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The house looked right, felt right to Dr Louis Creed. Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle, the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago. Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive threat. But behind the house and far away from the road: that was safe.
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As a parent, a horrifying story
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First came the days of the plague. Then came the dreams. Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms. For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift.
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Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts - telepathy, telekinesis - for concentrated effect. Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He's just a regular 12-year-old, except he's not just smart, he's super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use....
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Narration was amazing!
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11.22.63
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What if you could go back in time and change the course of history?11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless.... King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill who becomes the love of Jake's life.
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The voice performances!
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Danny is only five years old, but in the words of old Mr Hallorann he is a 'shiner', aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Danny's visions grow out of control. As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217, and who are the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive?
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Best listen yet
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The house looked right, felt right to Dr Louis Creed. Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle, the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago. Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive threat. But behind the house and far away from the road: that was safe.
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First came the days of the plague. Then came the dreams. Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms. For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift.
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One of my favourites
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The Institute
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts - telepathy, telekinesis - for concentrated effect. Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He's just a regular 12-year-old, except he's not just smart, he's super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use....
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Narration was amazing!
- By Anonymous User on 24-09-2019
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Salem's Lot
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- Narrated by: Ron McLarty
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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Story
A superb novel set in classic Stephen King territory - a small new England town about to be engulfed by terror. Turn off the television - in fact, why don't you turn off all the lights except for the one over your favourite chair? - and we'll talk about vampires here in the dim. I think I can make you believe in them. Stephen King, from the introduction. Salem's Lot is a small New England town with the usual quota of gossips, drinkers, weirdos and respectable folk.
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Great Listen
- By daniel on 24-12-2016
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11.22.63
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Craig Wasson
- Length: 30 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What if you could go back in time and change the course of history?11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless.... King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of Elvis and JFK, of Plymouth Fury cars and Lindy Hopping, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill who becomes the love of Jake's life.
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The voice performances!
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Misery
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Misery Chastain was dead. Paul Sheldon had just killed her - with relief, with joy. Misery had made him rich; she was the heroine of a string of best sellers. And now he wanted to get on to some real writing. That's when the car accident happened, and he woke up in pain in a strange bed. But it wasn't the hospital. Annie Wilkes had pulled him from the wreck, brought him to her remote mountain home, splinted and set his mangled legs. The good news was that Annie was a nurse and had painkilling drugs. The bad news was that she was Paul's Number One Fan.
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One of the best writers of our time
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Under the Dome
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In Stephen King's mesmerizing new masterpiece - his biggest, most riveting novel since The Stand - a Maine town and its inhabitants are isolated from the world by an invisible, impenetrable dome. Celebrated storyteller Stephen King returns to his roots in this tour de force featuring more than 100 characters - some heroic, some diabolical - and a supernatural element as baffling and chilling as any he's ever conjured.
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What a book!!!
- By Juanita Caban on 07-03-2015
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Nightmares and Dreamscapes
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- Length: 26 hrs and 50 mins
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A star-studded cast of readers presents unabridged tales of horror and suspense from master storyteller Stephen King. The Stephen King Amusement Park - an unnerving experience, with rides every which way to hell...and a few to glory. A solitary finger pokes out of a drain. Novelty teeth turn predatory. The Nevada desert swallows a Cadillac. Meanwhile, the legend of Castle Rock returns...and grows on you. What does it all mean? What else could it mean?
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So good... and has aged so well!
- By Erin Raethke on 25-02-2018
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The Outsider
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- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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When an 11-year-old boy is found murdered, forensic evidence and reliable eyewitnesses undeniably point to the town's popular Little League coach. But the jailed suspect, arrested in a public spectacle, has an alibi, and further research convinces Detective Ralph Anderson that the coach was indeed out of town. So how can he have been in two places at the same time?
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Awesome book. Awesome narration.
- By Gregory Chijoff on 01-06-2018
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The Dead Zone
- By: Stephen King
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- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Johnny Smith. A young man whose streak of luck ends dramatically in a major car crash. Followed by blackness. A long, long time in cold limbo. When he wakes up life has been turned upside down. His fiancée has met someone else. And Johnny is cursed with the power to perceive evil in men's souls. He's had these hunches since he had an ice-skating accident as a child. Now he has an ability to see into the future. An ability which will bring him into a terrifying confrontation with a charismatic, power-hungry and dangerous man....
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The Dead Zone
- By BookwormDownUnder on 10-03-2018
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The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Stephen King's epic fantasy series, The Dark Tower, is being made into a major movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. Due in cinemas February 17, 2017 USA. In this first novel in his epic fantasy masterpiece, Stephen King introduces listeners to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey into good and evil, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.
