"The Killer" is a short story by

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

. Written in the early 1960s, it was first published in issue #202 of '' Famous Monsters of Filmland'' in spring 1994.

Plot summary

The protagonist of the story awakens in a munitions factory; he is unable to remember his name or anything else. Seizing a gun, he demands that another worker tell him who he is; after the worker ignores him, he clubs him with the gun. After a man on an overhead catwalk flees from the protagonist, he shoots him; the wounded man sounds an alarm. As the protagonist attempts to flee, he is intercepted by men wielding " energy guns"; he shoots one of them before being hit with "energy beams". The story ends with the protagonist being loaded into a truck. A watching man notes that "one of them turns killer every now and then", with another man musing that "they're making these robots too good", revealing that the protagonist was a malfunctioning

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...

Publication

King wrote "The Killer" as a young teenager; it is a rewrite of his story "I've Got to Get Away!", which was self-published as part of the collection '' People, Places and Things'' in 1960. King submitted "The Killer" (as Steve King) to Forrest J Ackerman for the magazine ''Spacemen''; it was the first story he submitted for publication. While not accepted at the time, the story was later published in issue #202 of '' Famous Monsters of Filmland'' in spring 1994 with an introduction by Ackerman. It has never been collected.

Reception

Rocky Wood Rocky Wood (19 October 1959 – 1 December 2014) was a New Zealand-born Australian writer and researcher best known for his books about horror author Stephen King. He was the first author from outside North America or Europe to hold the pos ...

describes "The Killer" as "derivative of pulp fiction" but "fairly well written for a probably 13 or 14 year old". Reflecting on the story, King wrote "I was still in the Ro-Man phase of my development, and this particular tale undoubtedly owed a great deal to the killer ape with the goldfish bowl on his head."

Plot summary

Publication

Reception

References

See also