Gray Matter and Other Stories From Night Shift

And Other Stories from Night Shift

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: John Glover

Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

Consummate master of his craft, Stephen King has kept millions awake past midnight shivering at tales that probe the shadows and reveal the dark side. Now listeners can chill to this dramatic unabridged production of 6 short stories from his best-selling book, Night Shift. It brings Stephen King's demonic stories fully to life - and the terror even closer to home.

Lying on the couch in Dr. Harper's office, keeping a close watch on the closet door, Lester Billings relates the bizarre tale of "The Boogeyman" who has taken his children's lives. In "I Know What You Need," a pretty college co-ed finds the perfect lover while on a campus in Maine. A young man thrills to the eerie mists of a murderous "Strawberry Spring." A winter storm hits and a group of old codgers who regularly gather around the Reliable at Henry's Nite-Owl discover the gruesome fate of an old crony in the title story, "Gray Matter." A son, horrified by the grim indignity of death, struggles with his love for "The Woman in the Room," while a hit man, back from a successful assignment, finds himself besieged by a toy army that turns his New York penthouse into a deadly "Battleground."

©1976 Stephen King (P)1995 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

We need a complete and unabridged version

My advice to long time King fans and newcomers alike is to skip these three Nightshift samplings, and to wait for a complete anthology. This collection, along with two others available from audible, were released in the mid 90s. They sound as if they were ripped directly from the old cassettes in some places, and this distracted me at times. Yes, Audible has the three volumes making up the old Bantom Doubleday Dell audio Nightshift collection, but be warned. A few stories from the anthology have never been published on audio before. Even if an audible customer were to purchase Gray Matter and other stories, Lawnmower Man and other stories, and Graveyard Shift and other stories, they'd be missing a few.The unincluded tales are I am the Doorway, One for the Road, Children of The Corn, and Trucks. Hopefully, Simon and Schuster will choose to give audiobook readers Nightshift in its entirety soon, including the prefatory matterial. They've recently released the complete Skeleton Crew anthology three or so days before this review was written, so I prefer to be optimistic.

Poor Sound Quality

Stories are fun, John Glover is great, but fuzzy sound quality detracts from the experience.

Missing audio

There are 3 to 4 second bursts of audio missing in chapters 4 through 6. In some places it sounds like its missing an entire paragraph. You might want to have a paper copy of the book to fill in the blanks.

Lame

Narrator and audio quality is fine.

Stories are not Stephen Kings best work. Boring, silly, and unimaginative at best.

Why do I bother?

I'm not even sure why I bothered to use a credit. King is a masterful storyteller. His prose is engaging and vividly descriptive, his characters strongly developed. But somehow, even though time after I time I keep wishing his next short story will get better, sadly, they do not. His anthologies are full of boring tales in which do not hold my interest, but still, I read them all, in hopes of finding that one diamond in the rough. I know it's there somewhere. His full length novels are amazing. It's almost as if he's two different people. Or maybe its just that his strength lies in stories that are long and drawn out. I will say that even though the plots were severely lacking in substance and "I know what you need" was the only story I even remotely enjoyed, the narration was superb. A definite A+ performance. But, in my personal opinion, this was definitely not worth a credit.

Loved it!

Great! Enjoyed from start to finish! Definitely recommend it! Good for relaxing at home or being on the go. Will listen again.

creepy stuff

John Glover is great, just wish all stories were in one book. King is best

matter of perspective

i read this in an effort to read all of king’s work in order of publication. that said, it’s an old recording so the quality isn’t fantastic but it’s more nostalgic than distracting.

biggest bummer is that to read the whole book you have to spend 3 credits - recommend just buying these if you want them, not credit worthy imho

as for the stories, they’re okay. but in context of king’s work he was a young pup

the stories included in this part:
- the boogeyman
- i know what you need
- strawberry springs
- the woman in the room
- battle ground

overall good

the audio quality is a little sub par but not enough to ruin it.

Vintage Stephen King

More stories from Night Shift, King's first collection. Winners all that will stick with you for years to come... I know that they stuck with me since I first read them in the 70's.

My only issue with the collection is that it sub-divides the book into three audiobooks. So rather than buying one audiobook, you need to get three to get the entire physical book. I suspect that will not be remedied anytime soon, considering the age of the publication. I still find it annoying.

Quality wise, this is an excellent value and easy to recommend to anyone who a good scary story.

Decent read but not his best work

These stories are OK, one or two are even pretty good. But they are not King's finest hour by any means. If you've read most of his other stuff they might be worth a look, but otherwise there's plenty of other more engaging books he's produced.
The stories are old-school in tone. They sound like (and probably were) written by King for publication in magazines to bring in some cash.
I understand they were some of the earliest material he wrote, so if you're interested in seeing where the great author started, you can see it here.