• The Sickness

  • By: Stephen R. King
  • Narrated by: Virtual Voice
  • Length: 4 hrs and 1 min
  • 3.0 out of 5 stars (47 ratings)

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The Sickness  By  cover art

The Sickness

By: Stephen R. King
Narrated by: Virtual Voice
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This title uses virtual voice narration

Virtual voice is computer-generated narration for audiobooks

Publisher's summary

Possibly the darkest and most shocking six scary short stories yet ever created from bestselling author Stephen R. King. An instinct of passion and disrespect for decency and humanity fill this volume of life experiences we mostly keep in the back of our conscience, never wanting to bring to the forefront. Its truly sick!

What listeners say about The Sickness

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The AI was (lol) Lifeless. Excellent Stories

The AI was horrible. No difference in tone between characters, makes it had to follow.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Bad narration

As usual Stephen King presents good short stories. (Not his best, but overall very good.)

The IA narrator was very bad. No fluctuation in voice when multiple characters were speaking. Also one story's main character is a young black man. While the words were intended to be slang, the narrator voice was flat.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

the virtual voice ruined the book

I have never read a book I didn't like from Stephen King but the narration ruined it for me, I'd rather read it myself.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Fiction

I enjoyed the stores. Stephen , King goes where other people fear to tread. He broaches what is usually taboo subject and he does it very well.
The AI narrator leaves a lot to be desired, and almost calls me to not finish the stories. However, I am glad I did.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

AI narration suck

C’mon, these AI narrations are awful, and give no feeling to the story. How bland.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A.I. voices are better than ever, but still don't cut it.

No doubt that computerized voices are better than ever, but it still didn't quite work. AI made a few pronunciation errors, glitched out once, and couldn't do multiple voices at all (character differentiation).

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

AI narrator

Stories are pretty good and narration wasn’t horrible. Wouldn’t mind listening to more from this author especially with human narration.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

AI is not a human

There were way too many pauses in voice and it ruined some great stories by Stephen King. Please stop using AI and hire a real voice actor it’s so much better. Don’t improve AI, get an actor, AI will never be able to add the emotion and necessary pause when needed to an Actor’s repertoire.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Bring back voice actors

A solid mix of supernatural stories that I’m sure I would have enjoyed more if that robotic AI voice hasn’t sucked the soul out of the book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

AI is a failure

There is no infliction in the voice. She uses the wrong tense of words. The worst is turning acronyms into words. M.O. is not Moe and K.I.A is not Kia. it was difficult to listen to at times. I hope this isn't what the world is turning to because we will all be out of a job at this rate.

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1 person found this helpful