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Audio CD Description Stephen King, an evil car, and a teenage boy coming to terms with the fragility and randomness of life.... Wait, haven't we read this before? Diehard King fans, worry not. Aside from the titular car playing a main role in the story, From a Buick 8 could not be less like King's 1983 masterpiece, Christine. If anything, this story resembles King's serial novel The Green Mile, with reminiscing police characters flashing back on bizarre events that took place decades earlier. The book's intriguing plot revolves around the troopers of Pennsylvania State Patrol Troop D, who come into possession of what at first appears to be a vintage automobile. Closer inspection and experimentation conducted by the troopers reveal that this car's doors (and trunk) sometimes open to another dimension populated by gross-out creatures straight out of ... well, a Stephen King novel. As the plot progresses, the veteran troopers' tales of these visits from interdimensional nasties, and the occasional "lightquakes" put on by the car, are passed on to the son of a fallen comrade whose fascination with the car bordered on dangerous obsession. Unlike earlier King works, there is no active threat here; no monster is stalking the heroes of the story, unless you count the characters' own curiosity. In past books, King has terrorized readers with vampires, werewolves, a killer clown, ghosts, and aliens, but this time around, the bogeyman is a more passive, cerebral threat, and one for which they don't make a ready-to-wear Halloween costume--man's fascination with and fear of the unknown. While some readers may find this tale less exciting than the horror master's earlier works, From a Buick 8 is a wonderful example of how much King's plotting skills and literary finesse have matured over his long career. And, most of all, it's a darn creepy book. --Benjamin Reese

Customer Reviews Quite interesting I'll start by saying that I haven't read all that many Stephen King books so I won't pretend that I know a great deal about his work because I don't. I have read a few and what I did read, I liked. Anyway, that's my position in the grand scheme of things. With my opening gambit out of the way, I'll move onto the more important matter of reviewing the book. The story itself centres around a Buick Roadmaster, which has fallen into the custody of some Police Troopers from Pennsylvania. It is not long, however, before the Troopers discover that they are not dealing with any normal car, they are dealing with something much worse. Far from being a Buick, the 'car' appears to be some sort of portal into another world. It gives birth to strange aliens, gives off blinding flashes of purple light and causes people to inexplicably disappear from the face of the earth. Ned Wilcox is the son of a former member of Troop D. He comes to Troop D in order to get an idea about his father's life and try and to some of the big questions that have been plaguing Ned since the death of his father at the hands of a drunk driver. Ned is given a job at Troop D and, as he settles into it, he too learns the story of the strange car housed in Shed B. As Ned Is told the story by the members of Troop D who were there at the time, he becomes intrigued and begs to be told the whole story. Much to Ned's despair, he learns that there aren't necessarily clearcut answers to the questions he seeks. Nobody really knows what the Buick is or where it came from. That's basically what this book is, the story of the Buick told through the eyes of the members of Troop D. For the most part, 'From a Buick 8' was very entertaining and showed that not all of life's questions can be answered conclusively. I suppose the lack of answers in this book was a bit frustrating at times but the suspense this lack of answers created was intriguing. Don't expect to be completely satisfied by this book. Even so, it still proved to be very compelling. Great writing, wobbly climax From a Buick 8 has all of the elements of Stephen King's greatest works; a bizarre phenomenon (weird alien car) experienced by a memorable cast of characters (young boy whose father was killed and his adopted father figure, among others) in an interesting setting (behind-the-scenes look at a Pennsylvania trooper station), told in a distinctive and compelling voice (comparable to Dolores Claiborne's, in terms of ability to draw a picture without breaking character). What Buick 8 doesn't have is a great payoff, and this one critical missing element hurts. The book is so engrossing that I wasn't able to put it down, but when the climax happened and the denoument began, I felt a bit cheated. Unexpectedly cheated, actually, because when has King ever let us glimpse an alien world without giving us a detailed look at that world? Ok, maybe he has done that in other novels, now that I think about it, but this book leads us to ask questions about the alien world over and over again; indeed, that's the whole point of the damn book, and when we don't get the answers we're looking for, we feel a little let down. Or at least I did. Despite this weakness, King fans will be thrilled to read King's masterful, assured prose as he takes us through a world that is so vividly real that it could appear in our dreams. As usual, there are digressions and stories that stand up on their own, and which make sure that the journey is a pleasant one. One thing that bothered me slightly is that there were too many heroic characters; King is a big fan of old-school heroes who wield wisdom as naturally as an old indian chief; in this novel, I think there are a few too many chiefs and not enough indians. The fact that they engage in an immoral act towards the end of the novel doesn't give them the depth that more consistent weaknesses would have. King's ideas seem as fresh as they ever did. Every time I hear rumors that a retirement is imminent, I get temporarily worried. But then his new project always appears on the horizon. King has never published a bad book, and I doubt he ever will. I look forward to anything else he cares to make available... What comes from the trunk...will haunt you... I give it three stars because though it's a great "story" it is something slightly different than most of King's recent novels. In 1979, a man stops at a gas station in a Buick Roadmaster. The attendant remembers him coming in and not engaging in much conversation, and he cannot remember the man really having a face. The man leaves the station, but does not return to his car, disappearing forever. The car is later called in to the cops, Rafferty and Wilcox, who come to take the vehicle to an impound shed. Though it had been raining for some time, the vehicle was clean, spotless...and even more mysteries about when they look inside the car. It's almost like a giant die-cast toy. No guages, no dust on the dash, no popcorn under the seats, nearly seamless in every way. Like nothing they have ever seen before! The stranger never returns, so the car sits in a garage at the station. Soon weird things start happening, including the death of Wilcox and Rafferty. Rafferty disappears while examining the car one day, while Wilcox is hit by a car on a traffic stop. The stories that are told of the car come from various troopers who speak with Wilcox's 18 year old son Ned, who has sort of been "adopted" by the group. His interest in the car pushes them to start telling why their is more to the car, how it is somehow a portal to an alien world so dark and weird that they cannot even expect him to understand. Secrets are revealed and more strange things start to stir in Shed B where the car is kept. What will become of anyone who ventures to close? What will become of the Buick that was left in their town one day, only to change their lives forever? As I said before, a different tale but a great story nonetheless. Any King fan should give it a shot. (note) King got the idea for the story while being at a gas station and looking around the back at a canal with a steep bank, where someone could easily dissapear. He spoke extensively with State Troopers in Pennsyvania, to get into their world and understand the nature of their work, comraderie, and thier daily routines.