I voted for The Mist and The Raft because I’d have a hard time picking between them, although I like lots in this collection. But The Raft is King might edge out The Mist because of the echoes of The Colour Out Of Space & other Lovecraft stuff, for me.
The Jaunt, though I loved a lot of the stories in this collection, including Gramma (brr) and The Raft. I’m not actually that fond of The Mist. I don’t like crazy maniacal religious screamers, in fiction or IRL. It gets better once they finally leave the store, but she annoys the piss out of me.
“Longer than you think, dad! Longer than you think!”
Oh, and Survivor Type! Wow.
I hate Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut. And as to the Word Processor of the Gods, I was struck by a lot of things in that story, and I liked it a lot - a feel-good story until you look at it deeper and realize no one is really very good in that story. Not even the kid.
Since this is back from the sematary, and I missed it the first time around, I’ve voted now. It’s hard to say which story is “best”–my favorites are not necessarily the best-written stories, technically. I think “The Reach” and “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” were my favorites, followed by “The Mist” and “The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands”. I think the endings (or non-endings, in some cases) are what make them appeal to me, but I’m not sure I could tell you why.
I didn’t care for “Word Processor of the Gods”. It’s an interesting idea to play with, but I don’t think King did anything interesting with it. The idea isn’t particularly original, either–and I say that having used it in a horror story myself.
I liked The Jaunt, The Raft and The Mist but The Raft has to have had the worst movie adaptation ever. The plastic black bag floating around the raft was hardly menacing, just some trash that was a bit out of place.
A Stephen King zombie thread. How appropriate.
Mrs Todd’s Shortcut; The Jaunt; The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet.
I know the last one has its flaws, but it just caught me and took up residence.
The Jaunt by a Green Mile.
I remember one Halloween a local radio station played the audiobook version of, “The Mist.” LOVED IT. I hated the crazy religious woman, but that was the only bad part. She was just really hateful, and there was nothing humanizing or moderating about the character, so one-dimensional. I guess he wanted to show how even crazy, hateful people can be charismatic and sway people to their worldview when things start going bad, but that character was just nails-on-a-chalkboard for me.
I only remember this story and, “Survivor Type”, from that book.
The Mist & The Jaunt are my top picks; Survivor Type a bit behind them. Those are the ones that even though it’s been quite a few years since I read the book (I ought to go dig it out again sometime), when I think “good King stories” they come to mind.
Longer than you think, Dad! Longer than you think!
Well, yeah, if you think about it, it’s about a ghost who convinces a man to murder his wife and son.
Thing is that I don’t feel that King was being ambiguous when he wrote that one. I read it as a completely straight tale: the character’s brother, wife and son are 100% Bad with a capital B, his sister-in-law and nephew are Destined to be his… nobody is responsible for that twist of fate, neither the woman who keeps on loving an abusive man, nor him for failing to properly raise his son. Just… a weird one.
Survivor type has to be the story with the most powerful imagery. I had forgotten most stories on Skeleton Crew, but the creepyness of Type remains fresh in my mind like I read it an hour ago.