The Lawnmower Man and Other Stories From Night Shift

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: John Glover

Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Playing upon our most primal fears, Stephen King draws us into his sinister world - a place where sane men and women see their lives shattered, their realities distorted and destroyed. Now, listeners can probe even deeper into the mind of the master storyteller of the macabre, with this third unabridged production of 5 classic short stories, from King's best selling collection, Night Shift.

Harold Parkette disposes of his lawnmower after his neighbor's cat dies a gruesome death. But the "Lawnmower Man" he hires to do the job proves more than Harold bargained for. A police officer begins to suspect that a series of grisly industrial accidents is no coincidence in "The Mangler." At "Quitter's Inc." a smoker soon discovers that they'll truly stop at nothing to make sure their customers kick the habit. A betrayed husband goes out on "The Ledge" when he takes vengeance into his own hands. And in "Sometimes They Come Back," the concept of alumni is given new meaning when a high school teacher, haunted by the past, is assigned 3 new students who seem eerily familiar.

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

Really good food for thought!

If you like Stephen King short stories then these are for you. The narrator does a good job of making you believe he was telling you the story like it had happened to him. Definitely a good listen over and over again.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Glover Steals the Show

This is an odd collection of the leftovers from Night Shift, all of the stories either feature the mystical or criminal element. While the writing is top-notch John Glover is really the standout giving a versatile and dynamic performance across all the stories contained here. He actually might have more characters to work with and these five and the other two collections of Night Shift combined. the one complaint here is the music. Although absent from the other two collections of Night Shift except during the interludes the music here tends to arrive for the crescendo of each story sometimes more than that and remain through the end. While the music itself is actually quite good it sometimes overshadows Glover's voice making it difficult to hear.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Stephen King is terrifyingly good! Well read, too.

Very interesting , but it could do without the music! Otherwise, very good King stories!

Mixed bag

Stephen King is a known quantity, and this collection neither disappoints nor blows you away. My only real comment is on the performance. The reader is okay, although IMO tries to hard to inject feeling into the story. But the real problem is the music and sound effects. Most Stephen King audio books have music here and there; short fillips, as it were. Accents to the story. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but they’re usually pretty unobtrusive and let the story take center stage.

Unfortunately, the producers of this collection felt they had to go farther—maybe they didn’t trust the material?—and the result is not only distracting but quite annoying. Further, there are times when the music and effects actually drown out the reader, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of an audio book.

Good stories; decent performance; irritating effects.

A great conclusion to Night Shift.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this, because these stories are truly terrifying.

What other book might you compare The Lawnmower Man and Other Stories From Night Shift to and why?

I would compare this to the other volumes in Night Shift. The other volumes have great stories, but they are not as scary.

Which character – as performed by John Glover – was your favorite?

I loved the lawn mower man. He is really creepy when he sets his lawn mower on the main character. I also thought the main character in the ledge was really well written.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

If you want to be really scared, just listen to the story the ledge.

Enjoy the SK Classic Shorts Again in Audio!

I loved these short stories when I was a teen and have had a wonderful time revisiting them again on audio! Great Narration!

night shift

Ok early King. stories in this batch have all been turned to movies or shorts in movie collections. All are better as stories for sure! Esp The Lawnmower Man! Where the hell did they get the movie that included retardation and virtual reality out of this short, short story? I really enjoyed the Lawnmower Man story here pretty strange and wonderful. the rest were just OK, including pretty decent performance of mangler with machine sounds and music.

My favorite King Collection thus far

This was my my favorite collection so far. The stories created a range of emotion...during lawnmower man I laughed and during quitters Inc I was on the edge of my seat. I love Stephen King, and this is a great collection for anyone whose just getting started with him and doesn't want to commit to a 1000 page book, but still satisfy the hard core fans.

Awesome!!! See the where the worlds greatest story teller started out.

Amazing in every way. The stories are excellent. After reading much Stephen King you realize how much he's restraining himself from going off into deep detail that his long stories call for.

John Glover reads the stories as if they're among his favorites. Almost as if he's not reading at all.

On "Gray matter and other stories from Night Shift", the audio was not good and difficult to deal with. On THIS book the audio is crisp and perfect. Sounds great and therefore not an issue at all. Not sure what was up with the other.

Great collection of short stories.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Lawnmower Man and Other Stories From Night Shift to be better than the print version?

Yes. I enjoyed the different voices of the characters. The narrator did an excellent job of expressing the emotions of the characters.

What did you like best about this story?

I just like Stephen King.

What does John Glover bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The voices of the characters.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No.

Any additional comments?

Classic Stephen King

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Look elsewhere

Any additional comments?

I am a big fan of Stephen King, but this is far from his best work. The Mangler and the Ledge are standouts in this book, and were enjoyable enough. If you are a die-hard King fan and you've read most of his books, this is worth a listen, but you could randomly pick any other book by King and you'd probably find a better read than this.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

What happened to Stephen King

Usually I like Stephen King, but this is almost the worst stories I have ever read.
I hope he wrote it as a joke

0 of 1 people found this review helpful