In The Sun Dog, the concluding novella in Stephen King's best-selling Four Past Midnight, the source of terror is a simple Polaroid camera owned by a 15-year-old boy in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine. No matter where Kevin Delevan aims the camera, it produces a photograph of an enormous, ugly, vicious looking dog. In each successive picture, the menacing creature draws nearer to the flat surface of the Polaroid film as if it intends to break through. When old Pop Merrill, the town's sharpest trader, gets wind of this phenomenon, he envisions a way to profit from itbut the Sun Dog, a beast that shouldn't exist at all, turns out to be a very dangerous investment.
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"The "Sun Dog" and especially "The Langoliers" stood out to me the most. Because of "The Langoliers" I gave this 5 stars. Most stories fade from my memory over time but this has always stayed fresh and I've even told a watered down version to my kids at bedtime."
— Scott (5 out of 5 stars)
“Demonstrate[s] the qualities that have made Stephen King the world’s most popular author.”
— Chicago Tribune“Spellbinding tales of evil.”
— Playboy“Like some denizen of the dark, King weaves a spell evoking terror and shivers as he takes readers on a nightmarish journey…Truly chilling.”
— School Library Journal" Have read the first two novellas in this volume (on the kindle) ... pretty much hooked from the start. "
— John, 2/7/2014" Reread The Library Policeman. "
— Mike, 2/2/2014" Would've been only 1 star if not for The Langoliers... "
— Benny, 1/23/2014" A collection of four novellas that somehow managed to start off on a relatively high note but get progressively more and more ridiculous. Seriously, The Sun Dog was nearly Goosebumps material. Ugh. "
— Milan, 1/23/2014" Love the Stephen King short stories and novellas.. "
— Trisha, 12/27/2013" Secret Window is one of my favorite Stephen King stories. "
— Holly, 11/1/2013" I remember one of the short stories, The Landgoliers, was especially disturbing. "
— Mr., 10/28/2013" Langoliers rating "
— Andy, 8/27/2013" Dragged down by Langoliers and Sun Dog is decent, but man Library Policeman and Secret Window are just wonderful, sad stories about how the past can affect you even more than it should. "
— Joseph, 6/9/2013" This book is actually four stories in one. King explained that they were too long to be short stories but too short to be novels. The first two stories were pretty good. The last two were *okay.* "the Library Policeman" got better towards the end. "
— Wild, 5/13/2013" Scary as all get out, man! "
— Jennifer, 6/30/2012" To be honest, I really only remember the first story, The Langoliers. It's an engaging short story, and I would recommend it to anyone who is willing to accept realities that are just a bit... off from our own. "
— Sonja, 6/24/2012" I dug "The Langoliers" (which, as is done with quite a bit of King's writing, was turned into a truly awful TV movie). I can't seem to recall what the other stories were - even finding the titles on Amazon didn't bring back any memories. "
— Natalie, 6/2/2012" Very creepy plot, with a suprising ending! "
— Just4thesea, 3/16/2012" First off this is a book with 4 mini books inside. All 4 of them are good reads. It contains the story secret window secret garden which was made into a movie that stared Johnny Depp. But over all the 4 stories within the book are pretty good. "
— Kenny, 2/25/2012" Read too many years ago to remember. I do remember though that I loved it. "
— Jenny, 2/21/2012" I read this a long time ago, but it is still one of my favorites and then when Johnny Depp played the main character in the movie I was really hooked! "
— Jenya, 12/22/2011" This book is made up of four horror stories. The first three were top notch. The last was disappointing. It just wasn't intresting. "
— Phillip, 12/14/2011" King's style often irks me. He skews overly-descriptive and gratuitously graphic. However, the man created The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Stand By Me (story: The Body), so I'll take it. "
— Andrea, 7/13/2011" worth reading for The Langoliers which echoes The Mist. if you want to complete his End of Castle Rock trilogy then you'll need to read The Sun Dog "
— Sandyboy, 6/16/2011" Four "novelettes" in one book. I'm afraid I only read the first one and then I got a strong case of the "Ho Hums". The first story, Langoliers, was interesting enough and a fun read, but I would not say this is one of Stephen King's best. "
— Masha, 4/6/2011" "The Langoliers" was my favorite of the four; great characters, their quirks really added to the experience of the story. "
— Annabelle, 2/13/2011" langoliers is so awesome "
— Michael, 2/11/2011" The Langoliers still jumps to mind first when I think of Stephen King. Fascinating imagination and writing "
— Jennifer, 1/31/2011" Thats the first Stephen King book i read and i found it silly..<br/>The writing was nice,interesting at some points and not too boring but overall and especially the ending was kinda silly.Maybe i just dont like these kind of books :P "
— Roronoa, 11/15/2010" I'm content to say that this is one of the more engaging stories from this time in King's career (early 90's). While there are places where the story could progress at a much faster pace, it's overall a well written story that keeps you engaged. "
— Bryce, 6/27/2010" This one was the scariest story of his, in my opinion (I know others will think differently) "
— Erikamdey, 3/3/2010" My favorite of the three stories that I read from Four Past Midnight. "
— Robert, 12/18/2009" It was good but not as scary as some of King's stories. Still, the plot was interesting. I don't know who the reader was, but he did a good job of changing voices for the different characters. "
— Mary, 9/3/2009" The Sun Dog – Classic King short story– creative horrific chilling writing detail with an ending that leaves the door open (I usually prefer closure but with King I’ve come to expect the worst & this was a creepy story). "
— Alicia, 6/13/2009" another creepy yet brilliant story from stephen king about a dog who comes out of a polaroid picture. a boy discovers that this dog in the pcitures, seem to be moving closer and closer to the frame... "
— Chiny, 9/8/2007Stephen King has written more than sixty books, many hitting the #1 spot on the New York Times bestsellers list. He has won the World Fantasy Award, several Bram Stoker Awards, and the O. Henry Award for his story “The Man in the Black Suit.” He is the 2003 recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2007 he received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His epic works The Dark Tower and It are the basis for major motion pictures.
Tim Sample is a New England humorist, famous both for his presentation and his Maine accent. His books, albums, and videos have sold over a million copies worldwide, and his “Postcards from Main” segments on CBS News Sunday Morning are hugely popular in the United States and abroad.