The Mist

This book is terrible, just like the movie. Stephen King has long ago ran out of ideas but this is absolutely dreadful. Every single character is rehashed from a prior book. The loving writer husband...check. The child character who only serves as a motivating factor for actions but doesn't talk or have any personality...check. The idiot redneck character who ruins everything or does something really stupid while serving as Stephen King's characiture of "right wing" morons (Stephen King is a pretty loud Democrat)...check. The religious zealot whose religious zealotry turns them into a psychopath...check.

So now that hes got all his regular characters together again what does he do? He conducts horrible writing, horrible plot "twists", and horrible plot holes. In one scene the main character literally has a scooby doo like leap of intuition, where he automatically knows some evil government program in the area is the cause of everything. I am not kidding you on this one, he literally just hears its name in his head.

This book is retarded, save yourself some money and time and just pick up a random zombie novel, at least that why you wont expect the plot to do anything other than shamble along.

Stephen King sucks, and hasn't been relevant since 1984.

I honestly don't remember ordering this. But the store says I did so I'm writing a review for it. I probably did order it and its sitting in a drawer of books I have not had time to read. I think I remember seeing a movie or made for television movie based on this book. That might be why I bought it. Oh well. It's stephen king how bad can it be?

First off you should know that it is not much more than an hour long. I expected much longer for the money. You can tell the age of the CD based on the music, and sound effects. The CD is just OK. If I could do it over again, I wouldn't buy it.

Stephen King's the mist is a great book about a town beset by a mysterious mist, and before they know it, monsters and horrible creatures appear in the town. The main character has a family he needs to look out for. The plot makes a simple and straight line, everything the author wants you to know is clear, and everything he doesn't he hints at gracefully. The book shows a lot about how humans are still animals and that we have a herd mentality. This is one of the few books that actually make me feel scared and uncomfortable.there is always a creepy tone of the possibility that one of the main characters could die at anytime. I loved this classic, if you ever have the free time and the stomach to bear it, I would highly recommend this book.

The morning after a terrible storm, the mist starts to roll in over a small town in Maine. Inside of this mist lurks a terrifying creature that's out for human blood. David and his young son are trapped inside a grocery store with a large group, none of whom know how to escape whatever is waiting for them in the mist. I really liked this novel, and it's a very quick read. The suspense builds at a perfect pace and you get just enough of a look at the monster to feel creeped out, but not so much description that your imagination can take a break. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. I've heard how the movie ends (thanks, friends who spoil the endings of things), and that seems like a much more satisfying ending.

To be honest I don’t know if I would call this horror. Maybe Thriller suits it better.
I never watched the movie, because I really don’t like seeing those things, but I did read the synopsis of the movie online so I knew what was going to happen. I find that there has to be a very good writer behind the story of a horror or thriller genre to get the emotions flowing. That is why I sometimes like to take a break from teen and adult fiction to take a look at some horror writing. And what better author to look at than Stephen King when looking for horror?

David, his wife, and their young son are living a peaceful life on the side of a large lake when a large storm blows in. This isn’t unusual for them as they have been getting storms like this for the last couple days.
But this storm proves to be different as it destroys most of the area leaving many places without power and destroying their family boathouse.
For the family this isn’t something worth getting too worked up about. In the morning they set about cleaning up from the mess and being careful to stay away from the live wires all over the ground.
Later in the day David and his neighbor decide to run into town to get supplies at the local grocery store so that they can get back to work. David’s son decides to come along and they leave his wife at the house to continue working.
Before they leave David notices an odd fog that is very slowly moving along the lake in front of them. By time they are ready to leave he notices that the dog has moved closer to shore. He gets a bad feeling when he looks at the creepy mist.
In town the local store is very busy with tones of people getting supplies to fix their houses and food to last them the next couple days. They grab what they need and prepare to spend an hour or more waiting in line.
As they wait people start to notice the fog rolling in around the store. People fall into silence as they stare out the windows into the strange mist.
When a man comes screaming out of the mist, claiming that something is living and hiding in the fog, the store becomes deadly quiet. At first no one wants to believe what the man is saying. Some people choose to leave while others stay there unsure.
David decides to venture into the back of the store and try to fix a generator. A young boy working as a bagboy volunteers to go outside and fix it himself. David doesn’t like this idea and tries to talk him out of it to no avail.
As soon as the doors are opened large tentacles wrap around the boy and drag him screaming out into the mist. After managing to close the door leaving a small chunk of the tentacle on the floor the ones who were present return to the rest of the store. The people there are oblivious to what happened outside.
After the truth is revealed the store separates into three groups. The first follow the local crazy woman who claims that the mist is an act of God who is punishing them for their sins. The second follow David’s neighbor who claims that it is all a lie and that there is nothing-dangerous living within the mist. The last group is the group that believes that there is indeed something dangerous in the mist but instead of becoming crazy try to protect the store.
As the three groups argue amongst themselves there are people within the store who have their own theories about what is happening in the mist. Monsters begin to appear and the store residents try to figure out a way to defend themselves or to escape without falling victim to the strange creatures that remain unseen in the mist.
For David all he wants is to be able to protect his son and to get home to see if his wife is okay. A task that proves harder as time goes on.

The book wasn’t all that bad. This being the first book I read by Stephen King I have to say I expected more from him. There wasn’t anything extraordinarily unique about his writing style and the characters, while realistic, were kind of boring. He goes through the trouble of introducing a character in great detail only to kill them off in the next page.
This being said the story was good besides the minor problem with the writing. The story was good and the decisions that were made were logical.
I will give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating.

This is a review of the audio, "Fully Dramatized in 3-G Sound." That this means is that the story is NOT read. Instead, there are actors that act the dialog, and then all sorts of sound effects that are supposed to be what noised would be in the actual situations. There are several problems with this approach:
1) Often the dialog is drowned out by the sound effect.
2) Often the dialog is incomprehensible
3) The basis of a novel is that the author can communicate what the characters are thinking and feeling. There is none of this in the "dramatization." Given the over-acting by the cast, they try to fill in by over-emoting. Not successful.
Not recommended. I gave up after track 2. Perhaps Goodwill can find a buyer.

"The Mist" novella by Stephen King has been incorporated into its own paperback here. The nightmarish premise involves married, thirty-something artist David Drayton and his young son, Billy, going into town one afternoon with a surly neighbor, Brent Norton, in tow, for groceries after a bizarrely harsh summer storm has wreaked havoc on a small Maine resort community. While customers are waiting for an eternity in line at the supermarket (due to a power outage), an ominous mist encompasses everything in sight outside. A wounded and frightened pedestrian soon stumbles into Federal Foods warning of evil things out there before fainting. From that point on, it becomes increasingly obvious that something unnatural and utterly diabolical has occurred, and those lucky enough to be indoors at Federal Foods may well be the only human survivors of a horrific catastrophe.

Written in flashback by the exhausted protagonist, the next few days unfold, as many of the story's peripheral characters are eliminated one by one by the sinister forces lurking outside. To author Stephen King's credit, he never does reveal what exactly has happened, but he heavily hints of a top-secret military experiment gone horribly awry - are the supermarket dwellers Earth's last survivors? Has the catastrophe been contained inside only Maine? Are the characters even still on the Earth they knew? The story's ambiguously bleak finale offers few answers with only a faint glimmer of hope, as even protagonist David Drayton notes that he is not expecting some cop-out, happy ending. Readers are then ultimately left to decide the characters' actual fate, which King handles masterfully without cheating his audience.

Over the course of two extremely tense days, the supermarket survivors plummet into denial, paranoia, and violent madness, as maintaining one's rational sanity deteriorates for many into cultish survival tactics. Despite limited storytelling space (i.e. minimal character development outside of David Drayton), characters, such as supermarket manager Ollie and customer Dan Miller, bravely keeping their cool under these deplorable conditions are believably realistic and perhaps even poignant. The author, however, stumbles in portraying antagonistic neighbor Brent Norton and Mrs. Carmody, the town's obnoxious psychic in the loud, yellow pantsuit, as going from fairly reasonable to suddenly irrational, superficial, and utterly pompous with too little transition. True, the audience is supposed to read between the lines (since this is a first-person account) about what must be happening to these other characters outside David's sight or what their shaky frame of mind must be. Yet, still, their self-righteous antics seem far more at the story's convenience vs. what a realistic person would necessarily do in this scenario.

Finally, the implausibility suggesting that no one else may have been smart enough to be inside sealed doors at the exact same time as the supermarket gang is simply jaw-dropping, at the very least. Yet, Stephen King still mostly makes this gruesome idea work as long as you accept the high concept involved. The story is ultimately worth reading once, but, once the shock value of "The Mist" fades away, I am skeptical that the novella is worth a second look.

Rating: 3 ½ *** (recommended for ages 16 and up re: intense scenes of sci-fi gore & violence, and strong profanity).

I'm piss-drunk.

Now, don't accept that as merely a facet of my reading a Stephen King novella. I just like to drink wine and eat cheese and crackers while I read. I'd be a classy guy, were I not piss-drunk while doing so, and an evil homosexual to boot.

But all that aside, The Mist is worth your read if for no other reason that it can BE read in a few hours if you're in the mood. And hey, just for the record, if you're piss-drunk then you'll probably be in the mood. My Gods in Hell, I do like cheap boxed wine. Stephen King knows what he's doing. He may only be good at it half of the time, but that half of the time he definitely knows. Almost like knowing a woman, I mean a man, if you know what I mean which you probably don't. But that's okay. I'm piss-drunk.

My black cat is lying beside me, as my empty wine glass lies outside, sitting in the still, cool, dark night. He knows. He knows I have read The Mist. And like everyone who has read The...Okay, I'm done with this review. I'm sure it didn't make sense, but if you'd read The Mist you would understand. Okay, you probably wouldn't. But even so I'm done. Go Read The Mist. Not Harry Potter or Eragon or some other crappy book, but a short story. The Mist.

Enjoy. It's a good book, with great imagery, great diction, and some phenomenally unfinished concepts.

Also, don't every watch the feature film after which this novella is named. It sucks. I've never watched it, but I've watched other Stephen King films. They all suck, and that's enough.

My Gods, I'm piss-drunk.

Mmmmmm.

I saw the movie when it first came to DVD and I enjoyed it but it was more of a; I've seen it, I can move on. Since I have become a bigger Stephen King fan in the last year I have decided I want to read all of his books that I have missed. Not wanting to start a longer work because I want to see if I get any books for Christmas I chose this.

The Mist was a good book. I am very glad I have read it and did enjoy it. However, I have the same feeling about the book that I did for the movie. I enjoyed it and I will more than likely never read this again. I may change my mind later but for now I am satisfied having read it. The Mist starts after a huge storm that hits a small lake town. While out trying to survey the damage this strange mist is slowly engulfing the town. David and his son Billy are one of many people out getting groceries at the local market when the mist takes over. There is a good bit of suspense as the reader and the characters learn more. King also created in me that feeling of wonderment which kept me reading wanting to know more. King yet again developed such wonderful characters that I felt somewhat connected with them, and I too hated the villains as much as I would assume these fictional characters did. There were many types of villains as well, not all were part of the Mist.

The Mist / 978-0-451-22329-6

I'll admit that I saw that movie (The Mist) before I read this book, and while I wanted very badly to enjoy the movie, I'll admit that the sheer amount of time devoted to the shrill Mrs. Carmody and her extensively-long sermons was a bit of a turn off for me. Thankfully, the source novella is just as devoted to the "humans are monsters" theme but with less of the "here, let me quote all of Revelations to you, no really, I don't mind" speechifying.

