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Throttle
Throttle
Throttle
Ebook63 pages59 minutes

Throttle

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

Inspired by Richard Matheson's classic "Duel," "Throttle," by Joe Hill and Stephen King, is a duel of a different kind, pitting a faceless trucker against a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in the simmering Nevada desert. Their battle is fought out on twenty miles of the most lonely road in the country, a place where the only thing worse than not knowing what you're up against, is slowing down . . .

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateApr 17, 2012
ISBN9780062215956
Throttle
Author

Joe Hill

Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Fireman, NOS4A2, Horns, and Heart-Shaped Box; Strange Weather, a collection of novellas; and the acclaimed story collections Full Throttle and 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the Eisner Award–winning writer of a seven-volume comic book series, Locke & Key. Much of his work has been adapted for film and TV, including NOS4A2 (AMC), Locke & Key (Netflix), In the Tall Grass (Netflix), and The Black Phone (Blumhouse).

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Reviews for Throttle

Rating: 3.5550000254999996 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

200 ratings18 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mr. King is the best, and his son isn't too shabby either.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nothing supernatural or horrors here.. This is a very solid and entertaining tale of road rage gone truly insane to the max, excellent character development, more than many full length novel. Go ahead and read it now. You won't regret it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely amazing! I couldn't put it down! I wanna meet your characters; probably not a safe thing to do.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not a fan of the short story, so this fell really flat for me, but it was intense in places. It was a duel between a trucker and a group of bikers.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not a fan of the short story, so this fell really flat for me, but it was intense in places. It was a duel between a trucker and a group of bikers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It took me a while to immerse myself in the story. I probably did not like the story so much. What I have to owe to the author is that his protagonists, as combative as they may be, show feelings that you almost get the feeling that they are softies.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It's a tricky thing to write a story as homage to another without imitation or parody. It's trickier still to tell a story about a motorcycle gang of ill-adjusted, criminal men in a sympathetic way. Somehow, it works. And the tension is fantastic. Well done.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great, fast paced short story! A meth deal gone sour, a motorcycle gang called The Tribe blasting down the highway, and a semi truck bent on high speed revenge! The bikes versus "Laughlin" - to the death! Hill and King do it well!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Good for a quick read, I'm glad it wasn't stretched any longer than it already was. For my personal taste, too many coincidences make up this story line of a rag tag bunch of bikers. A little reminiscent of Maximum Overdrive.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow, that was fun. What a ride (pun intended, natch)!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A decent short story by Stephen King and his son. It lacks some of the supernatural elements that often define Stephen King's books.

    Overall, it's a short decent read. Take it to the beach (or on an airplane.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It seems as if King called this novella in. It was okay, but certainly not up to King's standards. The story line sounds great, and usually King can pull off turning this type of story line into a real thriller. Unfortunately, it didn't happen this time.An18 wheeler decides to take out a group of bikers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Throttle is a novella you can get as a Kindle single, written by father and son duo; Stephen King and Joe Hill. They did it as a homage to the short story Duel by Richard Matheson. Duel was made into a movie in 1971 by a unknown director at the time named Stephen Spielberg. The concept was also done up in The Benediction, a short movie in a set of four for the theatre release named Nightmares. So why do it up again? Because a good story needs repeating. And Throttle is a good addition to the mad trucker horror genre. This time, in King and Hill's novella, the victims of the mad trucker is a biker gang called The Tribe. Vince, his son Race, Lemmy and the rest of the Tribe are fresh off a busted meth deal. The stop at a diner north of Show Low in Arizona and talk about what their next move is going to be. The meth deal had gone bloody and Race wants to head into Show Low to find the money they had lost. Vince feels that its no use and doesn't want to. But its not really the money that is ripping at these two and their arguments are driving the Tribe apart. They realize they had been talking loudly when a truck near them starts up and drives away. Vince is concerned about how much the driver heard. Race just wants his money. On the road to Show Low, the Truck finds them and begins to go after the Tribe. There is some very cool artwork and the Kindle single has the feel of a graphic novel. It moves fast and the tension is strong. Throttle wraps up neatly in the end. A very good quick read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm a big fan of both Joe Hill and Stephen King so whenever I see these two get together to write a story, I grab a copy straight away.Throttle is a short story about a group of ten outlaw bikers, "The Tribe", who are making their way to Vegas to deal with some unfinished business involving drug money.All but one of the Tribe are ex Vietnam Veterans. Among these men are father/son bikers Vince and Race. The two have a strained love/hate kind of relationship. While on a stretch of lonely Nevada road, the group notices an eighteen-wheeler that seems to be following them at a close distance. What ensues is an all out fight for survival on a deserted road with this truck mowing down the bikers one by one. I found this story to be a quick and easy read. The relationship between Vince and Race is surprisingly well developed for a short story. I love King for his short stories and again, these two authors pack a punch here in a small amount of time.Throttle is peppered with illustrations that just add to the grittiness of the read. The chase between the bikers and the truck was fast paced and thrilling. As I read I wondered about the truck driver's motives, which are revealed at the end of the story. The authors do a great job at making the truck itself into a hell-bent monster. I also like that the story is about a father and son, written by a father and son team.Throttle is supposed to be a remake of Richard Matheson's "Duel", which I've never read myself.On a final note, if you are looking to read another great short by this father/son team, I recommend In the Tall Grass.Disclaimer: This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any type of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers and authors, I am under no obligation to write a positive review. I purchased my copy of Throttle.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This one started out lackluster as hell. I couldn't get into it until about the 35% mark. I didn't care for the characters at all, which is odd considering that's normally King and Hill's strong points. Also, I've read and seen so much media concerning meth-heads or meth-making bikers, the topic is almost a genre unto itself.

