Stephen king night shift pdf download. Night shift (collection)

Stephen King with the novel Night Shift for download in fb2 format.

You have decided to go on a journey through the back streets of nightmares that lurk beyond the edge of reality. There is only madness and panic here. Here, everything that seems reliable and familiar can turn into a deadly trap. Even daylight seeps through the darkness of the night here...
Around the bend of the road is a world where Gray Evil lurks under the masks of people. Evil in which there is not even a spark of a human soul.
A new turn - and here it is, the town...
One more turn - and those who encounter the possessed Lawnmower will repent three times. Because Death lurks in the depths of his broken soul...
And again the road takes a turn - the dead return to school, returning with a thirst to bring death to the living. And you have to sell your soul to the devil in order to defeat the devil...
Read the short story collection NIGHT SHIFT exactly as Stephen King intended it!

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Today, a large amount of electronic literature is available on the Internet. The Night Shift publication is dated 2014, belongs to the “Horror” genre in the “Dark Tower” series and is published by AST publishing house. Perhaps the book has not yet entered the Russian market or has not appeared in electronic format. Don’t be upset: just wait, and it will definitely appear on UnitLib in fb2 format, but in the meantime you can download and read other books online. Read and enjoy educational literature with us. Free downloading in formats (fb2, epub, txt, pdf) allows you to download books directly into an e-reader. Remember, if you really liked the novel, save it to your wall on a social network, let your friends see it too!

Night Shift Stephen King

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Title: Night shift

About the book "Night Shift" by Stephen King

We present to your attention the first collection of Stephen King. It was the stories from the book “Night Shift” that earned him the title of “King of Horror.” Almost all of the works collected here are written in the horror genre. They provide an opportunity to get acquainted with the early work of the writer, which has a special charm.

Here Stephen King writes surprisingly compactly, his style is extremely light. At the same time, there is some superficiality when compared with later works. However, what is superficiality for the “king” is unattainable depth for many other writers.

His horrors are a brilliant reflection of the real problems of mankind: drunkenness, which turns a person into “gray trash”, fanatical religiosity, giving rise to “children of the corn”, dependence on technological progress leads to the fact that people become slaves to animated trucks, and children’s fears and troubles may come back when you least expect them...

"Night Shift" is a guide to the dark corners of the world, which is inhabited by the most terrible nightmares and utter horrors. Stephen King shows us a small provincial town in which the children of cultists take the lives of everyone who has crossed the “age of temptation” line - nineteen years. In another story, near a roadside cafe, we watch as a handful of people fight intelligent machines that kill all living things. We continue reading and find ourselves in a school where the dead have returned, consumed by the thirst to kill.

“Night Shift” is the mysterious world of King, where Gray Evil lurks under human guises. There is not even the slightest glimpse of anything human in him.

In it, an ultra-modern meat grinder suddenly gains will and intelligence. All her aspirations are aimed at evil and murder. You don't feel safe anywhere in this world. Even rats can bring destruction, and nothing can save them.

Stephen King amazes with deep psychologism and incredibly life-like details, thanks to which the characters literally come to life on the pages of the book “Night Shift”.

The writer strikes on the spot. He masterfully juggles with all conceivable and inconceivable fears. Are you still not afraid of vampires, closets, rats and trucks? Now you will! To these fears will also be added the animal horror of fanaticism and cruelty of children, the fear of heights, darkness, loneliness, the fear of fanatical love and the helplessness that a serious illness brings, turning a person into a vegetable.

On our website about books lifeinbooks.net you can download for free without registration or read online the book “Night Shift” by Stephen King in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and real pleasure from reading. You can buy the full version from our partner. Also, here you will find the latest news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For beginning writers, there is a separate section with useful tips and tricks, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at literary crafts.

Stephen King

Night shift (collection)

Preface

At parties (which I try to avoid as much as possible) I am often greeted with smiles and firm handshakes by all sorts of people who then say with a meaningfully mysterious air:

– You know, I always wanted to write.

I always tried to be polite to them.

But now, with the same triumphantly mysterious grin, I answer them:

– And you know, I always wanted to be a neurosurgeon.

