15 Greatest Stephen King Short Stories Of All Time
11. Summer Thunder
Stephen King is no stranger to tales of the end of the world and mortality. This can best to explored in his epic early novel The Stand. But Summer Thunder, despite tackling these themes and having a similar premise to the novel, is a much more meticulous character study than his previous work on the subject. Rather than focus on the way the world ended (a nuclear war), King instead focuses on survivor Peter Robinson and how he deals with the dead world around him.
With radiation threatening his life, Robinson befriends another local survivor called Timlin, and the two bond over the end of the world and the losses they've faced. It's a quiet and simple tale for the most part, but reaches its twist when Timlin takes his own life to save himself the pain of his radiation poisoning and Robinson is forced to kill his beloved dog after he falls sick.
Like many of King's short fictions, Summer Thunder is a bleak and unhappy tale that is nonetheless a fun read, full of great anecdotes and beautifully drawn characters facing death down in a world that is far from what it used to be. It's harsh and a tad cruel, but makes for one hell of a ride.