    There is nothing new in this story, in fact, the story is a tribute to Richard Matheson's Duel. So why am I giving it four stars? Because this mo' frakker is brutal as H-E double hockey sticks. The description of Doc's death, alone, garners four stars. When the action finally does kick in, I could see every drop of blood and every shattered limb. I could smell the asphalt and the burning rubber, the drifting aromas of hot engines and dirty biker bodies. The sounds of twisted metal were jarring, as was the crunch of human beings beneath LAUGHLIN's tires. Grade A, hot-blooded horror. It's sick, nasty, and all around visceral. I loved it.

    I don't know what that says about me. I guess you'll have to draw your own conclusion. I do love a good death scene, though, so in that respect, Throttle made me a very happy reader... eventually.

    E.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Throttle was a fun read for me and gave me pretty much what I expected out of a collaboration from Hill and King. These two are both masters of the short story form, so as far as that goes, characters were well developed and the story/plot-line was very well fleshed out considering that it's only a little over 40 pages.The story itself puts the reader into the action fairly quickly and doesn't let off the gas (pun intended) until it has reached a fairly satisfying conclusion with some nice twists and turns along the way. The main gist of it concerns a band of bikers who have been up to some not so pleasant deeds and their experience with a trucker who doesn't seem to be too pleased with them overall.It's a fun, fast read. Well written, but not quite up to par with either author's best short fiction. There was some good interplay on father/son relationships throughout the tale that I enjoyed especially considering the father/son authoring duo who wrote it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a short story published as a Kindle single and co-written by a father and son team, Stephen King and Joe Hill. It is about a biker gang who commit a horrific act and then encounter retribution on a desert road in the form of a relentless, faceless truck driver. If this sounds familiar, it should; it is very reminiscent of Richard Matheson's short story "Duel" (King and Hill acknowledge its influence).The most interesting aspect of the story is the relationship between the leader of the gang and the young upstart, who are also father and son. I wish the story had been longer, to give King and Hill more room in which to develop these characters and their relationship. I think if they had, this could have been a great story, instead of merely a so-so one.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    (1) It’s Duel fic (the authors say as much; it’s good to be influential in publishing, I guess): A group of motorcycle riders who’ve just come out of a failed and deadly criminal venture encounter a truck driver with murder on his mind. (2) The circumstances under which this father-son team decided to write a story about a father’s terrible disappointment with his coward and murderer of a son are probably more intriguing than the story itself, which is slight.

Book preview

Throttle - Joe Hill

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THROTTLE

A Tale Inspired by Duel

Joe Hill and Stephen King

Contents

Cover

Title page

Throttle

About the Authors

Books by Joe Hill

Credits

Copyright

More from the Authors

About the Publisher

Throttle

THEY RODE WEST FROM THE SLAUGHTER, through the painted desert, and did not stop until they were a hundred miles away. Finally, in the early afternoon, they turned in at a diner with a white stucco exterior and pumps on concrete islands out front. The overlapping thunder of their engines shook the plate-glass windows as they rolled by. They drew up together among parked long-haul trucks, on the west side of the building, and there they put down their kickstands and turned off their bikes.

Race Adamson had led them the whole way, his Harley running sometimes as much as a quarter-mile ahead of anyone else’s. It had been Race’s habit to ride out in front ever since he had returned to them, after two years in the sand. He ran so far in front it often seemed he was daring the rest of them to try and keep up, or maybe had a mind to simply leave them behind. He hadn’t wanted to stop here but Vince had forced him to. As the diner came into sight, Vince had throttled after Race, blown past him, and then shot his hand left in a gesture The Tribe knew well: follow me off the highway. The Tribe let Vince’s hand gesture call it, as they always did. Another thing for Race to dislike about him, probably. The kid had a pocketful of them.

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Race was one of the first to park but the last to dismount. He stood astride his bike, slowly stripping off his leather riding gloves, glaring at the others from behind his mirrored sunglasses.

You ought to have a talk with your boy, Lemmy Chapman said to Vince. Lemmy nodded in Race’s direction.

Not here, Vince said. It could wait until they were back in Vegas. He wanted to put the road behind him. He wanted to lie down in the dark for a while, wanted some time to allow the sick knot in his stomach to abate. Maybe most of all, he wanted to shower. He hadn’t gotten any blood on him, but felt contaminated all the same, and wouldn’t be at ease in his own skin until he had washed the morning’s stink off.

He took a step in the direction of the diner, but Lemmy caught his arm before he could go any farther. Yes. Here.

Vince looked at the hand on his arm—Lemmy didn’t let go; Lemmy of all the men had no fear of him—then glanced toward the kid, who wasn’t really a kid at all anymore and hadn’t been for years. Race was opening the hardcase over his back tire, fishing through his gear for something.

What’s to talk about? Clarke’s gone. So’s the money. There’s nothing left to do. Not this morning.

You ought to find out if Race feels the same way. You been assuming the two of you are on the same page even though these days he spends forty minutes of every hour pissed off at you. Tell you something else, boss. Race brought some of these guys in, and he got a lot of them fired up, talking about how rich they were all going to get on his deal with Clarke. He might not be the only one who needs to hear what’s next. He glanced meaningfully at the other men. Vince noticed for the first time that they weren’t drifting on toward the diner, but hanging around by their bikes, casting looks toward him and Race both. Waiting for something to come to pass.

Vince didn’t want to talk. The thought of talk drained him. Lately, conversation with Race was like throwing a medicine ball back and forth, a lot of wearying effort, and he didn’t feel up to it, not with what they were driving away from.

He went anyway, because Lemmy was almost always right when it came to Tribe preservation.

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