This novella actually made me appreciate the movie spin-off a little more; I was struck by how closely the movie dialogue aligned with the book in most cases (minus the aforementioned speeches, which are thankfully much shorter in the book - never let it be said that King didn't use restraint here), most of which is surprisingly well-written and works well to characterize the individuals who are almost immediately trapped in the grocery store when the titular mist descends. The descriptions are superb and manage to be very vivid while still leaving room in the imagination to make the monsters as scary as possible. And - unexpectedly - there's some extra explanations offered here, like why the characters are (relatively) safe in cars and closed markets, something that always bothered me about the movie.

"The Mist" isn't perfect - the narrative is something of the "to whoever finds this note" format (which I never find completely convincing), the romantic subplot feels a little forced and inauthentic, and there are actually a few good scenes added to the movie that King himself wished had been in the original novella - but it's a quick and frighteningly good read, and well worth your time. If you think the idea of a scary mist that covers your town and contains Lovecraftian horrors sounds even the slightest bit interesting, then pick up "The Mist" (or the collection "Skeleton Crew") because you will enjoy this.

~ Ana Mardoll

This is a spooky horror story that originally appeared in the book Skeleton Crew. David Drayton lives in a small town in Maine where a severe thunderstorm has knocked out power, knocked over trees and done damage to his lakeside home. David and his young son are going into town to get some supplies. David's neighbor Brent Norton rides with them as his car is totaled by a fallen tree.

While in the small town supermarket a mist rolls in that obscures everything outside. Visibility is zero and you can't even see the shopper's cars in the lot a few feet away. Everyone who leaves the store dies and the screams from the fog are terrifying. Emotions run wild in the store as the shoppers are scared out of their wits. Some try to take a leadership role and tell them to stay inside and to protect themselves, others want to leave and go home to their families and a few are led by a woman who tells them it is the end of days.....

This is one of Stephen King's best novellas and is a character study in people's personalities during an army experiment gone wrong. The creatures are mind boggling and your imagination will run wild as you read this story. You will be on the edge of your seat as you read this tale and rooting for people to survive as they try to escape the frightening situation they are in.

This is a Stephen King classic that you must read. I own the paperback book and the Kindle version of Skelton Crew and the paperback version of The Mist. I suggest that you actually buy the Skeleton Crew as there are 22 stories including The Mist in that book.

You will enjoy this story!

This was my very first Stephen King read. I've watched so many of the movies that have been adapted from King's books, but I have always been a little too scared to read the actual thing. So it was recommended to me that The Mist be the one I start out with, as one of King's shorter works. I was excited because The Mist is in the handful of King's book-to-movie adaptations I haven't seen. I will be honest: I thought I would wuss out and have to put the book in the freezer at some point. (Did you get the Friends reference there.) But, I found myself enjoying it...maybe I'm not such a scaredy-cat after all.

After a horrible storm David and his family were cleaning up the wreckage when he noticed an odd, thick, fog-like mist over the lake, and that is were it all begins. David and his five year old son go to the grocery store leaving his wife behind to continue at home. They are at the store much longer than intended due to the long lines and that is when everything starts. You never find out why, which makes it all the more nerve racking but the mist rolls in. I guess if I were to be trapped somewhere the grocery store would be at the top of my list, at least I would have all I needed to survive. Not everyone does so well being locked up inside, and there are monstrous things hiding inside the mist just waiting for you to come outside.

The true horror for me would be dealing with my child in all of this crazy mess. I thought King did this well in the way he wrote David's anguish and anger. I also loved the use of monsters and the fact that you just never find out were these horrific things of the mist come from. Was it some government experiment the storm knocked free? I guess we will never know and that just added to the horror. I think there are some that may have a problem with the ending but I liked it.

Happy Reading,
Rebecca

This story first appeared in the anthology "Dark Forces" and then as the first "short story" in Stephen King's "Skeleton Crew" collection. There it runs about 150 pages or so, making it a novella by definition. And of course there has been a movie adaptation recently released thus sparking a seperate publication of this story in a stand-alone book. I haven't seen the movie but may rent it now that I've read the story.

This story was among the best I've read by Stephen King (and I've read a lot of his work). Many people have said that Mr King occasionally runs long in his descriptions and can sometimes use a good editor. I don't always agree because I just love the way he writes so much that it's hard to get too much of it. Nevertheless, this story is quite the opposite. Some might think that it is simply an extended version of a short story, that he has done it again by padding the actual story to make it longer. I think just the opposite is the case...it is a very tightly woven story, if anything, a novel condensed down to the bare essentials. The characterization is superb; we get to know and understand the main characters in a remarkably short time. The actual time line of the story takes place over just a few days and we live every moment with them. The structure is a rather basic "bunch of people trapped in a single location with the horror element just waiting for them to come out." But the way in which he builds the horror is pure vintage King. Never too many details to bring the horror into focus and thus diminish the impact but rather crafting the unknown in such a way that the character's imaginations fill in the details and increase the horror that much further. I've never been one to love blatent splatter horror at the expense of true suspenseful horror and King does not disappoint. In fact there is no big discovery of just what the horror in the mist really is nor where it came from. Although we do get just enough of the "tentacle", "leathery wings", "horrid smell" stuff to put us in the proper mood.

My only disappointment comes with the brief sex scene in the middle. At the beginning of the story the protagonist is deeply in love with his wife and yet only 36 hours later, not knowing if she is still alive or not, he and another trapped victim have sexual intercourse. I think the point was that they both "needed something" at that point and the future looked bleak but I found it a bit of a stretch.

As others have said, go ahead and spring for the extra buck and buy the entire "Skeleton Crew" collection, one of the best Stephen King books of all.

I've always been hit or miss with Stephen King; in fact, the day I picked up this novella I also picked up "Salem's Lot," King's contribution to the vampire genre. But two-hundred pages into "Salem's Lot" I gave up. King has always had blue-collar sensibilities, and sometimes those sensibilities almost become stereotypes. In the case of "Salem's Lot," the book and I parted ways when two of the novel's working-class heroes bond by drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer on the back porch and belching together, repeatedly.

In "The Mist" one also finds a host of middle-class characters, but their status seems less forced, and this allows the main conflict (man vs. nature, the supernatural) to take center stage, as it should. Oh, there's some class-conflict here too, and plenty of beer drinking, but things move so quickly that it works: here the characters need to bond and form alliances, and breaking bread (or in this case: drinking beer) allows them to do so.

For almost a hundred pages King keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what is in the mist. Then he changes gears on you, and you start to wonder if the greater threat lies not in the mist, but amongst the survivors trapped in the supermarket.

The fun is in the details, which I'll skip; I'll only say that the book is close to being a synthesis of John Carpenter's "The Fog" and Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park," and makes for an exciting read all the way through. King, I think, sometimes has trouble ending his books (e.g. "The Stand"). That isn't the case here: the ending is as perfect as it is unexpected, and I might even go so far as to say...poetic.

More a novella than a novel, THE MIST gets you right in the stones and once more makes you afraid of those creeping things in the dark. Originally published in the great horror anthology Skeleton Crew (Signet), this terrifying little slice of apocalypse in a supermarket has lost none of its knack for keeping you up late in the dark. Just another one of Stephen King's disquieting little babies.

After a strange storm, various New Englanders converge on a supermarket to replenish their supplies, even as a wall of eerie mist rolls into their unassuming town of Bridgton. All too soon the already uneasy shoppers realize that monsters lurk in the mist...

Sometimes Stephen King falls prey to diarrhea of the typewriter, and then his novels tend to get long and all over the place. Not so with this taut stomach-knotter. No frills, no narrative passages segueing into the fat of the story. THE MIST is strictly lean, the fear is a driving, relentless thing, even though the action sequences and the big boo moments aren't that constant (but, whew, when they do crop up!). What King does is constantly steep you in ominous imagery and a near palpable feeling of foreboding and desperation. You feel the gnawing panic and despair of the characters. When several succumb to hysteria or catatonia or to a just plain case of the crazy, King makes you feel you're right there with them, the progression is so natural. It's a character driven plot, something at which King excels, and so, even in the moments in which nothing much is happening, you still can't wrench your eyes away from the pages.

An interesting psychological study is presented, a societal mini-deconstruction, as the various store patrons separate into different clumps, from the Flat Earth skeptics to Mrs. Carmody's zealots to Dave Drayton's more grounded bunch. The Flat Earthers vigorously refuse to buy into their new and suddenly horrific reality, and, inevitably, this denial costs them. It's the creepy Mrs. Carmody ("There's a poisonous feel to that woman."), consumed by over-the-top religous fervor and predicting doom and gloom, who seems to be built to last in this end-of-the-world setting. Mrs. Carmody is at first pooh-poohed by the crowd. But, as things continue to fall apart and the isolated supermarket loses all contact with the outside world (is there even an outside world now?), she begins to steadily sway the frightened survivors. The main character is David Drayton, who narrates the Armageddon in first person, and his tiny circle comes off as the most sensible, for all the good that does...

There's no devil here, no main baddie, no evil personified, no Randall Flagg. There's really not that much of an explanation, only a theory espoused by David, who halfway believes that the local Army base's mysterious experiments are the source of the mist. This lack of certainty adds to that sense of disorientation the reader feels. Too, no one in this story is safe. Really, go in this one knowing that anyone can buy it at any time. THE MIST is also very bittersweet and sad. And that one thread of hope at the end seems too fragile to hang one's hopes on...

Read this, and see how Stephen King, who tends to write these convoluted, stretched-out novels, can craft short masterpieces when the muse slaps him upside the head. Dear lord, I love The Stand (Modern Classics) quite a bit, but there's something to be said for THE MIST and its brevity without losing its impact, its foray into grocery store madness, and its Lovecraftian horrors. 20 feet has never seemed a more scary distance to walk. But, if you're touting a tennis racket and a can of Black Flag insect repellent, well, then, you just might come out fine...or not.

By the way, I do agree that, instead of purchasing THE MIST, just shell out an extra buck more and get your hands on Skeleton Crew (Signet). Then not only do you still get this same story, but also bonus cheek-clenchers such as "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet," "Gramma," "The Jaunt," "The Monkey," and the pretty gross "Survivor Type."

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

When a very unusual summer storm blows through town, it brings a strange mist with it that traps townsfolk in the local supermarket. As The Mist lingers, the townsfolk come to realize there is an even greater danger hiding out of sight. What is more dangerous? The deadly creatures that kill all they encounter or the fanatics trapped with them who think this is the hand of God at play? For these residents, the answer is looming...

I own most every book Stephen King has written, but have actually not read The Mist before now. Recently made into a movie, The Mist is a terrifying venture into the unknown as only the master, Stephen King himself, can write. King has penned a wonderfully spooky story where the monsters could be anything from a genetic defect to the results of a scientific experiment, no one really knows. For a shorter story (The Mist is a novella from a previously released anthology) so much happens that this one compares to some of the full length works King has written, for pure shock value and nail biting terror.

Put that story to sound and narrative and you have a truly horrifying experience, of the best possible kind. I've never listened to a 3-D audio book and let me tell you, there is no better way to experience a story like this! I can't count the number of times I jumped out of my seat in fright at what was pouring through my headphones. I love a good horror story, book, movie or other, and nothing has compared recently to this dramatization of The Mist. It is even more frightening in this format because you can't see events unfolding, only hear them, which really puts the imagination to work. And we all know sometimes our own imaginations are the most terrifying place to be. A creak here, a crash there, and a scream coming from everywhere... wow what an experience! I'd love to see more audio books developed in this format!

