| "The Reploids" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Stephen King | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | Science fiction | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | Night Visions 5 | ||
| Publication type | Anthology | ||
| Media type | Print (hardcover) | ||
| Publication date | 1988 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"The Reploids" is a science fiction short story by American writer Stephen King. It was first published in the 1988 book Night Visions 5 .
The story takes place on 29 November 1989. A mysterious man named Edward Paladin shows up in place of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show , but all is not what it seems. A subsequent investigation by detectives Richard Cheyney and Pete Jacoby finds strange items in his possession, hinting that he may not be from our reality. These include passes for the studio which are the wrong color and a bright blue one dollar bill with a picture of James Madison on it rather than one of George Washington, implying that Madison served as the first President of the United States instead of Washington in Paladin's universe.
"The Reploids" was published in the 1988 book Night Visions 5 . [1] The following year, Night Visions 5 was reprinted as Dark Visions . [2] It was reprinted again in 1990, this time as The Skin Trade. [3] The story was reprinted in the British magazine Skeleton Crew in July 1990. [3] [4] "The Reploids" was originally envisaged by King as part of a novel, but was never developed further. [3]
Rocky Wood describes "The Reploids" as "one of King's least satisfying short stories, mostly due to an unsatisfactory and inconclusive ending." [3] [5] James Van Hise states that the story "reads like the first half of a story or the first chapter of a novel", describing it as "not very well developed". [6]
Aberrant United States currency — changes in color and presidents — is also described by Father Callahan in the chapter "The Priest's Tale Continued (Highways in Hiding)" from The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (DT5). In DT5, such differing bills are explained as originating from different co-existing universes within the Dark Tower multiverse. President Chadbourne is mentioned in both the short story and the novel.
This can also be a reference to the multiverses seen in the novella Ur, where there have been different historical events for different timelines.
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Stephen Edwin King is an American author. Called the "King of Horror", he has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy and mystery. Though known primarily for his novels, he has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections.
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Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He wrote numerous dark fantasy and horror stories. As an editor, he created a three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction restored to its original form as written, and edited the long-running and genre-defining The Year's Best Horror Stories series for DAW Books. His Carcosa publishing company issued four volumes of the best stories by some of the major authors of the so-called Golden Age pulp magazines. He is possibly best known for his creation of a series of stories featuring the character Kane, the Mystic Swordsman.
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Dennis William Etchison was an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. Etchison referred to his own work as "rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world". Stephen King has called Dennis Etchison "one hell of a fiction writer" and he has been called "the most original living horror writer in America".
Richard Thomas Chizmar is an American writer, the publisher and editor of Cemetery Dance magazine, and the owner of Cemetery Dance Publications. He also edits anthologies, produces films, writes screenplays, and teaches writing.
Cemetery Dance Publications is an American specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Cemetery Dance was founded by Richard Chizmar, a horror author, while he was in college. It is associated with Cemetery Dance magazine, which was founded in 1988. They began to publish books in 1992. They later expanded to encompass a magazine and website featuring news, interviews, and reviews related to horror literature.
Dark Visions is a horror fiction compilation, with three short stories by Stephen King, three by Dan Simmons and a novella by George R. R. Martin. It was published by Orion on August 10, 1989. The collection was first published, with the same seven stories, under the title Night Visions 5, by Dark Harvest on July 1, 1988. The book was also issued under the titles Dark Love and The Skin Trade. The compilation is part of Night Visions, a series of horror fiction anthologies.
Robert Paul Holdstock was an English novelist and author best known for his works of Celtic, Nordic, Gothic and Pictish fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction.
Joseph Hillström King, better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American writer. His work includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box (2007), Horns (2010), NOS4A2 (2013), and The Fireman (2016); the short story collections 20th Century Ghosts (2005) and Strange Weather (2017); and the comic book series Locke & Key (2008–2013). He has won awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award.
"The Blue Air Compressor" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in January 1971 in Onan.
Gregory Frost is an American author of science fiction and fantasy, and directs a fiction writing workshop at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. A graduate of the Clarion Workshop, he has been invited back as instructor several times, including the first session following its move to the University of California at San Diego in 2007. He is also active in the Interstitial Arts Foundation.
According to books by Tyson Blue, Stephen J. Spignesi, and Rocky Wood et al., there are numerous unpublished works by Stephen King that have come to light throughout King's career. These allegedly include novels and short stories, most of which remain unfinished. Most are stored among Stephen King's papers in the special collections of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, some of which are freely accessible to the library's visitors. However, others require King's permission to read. Additionally, there are a number of uncollected short stories, published throughout King's long career in various anthologies and periodicals, that have never been published in a King collection.
"The Night of the Tiger" is a short story by Stephen King. Originally written in the 1960s, it was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in February 1978.
"I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" is a short story by Stephen King. It was first published in the fanzine Comics Review in 1965; a rewritten version was published in 1966 under the title "In a Half-World of Terror". It was King's first independently published story.
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