Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Volume I

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Stephen King, Tim Curry, Rob Lowe, Whoopi Goldberg

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

A star-studded cast of readers present unabridged tales of horror and suspense from Stephen King's classic best-selling short story collection. This volume includes an Introduction by Stephen King, plus "Suffer the Children" read by Whoopi Goldberg; "Crouch End", Tim Curry; "Rainy Season", Yeardley Smith; "Dolan's Cadillac", Rob Lowe: "The House on Maple Street", Tabitha King; "Umney's Last Case", Robert B. Parker; "Head Down", Stephen King; and "Brooklyn August", Stephen J. Gould.

©1993 Stephen King (P)2009 Simon and Schuster

Great short stories!!

Well, for whatever reason, there is no list of stories on any of the three Nightmares and Dreamscapes downloads. Anyway, I downloaded this one, Vol I, and to help future shoppers, here is the story list, in order, for this volume.

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN, read by Whoopie Goldberg.

CROUCH END, read by Tim Curry.

RAINY SEASON, read by Yeardley Smith. (If you are a Simpson's fan, you will recognize the voice of this reader. For me, a horror story read to me by Lisa Simpson isn't a horror story. I laughed more than anything! Don't get me wrong, I adore Yeardley Smith, however, this was not a story for her talents.)

DOLAN'S CADILLAC, read by Rob Lowe. (This one is my favorite story of the lot.)

THE HOUSE ON MAPLE STREET, read by Tabitha King.

UMNEY'S LAST CASE, read by ???

HEAD DOWN, read by Stephen King.

BROOKLYN AUGUST, read by ???

As with any collection of short stories, everyone's tastes will be different. Dolan's Cadillac is the reason I downloaded this volume. I remember reading this one YEARS ago and thought is was one of Mr. Kings best non-horror stories he had written to date. The other stories are very good as well, but for me, a couple of them are quite forgettable. Bottom line; if you are a Stephen King fan, you will enjoy this download.

62 of 65 people found this review helpful

I love Stephen King's Short Stories

I loved all of the stories except for Head Down and Brooklyn August. My favorite was Dolan's Cadillac and Suffer the Little Children . I enjoyed this audiobook so much that I plan on watching the miniseries Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

King at his best!

I originally bought these books on tape years ago and used to listen to them on my commutes, but I've since lost them and none of my cars accept tapes anymore anyway! I was thrilled to see them on audible.com and plan to download all three volumes -- some of the best short stories ever written.

Have to disagree with the reviewer who said that "Head Down" was boring and didn't belong in this anthology. It was exciting, uplifting, and extremely well-written. The first time I heard it I was skeptical to see if King's exceptional horror writing abilities would translate well in a non-fiction story about baseball, but I was not disappointed. King could have written for Sports Illustrated....I don't know why I ever doubted him.

Some of my other favorites include: Night Flier (great story with a great narrator who really brings out the cynicism of the protagonist), Umney's Last Case (outstanding narrator you really believe is a private eye during The Great Depression), Popsy (evil story that actually makes you root for the vampire, Joe M does a great job with it too), Dedication (Weird and almost lewd story, but well told. I love that woman's voice; she's so versatile), and It Grows On You (King's voice took some getting used to, but the descriptions in his adjectives and his allusions really make you feel like you're in Castle Rock.)

I thoroughly enjoyed all these stories and if you stumbled upon them in your search here, I'm sure you will too. Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a MUST HAVE for any Stephen King fan!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Hit-or-Miss

I'm a big fan of Stephen King, but overall this volume of his short stories was rather disappointing.

Of the small collection that this volume holds (inexplicably the collection is split into three volumes), there are only a few I can remember that much about to discuss with a friend. Some were really great, but not enough to make it on the top of any of my Stephen King lists.

And as though that wasn't enough, some of the narrators do a horrible, horrible job! I don't think I've ever heard some narrators that performed so amateurishly (with heavy breathing, monotone dull delivery) and some professionals were really miscast.