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Bad first book, horrible narrator. A must read.
- By Alexandra on 23-08-2017
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10 Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die 1
- By: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, and others
- Narrated by: Charles Hubbell, James Ellis, Stephen Scalon, and others
- Length: 102 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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This Audiobook contains the following works : 1. Little women by Louisa May Alcott Start at Chapters 1, 2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Start at Chapters 48, 3. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Start at Chapters 109, 4. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Start at Chapters 152, 5. The Odyssey by Homer Start at Chapters 186, 6. A Tales of Two Cities Start at Chapters 210, 7. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Start at Chapters 255, 8. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle Start at Chapters 268.
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Needful Things
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Stephen King
- Length: 25 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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There was a new shop in town. Run by a stranger. Needful Things, the sign said. The oddest name. A name that caused some gossip and speculation among the good folks of Castle Rock, Maine, while they waited for opening day. Eleven-year-old Brian Rusk was the first customer and he got just what he wanted, a very rare 1956 Sandy Koufax baseball card. Signed. Cyndi Rose Martin was next. A Lalique vase. A perfect match for her living room decor. Something for everyone.
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Very intriguing
- By Amazon Customer on 23-02-2018
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Insomnia
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Eli Wallach
- Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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You'll lose a lot of sleep.... Ralph does. At first he starts waking up earlier. And earlier. Then the hallucinations start - the colours, shapes and strange auras. Not to mention the bald doctors who always turn up at the scene of a death. That's when Ralph begins to lose a lot more than sleep. When he begins to understand why his hitherto mild-mannered friend, Ed, is getting out of control - dangerously so. And why his hometown is about to become the new Armageddon....
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NARRATOR GREAT, "MUSIC" CRINGE-WORTHY
- By Katie on 11-08-2016
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Carrie
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Sissy Spacek
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Carrie White is no ordinary girl. Carrie White has the gift of telekinesis. To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie – the first step towards social acceptance by high school colleagues. But events will take a decidedly macabre turn on that horrifying and endless night as she is forced to exercise her terrible gift on the town that mocks and loathes her...
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Start here!
- By Mick Fleay on 04-01-2018
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Christine
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Christine was eating into his mind, burrowing into his unconscious. Christine, blood red, fat, and finned, was 20. Her promise lay all in her past. Greedy and big, she was Arnie's obsession, a '58 Plymouth Fury. Broken down but not finished. There was still power in her - a frightening power that leaked like sump oil, staining and corrupting. A malign power that corroded the mind and turned ownership into possession.
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Great story, well read
- By Cam on 13-10-2016
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The Tommyknockers
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 27 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Everything is familiar. But everything has changed. Coming back to the little community is like walking into a nightmare for Jim Gardener, poet, drunk, potential suicide. It all looks the same: the house; the furniture; Jim's friend, Bobbi; her beagle (though ageing); even the woods out at the back. But it was in the woods that Bobbi stumbled over the odd, part-buried object and felt a peculiar tingle as she brushed the soft earth away. Everything is familiar. But everything is about to change.
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Magical yet frightening
- By Anonymous User on 16-10-2018
Publisher's Summary
To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry, Maine, was just their hometown: familiar, well ordered for the most part. A good place to live. It was the children who saw - and felt - what made Derry so horribly different.
In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reached up, seizing, tearing, killing....
The adults, knowing better, knew nothing. Time passed, and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of IT was deep buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until they were called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Travis
- 13-10-2016
unbelievable narration.
absolutely loved it. griping story the whole way through. loved it all. ill now listen to it again
21 of 21 people found this review helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-11-2016
One of my favorite SK books
It's a great story that I have read at least twice. Having it read to me was very enjoyable. The voices done by Steven Weber were extraordinarily good. Thank you and well done. Looking forward to my next book!
15 of 17 people found this review helpful
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- Steve
- 18-10-2016
Steven Weber brings it to life
I've read this book twice, but the passion in Steven Weber's reading was amazing and added an extra dimension. Well done.
15 of 17 people found this review helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 01-07-2017
just WOW!
Would you listen to It again? Why?
I've read this book a few times and to find it on audio was a bonus, well written and well read.
What other book might you compare It to, and why?
I dont think it can be compared to any other book, its a journey of its own.
What about Steven Weber’s performance did you like?
This Steven Weber guy is amazing, one of the BEST narrators I have ever heard on an audiobook, He keeps you interested...no wait, wrong word....he keeps you ENTHRALLED with his range of voice
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
because of the narrator i just wanted to listen to this book in one go but being so long and only listening to it at work that was impossible.
