Four Past Midnight
First edition cover
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| Author | Stephen King |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Rob Wood-Stansbury |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Supernatural fiction |
| Publisher | Viking |
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Publication date
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September 24, 1990 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 763 |
| ISBN | |
| "The Langoliers" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Stephen King |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | dark fantasy |
| "Secret Window, Secret Garden" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Stephen King |
| Genre(s) |
Horror, Thriller |
| "The Library Policeman" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Stephen King |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| "The Sun Dog" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Stephen King |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
Four past Midnight is a collection of novellas by Stephen King. It is his second book of this type, the first one being Different Seasons. The collection won the Bram Stoker Award in 1990 for best collection and was nominated for a Locus Award in 1991. In the introduction, Stephen King says that, while a collection of four novellas like Different Seasons, this book is more strictly horror with elements of the supernatural.
The four novellas contained in the collection are described here:
On a cross-country red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers awaken to find that the crew and most of their fellow passengers have disappeared, leaving the airliner under the control of the autopilot. They realize that only those who were sleeping are now left on the plane. Off-duty airline pilot Brian Engle takes control from the autopilot and lands the plane in Bangor, Maine despite protests from irritable Craig Toomy.
Upon arrival, they find the airport abandoned with no signs of life. Hearing an approaching sound like radio static, the group agrees to leave before it arrives. Based on the belief that they have flown through a "time rip" into the past and that flying back into the rip will return them to their own time, the passengers work together to refuel the plane as the noise gets louder. Having lost touch with reality, Craig believes the others to be manifestations of the Langoliers, monsters he feared as a child that go after those who are lazy and waste time. He stabs Dinah, a young blind girl with psychic powers, and kills Don Gaffey, before being subdued. Dinah insists that Craig must not be killed as the group needs him alive.
While the plane is in its final preparations to depart Bangor, Dinah telepathically communicates with Craig and persuades him that an important board meeting is being held on the runway. Craig hallucinates arriving at the meeting and even confronts his fear of disappointing his father. Then hundreds of monsters arrive, floating spheres with chainsaw-like teeth, which leave trails of black nothingness in their wake. They initially head for the plane, but Craig's presence on the runway distracts them long enough to allow Engle to start the plane. As they turn to the west, the passengers watch the rest of the land below falling into a formless, black void.
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Wikipedia