© Kelley A. Hartsell, March 2008. All rights reserved.

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

When a very unusual summer storm blows through town, it brings a strange mist with it that traps townsfolk in the local supermarket. As The Mist lingers, the townsfolk come to realize there is an even greater danger hiding out of sight. What is more dangerous? The deadly creatures that kill all they encounter or the fanatics trapped with them who think this is the hand of God at play? For these residents, the answer is looming...

I own most every book Stephen King has written, but have actually not read The Mist before now. Recently made into a movie, The Mist is a terrifying venture into the unknown as only the master, Stephen King himself, can write. King has penned a wonderfully spooky story where the monsters could be anything from a genetic defect to the results of a scientific experiment, no one really knows. For a shorter story (The Mist is a novella from a previously released anthology) so much happens that this one compares to some of the full length works King has written, for pure shock value and nail biting terror.

Put that story to sound and narrative and you have a truly horrifying experience, of the best possible kind. I've never listened to a 3-D audio book and let me tell you, there is no better way to experience a story like this! I can't count the number of times I jumped out of my seat in fright at what was pouring through my headphones. I love a good horror story, book, movie or other, and nothing has compared recently to this dramatization of The Mist. It is even more frightening in this format because you can't see events unfolding, only hear them, which really puts the imagination to work. And we all know sometimes our own imaginations are the most terrifying place to be. A creak here, a crash there, and a scream coming from everywhere... wow what an experience! I'd love to see more audio books developed in this format!

© Kelley A. Hartsell, March 2008. All rights reserved.

Once the opening story and spiritual anchor of Skeleton Crew, Stephen King's 1980's short story collection par excellence, The Mist has been re-released now as a stand alone volume just ahead of the opening of the long awaited film version of the work. The Mist is an atmospheric piece that can easily be read in one sitting, but one which tells a strong story despite its diminutive size. In this imaginative tale something goes wrong at a top secret government research facility (again...heck, those Feds just can't be trusted in King's stories, can they?) in scenic rural Maine which releases a dense, sinister mist outward across the region, smothering sunlight, trapping people in homes and cars, and bringing with it the presence of a number of life forms straight out of a sci fi nightmare. Along with a number of locals a likable artist is caught with his young son inside a supermarket, as the unnatural mist encloses them and the things which dwell within the mist lay siege over the ensuing claustrophobic days. Some interpret this novella as among King's apocalyptic works, others argue the phenomenon of the mist might be a local calamity confined to a small area. In either case, few who have read this story turned short novel have walked away disappointed.

“The Mist” by Stephen King turned out worse than I had expected. Stephen King is a great author and has wrote many other amazing books. He is a well known author for horror and mystery books. This book just was not a good one. Some reasons of why it was so bad consists of, being a very slow book, did not have any interesting things that happened in the book to make you want to keep reading and also it was just plain boring.

All that really happens in “The Mist” by Stephen King is a storm comes. Then a bunch of people get stuck in a grocery store and can not leave because they are afraid of the fog. Next, David (the dad) and his son Billy try to head south to get out of the fog. There is no action or horror even though its genre is supposed to be horror. I think that if the book had more interesting things happening and more action then this book could be a lot better.

I would definitely not recommend this book for anybody. It was a hiccup in Stephen King’s history. Stephen King has wrote many more interesting and thrilling books and series. This book will bore you to death and make you think poorly of the author. Read all his other books and you will have a great time. The other books are great for people wanting to read scary stories, action packed adventures, and mystery and suspense lovers. The is still an amazing author and his books should be read.

As a 28 year old I've never read a Stephen King book up until now. I finished The Mist in less than two hours and enjoyed the entire storyline/plot, character development, and King's attention to graphic/gory details which I'm sure where he excels best at considering he is a renowned author in the horror genre. I'm on the fence as to whether I enjoyed the protagonist David or not. Obviously it's important for an author to let the reader get acquainted/comfortable with the protagonist, but for me it never happened in this story. A couple of things fueled my contempt for David such as his selfish act of sex with Amanda (mind you he is a married man with a five year old boy named Billy), and his selfish means of survival without taking into consideration his little boy and the other survivors sitting in his Scout.
"There were four of us in the Scout, but if push came right down to shove, I'd find some other way out for myself."

Ruthless, but again this is my first King novel, perhaps I need to slowly get inundated with his writing style

My final complaint was King never formally made an effort to give the reader an explanation of the origin of "The Mist", but if he is simply giving the opportunity for the reader to drawn their own conclusion I respect that approach. Nonetheless, King finished the story suggesting to the reader to use his/her own imagination to come up with a conclusion to this sad and tragic story. My utter contempt for David made for a pleasurable ending in my own little weird head.

This is the first book I read written by Stephen King, and I expected a lot from it since it has been adapted by a movie. I have to say I was rather disappointed with the book overall, even though it has a plot of great potential, and interesting and unique characters.

The book began with a devastating storm wrecking a small town, which created the mysterious/dense mist. David Drayton and his son decided to go to a nearby grocery store to stock up on supplies after the disaster, and found themselves trapped inside the grocery store because murderous creatures were roaming outside in the mist. Inside the store, people tried to find ways to escape (both physically and "religiously").

The protagonist, David Drayton, is a questionable character. He feels a great responsibility towards protecting his son, but yet selfish because he would do anything to save his own life. He is a man of good-nature, but at time sadistic. He loves his wife dearly, but ends up having an affair. He is truly a character of contradictions.

This book is all about action, action, and more action. There are suggestions on how all the creatures and the mysterious mist appeared out of nowhere (The Arrowhead Project), but a full / acceptable explanation cannot be found. Stephen King warns the readers that this book's ending is left to reader's imagination; I have nothing against that, but there are too many questions left unexplained. "The Mist" is a great horror-action book with great details, but the storyline is rather "too" mysterious and forced.

I generally do not find this to be the case, but I actually enjoyed the movie "The Mist" over the book. They are quite similiar, but the movie tends to go into more detail and have more action sequences (usually, this is the opposite). I did, of course, prefer the book's ending over the movie's.

As for the book, I think it is a pretty interesting read. I've never read Skeleton Crew, but based on other reviews, I would buy that instead if you get 20 more stories for an extra dollar. Too bad I hadn't know that at the time, but "The Mist" was an impulse buy and didn't get too much thought put into it.

I won't detail on the plot, as others already have, but it is the story of a man and his young son trapped in a grocery store when an abnormal cloud (the mist) pours in over their Maine town. From this cloud comes prehistoric monsters that keeps everyone trapped inside, where one woman, the town's nut essentially, starts ranting of end times. It is a work of man vs. the supernatural, man vs. man, and man vs. society, to do literary speak.

As a whole, I would recommend reading it. It's not the best or my favorite by far, but it seems worthwhile to visit.

I remember reading this story a long time ago in a book that had the collected stories of many different writers ("Dark Forces".) Years later, this story appeared in a collection of Stephen King stories with slight modifications. It was still as scary as hell as the first time. So, when I heard that it was on CD, I rushed out to get it. It is a really scary version that is not done in the usual audio style, but in 3-D and something called bi-nural.

It is basically a simple story of people who are at the mercy of a government experiment gone awry. As with all Stephen King stories, there is the whole range of humans inhabiting the story and they must battle each other as well as the experiment in order to survive or die. It is well done and very scary. You will feel as if you are actually in the story with the actors. I urge you to listen to it at night, with the lights off (during a thunder storm would be perfect!)

A caveat: The problem I see that most reviewer's are having with this 3-D version is that they are not listening to this audio story with a good set of headphones. The fact is, if you listen to it on your car stereo or with a cheap set of phones, you will not like it and will have trouble hearing everything. I have done both and, in order to really appreciate the experience, I highly recommend this story ONLY with good or better quality headphones.

I've read better King and I've read worse King, but I think any fan of the master of contemporary horror will be satisfied by this novella. It might have a bit of a slow start, but it builds up nicely, letting us get to know the characters so that we really feel it when they are thrown into peril.

King brilliantly depicts how different people respond differently to a drastic situation. In this perhaps-post-apocalyptic story, the most interesting part is seeing how fear of the unknown can twist a person into something as monstrous as the creatures that dwell in the mist itself. And speaking of those creatures, I loved how King was able to evoke true horror by not describing them in great grotesque detail, but just enough to give the readers their own idea about what these monstrosities look like.

Very solid novella, but for those who have more than a passing interest in King's work should invest in Skeleton Crew instead, which includes "The Mist" and about three-hundred and fifty pages worth of short stories. Best part, it only costs a couple more dollars than this.

8/10

As the subtitle says, THE MIST was originally a novella. It was first published in a collection of stories called DARK FORCES and then later as the opening story of King's own collection of short stories, SKELETON CREW. The story has now been released as a stand alone novel (King's short stories and novellas often reach the territory of stand alone novels, anyway) as a way to promote the upcoming release of Frank Darabont's cinematic version of the story.

The story takes place in central-northern rural Maine and is told by David Drayton, a pop artist and son of a famous artist. The story begins with a violent storm that forces David and his family to take shelter in their basement. The morning after, the family finds a tree in their living room, another tree on their boathouse, and trees laying all over their driveway. There's also a strange foggy mist moving across the lake. No one thinks too much of it, but the mist gives David a very uneasy feeling. David goes into town to the local supermarket with his son and their next door neighbor. He wants his wife to come, but she refuses. While at the supermarket a bloody man enters the store screaming about something in the Mist that grabbed his friend. No one knows what to think, but the patrons stand spellbound as the mist envelops the store and everything around it. Weird sounds are heard and the Earth itself violently shakes. At first the people are just, well, mystified. However, they soon discover that there are horrible things in the mist, perhaps brought about by a secret government project named Arrowhead, and that their lives have taken a dramatic turn for the worst.

THE MIST isn't one of King's best works, but it is a great yarn, nonetheless, with a handful of characters the reader grows to care for. The story also is a great example of how powerful tone and mood can be in a story when used properly. The story ends non-conclusively and in some ways reminded me of the ending of `SALEM'S LOT. Overall, a very good story well worth the time to read, especially if you're a fan of King or sci-fi horror. I also recommend the story as an illustrative example of the effective use of tone & mood for students.

This novella was originally included in the compilation titled Skeleton Crew. (which you should buy instead of the standalone)

I read this story prior to seeing the film version (which I also recommend). I thought it was another great example of King being able to bring characters to life. In this story they are more than just tools that move the plot along. The characters and their personalities carry the story.

A strong storm batters a small Maine town. After the storm a mist begins to roll in from across the lake an slowly envelopes the town, trapping the characters in this story in a grocery story. What follows is very suspenseful and suprisingly feels very realistic. It will keep you guessing until the end (which still may not leave you satisfied).

King is criticized for his endings (and they even changed this drastically for the film version), but his stories aren't about a large plot twist at the end (*cough, "the village") they are more about the journey. I think if you go into this one with that fact in mind you'll be much more pleased with the end result.