Any additional comments?
If anyone is looking for a narrator for anything, this Steven Weber guy is your man!
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
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- Nathan Munro
- 29-03-2017
beautiful and horrific.
With a story line so deep that it leaves you drowning in a torrent of horrific experiences, Stephen Kings It is like a parasite, sucking fear out of the darkness, digesting and excreting it as love. The character development is so complete that the reader feels not only that they know the characters, but that they are involved with them and an invisible player in their stories
An undeniably brilliant story told in masterful style.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful
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- Cords Mortimer
- 06-10-2016
Great performance, amazing story.
Not often the narrator is this quality, I find. Story's of King's usual amazing standard.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 26-09-2017
Narrator really draws you in
Fantastic novel, with an excellent narrator who really delivers on every syllable. Would highly recommend.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 14-08-2017
Enjoyable performance, but meandering writing.
I am a fan of Stephen King so I was rather disappointed when I found that I just didn't enjoy IT. IT's barely scary and the writing is so meandering you can feel King simply trying to increase the word count. I was grateful for Steven Weber's enthusiastic performance, but I can't recommend this one due to the writing issues.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
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- MumOfThree
- 06-03-2017
Steven Weber is the best narrator on Audible!
The book is so vastly different to both the movie versions, but there is so much in it, and it is so cleverly intertwined, it's definitely worth the effort to get to the end. Amazing King, as usual....
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Thomas
- 07-11-2016
perfect
perfect from start to finish. best narrator I've heard yet. absolute joy to listen to!
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
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- R. S. Mills
- 22-09-2017
You'll float too
Great voices and reading.
I enjoyed this a lot, and down here you'll enjoy it too.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
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- Kent
- 13-10-2017
Eerie reminder
So this book made me think back to my childhood and hit the nail on the head on how when we are children the world seems so different. Funny how the older we get the less durable and because of that we take less risks. I loved how the past and present play out at the same time and how children had to become grown up before their time to fight a seemingly unstoppable evil!
2 of 3 people found this review helpful
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- Noah Ilogon
- 07-10-2019
AMAAAAZINGGGGG
AMAZING, although watching the movies has ruined the experience just a little by spoiling most things about the story. But the book is amazing
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- Jay Brooker
- 31-08-2019
Captivating from start to finish
Really excellent narrator, he did a fantastic job of all the different voices.
I’m a longtime Stephen King fan but I couldn’t bring myself to read IT given how long the novel is, so this was a great way to enjoy the story.
It spans over several different time frames and jumps around a bit, but ultimately the story is tied together very well and as usual it’s delightfully over-descriptive and terrifying.
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- Anonymous User
- 29-08-2019
Awesome Book
After a long day at work I put on my headset and listen disappear into the town of Derry main where IT lives I can see the book happening in front of me and that makes it a truly an amazing story and Steven Weber the narrator truly awesome he makes you feel what the characters feel in the book their joy their misery the anguish every little part from the beginning to the end, I would definitely recommend everyone to listen to this Audio book.
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- Anonymous User
- 22-05-2019
The narrator is amazing!
the narrator gave an unforgettable performance. treating each and each word with rumination and breathing life into each character. he deserves every award.
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- Anonymous User
- 14-02-2019
Loved it
What en enjoyable revisit to the classic. The narrator was amazing. Thoroughly enjoyed his rendition.
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- Anonymous User
- 13-01-2019
Purely amazing
Love this story, written brilliantly by the great Stephen King. The narrator did a great job too, voices and all. A great story, a great journey.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-12-2018
44 Splendid Hours
Dang, Steven Weber is one hell of a narrator. The story is amazing, yes, but he made it even more worthwhile.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-05-2018
Superb Narration
The narration enhanced the greatness of the story .
I have already watched the movie but listening to it made me imagine everything so well that I fell in love with the story all over again.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
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- Goldust22
- 17-07-2019
Best Audio Book
This was by far the best audio book I have listened too Steven Weber was just phenomenal in his performance and really did this epic book justice.
5 stars all round and a must!
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
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- Catbark
- 21-09-2016
Masterful - a horror classic
If you could sum up It in three words, what would they be?
Elegant, sinister, terrifying.
What did you like best about this story?
Stephen King has stated that his aim for "It" was to write his thesis on horror - to include everything that scared him as a child and adult. I think he has achieved this. It's a masterwork in terror. Although he has better known books, this for me is his scariest work. It is a long work following the youth and grown-up lives of several friends in a small Maine town. Both the children and the adults they become have well-realised damages and fears, and this relatability makes the scary encounters even more powerful. An iconic work I would recommend to anyone who fancies a chill sent expertly down their spine.
