Worst audiobook ever

[scarywriter]

I could not even finish this book on cd. William Hurt was so incredibly bad. He had no inflection, paused at odd places, and sounded generally like he was given the pages five minutes before. I cannot believe the publishers let something this awful hit the shelves.

[dsurrett]

King reads the Novella "Hearts in Atlantis," which follows "Low Men in Yellow Coats." "Hearts" read by King is one of my favorite pieces by him. Sure, the original post was two years ago, but Ka is a wheel. If anyone hasn't read or listened to "Hearts," you need to, especially those who remember the turbulent mid to late 60s.

[fljoe0]

I could not even finish this book on cd. William Hurt was so incredibly bad. He had no inflection, paused at odd places, and sounded generally like he was given the pages five minutes before. I cannot believe the publishers let something this awful hit the shelves.

I have not listened to this yet but I have it. I have it on cassette and decided to make mp-3 files out of it which required me to play the cassettes to do the conversion. I listened to a little of it here and there during the process and from what little I heard, I have to agree with the OP that William Hurt was terrible. I was a little surprised as I've always considered William Hurt to be an excellent actor. Maybe it was just a case of him not really wanting to do it or something. Thankfully SK reads a good chunk of the book. SK sounded great from what I heard.

[Spideyman]

Been awhile since I listened to the audiobook. I too have it on cassettes. I do remember the parts SK read and have always found his reading his own work to be awesome. Time to put it on my list for a re-listen.

[TEDG65]

Sorry I have to disagree....I think Hurt's laid back approach fits the mood/time period of the book....listen to the whole thing....I did and enjoyed it thoroughly!

As far as King's narratives, shooosh.........I can't listen to him pronouncing those "L"'s for very long.....

[HannesGM]

Having been listening to SK audiobooks the past two years (long commuting ride every day, and I don't hate a single minute of it!), I don't think this is such a bad audiobook at all. I do agree that Hurt's voice doesn't fit some of the stories in this collection, though. I liked his reading style on Blind Willie, which I'd actually rank as one of the best audiobook readings of any Stephen King story, but it didn't do much for me on for example Why We're In Vietnam. I could picture his voice as fitting that of Ted Brautigan very well, though.

Thing is, his voice fits some of the calmer, more collected characters, imo - like Ted and William Shearman; but it doesn't add much atmosphere of characters which I imagine as not being calm, like Sully.