Many believe The Mist was first published in Skeleton Crew in 1985, but it was actually published in an anthology five years earlier. King's agent, Kirby McCauley, asked all of his horror-writing clients to pen an original short story for him. The result was Dark Forces, which included horror greats like Robert Bloch, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Aickman, Gene Wolf, Richard Matheson, Ramsey Campbell, and many more. King, of course, went beyond the simple short story and wrote the now famous short novel The Mist. McCauley placed it last in the book, and I patiently read all of the stories ahead of it (all excellent, by the way) until I finally reached the King story. I was not to be disappointed. The Mist is Stephen King at his best. Setting the story within a grocery store places the reader smack dab in the middle of the action. The tone begins pleasantly enough, but it isn't long before the tone becomes ominous and soon the reader's heart is beating faster than a rabbit's being chased by a wolf. The characters are real--persons we all have met--and, therefore, the story itself becomes real. I envy anyone who has yet to read the short novel for the first time. I, myself, have read it many times, and I'm sure I will read it many more times. Again, this is King at his very best. I only wish he could still write at this level.

STORY: As one editorial review summarized: "A diverse group of people trapped in a supermarket must battle not only the hellish creatures of the mist, but also each other in a desperate attempt to survive."

MY FEEDBACK:
1) Production Quality - Here is where the audiotape shined and failed. Sound Effects were clear, loud and you could feel the room rumble when the earthquake hits = strong point. Voices kept fading into the background or were too low to hear what is being said = weak point. If this part wasn't so bad I would have given this production another star but even with the volume set at max it was hard to hear key scenes of dialogue.

2) Acting - actors were great! Nuff said.

3) Story - It was good. Because of the quality of the sound and voices I'm not sure how the story ends since it was so hard to hear some of these final key moments. But I liked the overall concept.

OVERALL: I hear the CD version is pretty good so I'd opt for that if you can and avoid the audiotape version. This production all fits on one tape, yet it is 80 minutes long. Nice change from someone actually reading a story.

It seems I have been a Constant Reader forever .... started reading SK when he was publishing his stories in various magazines, and to this day, The Mist remains my favourite short story/novella. The movie and the current series are interesting but do not hold a candle to SK's original work: after all, what can really surpass good writing and one's imagination?

This is my favorite Stephen King short story, and I was looking forward to listening to the 3-D sound version. I liked the sound effects, but the wooden acting and the ridiculous amount of product placement drove me crazy. The kid they used has no better acting skills than those displayed in a typical elementary school holiday program. Imagine the sounds of a panicked crowd and then read the words "I want mommy" in a dull monotone, and you'll get the idea. Why not take some of the money from the product placement and hire a decent child actor?

Stephen King uses brand names often in his stories and books, but this adaptation takes that concept to an annoying extreme. Do we have to know that the Cracker Jacks are gone but that there are still plenty of Screaming Yellow Zonkers? If there's a chance to mention a brand name, or to debate between two different products, it's nearly always siezed upon. It's so overdone that it's actually startling when the characters decide to eat "cold cuts" or "hot dogs" instead of naming Oscar Meyer or Ballpark brands.

One character is asked what he's eating, and answers "Sunmaid." That triggers more discussion from the apparently nearsighted protaganist to determine whether he's eating raisins or prunes. (Gotta keep that plot moving!)

I finally gave up when characters began to scream out detailed descriptions of the creatures from the mist in rapid-fire 'terrified' voices: "Look at that! It's got a segmented body the color of burnt flesh tipped with something that could be a sexual organ or a stinger!" I know, it's audio drama, but there's gotta be a better way to do that.

Judging from the other reviews, a lot of people were obviously able to overlook what were to me fatal flaws. If, however, you think you might share my opinion, you can save yourself money by checking this out of your local public library. I'll be donating my copy and re-reading the story instead. Hopefully the upcoming movie does a better job.

The Mist was first published in Skeleton Crew (Signet), a collection of Stephen King short stories. This new edition presents The Mist separately for the first time, presumable to capitalize on the release of the movie adaptation. The novella begins with a sudden and dangerous storm that causes a lot of damage to the small town of Bridgton, Maine. David Drayton takes his son to town for some groceries the next morning only to get socked in by an extremely thick fog. Unfortunately, there are creatures out there in the mist that are like nothing on Earth. Drayton and the others who are trapped in the story must try to come to terms with what it happening while struggling for survival.

Because this is a novella, there is little space wasted here. There is a reasonable length setup introducing a few key characters and then the "fun" begins. The pacing remains pretty tight until the end of the story. Despite the small amount of space, the characters are pretty well developed and I definitely cared what happened to them. As is standard with Armageddon style stories, man is often his own worst enemy and this group is no exception. The extreme behavior of some in the store is all the more chilling because you believe it could happen.

The Mist is an excellent story, one of King's best regardless of length. I would suggest that readers might want to consider buying Skeleton Crew instead of this novella, however. For just one dollar more you can obtain an additional 21 stories and many of them are also enjoyable.

So, it's not your standard audio book read verbatim. That 3-D sound has more than a little to make up for it as this inherently creepy story is played out in you-are-there fashion. The dialogue seems a little canned, but you'll forget that soon enough. The sound of people enveloped together by a mist full of a variety of creepy crawlies will have you mesmerized in no time. And as the story progresses, the characters get richer and the bugs get bigger. You can hear them clicking and clacking, buzzing and biting. You can hear the rising horror of the group trapped inside a small town market. When I say you-are-there, I mean it completely. I listened to this offering on a drive through western Maine, and several times, I nearly slammed on the brakes or screamed aloud because things on the stereo sounded like things whipping and crackling and sizzling around my head. You take a no-bones-about it King creature tale like this one and prop it up with sound effects, you're bound to be slapping at unseen bugs in no time. Perfect for a night around the campfire, a first date or a drive through the woods. Just keep your foot off that brake pedal and keep a really big can of Raid nearby.

This story is really engaging. I have not read any of King's other works so his writing was new to me. I enjoyed the mixture of realism and supernatural in this book. The characters are down to earth and King is masterful in their development. The book is full of surprises and will be enjoyed by fans of fantasy and horror.

My previous experience with audiobooks hasn't been all that great, so I decided to try something shorter and by an author I'd also read. "The Mist" was my choice, and it was an unfortunate choice.

I have to wonder whether or not there was much corporate sponsorship in the making of this audiobook. For one, at the sight of a mutated insect-monster set aflame trying to put itself out by smashing into the sauces aisle of a supermarket the reaction is not shock or dismay. It's literally a character moaning that there's "Ragu and Prego everywhere!" Uh, what? Ruffles, Bud Light, many products get quite a bit of audio-time.

The story itself was likely a good one: after a quick storm, people find themselves trapped inside a grocery store, surrounded by a thick mist, and monstrous horrors attack and kill anyone who steps out into the horrible thick fog. But alas, the voices chosen for the characters were very poor -especially the apparently sinous-infected young boy, and the reactions of the voice-overs to the attacks are just as bad -"Oh my god, get it off me!" never sounded so flat as on this tape.

I'm not done with trying audiobooks quite yet, but I'm beginning to think it's just a genre not for me. At the very least, I suggest that if you, too, are flirting with the audiobook, try something by Stuart MacLean, not Stephen King. Certainly not, "The Mist."

'Nathan

Okay, saw the movie and loved it, so my sis-in-law found the book for me. I was worried that the book would be verbatum from the movie, therefore negating it's purpose, but it's really quite different. It's just a tad creepy but not disturbing so it's great to curl up in bed with. It's impossible not to get wrapped up in the turmoil the characters are experiencing, but at the same time it isn't exhausting to read. Most of all -- and this is simply the genius of Stephen King -- you can't help but believe the unbelievable "reality" and you don't spend the entire book wishing that the characters would do the obvious, because they do! They react the way any normal to eccentric human would.

I finished this in one sitting in a dimly lit living room while the after-effects of heavy thunderstorm drifted through the grey sky outside and it was arguably one of the most stressful and terrifying reading experiences of my life.

10/10 would recommend.

When I pick up a Stephen King book, I know what I'm going to get: characters with which I can easily identify, strong psychological undertones, evocative narrative, and a pace to the story that can only be described as breathtaking. The Mist is a shining example of how King uses all these qualities to make an enjoyable story. With the story's claustrophobic setting acting as an amplifier for his writing style's qualities, King has once again made credible a tale that would otherwise be unbelievable. While there are a couple of missteps in his presentation (I know that he was trying to depict the fragility of society's mores; but, I still thought the sex scene was gratuitous), The Mist is both a perfect introduction to King's style for first time readers and a great reminder to long-time fans as to why they enjoy his writing.

(Note: My understanding is that this book was originally published as a short story and later as a short novel and eventually became a movie. What I am reviewing here is the short novel, not the short story or the movie. Just wanted to be clear.)

The Mist was my first ever foray into the world of Stephen King. I knew about King, of course, and now, having read one of his stories, albeit a short novel and not one of his more famous (or scary) pieces, I can say I’m ambivalent. The book didn’t keep me up all night, scared and needing to finish it, but it was at least good enough so I’ll try him again and probably soon.

The mist of the title comes creeping in (creepily) in the aftermath of a violent summer storm somewhere in Maine (but not on the coast, I don’t think,) and it provokes an uneasiness in our hero, David Drayton, who watches it moving across the water toward his lakeside home. David doesn’t like the look of it and he’s lived long enough on the lake to know how fog is supposed to look. This fog has an ominousness about it. It isn’t pretty, or maybe it’s too pretty. David can’t shake the feeling there’s something wrong with the fog, which, surprise, surprise, there is.

Still feeling uneasy, Dave heads into town with his eight-year-old son, Big Bill, and leaving Mom there at the house and after Dave, narrating in the first person, says goodbye to his wife in the yard and drives away, he makes a startling, for a horror writer, and jolting for the reader, admission ─ “I haven’t seen her since.”

Isn’t that giving too much away at the start? Aren’t you not supposed to say who lives and who dies until the end, or at least until they die? Well, maybe with some books, most books, but spilling the beans early seems to work here. The revelation and the fog combine to jolt this reader into exactly the kind of mood the author wanted to create, and anyway, with what follows, it’s no spoiler to tell you poor Mrs. Drayton, who is peripheral to the story, probably isn’t going to be around at the end.

The Mist rolls over the lake and settles on the town or does it settle on more than the town? Does it engulf the entire state of Maine, all of New England? The world? The folks don’t know and neither do we, which is, I suppose, another classic horror technique ─ what the heck is going on out there?

Dave and Big Bill are in the local grocery store when the fog envelops the town and they become trapped in there with 50 or 60 other people, trapped because if the fog isn’t scary enough, there’s all those bad things concealed within it. A grocery store isn’t the worst place to be trapped, I mean, it’s better than the post office, right? All that food and beer, the folks go through a lot of beer, not so much food, they understandably lose their appetites, but I couldn’t help wondering how it was going for the folks trapped in the hardware store. In the grocery store and preparing for an attack from the things that have come along with the fog, the only weapons the folks can contrive are some few lighter fluid bombs, some cans of bug spray (remarkably effective given the size of the bugs that will emerge from the fog,) and…broomsticks. It’s a rural small town so the hardware store would have poison-gas bombs (for woodchucks and other varmints,) and pitchforks, chainsaws and lots more deadly stuff. Maybe even a guns and ammo section in the back, for the hunters. With all those weapons, though, the folks might have become emboldened and what we might have had was a bloodbath, crazy folks with real weapons duking it out with monsters, instead of a more classic, mind-bending horror tale. Besides, there wouldn’t be any beer in the hardware store and God knows these folks need beer, lots of beer, and there’d be nothing to eat except for some stale Slim Jims up by the register.