Confusion immediately appears on their faces. But it is not important. There are a lot of strange, confused people around who don’t know where to put themselves and what to do.

If you want to write, then write.

And you can only learn to write through the process. Not a very suitable way to master the profession of a neurosurgeon.

Stephen King has always wanted to write, and he writes.

And he wrote Carrie, and The Lot, and The Shining, and the wonderful stories that you can read in this book, and an incredible number of other stories, and novels, and passages, and poems, and essays, and others works that are not subject to classification, and even more so, for the most part, publication. The pictures described there are too repulsive and scary.

But that's how he wrote them.

Because there is simply no other way to write about it. Doesn't exist, that's all.

Diligence and hard work are wonderful qualities. But they are not enough. You must have a taste for words. To revel in, to gorge on words. Swim in them, roll them on your tongue. Re-read millions of words written by others.

And the fiercest contempt should be reserved for people who hide their complete helplessness and mediocrity behind verbosity, rigid sentence structure inherent in Germanic languages, inappropriate symbols, and an absolute lack of understanding of what there is a plot, historical context, rhythm and image.

Only when you begin to understand what you are, you will learn to understand other people. After all, in every first person you meet there is a piece of your own “I”.

Well, that's all. So again, what do we need? Diligence and hard work, plus a love of words, plus expressiveness - and from all this, partial objectivity hardly breaks through to the light of God.

Because absolute objectivity does not exist at all...

And here I, typing these words on my blue typewriter and having already reached the second page of this preface and having a completely clear idea at first of what I was going to say and how, suddenly became confused. And now I’m not at all sure whether I understand what exactly I wanted to say.

Having lived in the world twice as long as Stephen King, I have reason to believe that I evaluate my work more objectively than Stephen King evaluates his own.

Objectivity... oh, it is developed so slowly and painfully.

You write books, they are distributed throughout the world, and it is no longer possible to clear them of their inherent spirit, like husks. You are connected to them, as if to children who have grown up and chosen their own path, despite all the labels that you put on them. Oh, if only it were possible - to bring them home and give each book additional shine and strength!.. Clean up, correct page by page. Deepen, shovel, polish, get rid of excess...

But at thirty, Stephen King is a much better writer than I was in my thirties and forties.

And I feel something like hatred towards him for this - just a little.

And I think I know by sight a dozen demons hiding in the bushes along the path he chose, but even if I had a way to warn him about it, he still wouldn’t listen. Here it’s who wins – either he is theirs, or they are his.

Everything is very simple.

OK. So what am I talking about?..

Hard work, love of words, expressiveness, objectivity... What else?

Story! Well, of course, history, what the hell else!

A story is something that happened to someone you watch and care about. It can happen in any dimension - physical, mental, spiritual. And also in a combination of all these three dimensions.

Any other kind of intervention is pure grotesque. Here's one of my favorite examples I read from last year's best-selling book: "His eyes slid down the front of her dress."

The image must be written accurately, contain an unexpected and apt observation and not break the charm of the story. This collection includes a short story called "Trucks," in which Stephen King depicts a tense scene in an auto repair shop and describes the people gathered there. “A traveling salesman, he never parted with his treasured suitcase with samples for a second. And now the suitcase lay at his feet, like a beloved dog who decided to take a nap.”

It seems to me a very accurate image.

In another story, he demonstrates impeccable hearing, giving the dialogue extraordinary liveliness and authenticity. A husband and wife went on a long journey. They are driving along some abandoned road. She says, “Yes, Burt, I know we're in Nebraska, Burt. And yet, where the hell are we going? skidded?“And he answers: “You have a road atlas. So look. Or have you forgotten how to read?”

Very good. And so simple and accurate. Just like in neurosurgery. The knife has a blade. You hold it accordingly. And you make an incision.

And finally, at the risk of being accused of iconoclasm, I must state with full responsibility that I absolutely do not care what topic Stephen King chooses for his work. The fact that at this time he clearly revels in describing various horrors from the life of ghosts, witches and other monsters living in basements and sewer hatches does not seem to me the most important thing when it comes to the practice of his work.

