Customer Reviews
King's the king!
Stephen King as the new Marlboro Man? Sure, why not. The man can do anything, it seems, as he blazes trails on the page, at the movies, and in the e-book trade. In this case, he validates the audio book market by releasing Blood & Smoke exclusively on cassette (or CD).
The collection is Virginia-slim, offering up only three stories, but they are unfiltered, full-flavor horror stories linked by the smoke-ring theme of cigarettes. Smoking is a nasty habit with severe consequences, as King's cancer-stick sucking characters soon find out.
In the first story, "Lunch at the Gotham Café," downtrodden Steve Davis decides to shuck smoking just days after his wife leaves him. King expertly equates the two kinds of addiction and withdrawal. Steve's obsessive mind is seriously tweaking by the time meets with his wife and her lawyer at a trendy Manhattan bistro, where the real horror begins. Between Steve, the maniacal maitre d' and the cleaver-clutching cook, the term "smoker's hack" takes on a whole new meaning.
The next tale, "1408," introduces us to Mike Enslin, bestselling author of paranormal pabulum. Mike once worked for the Village Voice and dreamed of being a Yale Younger Poet... but he's ended up a hack, writing horror. Horror that keeps him very well, but doesn't feed his soul. In 1408, he's doing research for his next book, spending the night in New York City's most haunted hotel room. The proprietor does everything he can to talk the writer out of staying in Room 1408. He recounts the grisly tales of the 12 suicides that took place in that room, and how maids over the years have been terrorized by some malevolent, unseen spirit. Mike, a newly-nonsmoking, nonbeliever who has never actually encountered any of the ghosts he's written about, is steadfast. He insists, and is given the key. The key to his own doom. This is one foul phantom, but Mike escapes with his sanity just in the nicotine - er, nick of time. Or does he?
The final tale in this trilogy of terror is entitled, "In the Deathroom." The deathroom is the bloodstained basement of the Ministry of Information in South America in which Fletcher, a reporter who dropped the habit long ago, is being held for questioning. His captors will use any tortuous means necessary to extract the information they want from him. His only hope lies with his final request - one last Lucky Strike.
King is the reader, and while I worship his writing, I must say his nasal, sarcastic delivery and fake accents became a bit of a drag (particularly in "Deathroom" which was definitely the weakest in the pack). The music was also overbearing and intrusive at times. But King's stellar storytelling skills filter out any of my trivial criticisms - he throws you headlong into the blood and smoke with his horrified protagonists, and you can feel their painful withdrawal, paranoia, desperation and fear. The fliptop cigarette-box packaging is a cleverly Kool nice touch, too.
Even if you're an audio book virgin, give in to your King habit and pick up this carton of chills and thrills that really kill.
Staci Layne Wilson
Author of "Staci's Guide to Animal Movies"
(which covers a lot of Stehen King's movies with animals in them! :)
1408
There is no doubt that Stephen King is a master of horror, and to hear him read his tales is more than satisfying. But the reason every King fan should own this audiobook is for the truly terrifying reading of what is possibly King's scariest short: "1408."
I'm a seasoned King reader (I've read everything he's written except the "Dark Tower" series). When I read "1408," I spent fifteen minutes scaring into space and collecting my wits. When I listened to King read it, I shook in my bed. King's controlled voice bends and shifts as he rasps the terrifying words that come from the telephone, as he methodically describes the wrongness of the room. It is a masterpiece.
Buy this. Just don't listen to it in the dark.
Stephen King smokes it up!
King's Blood & Smoke is an ASTONISHING audio!
©March 9, 2003
Reviewed by Brutal Dreamer
I've always wanted to hear Stephen King read, to hear him speak his nightmarish tales to me. I believe the King knows exactly how the tone, scene, and mood of the story fits in and can he captured it precisely. I personally *LOVE* King's voice and his natural reading skills and controlled voice. I enjoyed the 3 1/2 hours of listening to him read each story.