Soon enough, the things lurking inside of the mist make themselves known and this is where it gets really scary, right? Uh, not exactly.

The giant tentacles are the first of the monsters to arrive and are the most frightening. They’re frightening because we don’t see what they’re connected to, there in the fog, although we can imagine. Then come the big insects, flies or bees, and although we do see them in their entirety - they attach themselves to the outsides of the big windows of the store - they’re frightening. They’re the size of big dogs and scary because of their insect-like movements, if you’ve ever observed insects. Stephen King has. The bees, or are they flies, check out the folks with buggy-eyes through the windows and the folks know what they have become, or might soon become ─ the newest food in the grocery store.

Then come the spiders and a funny thing happens and no, I don’t mean what the spiders do to the folks. I mean what they do to me. I was falling under King’s spell, becoming really scared and I laughed at the wrong time. The spiders were funny, not scary. Silly, really. I seem to recall Tolkien and probably some others doing it much better.

My biggest problem with the story, bigger even than those ridiculous spiders, was that I didn’t feel much at all for the characters, or their fates. OK, I cared for Big Bill, but who wouldn’t care about a little boy maybe about to have his meat picked from his bones and devoured by a giant bug? Stephen King must have known I cared because he was constantly juxtaposing Big Bill’s innocence and his little-boy bravado and fears with those things outside, a kind of by-the-numbers horror tale.

And I cared for Hilda Reppler too. She’s a retired schoolteacher, one of those no-nonsense, gruff on the outside, tender-on-the-inside gals with a great deal of resilience and moxie, but I didn’t feel much for anyone else, not even for David.

All those monsters on the outside and the most frightening, most dangerous monster is right there inside the store with the folks and she’s scary, really, really scary. It’s a local woman, a fundamentalist-type and as the fear and the hopelessness grow, so too does her power. That’s a real Twilight Zone theme, folks disintegrating under stress and becoming prey to their own fears and to demagogues who, derided and ignored in less stressful times, emerge with the uncertainty and fear, a lesson for all times and places, including ours.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=ZikvWB48LCQ
Please people with the money, if you buy a new book, include a used one in your shopping cart. That will help the store enormously in their storage, and it can help you too. At some places the price can’t lower to lesser a penny. Take a used book for a 0.01$ anywhere.
It has many usage including, “Cash4Books.net”
Recycle or Burn it for survival heat. Use two books as spacers to raise your monitor because it’s always better to view at eye leveled to the center of your screen. Even better, send it to donation, any library would take it, or the third world too.
Do not fear a book because it has no teeth!!
When you open your used book, wear gloves if you have to, then you’ll realize, “This book ain’t that back after all.”
Good read and peace!!
- Ricky

In "The Stephen King Companion", George W. Beahm comments about this dramatization that "The Mist" was ripe for it. I have to agree. Since the story is more concerned with the way the apocalyptic occurrences affect the people trapped in the mist rather than with the monsters lurking in it (which in the tale are sparse and some aren't even completely "seen"), the audio drama draws our attention to the people and what they are going through.
This recording is faithful to Stephen King's story, keeping most of the structure and the key scenes. My only regret, having read the original and loving it, is the shift in narrative voice from a first person account to a third person "witnessing" of the events. Some of its beauty is lost in that change.
Changes notwithstanding, this is a very entertaining drama, and well worth the price of admission.

This audio drama adaptation of Stephen King's scary as hell "trapped in a grocery store surrounded by monster filled fog" short novel is faithful, just not scary. Too often the monster attacks play flat and it is hard to understand what is happening during them. Not at all surprising when you consider the rumors that this production was actually adaptated from a screenplay by Dennis Etchison and not originally intended as a radio drama. Making matters worse is the actor playing the main character's son. The child has an irritatingly congested voice, I kept wanting him to take a sudafed and blow his nose before saying his lines. The material screams for better script writing and presentation. Die hard Stephen King fans will find this of interest, but others should continue to wait for the movie. Better yet, just read the story. Now THAT'S scary.

The Mist by Stephen King is one of the author's better works. Published in the short story collection, "Skeleton Crew", The Mist has always been one of Stephen King's better works. As with all Stephen King works, it's a simple story that manages to be very engrossing.

After a freak storm David Drayton and his son go off to the market to get some supplies. While they do this they notice a mist creeping closer and closer to town. They step foot inside the market and realize that power all around. Phones, lights... everything. The Mist creeps closer, though and a man comes in screaming that it's a bad thing. The Mist soon envelopes the market. People who set foot outside never return. While David inspects the backroom he gets spooked. No one believes that he heard anything though. When they go investigate, one of the bag boys is dragged away by a large tentacle. Something is out there in The Mist. And now the survivors need to band together. But how long before they begin to turn against each other? And how long before things get really ugly inside the store. In the end David and those who stick beside him will have to decide which is worse, going out into The Mist and facing the monsters or staying inside where the people eventually turn savage looking for answers and doing more and more extreme things.

Stephen King's The Mist is a stellar novella. It's not really all that scary, but it's absorbing enough with some likeable characters and a good observation of humanity. If there was anything wrong with the story, it would be that the ending is a bit of a letdown, but despite that, the trip to get there is well worth a sitting or two. Much of Stephen King's prose is fast and snappy. The story actually moves quite fast and is filled with some good dialog and characterization.

The only problem with this, though, is that for just a dollar more you could buy the book "Skeleton Crew" which features this story as well as 21 other stories. For only a dollar more it's a much better bargain. The Mist is a great story, but it'd be nice to have other stories to read when it's over, given that The Mist is quite short (by Stephen King standards, anyway).

It's a great story that you should be able to get through in a sitting or two. Just do yourself a favor and buy Skeleton Crew instead.

I've been thinking about this 3-D audiobook/dramtization quite a bit, since I first heard about the movie. I owned the audiocassette version back in the mid-80s, and I assumed it was out of print. Well, you know what happens when you assume. I remember being more impressed with the ambition behind the production than the actual production (having always been a fan of old time radio drama, especially Suspense/The Whistle and similar scary anthologies). Still, while some of the performances were lacking, there were still many elements of the production that were really effective, and it's definitely worth a listen. It's something I'll be adding to my Christmas Wish List.

Oh, and according to imdb.com, the actor who played David in this dramatization is William Sadler, who costars in the Frank Darabont movie as nonbeliever-turned-true believer-turned scared-witless-born-again-drone Jim Grondin. So now you know...

I just finished listening to this audiobook and was extremely disappointed. The quality of the audio was just plain awful. I constantly had to keep adjusting the volume up and down. One minute the effects and music are blasting me out, the next, dialog is being delivered that is so low that even at max volume I can't make out what is being said. Some times the actors sound like they are talking from the bottom of a coffee can and sometimes they are clear and distinct. At other times the actors sound like they are 50 feet from the microphone talking to someone who is standing right next to the microphone. You can hear part of the conversation and can only guess about the other half. Don't even get me started on the kid. That's another story all together.
All in all, the story seems pretty good, but the delivery of the story and the low production values just drug it down. If you can listen to it free, I would recommend it, if you have to pay for it, take a pass.

First of all, buy Skeleton Crew, not this book - Skeleton Crew has this exact story and many many many GREAT others (hint- The Jaunt!!!). I bought this version after reading it in Skeleton Crew because I loved the story so much I wanted a copy of it separate from the other stories.

This has quickly become one of my all-time favorite books (ahem, novella, excuse me). I should point out that this may be largely due to the fact that I LOVE the original Silent Hill game series, and this is similar enough that I would highly recommend it to any and all fans of the Silent Hill series. Silent Hill taught me long before reading this, that: if a strange thick mist comes into town, try not to leave the building without at least taking a crowbar or something to defend yourself with. (A gun is preferable, but as most Silent Hill gamers know, ammunition is incredibly precious and hard to come by. So, have a back-up.)

However, added to the mix in *this* story is something (something I won't give away) that makes even a gun an impossibly futile form of defense. This "something" is directly on the lines of another interest of mine, which again, may be an influencing factor in why I love this book/novella so much.

I also enjoy this story because I enjoy survival horror/ghost novels where surviving becomes incredibly challenging and the main characters themselves almost revert to an animal-like existence. What I mean by that is they get used to going about their day as if each and every moment could be their last because at any moment they could be set upon by a predator who (like every other living thing) needs food to live. I like that "real-ness" - it adds a rationality to the actions of "the bad guys" that is completely believable, understandable, even universal, and nonetheless absolutely terrifying. Most people don't want to see a zebra or gazelle get overpowered and torn apart by lions, but it happens because lions need to eat like everything else. And I'm pretty sure a lot of people (or, at least some), like me, have wondered what it might feel like to be the zebra or gazelle in an absolutely hopeless situation. This book is kind of like that - it explores those possibilities.

Something great aside from all this is the fantastic example of "Murphy's Law" that occurs in the supermarket in one memorable scene. Everything that can go wrong... does... go... wrong...

And some might not like the lack of a "tied-up" ending, but I like when some endings are left ambiguous and this was one that worked for me. *Especially* the way it was worded. (Although, I must say, I very strongly disagree with Stephen King that "those two words" at the end of the novella sound ANYTHING alike, the way he claims they do.)

As a person who purchases over $800 worth of audio products each year I can say I have some experience in regards to audiobooks. As far as production goes this book is pretty good. The sound effects are nicely done and some of the actors play their roll well. Waht fails for me is the story. I mean folks its been done before over and over and over and over again. Of course there is the added annoyance of the kid's voice and that one cheap sexual encounter. Add the abrupt ending and what do you have left? An audiobook full of great sound and sound effects and nothing much else. If you want something a bit more better, try the audio play version of Pet sematary done by the BBC; that one is much better and a whole lot more scarier then this mess. My copy ended up in the garbage after all.

This was a great read. I personally enjoyed it and it was a nice break from the 500+ pagers that I’ve been reading. Kinda hoping for a better ending, seems maybe he could have turned it into one of those 500+ pagers easily! I’m glad that the ending is different than the movie though!

I recently rented this audiobook from the library on cd, and although the story itself is pretty good, the audio kills the book. The disc starts off discussing the whole 3D quality audio which seems like a neat feature, but for some reason it doesn't adapt well in the car. I found myself having to turn up the audio to hear the characters only to suddenly need to turn it down so I didn't lose my hearing from the sudden scary stuff in the story. Because of this, I just found it hard to truly follow the dialogue and after listening to about half of it and still being confused about what's going on, I don't want to finish it. Listening to this just makes you either want to see the movie, or just sit down and read the book so you can understand it better.

