London: New English Library, 1994 ISBN 0450610098
Ever since scaring myself silly reading Salem's Lot when I was a teenager, I've had a soft spot for the works of Stephen King. Not the grandiose later works, but the early, scary stuff. His first collection of short stories - Nightshift - is a particular favourite of mine, and well worth reading.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes is not as strong as Nightshift, with some stories being a little formulaic, but there are definitely some good ones. The collection varies between outright horror, sci-fi, and the fantastic, according to the whims of King's mind. And what a mind it must be, fizzing with thoughts that most other people would not enjoy having. In the Introduction King suggests that he doesn't necessarily enjoy all of them either, feeling compelled to write. There is no doubt King is at his best dealing with horror: he is the master of the build-up; of evoking a "normal" neighbourhood and people, and then inserting the terrifying. In a collection such as this though, the normalcy tends to look the same in each story, so by the end of the book you can at times see through the construction of the tale, which bits are formula, which bits are building plot etc. None of which takes away from the pleasure of enjoying his ideas.
And there are some great ideas. Killer toad-storms, houses that are space-ships, and a great zombie story too. There are two vampire stories, both of which are good, and a couple of ghost stories, which are less strong. Also less strong are the stories that King writes as homages to other writers - in this collection there is a story in homage to H.P. Lovecraft, a Raymond Chandler homage, and a Sherlock Holmes story. When King attempts these stories they are very close to becoming parody or pastiche rather than what I'm sure he intends. The Holmes story in my opinion shouldn't have been included - the language is not right, with the story merely reminding the ready how much better the real thing is.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes is a great book for having on hand during the holiday season: not too much thought required, and entertaining enough.
Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell
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