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Riding
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| Story Review | Publishing Review | Riding the Bullet FAQ & News |
| Riding the Bullet Links | Riding the Bullet Press Release | Riding the Bullet Excerpt! |
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This page has been visited times since March 10th, 2000.
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Riding
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| Story Review | Publishing Review | Riding the Bullet FAQ & News |
| Riding the Bullet Links | Riding the Bullet Press Release | Riding the Bullet Excerpt! |
| Go back to Main House | ||
This page has been visited times since March 10th, 2000.
Stephen King has always told tales in which there are actually two stories going on. The first one, the one up-front, is the one that the book banners tend to fixate upon. This is the Stephen King who writes about werewolves and vampires and cars that come alive and kill. It's easy enough to harp upon that Stephen King. The supernatural isn't seen as "literary," regardless of the precedents set by Shakespeare and Dickens.
But the second story, intrinsic to almost everything King has written, is what is happening beneath the surface: the subtext. Sure, It was about a monster that murdered children, but its true story lay in the coming-of-age of seven kids, and the adult world they would eventually inherit. This is where King excels, and why readers come back again and again. In the subtext, King explores vaguer and more universal issues such as faith, guilt, love, and loss. The horror stories involve themselves with events that transcend everyday life; the thematic strings that hold those stories together, though, are the exact representation of everyday life. Balancing these two elements has made King both the American Boogeyman, and the Spokesman for the Common People.
In recent years, King has sought to weave both the text and the subtext closer together. In his more recent novels, Bag of Bones, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and the novel-as-anthology Hearts in Atlantis, King has brought his understanding of everyday people to the fore, blending the horror with the drama more readily than ever before. The new novella, "Riding the Bullet," perfects this new direction, understanding at once that there is no room for secret meanings here. What lurks beneath can no longer be hidden.
This urgent tale begins with Alan Parker, a college student at the University of Maine. One day, he receives a phone call from home: a neighbor informs him that his mother has had a mild stroke. Panicked, Alan comes on the run, planning to hitchhike the one hundred twenty miles from Orono to Lewiston, Maine, where his mother might be dying. At this point, all Alan is concerned about is what will happen when he gets to the hospital. He doesn't stop to consider the journey ahead of him, and how his life will change because of it.
To reveal too much of the actual story would be like cheating. "Riding the Bullet" is not exactly original, but in its particulars it becomes as engrossing as any of King's best fiction. I will say that on the way to Lewiston, Alan is asked to make a wish, and to make a decision. The wish comes true, but the outcome of his decision is more hazy. Alan believes that his decision is a matter of life or death, and perhaps that's true. But the ending of this taut tale leads one to believe that it is really a matter of guilt and responsibility. Do we really understand the sacrifices our parents have made for us, or do we focus on how they hurt and hindered? When it comes down to it, does Alan Parker care more about what his mother gave up for him to go to college, or how she smacked him on the back of the head once at an amusement park?
Amid all this, King still manages to deliver one hell of a horror story. Written directly after the auto accident that nearly killed him in July of 1999, King must have had death and cars on the brain. Delivering a tale like this is a testament to King's dogged determination to keep writing, and keep digging. The term "riding the Bullet" refers to a ride in an amusement park in New Hampshire, the Bullet being an upside-down roller coaster that sends its passengers screaming into the air. In the story, Alan Parker once chose not to ride the Bullet, walking away from those terrified passengers flying through the air. Whether his choice was right or wrong - or, in the end, reversed - is ultimately up for the reader to decide.
Stephen King, however, has chosen to continue riding the Bullet. And if this story is any indication, he doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon.
Riding the Bullet Publishing Review
On March 14th, 2000, Simon and Schuster released the novella "Riding the Bullet" to the entire world at once. Well, maybe not the entire world. But it was available to everyone online. Except those who used Macs. Or those who had WebTV. Or those who didn't have credit cards.
Stephen King has always tried to stay one step in front of the cutting edge. His idea to release The Green Mile in serial installments was revolutionary. Though the process had been implemented before, King took the idea into the mainstream. In rapid succession, he later released two new books on the same day (Desperation and The Regulators), and released a short story collection available on audio format only (Blood & Smoke.) Now, King has chosen to release 67 pages worth of brand new fiction to the world via the internet. The concept was relatively simple: go to the website selling the story (or one of its many affiliates), pay $2.50 by credit card, download the story onto your hard drive, and open it via Acrobat Reader or one of the free "e-book readers" available online. But though the concept itself was uncomplicated, how it played out in the real world became a source of controversy with King fans worldwide.
