawshank Redemption was one of my favorite movies growing up, so, I chose this selection based on that. Even though two out of the other three selections were also adapted for screen, I’d never experienced them.
Reading them arranged in this way was a gift I wasn’t expecting.
Different Seasons is full of surprises, suspense, intrigue, shock and as probably expected, a little horror too.
I’m looking forward to finding all the films and reliving this selection that way.