The piece de resistance of Stephen King's anthology 'Skeleton Crew' was a lengthy (approx 140 pages) novella entitled 'The Mist', an unsettling tale in which a mysterious impenetrable fog suddenly blankets a small New England town one summer morning after a fierce storm. Within the mist, unseen but ever present, are a variety of monstrous other-worldy creatures who make short work of anyone who ventures outside into it. To this day it remains my favourite of his shorter peices of fiction, managing to be both schlocky (all the monsters seem to be straight out of various B-movies: tentacles, giant insects, prehistoric birds etc) and deceptively chilling. Maybe it's the fact that we never discover exactly what has caused this mist, other than some speculation about secretive military experiments, whether it is localised or global, whether anyone else in the world is still alive and whether or not the main characters ever find any of this out. Ultimatly though, as in almost all King's writing, it's not so much the supernatural forces or the monsters that frighten the reader as much as what the human characters are capable of doing to one another. Here in the space of a couple of days the local religious nut turns from a harmless loon into an apocalyptic prophet of the end times, and the previously normal townspeople begin to get ideas about blood sacrifice as an appeasement to the creatures outside. The thought that civilisation could break down so quickly and in such an horrific fashion confirms the fact that the atrocities we might inflict on ourselves are far and away the more unsettling.
The Mist has spawned a text based adventure game for the PC (useless) and this audio play, but Frank Darabont, who holds the movie rights to the story, is planning to film it soon, for release sometime toward the end of 2004. I'm surprised no-one thought of adapting it before, as it's perfect B-Movie material and a lot of King's less cinematic stuff has been attempted for better or for worse. It's a story that I think really does need visuals to compliment it, just hearing an audio track is far too one dimensional.
The problem here is that, unless you happen to have read the novella, it's sometimes somewhat hard to make out what is going on, especially with the 3-D sound screeching in your ear. And if you have read the novella, then this adaption is simply not good enough. Obviously time constaints mean that the slowly escalating tension of the original has been set to a much faster pace and thus the pervasive creepiness is severely reduced. And, given that this is audio only, you have to excuse the fact that in the middle of someone being carried off by a nameless horror one of the characters will stop and deliver a detailed description of it; even so you have to make full use of your imagination. However despite some nifty sound effects and a discomforting theme it really is a load of old rubbish.
The majority of the acting is terrible, with the child(?) who plays Billy particularly irritating, dragging out his lines in a montone that Fox Mulder would find a tad wooden. David and Ollie fare better, with actors who make an effort, but the real disappointment is Mrs Carmody. In the novella she is such a powerful presence, creating as much unease inside the store as the mist does outside, which builds upon itself until exploding in a frenzy of terrifying savagery. Here they seem to have found the actress with the most boring voice imaginable, a kind of husky drone that is about as threatening as Donny Osmond. Also there are very few pauses, which are vital for creating a sense of atmosphere. People leave the store and immediatly there is a loud scream. No waiting, no edge-of-your seat anticipation, just a sort of wail then everyone starts talking again. They could have spanned this out a bit longer.
Some people have commented on the 'obvious' product placements. I can understand how it might seem that way, but if you read King's fiction you realise that he often utilises brand names and familiar products to emphasise the normal every day environments he sets his stories in, therefore whenever the evil forces or whatever show up it seems much more plausible in a way because he has created a contrasting backdrop of mundanity. However this is a device that only works successfully on the printed page. Here it seems awkward and, yes, commercial.
For completists only. Better to just stick with the book.

Billy went for the flag-then stopped. At the same moment I felt Steff go rigid against me, and I saw it myself. The Harrison side of the lake was gone.
This book, like many other Stephen King books kept you on the edge of your seat. David, living with his wife and child own a small house up in Canada. This, anohter nightmareish Stephen King story is the life of David living with his family, until he and his son are trapped in a Supermarket surrounded by the snow white mist and the monsters that dwell in it.
This was a wonderfully scary book that really shows in detail what it would be like to be truly trapped in a Supermarket. In each chapter, a new, exiting event occurs which throws off all your predictions for how the story is going to end.
I think that this terrific story deserves a five star rating. Stephen King has done another magnificent job.

This is how I will sum up King's "The Mist". The characters and the action is lively. You will be drawn in quickly and driven to finish it in one sitting. There is never a dull moment. It is a thrilling ride.

I rate it four stars for two reasons: 1) It is short. I feel like King could've expanded on the idea he had in mind for "Mist". I'm sure however the movie will embellish the "Mist's" weaker(I use this word lightly, because it truly is good) points. 2) This is such a promotion gimmick! Skeleton crew can be bought easily for $7.99, and this thin novella is $6.99. I feel a little cheated and used.

THE MIST was previously published back in the 1980's as a novella in the Skeleton Crew (Signet) book of short stories. I had read it once, several years ago, but I'm glad I picked up a copy now.

This is a very quick read -- about 2 hours -- since, as I mentioned, it's a novella and not a full-length novel. But it doesn't lessen any of the spooky, creepy, weirdness, which is always a plus.

I'm highly interested in seeing the big-screen adaptation of this book, and hope it holds up to the story. I'm anxious to see the eeriness that is THE MIST in all its CGI glory!

Having listened to and read over twenty full length King books in the last few years, I can say that, as far as audio is concerned, this isn't the best... but it certainly isn't the worst! Audiobooks are, in my opinion, a hit or miss ordeal. In audio drama, meaning more than one actor, with exposition/dialogue instead narration, the hits become fewer and farther between. The biggest complaint of critics over THE MIST is the product placement. I found it jarring too, but compared to some of the other audio dramas based on King books, I'd say this one stands out, product placement or not. Yes, the kid stinks as an actor. Kids in big budget movies stink half the time anyway, and this is low budget voice acting... he was probably one of three that answered the call. The rest of the cast is pretty good. I say 'pretty good' because I've heard 'pretty bad' in a King drama. Sorry, Right Number (part of Nightmares and Dreamscapes short story collection, vol. II), and I've suffered through God awful with the BBC presentation of Pet Semetary. That's as bad as it gets. Part of me thinks that maybe the producers/director of this audio program saw an in for funding in the name-branding of the raisins and sunflower seeds, and maybe convinced themselves (wrongly) that they were achieveing a level of commentary or satire, ala Dawn of the Dead's nudge to consumerism in America. Maybe not. Either way it was distracting and shattered the absorption factor in a pretty engaging story. One thing this story did do for me: Now I want to watch the movie! Where I normally pray for film-makers to adapt a story truthfully, I kind of hope they took some liberties and expanded the ending, assuming this is true to it's written counterpart.

King has sold millions of books with a similar concept; how humans deal with each other during times of uncertainty. In the Mist, King builds in the opening scenes, our fears of mother natures fury. But we can somehow deal with those fears. We know how to protect ourselves. Even with destruction, people deal with the aftermath.

But the mist that descends on the town brings something else with it. This is no ordinary fog bank. The protagonist, David Drayton sees it glow, its unusual characteristics and is apprehensive from the start.

Without detailing the story, a group of people are stranded in a supermarket, including David and his young son Billy. They are trapped by the mist and its hidden terrors. What makes the story is the relationships between the people within that market. The beginning chaos, then resignation, followed by organization and of course conflict. Factions split, one King refers to as the people who would still believe the "earth is flat." (Flatearthers) As in some of his other work, it becomes "us vs. them" or "good vs. evil." The tension builds as the mist visits them in terrifying ways. The characters in the market plot and scheme toward each other and the potential solutions to escape the mist.

King as always has a great talent for describing everyday things. You want to reach through the pages and shake some of these people, others you want to befriend. This is what makes the Mist a very good read. We can all identify with fear and how we might deal with it. Sometimes the way out isn't very pretty. The Mist lingers in your mind long after you've read the last page.

This adaptation of the Stephen King story (found in Skeleton Crew)is perfect for long car rides. Even more so if you have to drive at night. This story of an inexplicable mist that engulfs a small, New England town has long been a fan favorite and this superb production helps prove why. The screams and cries of pain are startling, the sound effects make this work incredibly, allowing for a real level of fear to develop. The voice acting (for the most part) is amazing. This really isn't an audio book as much as it is audio theater, kinda like the old radio shows. The Mist is an experience that Stephen King fans ought to know, especially if you have ever read the story. Also, Frank Darabont (director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile)has the movie rights to the story. And if this cd doesn't whet your appetite for the film adaptation I don't know what will. A prime example that radio is still a powerful storytelling medium.

It was written well, and not too long, and that's why I gave it two stars... because in every other respect it was disappointing. Not enough monster face offs, not enough clear monster descriptions, not enough action, no explanation of the Mist phenomenon... I get what King is trying to do, he wants to get our imagination going, and leave all the loose ends hanging so that our minds fill the rest. But then... he didn't show us anything we couldn't have thought of of dreamed of ourselves, did he?
In my humble opinion, the movie was better.

Listening to this recording gave me a mixed emotion: on one level, the special effects and sound quality were so outstanding, that the fact that i was merely listening to a CD was lost after time, which greatly added to the suspense and eeriness of the story. Yet, while listening purely to dialogue and noises, the beauty and lyricism of King's narrative was unfortunately squashed. The final scene, one of the best written ends in fiction (and greatly enunciated in the unabridged narrative audio version), lost much of its dramatic impact with the lack of seven simple words: "One is Hartford. The other is . . . hope." Still, the recording was very enjoyable, even though the kid sucked!!!

I've read many of King's novels, but this one so far has been the scariest for me. Great story telling for such a confined space that the book mainly takes place in. I'll tell you (without giving anything away) the ending is a mystery so you know up front and wont be disappointed. I don't mind cliffhangers personally. It only opens up the imagination.

I have been reading many of Stephen King's books as of late, and I have to say this one was as creepy as they come. Once the creatures began showing themselves from the mist, the story really became scary to me. The characters were all well developed and the story had a great flow to it. I wish there would have been more closure to the story, but I like that the ending was left vague enough to be open to interpretation.

I still have yet to listen to this in its entirety. Not sure what's up with the sound, but I feel like I have to have the volume cranked up in my car to hear it. I can't tell if it's supposed to be listened to with headphones or if it's supposed to be played from a car CD player. The different voices are neat, but it just seems confusing in the beginning. If you hadn't read the book or seen the movie, you probably wouldn't know what was going on. I just can't seem to get into it for some reason, which is a shame because I absolutely love the book and movie, but every time I try to play this in my car I end up taking it out of the CD player and listening to something else instead. I'll keep trying. The last time I tried to play it was on a long trip from Virginia to Florida.

This is a very short read but a good one nonetheless. As only King can do he creates very realistic characters in a short time span, some likeable and some you will develop a genuine dislike for. I've read only a few of King's novels and like most of them, this one I thought was really good despite it's brevity. I recommend the book to any fan of the horror genre, besides you can read it in a day so it's not a major time commitment to complete. Once I got started I couldn't stop so for me it was a quick read.

I am a big fan of Stephen King. However I did not know that this was a novella and that it was also published in skeleton crew~ Anyway, very good!!!! I liked the fast pace. I was a little worried when I got the book since it is only about 100+ pages, I thought oh this is going to stink. However, I totally got into it and was able to put myself in that position and totally freaked myself out! LOL~ I cannot wait until the movie comes out on DVD... Loved the ending as well~ VERY CREEPY!!!!!

The 3-D sound is a great concept, but it fails in this adaptation. The dialog is pretty unnatural in many places and the acting sounds like bad community theater. Other reviewers are correct when they say that the sound effects and music get too loud, especially when competing with the overlapping dialog of panicking characters. And, the product placements are way over the top. As other reviewers said, the kid is not a good actor, but he is a kid. I'm more concerned about the female character that drifts in and out of a thick Irish accent. Ugh!

DO NOT BUY THIS VERSION. Borrow from a library or Cracker Barrel . . . better yet, get it from one of the other reviewers who would be happy to offload their copy!

*Spoiler Alert kind of*
The Mist is a short, fun and very scary novella from Stephen King. Is it his best work? By no means, but it's an enjoyable ride with some very scary monsters. I have yet to seen the film adaptation so I can't compare the two, but I'm looking forward to watching it.

I read this book in a day. It was very intense and scary. It's about strange spider like creatures that trap shoppers in a supermarket and ends with a few who manage to escape. I didn't like the ending though. In the book, the ending just leaves you guessing but on the movie promo's, they say this is the best ending ever??????? So I'm guessing they must have changed the ending for the movie. Don't watch the movie if you're not in to blood and gorr. As usual, Stephen King has gripped us with his writing skills again.

