Skeleton Crew

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Stephen King, Matthew Broderick, Michael C. Hall, Paul Giamatti, Will Patton, Norbert Leo Butz, Lois Smith, Dylan Baker

Length: 22 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Narrated by Stephen King, Matthew Broderick, Michael C. Hall, Paul Giamatti, Will Patton, Norbert Leo Butz, Lois Smith, Dylan Baker, Kyle Beltran, Dana Ivey, Robert Petkoff, David Morse, and Frances Sternhagen.

The master at his scarifying best! From heart-pounding terror to the eeriest of whimsy - tales from the outer limits of one of the greatest imaginations of our time!

In "The Mist", a supermarket becomes the last bastion of humanity as a peril beyond dimension invades the earth.

Touch "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands", and say your prayers.

There are some things in attics that are better left alone - things like "The Monkey".

The most sublime woman driver on earth offers a man "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" to paradise.

A boy's sanity is pushed to the edge when he's left alone with the odious corpse of "Gramma".

If you were stunned by Gremlins, the Fornits of "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" will knock your socks off.

Trucks that punish and beautiful teen demons who seduce a young man to massacre; curses whose malevolence grows through the years; obscene presences and angels of grace - here, indeed, is a night-blooming bouquet of chills and thrills.

©2016 Stephen King (P)2016 Simon & Schuster Audio

Not Bazaar, but still The King

GOOD LOOKS ARE CHEAP IN A WEALTHY COUNTRY
There are several very good stories in this collection. The Mist runs over five hours, but is very good. I especially liked Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, which was not scary. These stories are older than The Bazaar of Bad Dreams and the collection as a whole is not as good. If you are trying to decide between the two, get Bazaar. Of the 22 stories in this collection, there were seven that I loved and the rest fell between okay and boring. This is normal for any collection, but of course King has us spoiled. Several of these stories must have been written in the sixties or early seventies. King's habit of using lots of pop culture does not appear in these stories. The stories vary greatly also in style and content. One really good story is a Noir and than their is science fiction, paranormal, cannibal, coming of age, teenagers, grandmas, lovecraft, etc. It is a must for King fans, but you might want to fast forward a few of the stories.

I GROK YOU, THAT'S A PISS CUTTER
The narrators are top notch. King understand the importance of a good narrator and rarely lets anyone but the best read his stuff. I especially loved Will Patton and Paul Giamatti. They both read two stories and Patton does The Mist.

I LIKE A WOMAN WHO CAN LAUGH, WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO POINT HER AT THE JOKE.

A Book Full of Bones to Unearth…

Skeleton Crew is a fantastic collection of short stories by Stephen King and holds many of his classics. I love a great collection of shorts because it gives the reader a great sampling of the writer’s strengths (not that Stephen King needs anyone’s approval at this point, lol). Skeleton Crew contains twenty-two stories and most of them are horror or supernatural related. There are a few that focus more on the monsters who walk among us (King is great at pointing out the real monsters in our world- humans), but mostly they give you a glimpse into the unknown and he is the master at fleshing these nightmares into a believable reality, mostly through his realistic character development. In case you are wondering what stories are in this collection, here is a complete list-
1. The Mist
2. Here There Be Tygers
3. The Monkey
4. Cain Rose Up
5. Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut
6. The Jaunt
7. The Wedding Gig
8. Paranoid: A Chant
9. The Raft
10. Word Processor of the Gods
11. The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
12. Beachworld
13. The Reaper’s Image
14. Nona
15. For Owen
16. Survivor Type
17. Uncle Otto’s Truck
18. Morning Deliveries (Milkman No. 1)
19. Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman No. 2)
20. Gramma
21. The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet
22. The Reach
Each story has its own special place for me, but here are a few that I love. The Mist because it has a great Lovecraft feel to it and leaves you wondering what happens long after the story ends. The Raft was extremely terrifying in that it has a way of putting the reader right on the raft itself and the tension is nearly unbearable. The Monkey has its moments and I’ve always loved the idea behind Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut. King broaches some sci-fi in The Jaunt and Beachworld, both with strong elements of horror. Survivor Type and Gramma are fantastic shorts, both creatively unique and entertaining (plus Gramma gives a shout out to Hastur, so there’s that!) There are also a ton of good narrators in this bunch, too, including King himself, Will Patton, Paul Giamatti and Matthew Broderick. The best narration, in my opinion, was Michael C. Hall (Dexter) reading The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet. His voice puts you right in the middle of the story. This collection is a must read/listen for any Stephen King fan and makes for a great introduction to his work for those who haven’t tried out King. The audio quality is top notch and all of the narrators did a fantastic job!

Inconsistent but worthwhile

A very inconsistent collection of stories. Some are pretty brilliant and brilliantly read. Others bored me to tears. Everything read by Paul Giamotti was fantastic!! “The Mist” was also a standout (I think it was narrated by Will Patton). Sadly, most everything read by a female left me cold and emotionless; the stories and how they were narrated seemed to go nowhere. “Grandma” was good, but utterly boring for its first half, and then picked up in its second half and ended with a really nice (and scary) ending. Overall, Skeleton Crew was worth the credit. The good definitely outweighed the not so good.

A good (but long) collection of tales

The collection opens up with "The Mist", which I can't remember if I watched or read before. Either way, this "version" was classic King. You had the weird, but you had the "people" too, which is really what drove the story along. It felt like a mix of The Stand and Under the Dome.

Some stories are longish in nature (The Mist, The Monkey, Gramma, Flexible Bullet), while others can barely be called more than a poem (Milkman #1, Cain Rose Up, Owen). A couple don't really fit into what most folks expect from King (The Wedding Gig, Survivor Type). Out of the 20+ tales, there were only a couple that I didn't like.

There's a good mixture of styles and lengths here that make for an enjoyable, but sometimes disjointed listen. Coupled with the length of the overall audiobook, it seemed better for me to listen to a few stories from this collection in between other singular audio books.

The narrators did an AWESOME job

Quality Fiction

I've been a King fan since my sister gave me the Gunslinger for my birthday in 1986. I was hooked at once. Skeleton Crew is an arrangement of stories that kept me interested throughout. All of the narrators read their stories in such a way that kept me from day dreaming about other things. While there was one story I did not like i gave this a 5 across the board

ok

it was ok not as entertaining as bizarre of bad dreams of course something to listen to it did give me a couple of nightmares but Bazaar of bad dreams was the ultimate

Some really great stories but some not as good

I really liked:

The Mist, Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, Word Processor of the Gods.

The others were good and you know form your own opinion. I found it hard to stay awake during some of them. Overall not my favorite King book but worth it to listen to the Mist.

A few good ones but a lot of boring ones too.

The ones that are good are worth hearing. Gramma is the best and Mrs. So and so Shortcut are great too , a few others I can't remember.

Classic Stephen King

A classic collection of early King work with everything from a brief musing on Tygers to novellas on space travel and a supernatural mist. Loved them all!

Was brilliant when I was 12

I first read this book in the 80s when I was somewhat obsessed with Stephen King and devoured all of his books. I was excited to reread this anthology of short stories. They still hold a lot of nostalgia for me, and I wish I had left my memory of them untarnished. King's writing has definitely evolved, and my tastes in books has changed.