And the death nail was the ending essay on youth baseball training. I just skipped it. I bought this audiobook for horror and thriller, not sportscasting. Again, I'm a fan of Stephen King. However, I'll never miss this audiobook.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Do not buy this audible book

Would you listen to Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Volume I again? Why?

It's a fair collection of fair Stephen King short stories. And that's the best thing you can say about it. The stories are good. They are Stephen King. But difficult to listen to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I liked Robinson the school teacher in "Dolan's Cadillac".

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

Multiple narrators, multiple styles. It ranged from the exceptional with Tim Curry to the downright horrible with Robert Parker. Overall there were more bad orators than good ones, and the bad ones were so exceptionally bad as to make you want to stop listening.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I had a visceral reaction to the PISS POOR addition of cheesy 1980's equalizer sound effect music to the reading. Even if the music was good (which it wasn't) the ham handed way that it was overdubbed in the most inappropriate places had the sickening effect of someone hand drawing tits on the Mona Lisa. How could you possibly ruin a story by Stephen King? Overlay a sound track that sounded like 1970's porn and hire actors as voice talent who should have stayed on TV. If it's true that some stars have a face for radio, these stars have a voice for still photography.

Any additional comments?

Yes. Don't buy this as an audio. Buy the book, hell, read it outloud to yourself. But the experience of listening to this was painful. And I only waded through the stories to get to the end because they were King. A few glimmering moments from Tim Curry and King himself barely hold this book above the vomit level.

12 of 15 people found this review helpful

Kings short stories even better on audiobook

Since Nightmares and Dreamscapes is such a large collection, the audiobook is broken into 3 volumes. This Volume 1 contains the following stories read by these respective narrators:

Suffer the Children read by Whoopi Goldberg;
Crouch End, Tim Curry;
Rainy Season, Yeardley Smith;
Dolan's Cadillac, Rob Lowe:
The House on Maple Street, Tabitha King;
Umney's Last Case, Robert B. Parker;
Head Down, Stephen King;
Brooklyn August, Stephen J. Gould.

The first 4 stories, all read by some of mine and many others favorite actors.
My favorites stories from this volume are Rainy Season,mand Dolan's Cadillac. I first listened to these on CD when the book was first released while I was working a job that always was easier done while listening to music or books.

All the narrators inbthis volume bring the listener into the story so well, you almost feel like you're there, or watching it on the big screen. Especially the favorites I mentioned. Smith relays the confusion and later fear of the characters as they hear about then experience The Rainy Season of the little town they are vacationing at for the night. Just as well is Lowe, portraying the school teacher turned vigilante (avenging his wife's murder).

Then of course, nobody can narrate a Stephen King story better than himself, reading it in the way he imagines his Constant Readers do, in order to feel the full effect and rage of emotion.

I highly recommend getting all three volumes of this excellent, and favorite of mine, collection of short stories.

AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Awfully short for a full credit...

The essay on little league really didn't fit. If you don't enjoy baseball, just skip it. I thought at some point there would be some kind of "King twist" as so many of his stories have. I listen to his books on my way to work, and while his story-telling is superb as always, this was just AWFUL subject-matter. The book itself is quite large, so I don't really understand the purpose of splitting it into separate volumes.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

2nd Favorite

I'm not a "BIG" book reader. Short stories are my cup of tea. This collection is awesome. Although I'm not a long story reader, I find myself reading 4,5 and sometime 6 stories at a pop. The second most popular book in the house!

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

The best King audio books available

I owned these three volumes on tape, and I am thrilled to see them on audible. The narration is engaging, and the story telling is excellent.

26 of 42 people found this review helpful

Go for 'Just After Sunset' instead

The stories might be all right but it hardly matters because the comically horrible musical track that plays at random intervals drowning out the speaker. The separate volumes of this book are overpriced considering how short they are. Adding insult to injury, the last few hours of the first volume are taken up by a boring baseball essay. That last bit brought me right back to my childhood, standing in the outfield ripping the grass out of the ground, waiting for hours for the torture to end.

11 of 21 people found this review helpful