Written by Stephen King

Publisher: Twilight Zone Magazine
Pages: 25
Genre: novella, short story
Published: 1981-01-01
Original Language: English

The story takes place early in the 24th century, when the technology for teleportation, referred to as "Jaunting", is commonplace, allowing for instantaneous transportation across enormous distances, even to other planets in the solar system. The government, which learned of the Jaunt through its inventor's use of a computer database in his experiments, soon took control of the project, demoting the scientist to a figurehead in the program. After the introduction of the Jaunt to the public in 1991, the country experienced a strong economic boom, and the price of oil declined to such an extent that OPEC disbanded. Due to environmental pollution, water became a more expensive and profitable commodity than oil by 2006.

Read from 2024-10-29 to 2024-10-29
Read in English
Rating: 4/5
Review: I haven’t read many short stories from Stephen King, so this is me taking a jaunt into his short story universe with The Jaunt.

With Stephen King being the author, you know what kind of thing you’re going to end up getting - but there is still considerable suspense connected to what particular flavour of Stephen King’ness will pop up. And while The Jaunt didn’t end up being surprising, or especially shocking (for Stephen King, anyway), it was very satisfying. The pacing of the story, from the seemingly innocent sci-fi beginning, through the implicit mystery, via the unsettling realisations, to the… well, Stephen King’y conclusion, is just right. Reading this has whetted my appetite to read more Stephen King sooner rather than later, and the short stories in particular.