# Best story in Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801 "2010-09-15T02:53:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/1 "2010-09-15T02:53:23Z")
The sort of follow up to the [**Night Shift**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=578199) poll. (Of course, someone had to steal my thunder and start a [**Skeleton Crew**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12916049&posted=1#post12916049) poll wherein you could vote for as many (or as few) stories as you please. Philistines. But in this poll, as in the earlier, superior **Night Shift** poll, you can only choose one story. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/2 "2010-09-15T03:10:51Z")
I don’t remember most of the stories too well…You Know They’ve Got a Hell of a Band, and The End of the Whole Mess are the only ones I remember well enough to consider voting for. I ended up voting for the former. Looking up the collection, there’s a single image from Rainy Season that I remember - the toad-creatures dissolving. But that’s it… ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/3 "2010-09-15T13:37:36Z")
I’m pretty lukewarm about this whole collection, but the logistical problem-solving in Dolan’s Cadillac was interesting. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/4 "2010-09-15T14:09:02Z")
I actually loved a number of stories from this collection (though I didn’t like it as well as _Night Shift_ or _Skeleton Crew_), so I wish this had been a multiple-choice poll. But if I have to pick _just one_, I’d have to go with _Dolan’s Cadillac_, which is not only probably King’s _best_ short story, but possibly one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. I said in another thread that I love it when King follows a character’s descent into insanity, and this story backs it up. A close second, though, would be _Umney’s Last Case_, just for being nifty and fun and kind of a new riff on some old ideas. Lots of good stuff in the book, though, including _You Know They Got a Hell of a Band_. Oh, and _The House on Maple Street_ is a story I’ve ‘read’ to my children, when they were, oh, nine or ten years old. When I put read in quotation marks it’s because I edited for content as I went along. Still, when edited down a bit, the kids love it! ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/5 "2010-09-15T14:34:34Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > I don’t remember most of the stories too well…You Know They’ve Got a Hell of a Band, and The End of the Whole Mess are the only ones I remember well enough to consider voting for. That’s my problem, too. I only really remember Dolan’s Cadillac and The Ten O’Clock People, neither of which was especially great, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/6 "2010-09-15T15:10:40Z")
I have read this book, but the stories in it just don’t resonate with me the way the ones in the other two collections did. _Hell of a Band_ and _Moving Finger_ are just plain nightmares, _Ten O’Clock People_ is only memorable in how much it resembles the movie _They Live_. _Crouch End_ is a fairly bland Lovecraft pastiche. The only one which makes me smile is _The Night Flyer_, because it’s such a silly little thing. ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/7 "2010-09-15T16:29:25Z")
I have to vote for _The Moving Finger_. As I mentioned in the other thread, that story has made me afraid to go to the bathroom at night for over a decade. Anything that creeps me out that much for that long is a damn good story. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/8 "2010-09-15T16:36:30Z")
> [@Daerlyn](#): > > I have to vote for _The Moving Finger_. As I mentioned in the other thread, that story has made me afraid to go to the bathroom at night for over a decade. Anything that creeps me out that much for that long is a damn good story. And I’m the other vote (so far). Technically, I don’t think it’s the _best_ story, so I probably should have voted differently, but it’s the one I enjoyed the most. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/9 "2010-09-15T16:54:12Z")
As noted in the other thread, The Moving Finger crept into my psyche and took up permanent residence. Something that can freak you out in your dark bathroom decades later deserves credit! That said, I wish I could vote for Dolan’s Cadillac too. Love that story. I got excited to see they made a movie of it last year, then dejected when I saw the crappy reviews. I’ll still watch it, but I’m sure it won’t be great. I also really like Umney’s Last Case (the adaptation with William H. Macy is pretty darn good too). Honorable Mention to The End of the Whole Mess, Home Delivery, and Crouch End. ETA: who voted for Dedication? Ew. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/10 "2010-09-15T18:07:50Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > Honorable Mention to The End of the Whole Mess, Home Delivery, and Crouch End. To me, Crouch End was as close to a perfect modern Lovecraftian horror story as I’ve ever read, even as an homage. The growing pervasive sense of gloom, horror, and claustrophobia was palpable. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/11 "2010-09-15T20:12:53Z")