After all, a lot of the most terrible things are happening around us. And we all - you and I - experience crazy stress every hour. And Disneyland can be filled with children with evil in their souls. But the main thing, I repeat, is still history.

Taking the reader by the hand, she leads him along. And it doesn’t leave you indifferent.

And further. The two most difficult areas for a writer are humor and mysticism. Under a clumsy pen, humor turns into a funeral song, and mysticism causes laughter.

But if the pen is skillful, you can write about anything.

And it seems that Stephen King is not at all going to limit himself to the sphere of his current interests.

Stephen King's goal is not to please the reader. He writes to please himself. Me too. And when this happens, everyone likes the result. The stories that make Stephen King happy make me happy too.

By a strange coincidence, while writing this introduction, I suddenly learned that King's novel The Shining and my novel Condominium were included in the bestseller list of the year. Don't get me wrong, King and I are not competing for the reader's attention. He and I, it seems to me, are competing with the helpless, pretentious and pseudo-sensational works of those who never bothered to learn their craft.

When it comes to the craftsmanship with which the story is crafted and the enjoyment you can get from reading it, we don't have many Stephen Kings.

And if you've read all this, I hope you have enough time. And you can start reading stories.

...

John D. Macdonald

To the reader

Let's talk. Let's talk to you about fear.

I am writing these lines and I am alone in the house. The cold February rain is drizzling outside. Night... Sometimes, when the wind howls like it does today, especially sadly, we lose all power over ourselves. But while it is not yet lost, let's still talk about fear. Let's talk calmly and judiciously about approaching the abyss called madness... about balancing on its very edge.

My name is Stephen King. I'm a grown man. I live with my wife and three children. I love them very much and believe that the feeling is mutual. My job is to write, and I really love my job. The novels “Carrie,” “The Lot,” and “The Shining” were such a success that now I can make a living exclusively by writing. And this makes me very happy. Currently, my health seems to be fine. Last year, I got rid of the bad habit of smoking strong, unfiltered cigarettes, which I had tarred since I was eighteen, and switched to filtered cigarettes with a low nicotine content. Over time, I hope to quit smoking completely. I live with my family in a very cozy and nice house next to a relatively clean lake in Maine; One day last fall, I woke up early in the morning and suddenly saw a deer in the backyard. He stood next to a plastic picnic table. We live well.

It’s very pleasing when a small work (literally 40 pages long) can make you give birth to so many thoughts! You know, for the number of novels that I read from King, the opinion about his self-repetitions has taken root. This story gave me something similar from the very beginning. The techniques are still the same, the narrative is almost no different, and the transition from an ordinary story to real horror with the living dead only confirmed this. So, I read it to the end and plunged into thoughts, so strong that it dawned on me and I was able to discover a double bottom. What we got here: a teacher who experienced a terrible tragedy in his distant childhood, when a group of teenagers took the life of his brother right before his eyes. Afterwards, we are shown how this incident affected the man’s further development: constant nervous breakdowns, visits to support groups with people who experienced similar tragedies, problems with employment). Gradually, everything changes and the main character manages to find a good job in college, with understanding colleagues and an acceptable lesson schedule. But not with the most recent one. It is intended for disadvantaged teenagers who are significantly behind in their studies. And so, gradually everything begins to collapse when the disappearing students are replaced by the very ones who killed his brother and begin to promise that his time has already come. The teacher decides to take revenge on his offenders and his brother. The whole story can be divided into several layers at once. The first is imbued with healthy mysticism. The second is damage to the human psyche, which leads to dire consequences. If they decide which of them is correct, then I will choose the second. King does not bring us to the line that can explain where the reality of what is happening is. It was more scary to think about the causes of childhood aggression, when teenagers 10-15 years old brutally deal with their peers. Here it is not only the act itself that is frightening, but its reasons. It is difficult to imagine that a child who has not even had time to properly assert himself in this life develops such gnawing anger that can lead him to a terrible sin.

