RIDING THE BULLET

RIDING THE BULLET by Stephen King
eBook -- March 14, 2000

Reviewed by Brenda Weeaks, MyShelf.com
Amazon’s Price: Free! Download it

I’ve had the privilege of reading and enjoying eBooks. My personal thoughts on the subject are: I don’t think there are enough people taking the eBook publishing seriously, and the costs of readers (Rocket Book, etc.) are still too expensive. Seeing a big name like Stephen King step into the latest reading technology is wonderful sight! It has brought more attention to the fact that more authors are leaning this way. Some have even gone to the length of making sure they keep their eBook rights. One large publisher is simultaneously publishing the standard book and eBook versions for the readers to choose from. As for King’s decision to publish an eBook-only title, this isn’t the first time he has drawn attention to a different type of publishing. He also published an audio-only book called Blood and Smoke.

So, what kind of story did Stephen King start his eBook authoring with? It’s called Riding the Bullet, and in a nutshell it’s: Intense, Frightening, Bizarre, Crude, Amazing, Thought Provoking and possible PG 13 – parents beware. Riding the Bullet has a double meaning in King’s story. It’s a theme park ride, but it’s also a type of ride Alan Parker, as a college kid, took when left at a cemetery while hitchhiking through Maine in order to get back to his hometown to see his ill mother. It’s 66 pages of one young man’s night of terror that starts with a phone call and ends with him as a grown man still trying to shake the embedded fear of that night. From the phone call, through each ride with two different drivers (one eccentric and crass, the other bizarre), to the hospital and beyond, the reader will experience King’s trademark scare tactics. The man is good; his colorful, grosser scenes may be hard to take at times, but he sure has the skill to make his readers react when and where he wants. It’s a typical Stephen King horror, and even though there is a moral in it, it’s not meant for young readers, not even for teens as far as I’m concerned. So parents, think twice before you download this one. People who are sensitive or easily offended by language or strong scenes may want to skip it also, but for those horror fans that relish something quick, and Kingish, this is it.