Ohhh maaan. What a fun read. I was hooked within minutes. Good thing this is coming out in the movies or I might have never read it. I picked it up at my local grocery market and read it in about 7 hours with no breaks..lol. It's a short book so you know.

I'm not a huge King fan but I really did enjoy his writing in this book. He made me like the characters I was supposed to like and made me hate the ones I was supposed to hate. The whole time reading, I really felt like I was there and kept thinking to myself "WHAT IN THE HECK WOULD I DO IF I WAS THERE?! ARRGH!" There are so many parts where I would think to myself..oh come ON..there is no way that could happen. Yet, King would really make me believe that it was happening, because everyone else in the book was basically thinking, 'There is NO WAY this is happening'...lol.

The book is about a man/husband/fater named David who goes to the store to pick up some supplies for his house after a very bad storm blew through. While he's there with a bunch of other people doing the same thing, a strange mist rolls in that he had seen earlier...bringing along with it...well...I dont want to ruin it for you...but it's a horror novel for a reason..=D

By the end of the book I was just totally trapped in Kings imagination. I couldnt believe that in such a short book, I actually felt compassion for certain characters. I really wish the book had been longer (the ending seemed a little rushed). But for some reason..I liked the actual ending. I wish I could have known more though. Thank goodness for my own imagination I guess..heh.

Only one gripe really..actually 2, but the second one would ruin a certain part of the book. The one I will say is...I hated how King wrote the child in this book. I think the kid was like 6 or 8 or something, but yet he had the thought process of a grown man. Until King wanted you to realize he was a child and make him cry or something like that. That part annoyed me.

Hope the movie does the book SOME justice.

The Mist in 3D sound obviously has a lot of great sound effects. A good story line. It all depends how loud you crank up the volume as to how scared you get. The louder it is the more you are likly to jump. Some of the acting leaves a lot to be desired. And although some of the actors/actresses really try, you really have to try hard, use your imagination to really see in your own mind what is happening. The people are stuck in a super market, so when you think about it, there is only so much you can do. You cant go very far. You can eat yeah...but thats is. As the story progresses you expect a terrifying climax in true King style. I, however, felt let down. But I leave it up to you. Personally, I prefered the book. But this is nice for a change. Give it a try and see what you think. Remember that this is only my opinion. I am a King fan but I'm also honest...my email if you'd like to get in [email protected]

Stephen King brings the reader into a new dimension of apocalyptic futures within the pages of The Mist. King originally published this novella as a portion of a collection of stories in The Skeleton Crew. This story about the trapped shoppers is now published as a single book, because of the theatrical release of The Mist in theatres this November. A good story exists when you feel for the characters, the environment, and situation. The story takes you within a small town near the coast of Maine during a horrendous heat wave. After a devastating storm a thick mist approaches ominously. The tale is written in the first person of David Drayton, a local husband and father, who finds himself trapped in a convenience store with the son he loves and neighbor he despises. The mist consumes the store in an impenetrable thickness. The entire store must join together in order to survive the unknown beings in the mist.

The book takes a different look upon how people both ban together and separate in times of desperation. Analyzing the inner thoughts of David gives the reader a perspective of trust that almost anyone can relate to. King is capable of developing the characters in a way that makes you either love or loathe them. King introduces each character with the past interactions they've had with David. You develop your own bias towards them just from the little information David grants you into their lives. Since you're trapped with the viewpoint of David only, you learn to live with his decisions, opinions, and attitudes. Overall I enjoy how King creates characters that you care about or wish unfortunate events on them.

The environment grants the characters an opportunity to interact with each other in distinctive ways unlike most stories. The majority of the novel leaves you ensnared within an ordinary store that is familiar to almost any reader. Having recognizable environment gives the reader an opportunity to create very vivid and picturesque mental images. King is very descriptive with his metaphors and similes. This makes the most impressive portion of this book with the ability to visual the environment and characters. Encased in the environment of the story is what people have become accustomed too. You can use and feel every sense used throughout this story.

The situation in this novel permits the characters to act in a sense of desperation and survival. They dig deep within themselves and pull out the best and worst characteristics. They decide whether ego or each other will be their killer. The whole situation with being forced to remain in closed quarters with people you care for or absolutely hate adds an interesting chance to analyze and observe the human interactions of distressed people. An interpretation of King's message may be that people are more dangerous and evil than an unknown evil mist. King makes a point that people force themselves to create their own hostilities against each other rather than banning together until the end.

Although this is a relatively short book, this offers a very unique addition to any type of survival thriller. The Mist is a nice comfortable read and a recommendation for anyone who enjoys Stephen King's work. The book is also a great way to become introduced into any of the writings of Stephen King. This is the shortest publication under King's name and works as a good sample if interested in some of his larger works. It will be very exciting to see how a book set in 1980 will convert into a modern movie.

I read this book in high school then again about nine years ago. I lost that copy and now I'm buying this one. I'm a HUGE Stephen King fan( I'm just finishing Salem's Lot for the second time), so I read everything story of his I can get my hands on. This story is EXCELLENT!!!!! The giant bugs freaked me out but it's still a great story.

I read his short stories in the mid-80's, and The Mist had haunted me because it had felt so real. I was young then. When the movie, many years later, came along with that shocking ending, it was interesting, but I doubt that SK had meant for that ending to happen. It had felt wrong to me as well as my husband who also had read The Mist. It had felt aberrant to SK's real story-telling of this story, unfortunately.

The Mist by Stephen King Audio Recording in 3D sound.

I had listened to this recording several years ago, ( during the 1980's )
The incredible realism that placed the listener directly into the middle of the action with sound that was like a completely new dimension, made the elements of the story far beyond anything I had listened to in audio books over the years.

If you're a fan of Stephen King, this should not be missed, as it brings the sence and fears of the story in through every pore.
If you're not a fan of Stephen King this is an experiance that you need to try for yourself. Its a roller coaster ride in your living room chair. You feel everything. It is real.

The release of the movie 'The Mist' brings the visual story to life.
But, try this recording, there is nothing more real. Your most vivid nightmare will pale by comparison.

Imagine my suprise when I found "The Mist" on the store.com, I have been looking for this recording for years. I ordered it immediately. I got it today and couldn't wait to sit down and listen to it. Though the 3-D sound was incredible the story lacked substance and seemed to jump all over the place. In one part a man is trapped in a store with his son, his wife is at home miles away and probably dead, so he decides to sleep with another woman. What this had to do with the story or the plot is beyond me.
Don't get me wrong, I've been a Stephen King fan since I first started reading thrillers, you could even say that he is my favorite writer. But, "The Mist" is nothing like anything by Mr. King that I have ever heard before. I was disappointed.
Maybe it was the medium used to deliver the story that disappointed me? If it were in book form I might have been able to "crawl into" or "become part" of the story and then I may h! ave enjoyed it.

That is $6.99. Instead, spend one dollar more on Skeleton Crew which will give you the complete text of The Mist and 20 other EXCELLENT stories. Why they released The Mist instead of just changing Skeleton Crew's cover like they usually do when a King short story is filmed I do not understand.

Otherwise, The Mist is one of Stephen King's best tales. Truly creepy and weird. As usual with a Stephen King story, the horrors are secondary to the vivid characters. Mr. King didn't skimp here giving you characters you will love and love to hate. The standout here was Mrs. Carmody. I can't really say any more without spoiling at least part of the story.

In summary, read The Mist. You'll be glad you did. Just read it in Skeleton Crew so that you can continue reading more stories for the same price.

Usually when you see the movie first your disappointed in the book or vice versa, but this book although only slightly different than the movie was on equal ground. Both are exceptional in different ways. Definitely worth the read!

I have this book in paperback (I mostly have all his books in hardback, but this was given to me by a friend). I really enjoyed it. I think this book keeps you on the edge of your seat and keeps you guessing. The part when the characters went outside of the store really got me, as well as the part in the stockroom.
I won't say any more in case you haven't gotten around to this one yet, but I don't think you'll be disappointed. Great King story, and like so many of his stories, the books are so much better than the movie adaptations!!

The make-beleive monsters are somehow never scary enough!

The Shining, Carrie, Cujo, The Long Walk... all great. But whenever there's a sci-fy creature involved (IT, The Mist, Desperation) it leaves something to be desired for some reason. At least in my opinion!

Imagine my suprise when I found "The Mist" on the store.com, I have been looking for this recording for years. I ordered it immediately. I got it today and couldn't wait to sit down and listen to it. Though the 3-D sound was incredible the story lacked substance and seemed to jump all over the place. In one part a man is trapped in a store with his son, his wife is at home miles away and probably dead, so he decides to sleep with another woman. What this had to do with the story or the plot is beyond me.
Don't get me wrong, I've been a Stephen King fan since I first started reading thrillers, you could even say that he is my favorite writer. But, "The Mist" is nothing like anything by Mr. King that I have ever heard before. I was disappointed.
Maybe it was the medium used to deliver the story that disappointed me? If it were in book form I might have been able to "crawl into" or "become part" of the story and then I may h! ave enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed the book with the people being traped in the Supermarket. I am going to order the movie at Christmas time. It's a bit like the movie Terror in the Mall only instead of water trapping them it is the Mist. The old woman in the book seemed crazy going on about death and saying it's death out there. If the book was excellent I can't wait to see the film when I get it.

I give this book 5 stars!

Stephen King's "The Mist" in 3-D sound is a wonderful, one of a kind achievement that gets better with each listen. It would be nice to see more programs of this type, especially based on King's works; for now, however, "The Mist" stands on its own as not only one of the greatest sci-fi horror stories ever written, but one of the best ever recorded. Bravo!

I am a big Stephen King fan, and have really enjoyed other audiobooks of his. So, I was excited when I saw a cassette of "The Mist," a novella which I thought was excellent. Well, I was doomed to be disappointed by this tape. It starts out by informing the listener that it was recorded in 3-D sound. Indeed, it does sound a little more textured than the usual audiobook. But I think it was a big mistake to read it as a play. I think the listener would have gotten a lot more out of it if it was read straight from the book. You see, in the process of rewriting it for the audio book, they changed the integrity of the story. In the cassette, David Drayton and his wife yell at each other like shrews, and their son sounds like somebody is pinching his nose shut while he talks. Another irritant: all the pitches for name brand foods. "Here, have some Post Toasties!" "How 'bout some Ruffles Potato Chips." I don't know if this was intentional or not, but it certainly wasn't in the book, and it was enough to make me want to gag. One more thing; true, the 3-D sound is neat, but it is not good to listen to while you're driving. Nobody in the car will be satisfied with how well they can hear. All in all, avoid this audiobook. Reading the story will let you absorb the atmosphere much, much better.

I choose five stars because I love Stephen King and his writing style, I love his books it's very easy to relate to them because I was born and raised in Maine.

This book was especially great, I was hooked and only took me a few days to finish without ANY dull parts. There is a movie based on this book and I saw it before reading this and I can confidently say that the book is much much better naturally. You'll love this book if an apocalyptic genre appeals to you.

The Mist was a great read! Grade A Prime Stehpen King! I wish SK could find the voice he had so many years ago. You completely fall into this story, you can see each and every character. You are there in that grocery store-scared out of your mind. You are there planning a way to get out. You feel remorse when a character dies. This one is a must read.

