The Book: Blockade Billy, by Stephen King
The Story: This is just an old man telling a story from the earlier days of baseball, when he was the third base coach for the Tigers. Due to circumstances out of any one’s control, a new catcher had to be found asap just days before the first game. He pretty much ended up being a wonder-kid and got the nickname Blockade Billy for how great he was at stopping people from making it home.
As the story unfolds, we start to find out that maybe there is more going on with this kid than he said up front….
What I Thought: Decent story? Yeah. Worth the hoopla? Nope.
When this was initially announced, it was supposed to be this super limited edition thing and people were shelling out tons of money for a little skinny book. Then they announced that they would publish a few more. Then they totally went mass-market with it. There were 2 or 3 copies at my library alone. All of this led to a lot of “talk” and publicity, and probably this wasn’t worthy of all that.
It was a pretty typical Stephen King story and combined two things he loves: that mysterious element and baseball. I thought that the voice was refreshing and spot on. It was being narrated by a guy currently in a retirement home and I thought that Stephen King hit the nail right on the head. I could have done without some of the play-by-play ballgame stuff, but it was part of the story and made everything fit together.
There was a “bonus” story at the end of the copy that I read called “Morality.” It was about a home health aid whose client asked her to do something pretty risky for quite a bit of money. Her reaction and the decision that she and her husband make are the basis of this story. I loved it, dare I say, more than Blockade Billy. Really good.
Conclusion: Not his best novella, but not his worst. If you are a big Stephen King fan, take an hour or so and give this a read. It’s short and good and totally Stephen King. Don’t make this be your first experience with Stephen King or with novellas.
The Book: The Langoliers, by Stephen King
The Story: Big, giant commercial plane leaves from the west coast. Somewhere in the middle, almost everyone on the plane disappears. Only the people that were sleeping survive. Luckily, one of them was a pilot dead-heading to Boston. Soon they wake up and start to figure out what may have happened.
They decide to make an emergency landing and try to see if anyone else was effected by this crazy phenomenon. They quickly discover that they’re the only ones… anywhere… that are left. As they try to reason through all of this, one of the survivors is slowly losing and they are running quickly out of time….
What I Thought: This was a re-read for me. For some reason, this is one of my favorite Stephen King stories. I’ve read it maybe 8 or 9 times. It never gets old. I think that they characters are perfect and memorable and that the situation is just crazy enough to get ya thinkin’.
I remember watching this when it was made into a made for tv movie and just thinking that it was maybe the greatest thing ever. If I remember, most of the movie follows the book pretty closely, so if you read this and like it, try the movie out. I haven’t seen it for years, so if it is cheesy, I apologize in advance!
Conclusion: Do feel free to make this be your first Stephen King experience or your first experience with a novella. So, so good.