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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
This wasn't quite what I thought it would be and it definitely felt like King just wanted to write a slightly spooky story about baseball. I thought that the story would have a supernatural twist to it and was disappointed when it didn't. Glad this was a novella - it didn't take too much time to read - because it wasn't that exciting.
I've never heard of blockade billy, but then again I'm not a big baseball fan. This was an awesome story. It's only about fifty pages, and no there is no mysticism or supernatural, just a damn good story about baseball. I've said it before and I'll say it for every one of Mr. Kings books: He's the best storyteller alive (and yes there is a difference between storytelling and writing)
Thankfully this was short as it was a v unsatisfying read for me, not sure if this might be more down to the fact I have very little idea about baseball! It's rare Stephen King is a disappointing read but this was.
I did not read Morality, only the title story. This was every bit Stephen King, and I loved it! Until the end. Oh, how Stephen King can mess up an ending. I still love his storytelling, though.
3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the story telling style: an elderly ex-third base coach relating the story of a player and team no one remembers to Mr King. The language was...well, colorful... and really pulled you into the ballparks of old setting.
I almost read it one sitting. I fell asleep about halfway through (that doesn't mean i thought the book was boring) but when I woke up i continued reading until I was finished
I feel kinda bad giving this two stars because I don't know fuck all about baseball and this hasn't piqued my interest in the subject. To be fair though, even if it didn't read like my cars technical manual with a flimsy plot attached, the actual main story (or in other words anything that doesn't read like the Wikipedia page for notable games of Major League Baseball) is just a bit pointless and wank.
An additional star is given for the second story, "Morality" but even that isn't particularly great. If I read it blind, I don't even know if I'd pick up that it was a King work. I can kinda get what the message was trying to portray but it was a bit heavy-handed at the back end, like we weren't going to get what a story called "Morality" might be about.
Side note: for the £2.60 I picked this up for off Amazon, it's very nicely bound and presented, well worth having in any hardcore King collection.
An additional star is given for the second story, "Morality" but even that isn't particularly great. If I read it blind, I don't even know if I'd pick up that it was a King work. I can kinda get what the message was trying to portray but it was a bit heavy-handed at the back end, like we weren't going to get what a story called "Morality" might be about.
Side note: for the £2.60 I picked this up for off Amazon, it's very nicely bound and presented, well worth having in any hardcore King collection.
There are a few authors that I am very slowly working through their back catalogue. Stephen King is one of them. I had read this book before but a very long time ago and I wanted to give it another try, simply for the reason that I couldn't remember reading it.
At 112 pages, this story was easy to get through. I have to admit that I don't follow baseball and I am not familiar with the sport but, honestly, that didn't really matter. Yes, there were parts that I didn't really follow because it was all about the sport (and I knew that when I went into this story - so it was expected) but I enjoyed finding out more about Blockade Billy and wanting to find out what his secret was about.
This was a fun read. You certainly do not have to be a fan of baseball to pick this one up.
For more reviews, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
At 112 pages, this story was easy to get through. I have to admit that I don't follow baseball and I am not familiar with the sport but, honestly, that didn't really matter. Yes, there were parts that I didn't really follow because it was all about the sport (and I knew that when I went into this story - so it was expected) but I enjoyed finding out more about Blockade Billy and wanting to find out what his secret was about.
This was a fun read. You certainly do not have to be a fan of baseball to pick this one up.
For more reviews, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
This is a novella King gave to small press Cemetary Dance, which is very nice. Ahem.
Terrible. Just terrible. For someone who is such a big baseball fan, he gets so many things wrong about baseball. (See: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, a much better book but with a glaring error.) This is a first person account of an incident back in 1957 and is told by an old coach straight out of central casting. It reads like a cliche-drenched parody, which I'm pretty sure is not what he was going for. And as nice as it was to support a small press, it shows in the lack of editing. Too many distracting continuity errors, such as describing how a player looks in his new uniform and then later in the same scene pointing out that he's wearing jeans and a jacket. All that and it still could have been somewhat saved by a classic King ending, but no. Nothing supernatural. Nothing interesting.
Terrible. Just terrible. For someone who is such a big baseball fan, he gets so many things wrong about baseball. (See: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, a much better book but with a glaring error.) This is a first person account of an incident back in 1957 and is told by an old coach straight out of central casting. It reads like a cliche-drenched parody, which I'm pretty sure is not what he was going for. And as nice as it was to support a small press, it shows in the lack of editing. Too many distracting continuity errors, such as describing how a player looks in his new uniform and then later in the same scene pointing out that he's wearing jeans and a jacket. All that and it still could have been somewhat saved by a classic King ending, but no. Nothing supernatural. Nothing interesting.
Slight, but entertaining. Weirdly topical to read so soon after the Buster Posey incident (Giants catcher who had a season-ending injury while blocking the plate).