Strange Weather

Four Short Novels

By: Joe Hill

Narrated by: Joe Hill, Wil Wheaton, Kate Mulgrew, Stephen Lang, Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

A collection of four chilling novels, ingeniously wrought gems of terror from the brilliantly imaginative number one New York Times best-selling author of The Fireman, Joe Hill.

"One of America's finest horror writers" (Time magazine), Joe Hill has been hailed among legendary talents such as Peter Straub, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Lethem. In Strange Weather, this "compelling chronicler of human nature's continual war between good and evil" (Providence Journal-Bulletin), who "pushes genre conventions to new extremes" (New York Times Book Review), deftly expose the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life.

Snapshot, performed by Wil Wheaton, is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by The Phoenician, a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories snap by snap.

A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump...and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero's island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in Aloft, performed by Dennis Boutsikaris.

On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails - splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. Rain, performed by Kate Mulgrew, explores this escalating apocalyptic event as the deluge of nails spreads out across the country and around the world.

In Loaded, performed by Stephen Lang, a mall security guard in a coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on one last day of reckoning.

With an afterword from Joe Hill, read by the author.

Masterfully exploring classic literary themes through the prism of the supernatural, Strange Weather is a stellar collection from an artist who is "quite simply the best horror writer of our generation" (Michael Kortya).

©2017 Joe Hill (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

A little too politized for my taste.

It seems like Joe Hill has some white liberal guilt. The stories are great and I loved Snap Shot. But another story, which was also great, should have just been titled "white racists with guns".

I really enjoy Joe Hill's short stories. I think the political view point just caught me off guard. Be ready for some insults of our current President and Vice President. I know many readers will love it...but the white libeal guilt was almost laughable.

Still a fan, just kind of annoyed.

Too much political commentary

I like books to get away from the modern obsession with politics.. not to get more of it. That being said, I enjoyed Snapshot and Aloft greatly. Loaded was decent, but rain just had too much forced liberal commentary to enjoy even though I loved the premise.

over too soon

loaded was a story that sticks with you long after it's over and gives you that sick feeling in your stomach. I love Joe Hill writing alittle like his dad but still a completely unique voice.

Great collection!

Excellent collection of 4 short novellas, although I did find the underlying political rubbish annoying. Great vocal talents as well! Will Wheaton and Kate Mulgrew are two of my favorite narrators, but all 4 did an excellent job!

The second story, Loaded, is my main reason for only giving this 4 stars. I absolutely hated this story. It was very well written, but filled with the author's personal and political beliefs. I have no problem with it, but it's not what I'm looking for in a book. Aside from that, the stories were all very creative and enjoyable.

Like a Twilight Zone movie in book form

No complaints here. Of the four stories Loaded was by far my favorite. I can't give the performance five stars because someone needs to tell Kate Mulgrew that Coloradans do not have Texan drawls. This native found that accent very distracting throughout the reading of Rain.

Wonderful listen!

The narration was great! The stories engaging and very relevant to what is happening in our word today. I think my favorite story in this book was Loaded. It gives the reader the opportunity to see both sides of gun control, in a lifelike situation. Very well written!

4 Fantastic Novellas!

This is a great representation of Joe Hill’s ability to write in the short form. Each one of these stories has its own flavor and are written in a smooth ease that with the accompanying narrators make the listening an absolute pleasure. Out of the 4 stories, I personally found that I loved “Loaded” and “Rain” the most.
Joe Hill has become one of my favorite authors.
“Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry”

Another brilliant offering from Joe Hill!

Joe Hill once again strikes off into new and original territory with these 4 Novellas - each one entirely absorbing, powerful, thought provoking, disturbing as hell and with ideas and endings that will haunt you long after the narration has finished. The stories are hard to classify into a particular genre - a kind of mix between urban horror, fantasy and elements of science fiction. No words are wasted in the tightly driven tales and characterisations. The narration of each story is brilliant and it’s wonderful to hear Kate Mulgrew team up with Joe Hill once more in a world very different to that of Christmasland!

I really enjoyed the varied topics

These short stories all had elements that were plausible, which makes the twists and turns that much more of a ride into the story telling hook-line and sinker. A worthy read for the escape from normal.

Super entertaining

I loved it! I like short stories because they keep my attention better. Very good stories. Overall I'd give it 5 stars and say it's well worth your time.