Four Past Midnight is a collection of short novellas, similar to Four Seasons though rather less famous and with a greater focus on horror and the supernatural. It's Stephen King's 31st published work by my count, in 1990.
I had read it before, although I didn't remember much of it. I remembered The Langoliers but not the details of Secret Window, Secret Garden which was the very story I picked the collection up for.
The Langoliers focuses on a few people who wake up on a plane with everyone else gone. I like the Langoliers, the supernatural monsters that turn up halfway through.
Secret Window, Secret Garden was turned into a movie starring Johnny Depp. That on focuses on plagiarism.
The Library Policeman was also very good; however, I do find it interesting that Stephen King mentions that 'the library policeman' was a fear of his younger son, Owen. The character who is pursued by it pictures it in that form because he was raped by a man calling himself a 'library policeman' at an early age. I'm not sure I'd be able to separate the two characters once one had grown from the other. That's one of the many reasons why Stephen King is a much better writer than I am.
Sun Dog is a weird little story about a camera. Rather enjoyable in its own way.
James Smythe points out in his article that many people focus on The Langoliers, like I did. He's also reminded me that Sun Dog is part of a series with Needful Things and, I think, either The Dark Half or The Tommyknockers. It also features Pop Merril as a main character, Pop being the uncle of Ace from The Body and related to several characters in The Tommyknockers. A character in the Sun Dog also refers to the divorce and suicide of The Dark Half's Thad Beaumont.
So now, on to The Wastelands, the third Dark Tower novel. I'm also part of the way through Haunted Heart, a biography of Stephen King which I hope will give me some interesting background.
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