Of all the master’s works I have read, I consider “The Last Crossbar” to be the best. It’s even hard for me to imagine how great King’s talent is, that he could so easily write a story about love, loss and separation... As a person who grew up in a family alone, without brothers and sisters, it’s hard to imagine the love that hovered between relatives. I tried to imagine it and just let you know how much I succeeded. I was really there, with them, carefreely jumping into a haystack, and was afraid for my loved one, worried that adults would punish me for disobedience. But I never left the feeling that he would always come and help. At the most difficult moment! He will use all his strength to make sure everything falls into place again. King masterfully manages the emotions of his reader and evokes genuine joy from that very barn where the endless love of a brother and sister seemed to be forged. There is nothing better than being a child. Especially if you know that you have a person who will always come to your aid and listen. For a fragile child, this could be a father, mother, grandfather or grandmother... Or maybe an older brother. It is he who will protect his little sister from all the troubles of our unpredictable life. After all, the baby looks at the one he trusts completely differently, his eyes are full of innocence and devoid of those fears that adults constantly experience. Why, such a look can only be cast on someone who deserves it. If you become worthy of him, it means that the child has found his role model. They don't give love to anyone just like that. We were all children and understand that frivolous attitude towards life. When you want to fly at full speed towards something unknown and be extremely careless. By the end of the whole story, I was still with them. I was able to experience two lives, because they flashed before my eyes. In the end, their lives turned out to be so banal that it made my chest ache. From the very beginning, I understood that this story would not end well, and that’s how it turned out. How did I understand this? My acquaintance with King has been going on for several years now, and the life of an ordinary American person is very familiar to me through movies and TV series. At the very end, the reader is unable to change anything and must come to terms with the merciless fate of fate. There is another message in this. The author manages to change the reader’s ideas about the future fate of the characters and demonstrate a completely different outcome, quite unexpected, so that he pays attention to the problems shown in the story. This problem is quite multifaceted and incredibly relevant for residents of large cities. People close to us often leave their homes in search of a better life, leaving only bitterness in their souls. We can only look for the fault that caused all this to happen. There were no hard feelings here, no omissions about the separation were allowed. Just one person unconditionally believed in another that he would come and help in difficult times. Every conversation screamed about their closeness. But as often happens, people get older and everyone scatters around this endless world. It’s only a shame for relatives who have to leave each other and move in parallel, although some of them overlap. This is the very closeness between people, who besides them will listen to us and help us in difficult times? You should not look at the number of pages in the story, it is terribly small, but this does not lose in quality and plot. At first it seems like there is only one problem involved. As soon as you dive deeper, a second one will come out after one, etc. The story itself seems to be trying to remind us of childhood, those wonderful, carefree times when there was only our little world around us, which we tried with all our might to expand. And from about this moment you begin to understand why exactly the author is frightening here. These are not monsters or ghosts - this is our life. Transient and merciless. Even if you didn’t have a brother or sister, they were replaced by your best friend or girlfriend, whom you had to break up with over time. How is he doing, what’s wrong with him, would he like to talk to you? Or do you only have those very pleasant memories, and he is so busy with things that he is not even able to return to that time for even a minute? Having read the work to the end, tears involuntarily welled up in my eyes. It’s hard for me to admit, but it all comes like that, the paths diverge, but the memories remain. Stories like this one can turn the soul inside out, touch the strings of the soul and leave a bitter aftertaste. The most interesting thing is that the situation was far from hopeless and it could be changed instantly. Our indifference, acquired over the years, is to blame for everything. Do not forget your past and loved ones, even with the onset of the present.

