Four Past Midnight

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: James Woods, Tim Sample, Willem Dafoe, Ken Howard

Length: 29 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

Four chiller novellas set to keep listeners awake long after bedtime.

One Past Midnight: "The Langoliers" takes a red-eye flight from LA to Boston into a most unfriendly sky. Only 11 passengers survive, but landing in an eerily empty world makes them wish they hadn't. Something's waiting for them, you see.

Two Past Midnight: "Secret Window, Secret Garden" enters the suddenly strange life of writer Mort Rainey, recently divorced, depressed, and alone on the shore of Tashmore Lake. Alone, that is, until a figure named John Shooter arrives, pointing an accusing finger.

Three Past Midnight: "The Library Policeman" is set in Junction City, Iowa, an unlikely place for evil to be hiding. But for small businessman Sam Peebles, who thinks he may be losing his mind, another enemy is hiding there as well - the truth. If he can find it in time, he might stand a chance.

Four Past Midnight: "The Sun Dog", a menacing black dog, appears in every Polaroid picture that 15-year-old Kevin Delevan takes with his new birthday gift - with each following photograph beckoning him to the supernatural. Old Pop Merrill, Castle Rock's sharpest trader, wants to crash the party for profit, but the Sun Dog, a creature that shouldn't exist at all, is a very dangerous investment.

©1990 Stephen King (P)2016 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic Reviews

"He never seems to use up the magic...these four novellas demonstrate the qualities that have made King by far the world's most popular author." ( Chicago Tribune)

"These stories grab and will not let go." ( The Washington Post)

"King is a master storyteller, and you will never forget these stories." ( Seattle Times)

Excellent stories, excellent narration, TERRIBLE audio quality! What a bummer.

Audible will you PLEASE address these audio issues!?!? Your app is an AUDIO APP, please give users more audio control. Volume boost is a must!
This has always been one of my favorites of King’s short story anthologies. I’ve read it cover to cover many times. I was looking forward to listening to it while I putter around. But with this terrible audio quality and no way to boost the volume, I had to return it. For my purposes, it was unlistenable.
The audio has a noticeable hiss throughout the entire recording. This, I realize, is a product of the original recording process and the low fi equipment that may have been used.
However, the volume is so low that with my ear buds in and the volume, on both my pods and iPhone turned up to maximum, I still can’t hear the narration while working, jogging, driving, or even walking through a busy grocery store.
AUDIBLE DEVELOPERS, please give us users more control of the audio features of the app. Give us VOLUME BOOST, give us a user customizable equalizer. Give us something to deal with the sometimes low quality of the audio recordings.
This is the 4th or 5th book I’ve had to return because the audio was just so low that I couldn’t listen to the book while being active. I suppose if you just sat still in a quiet room and listened to your audible content, this would be ok. But if you prefer to listen while you are active at all, this lack of audio control is a total bummer. I have excellent hearing, I can’t even guess how discouraging this would be for the hearing impaired.
And yes, I have gone to iPhone settings and messed with the EQ settings, Late Night Mode, etc , the volume is still too low.
VOLUME BOOST FOR THE PEOPLE!!!

Terrible Sound, Great Stories

The sound quality of this production is horrendous. Reminds me of audio tapes from the eighties. Clearly Simon & Schuster were out to make a quick buck by converting old recordings to digital format without polishing up the quality in any way. Unfortunate, as the stories are quite good and the readings even superb. Willem Dafoe is a treat – if you can ignore the background noise.

excellent collection of Stephen King stories

at first I was hesitant to get this, not because I didn't think this book was going to be good but because of all the negative reviews I read about the quality of the audio and the music. I found that the quality was just fine and the voice-over actors were exceptional, Willem Dafoe especially. while the music doesn't add anything to the stores, I did not find it nearly as troubling as some other people. I enjoyed this collection immensely and after each story I kept thinking well it's going to be really hard to top of that and yet there was another story right after that was just as good. I knew The Langoliers and Secret Window already the sun dog and the library policeman we're new to me and they were fantastic.

The music is astoundingly annoying

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, but only because I really enjoy Stephen King's writing. I'm actually only in the first story, but the added music is so infuriating I was compelled to pause and comment.

Any additional comments?