I voted for Dolan’s Cadillac. It was well written and had no supernatural elements as was discussed in a recent thread. Dolan ‘heard’ his wife’s voice, but that could just have been his own imagination as he was caught up in the need for revenge. “Beware the vengeance of a patient man.” ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/12 "2010-09-15T20:36:43Z")
I wasn’t a fan of this collection, to be honest. None of the stories really resonated with me, and in fact I had to google a lot of them to even remember what they were about. I do remember being intrigued by “Sneakers” and “Dolan’s Cadillac,” though. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/13 "2010-09-16T00:19:38Z")
> [@Satchmo](#): > > I voted for Dolan’s Cadillac. It was well written and had no supernatural elements as was discussed in a recent thread. Dolan ‘heard’ his wife’s voice, but that could just have been his own imagination as he was caught up in the need for revenge. “Beware the vengeance of a patient man.” I interpreted his hearing his wife’s voice as part of his plunge into insanity. At the end of the story, if you recall, he stopped hearing it. To me, it was because the issue that was making him crazy had been resolved. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/14 "2010-09-16T03:44:27Z")
From what I recall about _Dolan’s Cadillac_, King wrote in the notes at the end that he got the exact instructions for what happened, then changed them quite a bit so that if someone tried to do it, it wouldn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/15 "2010-09-16T08:47:07Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > From what I recall about _Dolan’s Cadillac_, King wrote in the notes at the end that he got the exact instructions for what happened, then changed them quite a bit so that if someone tried to do it, it wouldn’t work. I actually remember the same notes. In the story, the protagonist (Robinson? I think his name was) went to a friend of his for instructions. But in real life, King went to his brother, who apparently is some kind of genius, and did, in fact, get real numbers, real math, etc. Then he changed it up for the story, for the reason you mentioned. I guess leaving it all very factual would be begging for both bad karma _and_ a lawsuit! ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/16 "2010-09-16T09:15:54Z")
I remember being disappointed by this collection when I picked it up, and can’t remember half of them. (As opposed to Night Shift and Skeleton Crew, every story of which I can recall in detail a quarter century later). “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band” was OK – original, with still a bit of the old hungry passion. The others seemed either to be consciously aping other artists (Poe, Lovecraft, Rowdy Roddy Piper) or part of King’s “Look How Special It Is To Be An Author” navel gazing. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/17 "2010-09-16T10:11:21Z")
I’m seriously debating whether I can seriously vote for “The Doctor’s Case.” I’m a Sherlock Holmes and locked room mystery fan, and read it when it was in the Sherlock Holmes pastiche collection (ie before it was tapped for Nightmares and Dreamscapes), so I may be prejudiced and giving short shrift to the other stories. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/18 "2010-09-16T10:48:44Z")
I too liked _Dolan’s Cadillac_ the best – the slow-moving buildup and the sheer dedication of the revenge stuck with me for quite a while. Has anybody seen the [movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963965/), by the way? I must admit I quite liked it (if only for the good taste showed in trying to film that particular story). ---
**Author:** ![BigDadWolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@BigDadWolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigDadWolf)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/19 "2010-09-16T13:01:27Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > > [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > > > Honorable Mention to The End of the Whole Mess, Home Delivery, and Crouch End. > > To me, Crouch End was as close to a perfect modern Lovecraftian horror story as I’ve ever read, even as an homage. The growing pervasive sense of gloom, horror, and claustrophobia was palpable. Agreed - the growing “oddness” of the surroundings as the couple’s confusion turns into terror made Crouch End the most memorable story in this collection in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801/20 "2010-09-16T14:54:54Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I’m seriously debating whether I can seriously vote for “The Doctor’s Case.” I’m a Sherlock Holmes and locked room mystery fan, and read it when it was in the Sherlock Holmes pastiche collection (ie before it was tapped for Nightmares and Dreamscapes), so I may be prejudiced and giving short shrift to the other stories. While I read some Doyle when I was younger, I don’t consider myself a huge Holmes fan, but I still thought this story was a lot of fun! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-story-in-stephen-kings-nightmares-and-dreamscapes/553801.md?page=2)