( Desperation, King's only book-length riff on the theme, works far better.) Later stories such as 'Rainy Season' and 'You Know They Got a Hell of a Band' play with the same basic premise, but neither as successfully. 'Children of the Corn,' one of his finest and most frightening pieces of short fiction, is King's first take on the motif of a young couple driving into a town where something has gone wrong. In ways a prologue to It, 'The Boogeyman' pits the fear of the monster in the closet against modern psychology, again illustrating King's fascination with updating classic horrors for a present-day audience. 'Night Surf' could be a lost chapter of The Stand, while 'Trucks' and 'The Mangler' predate the fear of technology and machines later utilized in Christine, The Tommyknockers, and Cell. Quite of few of these stories seem to anticipate later, longer works, either in theme or situation. One of King's few epistolary tales, in both format and literary heritage it prefigures The Plant (King's Lovecraftian influence would continue to influence his career, as is evident in stories such as Nightmares & Dreamscapes' 'Crouch End,' and Just After Sunset's 'N.,' and segments of the Dark Tower volume, Song of Susannah.) King's ongoing interest in 'Salem's Lot's narrative is further developed in 'One For the Road.' In this, 'Strawberry Spring' and 'Gray Matter,' King's use of weather as a source of horror is evocative, recalling Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher.' King would later use this technique to great effect in 'The Mist' and Storm of the Century. Lovecraft, opens the collection, providing historical background for his prior novel, 'Salem's Lot.

Perhaps due to the space constraints of magazine publications, each of the stories in Night Shift is compact what they may lack in deeper themes or characterization, they make up for in terms of visceral impact. Most of these early works first appeared in 'men's magazines' - Cavalier, Penthouse, and Gallery - which, at the time, paid good money for horror stories. The stories anthologized cover a wide range of styles and themes, many offering glimpses of interests King will return to over the course of his career. King's first short fiction collection, Night Shift may be the best introduction to a reader interested in discovering Stephen King.

Stephen king night shift collection