The major sticking point was availability. Only those with personal computers (or handheld e-book readers), internet access, and credit cards could read this new story. Those without computers at all felt that King was betraying his "Constant Readers," fans who read everything King has written as soon as they can get their hands on it. Readers with Macs couldn't read the story either - the .pdf file the tale was formatted in couldn't be read by Mac software. Ironically, Stephen King himself is a staunch Mac user, and was dismayed by this unexpected bit of news. (At the time of this writing, King and Simon & Schuster are working on a solution to get the story to Mac users.) To add to the accessibility issues, when "Bullet" became available at 12:01 AM March 14th, Softlock, the company working with Simon & Schuster on the "Bullet" project, experienced a "King-sized jam." The server selling the book effectively locked up, preventing many people from even getting into the "e-store" for a few days. To combat this problem, Barnes and Noble.com offered to take everyone's name and email you when the tale became available. I'm still waiting for my email.
Which leads to the second controversy. B&N offered "Riding the Bullet" free the first day, causing many to wonder why they should have to pay for it at all. Amazon.com went one step further and offered it for free indefinitely, providing you also download the memory-eating Glassbook e-book reader for free. Softlock explained that they weren't trying to cheat readers out of their $2.50 by selling it on their site. B&N and Amazon are bookselling giants compared to the relatively tiny Softlock: deep and even total discounts are just a matter of course. It became a mirror of the real world; the bookselling superstores had the best discounts, so the Mom and Pop stores were left in the dust. The digital age didn't change such elemental truths.
Even before the ebook was released, people expressed their displeasure at the concept. "Riding the Bullet" couldn't be printed out, which led many to dismiss the entire concept. "I don't want to sit at my computer screen and flip through virtual pages," was a major complaint, "I want to take a book on a train, or to bed, or in the bath." Not only was taking your computer into the bath inconvenient, it was also potentially lethal. Even those comfortable with the internet and computers complained: "I stare at a computer screen all day at work; what makes them think I want to go home and stare at it some more?"
Which leads one to question: was this concept a bad idea? Yes and no. No, mainly because of the swiftness of publication. Stephen King completed "Riding the Bullet" fairly recently. If it were to appear in a magazine, fans might have to wait months or a year to read it, if at all. King does have a new short story collection on the horizon, but no one knows when that will appear. With "Bullet," King finished it, edited it, and had it ready for fans almost immediately. And the idea of King discovering new ways to publish is exciting, as well. Not only does he take chances in his fictional world, but also in the way it's delivered.
Unfortunately, "Riding the Bullet" was a test case for Simon & Schuster, and all who are interested in the concept of e-books. All the bugs and mistakes are going to be evident in this release, the first mass-market e-book. But if Simon & Schuster really wanted to see if the public truly wanted e-books, they also should have released a print-version chap-book simultaneously. You can't have an acid without a base. If you release something in one format only, you're skewing your own odds.
Is this, as King has asked, "the future of publishing?" No. E-books will be an alternative to printed books, much like books on tape are. Imagine, in the future, traveling to a musty used books store, looking for the first edition section. The shopkeeper points you to the back, and there, you discover rows and rows of
computer terminals.
Now that's scary.
Riding the Bullet FAQ & News
MORE FAQS (3/15 update)
(Old FAQs)
What do you need to read "RTB" once you purchase and download it?
I've decided to go with the head company that is distributing the ebook, Softlock. If you're going to be downloading the ebook through Charnel House, all you need is Adobe Acrobat. Most PCs already have a version of Acrobat; if you don't, you can download it FREE -->HERE!!!.
Riding the Bullet Links
After these sell out, there will be a second version of the limited (neither will be signed by King.) These will be sold on the web at http://www.jp.bol.com/ until November 6th. After that, a trade version of the book (the title will be blue instead of red) will be released and sold in stores.
->Okay, what you gotta do is download an e-book reader. An e-book reader is a program you put on your computer that will help you read the specific book program. It works similar to Word or Acrobat. You'll need to download a boook reader in order to read this novella, so I'd reccomend doing it before the 14th.
->Check out the Simon & Schuster "Riding the Bullet" site; they have a listing of places where you can download book readers and they're all free! If you're downloading from Charnel House, you need to have Adobe Acrobat. if you don't have acrobat, you can download it FREE -->HERE!
We don't yet know. All we're sure on right now is that "Riding the Bullet" is an e-book exclusive, and it's only $2.50 to own. yes, I know it's cooler to have a King book, but think of this like you would having a King magazine appearance. It's still pretty cool!
Starting at 12:01, March 14th, EVERY "RIDING THE BULLET" GRAPHIC will become a link to buy the book. That means any ads you see on my site referring to "Riding the Bullet" can be clicked on. This will bring you to the site selling "Riding the Bullet" for $2.50.
->a scant $2.50. Not bad, huh?
