Insomnia

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Eli Wallach

Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

A number-one national best seller

Since his wife died, Ralph Roberts has been having trouble sleeping. Each night he wakes up a bit earlier until he's barely sleeping at all. During his late-night walks, he observes some strange things going on in Derry, Maine. He sees colored ribbons streaming from people's heads, two strange little men wandering around town after dark, and more. He begins to suspect that these visions are something more than hallucinations brought on by lack of sleep.

There's a definite mean streak running through this small New England city; underneath its ordinary surface awesome and terrifying forces are at work. The dying has been going on in Derry for a long, long time. Now Ralph is part of it...and lack of sleep is the least of his worries.

Returning to the same Maine town where It took place, a town that has haunted Stephen King for decades, Insomnia blends King's trademark bone-chilling realism with supernatural terror to create yet another masterpiece of suspense.

©1994 Stephen King (P)1994 Penguin Highbridge Audio

Critic Reviews

"A yarn so packed with suspense, romance, literary reference, fascinating miscellaneous knowledge, and heart that only Stephen King could have written it. Marvelous - that is, full of marvels." ( Booklist)

Do yourself a favor and read this one.

This is one of Kings best Derry tales. It weaves themes and characters from the Dark Tower into a combined love story and horror yarn all its own. But the audio production does not do it justice. He reader's speaking voice is reminiscent of that of the narrator in Disney's Winnie the Pooh cartoon. For a horror story. Seriously? Then there is the annoying hissing sound behind the reader's voice during the first few hours. Bad sound engineering or failed dramatic effect? Unacceptable. The blaring discordant "music" throughout was unnecessary and a discredit to the book. Audible.com should mark such productions with an asterisk so that listeners who want the simplicity of a good story and a professional reader will not waste money on bad attempts at radio theater. Buy the paperback. Buy the ebook. Just do not buy this unless you need these theatrical props.

42 of 43 people found this review helpful

Great story, horrible production!

I want to know what insane audiobook producer thought putting HUGELY ANNOYING music into the background in seemingly random places at quite a high volume level was a good idea?! I'd like to wring his neck! So distracting it was difficult to focus on the narrator, who was good, btw. As was the story.

103 of 108 people found this review helpful

Insomnia

I enjoyed the story and the narrator. The issue I had was with the random musical accompaniment at the end of chapters. It was much louder than the narrator and was not necessary, in my opinion.

32 of 33 people found this review helpful

sound effects ruined it

the sound effects were not only irritating and grating but couldn't hear what was being said over them

61 of 64 people found this review helpful

Book Good - Background effetcts BAD

I had read this book many years ago and was glad to find it here. I often listen to books while accomplishing my daily tasks. I mainly listen as I fall asleep at night. I set the timer for 30 minutes and drift off. this book prevented me from doing that. The background guitar scratching and screeching sound effects made it so difficult to listen to. It would often blast into the audio near the end and beginning of a chapter obscuring, more often than not, the words of the narrator. I have some trouble hearing lower tones and so I must turn the volume up to hear male narrators. The startling sound of a screeching guitar made me jump every time. It was so much worse when I was trying to fall asleep. I couldn't go back to sleep. I had to stop listening while I fell asleep and it took forever to get through the book.

Please don't add background "music " to the books!

The content and narrator were EXCELLENT though!

38 of 41 people found this review helpful

Horrible Music Throughout- Ruined the Story

Why does anyone put music into an audiobook?! Especially if it's terrible music that is obnoxious, distracting, and irrelevant (it's not a climactic moment yet there are screeching violins). Ruined the story for me.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Music mix sucks!

This is an interesting story and Eli Wallach does a good job narrating but the music selection and mix IS TERRIBLE! I'm still listening to it but every time the bloody music screams at me or DROWNS OUT THE NARRATOR I feel like quitting the book or returning it. Haven't yet decided to try to tough it out. And for this I pay??

38 of 42 people found this review helpful

I love this book, but the music nearly killed it

I have read Insomnia twice before and I love the story. This is the first time I've listened to the audio performance, and while the narration itself is very good, the music that pops up at exciting or emotional moments almost made me quit listening several times. At first it was just annoying, but when you're listening with headphones to fairly even toned narration and all of sudden are blasted by screaming guitar, or when you're listening to intense dialogue that is drowned out by louder than necessary music, it's frustrating beyond belief. I made it through, but I cursed the music every time it popped up. I highly recommend the book, especially if you're a fan of the Dark Tower series as it ties in with it amazingly well, but be prepared to be bombarded by unnecessary musical accents.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Weird music intervals

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the narration. However, the only thing that really annoyed me was the random bits of music that they stuck in to add to the emotion...it was unnecessary and really annoying. And the music was louder than the narration so randomly, as you try to listen close, a loud screeching violin bursts your eardrums...also waste your time when you are trying to follow the story

13 of 14 people found this review helpful

Great book! Bad performance!

I didn't care at all for the music throughout the book. The reader was okay but not great. I feel like the producer missed the mark, however don't let that detour you from a great book. It was worth the effort to get through the crazy production.

18 of 20 people found this review helpful