How Do You Rate Stephen King's Story Collections?

[dolphintornsea]

Hi, everybody.

There are lots of SK story collections, but in this thread I'm interested in the short story collections (as opposed to novella or long story collections).

I dug out the TOC's on ISFDB, and the following five books appear to be his major short story collections:

Night Shift (1982);
Skeleton Crew (1985);
Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993);
Everything's Eventual (2002), and
Just After Sunset (2008).

I have three of these (and I can easily get the other two), and I've dipped into all of them, but it's time I took one and read it all the way through.

So my question is: in what order would you rank the above five books? I'd like to start where the King experts say.

 

[BigBadBob141]

Haven't read the last one yet, but on the whole I rate them quite highly.
You do get the odd story that doesn't work for you but on the whole I would say most of them rank at 4 or 5 stars out of 5.
Hope I've done this right, this is my 1st entry on this site.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Welcome to chronicles, BigBadBob141.

 

[BigBadBob141]

Oops sorry (I'm new at this) I forgot the ratings.
They are :
1 Nightmares & Dreamscapes
2 Everything's Eventual
3 Skeleton Crew
4 Night Shift
Hope this helps.
P.S. Hi I, Brian, nice to hear from you.
P.P.S. Tried to edit 1st post but did not seem to take?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Only allowed for around 15-20 minutes - otherwise a discussion could become very confused if someone decides to suddenly rewrite one or more of their posts.

 

[BigBadBob141]

REF: I, Brain
I see, thanks for telling me!
All the best, Bob!!!

 

[ratsy]

I read a couple of his short story collections, I know I have read Just after Sunset, and N was one of the best stories I have read. It crept me out for days after I read it...the power of words hey?

 

[BigBadBob141]

Have just finished reading "Full Dark, No Stars".
All four stories are very good, not a duff one in the bunch.
All very dark but well written and with good endings.
Also read "Just After Sunset" earlier, another excellent collection.
Highly recommend them both!!!

 

[BAYLOR]

Skeleton Crew is first rate stuff.

 

[anno]

I remember going to my local Asda in 1982 and buying a white covered short story collection by a new author to me,'Night Shift'was my baptism of fire from the Lovecraftion rats in the walls to my still favourite King story 'sometimes they come back'
I was hooked and still can be very impressed by him,he has the ability to take the ordinary and mundain and suddenly flip it into hell.
He even plays guitar!