The music during the reading is almost impossible to bear. I want to hear the story and I don't need someone's idea of "enhancing" it with a jangling soundtrack that's lamely trying to increase tension. If King's writing needed that kind of help, like a laugh track for a not so very funny sitcom, I wouldn't be listening to his work at all. King's writing does a fine job of building intensity all by itself - I hope someone goes and revises this by stripping the unnecessary noise out.

Exceptionally Entertaining

4 novellas by King. One Past Midnight: The Langoliers narrated by Willem Dafoe. Not my fave, but better than the movie. Two Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden , narrated by James Woods. Even better than the movie adaption starring Johnnie Depp. Three Past Midnight: The Library Policeman, narrated by the late Ken Howard. Interesting and unpredictable. Four Past Midnight: The Sun Dog, narrated by Tim Sample. Another great, exciting and unpredictable. I enjoyed listening to all four stories. Worth the time , especially for Stephen King fans.

Sound Design

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Maybe, but I would warn him or her about the audio engineering. I love the story. But music and sound effects are distracting to the way I like to listen. I only want story and narration performance. I have had this problem before with the 'tier-2' Steven King books. It's enough to make me turn it off and return the book. Unfortunately, because the story is pretty interesting.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Story plot itself. It is a slow and strange unfolding, which is not the reason I listen to King. I really just want straight entertainment.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't heard Willem Dafoe before. I really enjoy his performance.

Any additional comments?

STOP ADDING SOUND EFFECTS.

Better than people are giving it credit for

I'm not one to write reviews but I feel compelled to defend this book. People are being a little hard on the narration and audio quality. You should know that the novellas in this book were originally sold as four individual audiobooks by HighBridge Audio back in 1990-91 when Four Past Midnight originally came out in print.

Highbridge then released the novellas again individually on CD and here on Audible about 10 years ago. The entire book has only been available as a single download for a short time, so from that perspective alone I'd say you're getting a bargain.

None of the stories here are representative of King at the top of his game, both in terms of writing style and plot, but The Langoliers and The Library Policeman make this a worthwhile purchase for King fans. If you've never read King before, you should start out with one of his better known books.

As I mentioned, these stories have been released by multiple audio publishers. Naturally the audio quality isn't great. However The Langoliers is the only story where the low quality is somewhat noticeable.

And speaking as someone who owns a copy of the original HighBridge Langoliers download, I can confirm that Simon and Schuster did clean up the recording. It's not their fault the source recording has some tape hiss.

Much like the stories themselves, the narration by Dafoe, Woods, Howard, and Sample is good, not great.

Dafoe seems to be the narrator getting singled out here for ridicule. I don't get it. Sure, the voices he uses for Dinah and Bethany are somewhat cartoony, but they add to the story's charm in my view.

The way he interprets some of the lines by Bob and Nick are unintentionally hilarious, even after multiple listens. Aside from some of his character voices, Dafoe's narration is actually quite good considering he's known more as an actor than a narrator.

Bottom line: If you go into this book knowing you're not going to get something on par with The Shining, I'm sure you'll enjoy at least one of the stories here.

Sound quality/unneeded music/random sound=mess

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The stories themselves are of high quality. The random 'epic' music and 'creepy' sound effects were infuriating because the sound quality was already too 'bassy' and had volume issues.

What did you like best about this story?

The best one was the Langoliers. It was a great story of 'what would you do' and as always, King's characters are well developed and interesting. Willem Dafoe was great

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of the narrators?

everyone was fine, james woods was weak.

Could you see Four Past Midnight being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

yes. in 2016... just in regard to Langoliers... Brian the pilot could be Hugh Jackman and the British Soldier Nick could be Paul Bettany. Paul Giamotti could be Craig Toomey. The Fastest Jew in the West could be any tall dark haired teen.

Any additional comments?

let music be on radio... not in audiobooks

Good stories, but James Woods lisp

The stories are solid but I couldn't get through James Woods lisp. On the other hand, Willem Dafoe was tremendous.

It's all about the policeman for me

I read this book many years ago. I listened for "The Library Policeman". The first time I read this story it affected me deeply. The library is one of my favorite places and to have that place made so terrifying to a child blew my mind.

It didn't pack quite the same punch now. I still enjoyed it and the other stories.