What about Steven Weber’s performance did you like?
Steven Weber reads immensely well, with passion and flair. It's more of a performance than a straight read, with each character given a distinct voice. And perhaps most important of all - his Pennywise is blood-curdling!
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
"They all float down here..."
84 of 101 people found this review helpful
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- T. Owen
- 19-11-2017
Well worth a read
I'm not a fan of horror and would not watch the movie 'It', however, this book was completely gripping and enjoyable. The narrator is fantastic and through his voice, tone and expression is able to bring the story to life. The book is long but not laborious and I eagerly looked forward to the time when I could listen again as I commuted to work. I really recommend it.
13 of 15 people found this review helpful
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- Simon
- 29-07-2017
It, Three Decades Later . . .
It, the shortest of titles for probably one of the longest books most of us will ever read in this genre.
It, the simplest of titles for probably one of the deepest and multi-layered horror books in existence.
It really is something special and one of my personal all-time favourite books though I wonder how people coming fresh to it now might see it. More to the point I doubt such a book as this would survive a modern editor’s attentions intact. King didn’t throw everything but the kitchen sink at it he threw that first and then started ripping up the floor tiles and threw them and everything else besides at it too. The book follows the stories of a group of children and how they find each other through the debris of their dysfunctional childhoods and then into their adult lives using a non-linear dual timeline to cover both. Each of them suffers a form of abuse and of course with it being King are not spared from more supernatural horrors. King imbues each of his characters with real depth and personality. He doesn’t seem to believe in extras either with even bit part characters like bar men and a taxi driver who only appear fleetingly being given detail and personality of their own.
The narration. I was somehow expecting creepy but Steven Weber is bright and breezy, particularly well-suited to the childhood parts and moves things along at a refreshing pace. Where he scores highly is the way he almost literally throws himself into the emotion of each of King’s carefully realised situations. The combination of writer and narrator is stunningly powerful at times and the tension ratchets up to extreme levels during the most important encounters.
As you read through the book what’s impressive is that King holds the attention both to the coming of age tale of the children including their experience of bullying, parental situations and the like as he does with the outright horror of It. The adults have equally compelling tales, as does the town of Derry itself. By the end of the book you will feel like a regular Derry old-timer able to recount tails of its history to any young ‘uns that might happen along.
The only question in my mind is for anyone coming to this fresh. Listening to King’s other classics like The Stand and The Dead Zone, stories I am re-visiting decades later, I have been delighted by how vibrant and fresh they’ve felt after all this time. With It I do have some nagging doubts. Clowns weren’t exactly new in horror when King wrote the book in 1986 but in the intervening years we’ve had a lot of horror clowns and they have become a quite hackneyed aspect of horror. Coupling that with the lack of editorial censure King was subjected to and I do suspect some might not find it as entertaining as I have.
In all though, regardless of those things this is one of the absolute horror classics and the way that King ends it for this group of grown-up children is incredibly poignant. This is a long journey and a dark path to tread but I am so glad I walked it again thirty years on. In a way that parallel to the story made me feel in some small way a part of It.
50 of 61 people found this review helpful
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- Luke
- 17-01-2017
Fantastic
I had been waiting for this to come out in audiobook format for a long time and I wasn't disappointed.
The story is very detailed and incredibly engrossing.
The narrator does and excellence job and I can't recommend this book highly enough.
13 of 16 people found this review helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-01-2017
gripping
Despite its length it never feels like it is dragging, allowing you to become enthralled in the characters lives and sucks you in like a vacuum to story
22 of 28 people found this review helpful
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- T. Davies
- 18-10-2016
One of his best!
First read this long novel about twenty years ago- a brilliant read (took me about six months if memory serves! ). When I saw it on Audible, I knew I had to have it; had to visit my old friends in Derry again. I wasn't disappointed at all. Superbly read by Steven Weber. Highly recommended :-)
14 of 18 people found this review helpful
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- Constant Reader
- 28-09-2016
Finally available in the UK!
Home alone and had to turn it off and put all the lights on! Petrified
12 of 16 people found this review helpful
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- Tony
- 10-07-2017
This interpretation
I have read this book many times, but this interpretation went way beyond anything I'd imagined.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful
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- Barbara Murray
- 14-01-2017
I loved, loved, loved this book!
And I mean I loved everything about it! I love Stephen King anyway but the narrator here brought this story completely alive. It was just brilliant from start to finish. I didn't want it to end! Please let Stephen webber narrate more Stephen King! they're a perfect match
10 of 14 people found this review helpful