GRAY CRAP What do you think could be hidden in a simple beer can? Let's think together. Alcoholism? Possibly, but too weak. Delirium tremens? Partly yes, but still not the same. Murder committed under high blood alcohol levels? No, no. Why has no one written before that “something” can be hidden in beer cans, which, happily breaking free, will commit real genocide to the human race, simultaneously turning it into a fetid lump of mucus spreading? It truly sounds creepy, but imagining it is even scarier. “MEAT GRINDER” If you have never been afraid of washing and drying machines, it’s time to change your mind and take the fifth road around them. After all, you never know what the blood of a virgin, grave soil, a toad's eye, a horse's hoof and a stalk of belladonna that gets inside can do to this product. I can say right away - nothing good. Having mixed such a vigorous cocktail, a seemingly harmless white car will begin to regard you as no more than a shirt for washing. NIGHT SURF Imagine this picture. In front of you is a lush ocean, a littered beach around and fine white sand. The surf constantly churns up the waters and stirs up shreds of foam. And somewhere out there, far away, even beyond the horizon, people are trying to survive, because they are being exterminated in batches by a mysterious virus that can turn a human head into something like a basketball. Creepy, scary, great. NIGHT SHIFT My advice to you is that if you are offered to take the night shift, immediately refuse and run as far as possible. After all, in the building where you will need to spend another night, there will definitely be a modest basement with rats swarming everywhere and their main leader. Here it even becomes scary how your shift will end, and whether it will come to an end... I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT So, look around and find something unusual. Hurray, you noticed him! Yes, that strange guy, very reminiscent of a clown in his appearance. Take a closer look at his hands, he is holding a voodoo doll and looking at you carefully. I will say more, he knows about your hidden desires, he controls them and is ready to give up such a profitable skill for a little praise in the form of your heart! CARNICE It's time for practical advice, so shake your head. If you decide to steal the wife of one of the big business tycoons in your city, be prepared to rush headlong to the 42nd floor of a local skyscraper and climb onto the cornice there, which is no more than 20 centimeters wide. Now look down and remember my warning. JOINT STOCK COMPANY “WE DO NOT SMOKE ANYMORE” You have been thinking about quitting smoking for a long time. Welcome to No More Smoking LLC. The guys here are distinguished by their methods in the fight against tobacco addiction. At first they seem quite strange, but a little later you realize how effective and trouble-free their method is. Forget about that funny book by Allen Carr about the easy way to quit smoking, because only these guys have it. I AM THE DOOR OPENed In the depths of space, there must charmingly be other forms of life that are constantly watching us. These little blood-stained eyes are just waiting for the moment when they can open the door to our world and carry out a massacre. BATTLE FIELD All cruel killers like to relax after their next case. Some are great at this, but others have to deal with a real army of toy soldiers who were able to get their hands on a small model of a thermonuclear warhead. Now the killer will be able to rest, because parts of his body will instantly scatter throughout the surrounding area. SOMETIMES THEY COME BACKNew students are always good. The only bad thing is that they came to us not from another school or a neighboring city, but straight from the place where they end up after death. Teaching such people will be a complete problem.CHILDREN OF CORNChildren here have extremely difficult relationships with adults. They do not listen to them and give preference to someone whose voice sounds to them from the fields. In order not to anger their benefactor once again, they donate to him all men and women who are already 19 years old. Nothing can be done - this is what God ordered. BUKA Wait, can you really hear this dank cry of a child from the next room? Why are you still standing here, quickly go there and help him. From now on, don’t even think about leaving a small child in a room with a closet or closet. You know, Buka loves such places, and even more he loves delicious kids. THE MAN WHO LOVED FLOWERS What is the first thing you think when you see a man with flowers walking towards you? Probably a man in love who prepared a present for his woman. What do you think of a man with flowers in one hand, a hammer in the other and crazy eyes that are about to jump out of their sockets? In this case, it is better to leave your thoughts and walk as far as possible from him; he will not use such a tool for its intended purpose. TRUCKS The most common gas station with an adjacent parking lot. Nearby, for some unknown reason, huge trucks are driving one circle after another, constantly honking and happily knocking down passers-by at full speed. Everyone in shock tries to run away and take refuge in the diner, but multi-ton cars will gladly look in there too. STRAWBERRY SPRING Once every eight years, strawberry spring takes place and Jumping Jack adores it very much. He jumps with great joy on the wet ground and leaves behind him a trail of dead bodies of young women. LAWN MOWER A very ordinary guy wanted to put his lawn in order and mow all the excess grass. Nothing seemed to foretell trouble until the bloodthirsty Pan and his subjects decided to intervene in this process. The lawn is mowed, like its owner. WOMAN IN THE ROOM It is difficult to say something about the boy who, from the bottom of his heart, wanted to help his mother. But God, what have you done? ON THE ROAD If near your locality there is one abandoned town in which people constantly disappear, and the human shadow is refracted under the sun's rays. There is a possibility of a bunch of vampires living there.