This is the first thing King has published since his recent injury (he was struck by a motorist while walking in Maine). It is probably not up to his best standard but, for those who are susceptible to the ghost-story genre, it is plenty good enough—a real page-turner (or in this case, page-clicker). At just 68 pages/screens (Adobe Acrobat edition), it is a quick read.

More than 500,000 copies of Riding the Bullet have been downloaded since it became available in mid-March. Innumerable press stories have documented its popularity, and there seems little doubt that King's novella has succeeded in raising public awareness for eBooks in general.

Riding the Bullet costs $2.50 from most sources (Amazon.com offers it for free) and is available in several formats—we tried the Palm Pilot version, from PeanutPress.com, in addition to the Acrobat file from Amazon. The novella was initially offered in Windows-compatible versions only; Amazon has since released a Mac-compatible PDF version, though you'll have to download an updated version of Adobe's Acrobat Reader in order to open the book.

We don't have a breakout on the number of paid vs. free copies distributed, but our guess is that Mr. King will make out handsomely on this deal, and from electronic publishing per se. In fact, electronic versions of other recent King books are available from PeanutPress—we've recently downloaded The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which is currently on the New York Times paperback bestseller list, and it's an enjoyable read on the Palm.

However, we don't expect King's success to open the floodgates for digital books. There are still some formidable obstacles to overcome before electronic publishing is widely accepted by consumers in general—conflicting standards, copyright and distribution issues, display quality and ingrained reading habits among them. Still, Riding the Bullet is an important milestone along the way.

(Reviewed April 2, 2000)