Title: One Past Midnight: The Langoliers
Author: Stephen King
First published September 24, 1990
9 pages, Audio CD
ISBN: 9781598877472 (ISBN10: 159887747X)
Rating: 3.92
Overview
In Stephen King’s thrilling audio series, Four Past Midnight, comes the pulse-pounding tale of One Past Midnight: The Langoliers. During a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, a group of passengers experience a horrifying reality.
As they arrive in a lifeless world, their fight for survival becomes more intense than ever before. With only 11 passengers surviving the initial journey, they must now face an unimaginable reality that they never could have prepared for.
This gripping audiobook spans over 7 CDs and 8 hours and 45 minutes of thrilling listening time. Get ready to be transported to a world of terror and suspense in One Past Midnight: The Langoliers.
About the Author
Stephen Edwin King was born to Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King as their second son. When Stephen was only two, his father left the family, and his mother raised him and his older brother, David.
Stephen spent some of his early years in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father’s family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. Eventually, his mother moved them back to Durham, Maine, when Stephen was eleven years old.
She did this to care for her aging parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, after they had become incapacitated. Stephen’s grandparents lived with the family until they passed away.
During this time, Mrs. King worked in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged, to make ends meet.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, where he graduated in 1966. While attending the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS, and was also active in student politics.
Stephen came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. After graduating in 1970 with a degree in English, he was qualified to teach on the high school level.
However, a draft board examination found him 4-F on medical grounds.
Stephen met Tabitha Spruce while they were both working as students in the Fogler Library at the University of Maine, and they married in January of 1971. Stephen was unable to find a teaching job immediately, so the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men’s magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale (“The Glass Floor”) in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men’s magazines.
Many of these stories were later collected into anthologies. In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine.
Evenings and weekends, he continued to write and work on novels.
Editoral Review
In his 1990 novella One Past Midnight: The Langoliers, Stephen King delivers a thrilling ride through the Twilight Zone-esque world of the unknown. King, known for his horror and thriller works, expertly weaves together suspense, mystery, and science-fiction into this gripping tale that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Set on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, passengers soon find themselves catapulted into an eerie world of silence and emptiness as the plane enters a time rift. Left with only a few hours of fuel, the remaining passengers must band together to figure out what has happened, where they are, and ultimately how to escape.
They soon discover that this alternate dimension is filled with terrifying monsters called Langoliers who devour anything in their path. As tension builds and time ticks by, the passengers face their own fears and their mortality as they race against the clock to find a way back to reality.
Kings characters are expertly fleshed out, the pacing is spot on, and the eerie setting will have readers turning pages long into the night. The star-studded cast is led by ex-fighter pilot Brian Engle and features a variety of personalities, from a blind girl to an obnoxious businessman.
Each character plays an essential role in the drama that unfolds, adding layers of depth and meaning to the novella. One Past Midnight: The Langoliers can serve as an allegory for our modern world, a place where people are forced to confront their fears and work together in order to survive.
The themes of time, reality, and morality are as relevant today as they were over three decades ago when the book was first published. While some may find fault in the novellas open-ended conclusion, Kings masterful storytelling throughout the journey is more than enough to keep readers engaged until the final page.
One Past Midnight: The Langoliers is a must-read for fans of Stephen King, science-fiction, and thriller genres alike. Rating: 4.5/5.
King’s ability to tell a spine-tingling story while also exploring deeper themes is a testament to his enduring popularity as a writer. While the novella’s ending may leave some readers wanting more, the journey is well worth the trip.
Highly recommended.