The stories are SENSATIONALLY packaged together in puffs of tasty smoke sticks. There are three, each one involving smoking, henceforth: Blood and Smoke.
Critics try convincing you, the fans, that audio is not something ones listen to anymore. I beg to differ. I find myself happily listening to audio every chance I get. Ones want to believe: if you don't have time to read the books then you won't give your full attention to the audio. I again differ on this opinion. I read an astronomical amount of books and spend at least an hour a day just on recreational reading (not including my job as 'reviewer' or reading of fellow author's books). I enjoy listening to stories being read while I straighten my desk, wash dishes, or even take a break and relax. And it is an honor to hear King sit right by me, as I snuggle up to him, and await his voice to explode and tell me his horrors so beautifully.
"Lunch at the Gotham Cafe," is an extremely fabulous story. It is a very busy story; the climax is filled with a massive amount of activity. When Steve Davis arrives home his wife has flew the coup. Steve has just stopped smoking, and when his soon-to-be ex-wife's lawyer sets up a luncheon at the Gotham Cafe to discuss the details of the divorce. What's that spot on the maitre'd's jacket? Looks like blood. What a perfect time to quit smoking, eh? Is he feeling withdrawals?
This is definitely King at his most horrific: Insanity running amok.
"1408," This is my favorite of by far. Ghost stories will always get my attention. Especially, if they are doused with a lot of dialogue. Mike Enslin is a "ghostwriter" of sorts. He writes non-fic stories about ghosts. Although, he is skeptical and isn't a firm believer in ghosts himself, he enters the prestigious Dolphin Hotel. The hotel hasn't been used in twenty years, he stayed in the room 1408. Doing the math he has to admit the oddity of it all, the ironic number thirteen, and he stays on the fourteenth, oh, I mean, the thirteenth floor. What is odd about three lopsided pictures? Still life? There was something shocking about the image as well as how Mike didn't 'record' the instance on the tape. Mike has to get a hold of himself, he didn't believe he was being haunted but he worried he was being hypnotized by the hotel manager, Mr. Olan. Ashtray on the desk, book of matches with the Hotel Dolphin on the front of it.
King's reading kept the story menacing, with insipid scenes he kept the listener in chills. The scene with the bloody woman and her wicked toothy smile, was captured through King's assured voice. If you want another truly heart thumper scene: the telephone call. (worse than listening to Wheel of Fortune) King's voice during this phone scene was almost too spooky. As he reads about the 'voice' pouring out of the room, its hungry voice.
King has a fever for haunted hotels. 1408 certainly ranks up there with his "The Shining" novel.
"In the Deathroom," Fletcher is an American reporter held in the "deathroom" a torture chamber in the South America. Fletcher, is offered a cigarette repeatedly. The room is definitely a 'deathroom' and Fletcher knew its gray atmosphere spoke many deathly tales. He felt his immediate death approaching and he desperately conceives of a plan that will free him, rather in death or freedom, one or the same to him at this point. His only hope is that final drag on a cigarette, one last cigarette, please.
I was shocked these tales didn't take place in Maine (Castle Rock or Dury) but they took place in New York City. "In the Deathroom" reminds me a lot of one of my favorite tales of King's: Gerald's Game and even Misery, due to the fact, torture was inflicted in a particular room.
The theme of SMOKE AND BLOOD is just that. Dealing with smoking with horror and gore bloody scenes. Stephen King is not only a writer but the true storyteller. Within his voice through the tells, you will be convinced that you see that cold gray floor in the deathroom. His acting shines through most in "The Deathroom" he is definitely putting himself and all he knows into that tale.
In each tale: Fletcher, Mike, and Steve are transformed, and all linked together due to their habit of smoking, or their taste for it. He is the King of grotesque in Gotham Cafe, King of eerie in the ghostly room 1408, and King of fear in the "deathroom" --Stephen King is just that KING!
