14. 'The Boogeyman' and 15. 'Trucks' (both 1973).

The next two stories show what a difference a likeable main character can make. Both The Boogeyman and Trucks are interesting ideas, well executed, but Trucks is, in my opinion, easily the more successful, in the main because the narrator takes us with him. We like him and want him to survive. In The Boogeyman, the final appearance of the monster, come to take away the dreadful Lester Billings, comes as a bit of a relief.

The Boogeyman

We hear this story through the ears of the psychiatrist Dr Harper, who is listening to the wretched tale of Lester Billings, who claims that each of his three children was murdered by an evil monster they called 'The Boogeyman'. This monster, Billings claims, appeared from the children's closets, each time shortly after Billings insisted upon them moving into their own rooms, against his wife's wishes.

Billings is a horrid character, almost entirely unsympathetic in spite of the horrendous trauma he and his family have gone through. He is rude, ignorant, racist, sexist, and talks casually about slapping around his wife. These are traits which, taken alone, are unpleasant. Put them all together and you have a protagonist you are hoping to see die before a quarter of the story is read. He even sacrifices his own child in order to save himself. What a guy.

That's not to say the story isn't successful; in many ways it is. The shadowy, barely seen figure of The Boogeyman is look-behind-you creepy, and gives us an early glimpse of It-like horror, particularly in the scene where Billings actually witnesses the monster killing his last child. The way the creature kills, shaking the child until he breaks, is reminiscent of some of the horrific police report readings in the second half of It. The ending is also fun, if a little predictable.

The main problem I had with the story was actually the realism of it. I couldn't imagine a man like Lester Billings ever going to a psychiatrist. He's the kind of fellow who would think of them as snobby head-shrinkers dealing in academic mumbo-jumbo and nonsense. The dialogue between Dr Harper and Lester is more realistic - Lester is horribly rude to the doctor - but in that case why would he be there in the first place?

Overall, I thought this was an interesting, effectively chilling story. I hugely sympathised with Lester's wife and children, and my heart sank every time he insisted another was moved to their own room. I was, however, left slightly wondering who the villain was, and not caring which one was defeated.

Trucks

I'll start this particular review with a confession: I am a huge fan of Maximum Overdrive. I thought it was one of the funniest, stupidest, most ridiculous films I'd ever seen, and am thoroughly looking forward to revisiting it soon. Trucks was the (very loose) inspiration for the movie, and I enjoyed it just as much, if not for the same reasons.

Trucks is a much more serious take on the subject matter King directed comically in Maximum Overdrive. In it, we join a narrator who is hiding out at a truck stop with a small group of other survivors, most of whom have been run off the road by trucks without drivers. As the story goes on, those who try to escape the truck stop are mown down by various heavy-duty vehicles, all unmanned, until eventually lack of fuel forces the trucks to demand help and refueling through horn blasted morse code.

As with The Mangler, as a premise this may sound a little silly, but, as with The Mangler, it works in a totally unexpected, rather chilling way. This is Terminator with car engines. The trucks are frightening, mean characters. Each has its own personality and style, and particular way of killing.

The deaths we witness in this story are good, solid ones. One man is flung, broken, into a ditch, another steam-rollered by a bulldozer. The killings are both grotesque and somehow very real, and their speed and inevitability heightens the feeling of helplessness for the characters. They aren't going to survive, and if they do, they will be slaves to a far more powerful race.

At the end of the story, rather than stand up to the trucks and refuse to refuel them, the narrator accepts his fate and envisions the grim future ahead as maintainers of this new normal. He looks up into the sky and, seeing planes flying overhead, wonders if they have pilots. Trucks, and particularly its ending, plays upon the realisation that many of us have on a regular basis: we are tiny, and fragile, and can be overcome.

A really enjoyable, interesting story, and if you like this, you'll surely like King's later vehicle-oriented novels, Christine and From a Buick 8.

And about Maximum Overdrive. If you ever happen to read this, Steve, don't listen to the haters. It was a masterpiece.