UTD Audiobook

**knittinjen** · December 29th, 2009

Has anybody else listened to the audiobook of this? And has anybody else been truly irritated by the narrator? It was SOOO annoying! He uses all kinds of accents for characters - all kinds other than Maine, that is. There is the southern accent, the stuff-up-nose children (really? all kids have stuffed noses, all the time?), the surfer-dude accent for teenagers (come on, he's a nerd, too), and really all kinds of accents other than actually Maine accents. I'm not saying all Mainers run around goin' "ayuh" but pretty sure born-and-bred Mainers, even really bad guy ones like Big Jim, do NOT have slow southern drawls. It is so distracting, it takes me out of the story over and over. And I LOVE the story!!

Is there ANY chance SK would like, have somebody else do the audiobook? Really, it's SOOO bad! And who decides these things? I can't imagine if SK listened to 10 minutes of this guy that he'd let him narrate his book - I'm curious as to how those things are decided. Ugh!

Anyway, the book itself is awesome. I've read all kinds of complaints about politics and swearing and such, but really, if you don't want to read Stephen King, umm, don't. These things are in there. It's HIS book, he'll write what he wants, right?

**Moderator** · December 29th, 2009

The publisher usually makes recommendations for readers which Steve either approves or asks for other recommendations. That said, he could be familiar with a reader and like what they've done but that doesn't guarantee it will be done "right" for his book. It's my understanding there is a director and it should probably fall to that person to guide the reader if he/she is going astray.

**koujuke** · December 29th, 2009

As much as I love SK's books? I listened to an audio book that he did. Oh my God... He is a fantastic writer, but his voice is not as professional? Anyhow, I stopped listening to audio books. I find reading his books much more satisfying.

**Mobe1969** · December 30th, 2009

Originally Posted by koujuke

As much as I love SK's books? I listened to an audio book that he did. Oh my God... He is a fantastic writer, but his voice is not as professional? Anyhow, I stopped listening to audio books. I find reading his books much more satisfying.

That's a good deal of the charm of Stephen King narrating. And he KNOWS how it is supposed to be inflected. I'd prefer him over a lot of "professional" narrators - especially most Random House use.

I didn't mind the Under The Dome narrator either

**SmushingGnomes** · January 3rd, 2010

I guess that since I'm not from Maine, that the narrator for UTD didn't bother me at all. I do miss the inner voices that you form in your head when you read a book as opposed to listening to an audio book though.

**knittinjen** · January 4th, 2010

I agree about SK's voice - not somebody you would expect to narrate a book professionally, but I ALSO agree that he reads his books perfectly! Because, of course, they are his. I read a set of his books every year (umm, listen to) beginning with Talisman & Black House, then Dark Tower, then Bag of Bones - BOB is read by SK and I LOVE it! Though it always takes me a chapter or two to get used to his voice - and I also think it's funny how unlike his voice he looks! He looks like he'd have this deep, booming voice, and it's...umm, not. Any word I can think to describe it doesn't sound nice, so I won't. I mean, I'm 38 and I still sound like I'm about 12 - so I can't really criticize haha! Thanks Ms Mod for the description how the audible world works. The narrator is probably great with books that have different accents - and he was really creepy when he said "baaa...rbie" - just didn't seem to fit the UTD book particularly. Thanks for the responses!