First heard this as a kid on the way to a Boy Scout campout. Bought it on cassette, and I've listened to it at least a hundred times. Didn't know that William Sadler, who voiced David Drayton here, played Jim in the movie, acc. to the the store Prime notes. The audiobook is perfect if you're taking a car ride at night or falling asleep during a storm. These types of radio dramas are a fading art and should be more popular.

An interesting novella with a unique, if very ambiguous take on the end of the world. There are great moments throughtout but it never rises to the overall level of greatness. It lacks the richness of some of Kings other works but I still recommend it. It moves quickly, has some nice characters and the scenario is very effective. It will be interesting to see how it tranlates to modern film.

The Mist is a great old-fashioned radio-like horror. When a mist covers the town, a few band of people in a grocery store try to venture out and find safety, but in the mist, death awaits. This tale (which was also a SUPERB story in "Skeleton Crew") is a bone-chilling tale about people. How they react in these situations, what they cling to.

For as many years as I have been reading Stephen King,it has always been that I either devour the book and become totally immersed in it or, I just cannot wait to get the book finished because it just does not hold my interest. THIS book, while having been a novella out of Skeleton Crew,
could have gone on forever for me. I hated that it ended. I LOVED it!
It also has one of those endings where at anytime Mr. King could easily write a sequel and just pick up where it left off.
E X C E L L E N T !!

Not much to say about it. Just that it what was a great read and I enjoyed it. I have yet to read the Skelton Crew book but I think I'll check it out just to see the other stories. Stephen King is a great writer so dont expect anything less then a awesome horror story. Check out the movie while your at it too!

"The Mist" is easily my favorite of the King short stories. i've actually been reading it to a good friend of mine over the last few months and she is quite intrigued.
As for this presentation, the sound is spectacular and very frightening. As other reviewers have stated, the need for giving a detailed description of the nemeses in the story is a bit overdrawn, but I can deal with that. My complaints are with the musical score. I found it exceptionally distracting and would prefer to purchase a version of this with the musical score entirely removed.
All in all, it's a very unsettling listen, well worth it. Without the score I would have given it five stars.

I seen the movie first, and dont usually like to read the book after i already seen the movie. But i checked this title out from my public library, and glad i did. I thought the book was better. They are totally different.

This book is really well written and kept me turning pages. I read it after seeing the movie. I like the movie more despite the crappy CGI, but the book is really good too!

Read it if you are a fan of King and even if you're not.

Chow!

The entire thing is like one long list of brand-name food products. It's not mayonnaise, it's "Hellman's." We're all out of "Cracker Jacks," but there's still some "Screaming Yellow Zonkers." They're not raisins, they're "Summaid." Really:
"What are you eating?"
"Sunmaid."
"Raisins?"
"Well, they're not prunes!"
I swear I'm not making that up. If I went to a grocery store and asked, "Where are the Sunmaid?" I might be punched in the face, and rightly so.
It would be hilarious if it weren't so disgusting. See for yourself: At ([...] there's a preview of about three minutes, and in that preview, they mention Coke and Hawaiian Punch by name. The scariest part about this production is the fact that so many people could review it without mentioning this. Do they not hear it? Do they not care? Stephen King should publicly renounce this product and tell people not to buy it. Probably wouldn't matter, since probably the entire production was paid for by Kraft Foods.

I don't usually listen to a lot of audio books, but after the outstanding screen adaptation, I was eager to check out the audio version of "The Mist," one of Stephen King's most unsettling and disturbing stories. What made the audio version so famous was the "3-D Sound," as the crew adapted the story to an audio drama and filmed it with sound that "immersed you in the story." What that means, apparently, is that dialogue is often impossible to hear, sound effects overshadow conversation, and there's a lot of usage of stereo sound. None of that would be a major problem if the production was good; unfortunately, it's a complete disaster. The voice actors all run together, resulting an absolute inability to tell most characters apart; even worse, some that do stand out, like the young boy who plays a critical role in the story, underplays his part to the point of boredom. But it's the script that really kills the production. In condensing the story, the writer removes all characterization and complexity to the roles, resulting in a bunch of voices with no depth fighting against each other. Add to that the ridiculous effort to describe monsters as they attack (descriptions that end up sounding like Will Ferrell's graphic description of his injuries during Austin Powers) and the ludicrous cramming in of brand names to the point of absurdity (my favorite: as a monster attacks and knocks over a shelf, a panicked character yells "There's Prego and Ragu Spaghetti Sauces everywhere!") and you end up with something far more irritating than interesting. A complete letdown - it's obviously made with the gimmick in mind, but it forgot about every other part of the tale in the telling.

The Mist is one of King's best stories ever. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and read it. But don't buy this version. Buy Skeleton Crew; it's in there along with other great tales. You won't be disappointed.

James Roy Daley, author of The Dead Parade
The Dead Parade

I read this after I finished the seven Dark Tower books a few years ago. As I was reading it, I noticed several connections to the Dark Tower. So many, in fact, that it reads as an outline for the series, including the ending of 7! It hit me that King must have had his 7 book series mapped out subconciously. The true connection of the mist in the Tower universe can be found in the text stories for the Gunslinger comics.

I read this book when I had already seen the film. Both the film and the book are good, I like them. Yes, the film ends not like the book, that surprised me a little.
Thank you Stephen King.
[...]

I love Stephen King so I knew that I would enjoy this book. I did enjoy it very much. I did not want it to end and in fact I don't think it really has an ending. I look forward to seeing the movie very much. I am sure buying the collection book is a good idea also.

Well, I finally got a truly weird feeling when engaged in my favorite new hobby: audiobooks. The Mist is one hell of a scare...and I am not through listening yet! Wait until you have a midnight run and listen to it on the way.

Following a savage storm, a small group of people are trapped in a supermarket and find themselves in a world where bugs become huge predators meant on devouring us all. They realize that the world has changed and must band together in order to survive this new-born nightmare. Absolutely awesome creation by King.

Skeleton Crew was my first King the way he writes is realy breath taking. My favourite story(the raft) gave me an idea of the suspense and pace at which he writes. I'm sure I will enjoy taking the step into the deeper world of Kings novels

This story certainly has it's creepy moments, but unfortunately it provides no resolutions at all, nor any explanations for the things that happen. I'm all for ambiguous endings, but this one felt like the author just ran out of steam and wasn't sure how to end the story...or how to explain what had happened. Also, most of the characters are unlikeable and hard to root for. Particularly the main character who often has his 6-year-old fetching beer for him. I'm a Stephen King fan, but the lack of follow through on this one ultimately made for a dissatisfying read.

This 3D audio endeavor has great intentions. However, the story lost much in the audio presentation. I had to turn my volume almost up to max to hear some of the dialogue. Two or more characters often speak at the same time, making it difficult to distinguish the dialogue. However, I applaud Stephen King for his efforts to make us "books-on-tape" fans happy. It was a bold effort...a beginning in this medium that can be looked at as a building block for future audio books. If I was looking to get the most out of this story, I'd read the printed word.

This is the worst book on tape I have ever listened to! I am an avid Stephen King fan, and I loved this story when I read it. I also listen to many books on tape (probably 3 per month) on my drive to work, and I like them also. However, this one was difficult to finish. There were way too many things going on at once. Too many voices, too many extra sounds, too much loud music for the effect. I wasn't able to understand almost half of what they were saying. This would be much more effective if one person read the story, right from the book.

The Mist, by Stephen King, is the perfect summer read. Great at the beach or on a rainy day. His ability to capture his readers from the get go through vivid descriptions & character development keeps you hanging on, and then, finally, wanting more when the story ends...Mission accomplished. Bravo to King.

Took me two days to read, so it was pretty entertaining and good enough to keep reading non stop. The ending kind of sucks though. Wish he would have said more about how things ended. Or even write a sequel..

I listened to this audiobook in a hotel room in the dark by myself and was bored. It's very short, anti-climactic, and very rushed. I didn't feel any emotion with any of the characters or their storylines. It sounded like a reading done in a high school english class with a cheesy sound effects board. I am a giant Stephen King fan, but this wasn't worth the cd it was burned on...Read the Dark Tower series, or buy audiobooks that are read by Stephen himself...Don;t waste your time with this...

I love this audio book! I was listening to it one night when it was storming out and it got me going ! I had to sleep with my little girls night light on! The naration is very well done and the sound affects are masterfully done to creat a real environment! It pulls you into the story and trans ports you into the happinings! I think everyone should own this one! I can't stop listening to it!

I was impressed with the audio that goes with this adaptation of the book. I know it's listed as an audio book, this is no audio book. It's more to the point of being like one of those old days radio plays instead. It's deffantly not by the book. I'm glad I bought the book because I would of missed out on a ton of stuff that this so called audio book left out.

This was one of first S.King books i'd read. I've now read it twice. I liked the idea of no real ending. To me this is the best of his short stories and if HE'S {Stephen King not God] listening how about a sequel { with no real ending].

I was disappointed with this CD.
I was expecting the reading of a short story (only 1 CD) with special effects from the 3d sound. What I got was a poorly executed radio play where the sound effects blast at high volume and the dialogue is so low and mumbled I had to keep turning the volume up to maximum.
I have a lot of Kings Books (both audio and hardcover) and like the way the characters develop as the story moves along.
In this audio adaptation of Kings Story none of the characters flesh out. They all remain flat and uninteresting.

Save your money and read the book or wait for the movie.

This is one of the scariest audio books I will ever hear. Very GOOD story and excellent recording and engineering. The eerie music really adds a sick twist to the tape too. If you listen to this to tape make sure you use headphones and turn out the lights. Your nightmares won't disappoint you.

The Mist is a spine-tinglingly claustrophobic story. It features a full cast of actors and excellent sound effects. The quality of the production is greatly augmented by the the 3-D sound which permeates the entire story. Strangely, The Mist is the only 3-D audiobook I've ever found.

I read the story awhile ago and decided to get some CD's to listen to on my drive to work. This is not an actual reading of the book, but more of a radio drama. I have no problem with that, but the audio mixing is horrible. The music is sometimes too loud and I could no understand the dialog. The little boy does a terrible reading and has a very minor speech problem that makes him difficult to listen to. I found it to be a very annoying CD to listen to.

This is what audiobooks should sound like, and the perfect story for it. Put on your headphones and turn off the light and you're right in the middle of the story. The sound effects will make you jump, and even the music score keeps the tension going. You got to hear this one.

I would rank this audio book as one of the best produced that I have heard. The 3d sound is amazing and the acting is superb. You feel a palapble sense of impending doom and horror as the story enfolds. A simple straightforward horror story done in a very entertaining way.

Stephen King did a great job writing this. It's much better than the movie, because you use your own imagination.. no computer graphics. It's a little blunt at the end.. not unlike Stephen King's "The Cell"... but in my opinion was much better than "The Cell".

I should have known before I bought it; sci-fi readers will most likely not enjoy basic fiction. You must really like what you are reading about in order for a book to make a lasting impression on you. IMO in the Mist, King uses too much description; and I believe too many adjectives/description looses the reader. Shane Lindsley author of Enemies Among Us

I loved this book. I found the characters to be believable and the story non-stop thrilling and exciting. I thought the ending was a shocking surprise...to let the reader decide what the final outcome would be! Can't wait to see the movie!

I loved this short story. Best one in the collection SKELETON CREW.

But why pay $6.99 for the one story, when you can buy the collection for $7.99 and get 21 other very good Stephen King stories in it?