Stephen King – Narrator

Stephen King – Narrator

LT’s Theory of Pets

Written by, Stephen King

Yes, everyone knows Stephen King the Author.   Born in Portland Oregon, in 1947.   Married to Tabitha, who he met while at college.  They have 3 children, Joe, Owen, and Naomi.  His first hit story Carrie, was the beginning of many horror stories such as Pet Semetary, IT, The Shining, The Stand, The Dead Zone, and many, many more.

He began directing movies in 1985 with Maximum Overdrive, based on his story, Trucks.  Many of his stories have become popular and even iconic movies.

But, do you know Stephen King……the Narrator?  Well, this is the first time that I ever heard his narration.

On a short story called LT’s Theory of Pets, written of course, by Stephen King!  And I have to say, I love it:)

Of course the story is great, but I have to say that I truly enjoyed the narration as well.

Often times I find that authors think they know their book so well that only they can give it the value it deserves.  However, I usually find the opposite to be true.  Professional narrators can flesh out characters in ways that authors typically can’t duplicate in voice.

Yet there are those rare occasions when an author can also narrate their works in stellar fashion, and this is one of those occasions.

There is a bit of the ‘horror’ story here, but for the most part I found the story to be funny and entertaining.  (Sorry to disappoint if you are only in it for the Horror!)

Even the preview (of my copy) when Stephen explains where the idea for the story came from…it was laugh out loud funny.  You have to love the way the man thinks!

I laughed when Stephen said, most of his stories started with ‘wouldn’t it be funny if…?’  Which is ironic considering that most of his stories end up horror stories, not comedies.  But as he states, they ‘don’t start out as horror, they just sort of drift that way’.

The whole premise of this story I found sort of sad.  A marriage that starts out happy, drifts to some regular conflicts after the addition of some pets, and leads to an unresolved ending.  Yet the tone still remains funny and slightly sarcastic.

I felt that Stephen did a credible job separating the character’s voices.  I really loved the accents chosen, and how the characters are portrayed.  Not as good or bad, just different and slightly flawed.

When the couple split up, neither one is angry or vengeful, just understandably unhappy.  I’m not going to tell you what happens, but it’s especially sad what happens to the dog.  (You will have to pick up the story to find out what that is.) 🙂

It’s a short story, but as much of King’s work does, it gives the reader a lot to contemplate.  The ‘what if’s’ and ‘maybe’s’ in life.

Brilliant as usual, I enjoyed this narrated short story by The wonderful and extremely talented, Stephen King.  Try it yourself, and let me know what you think.

Keep reading, and as always, from my family to yours..Happy Listening!

 

Special Mention – Anne McCaffrey – Author

Anne Inez McCaffrey, born April 1st 1926 in Cambridge Massachusetts, died November 21st 2011 in her home, Dragonhold, in Ireland.  She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award, and the first to receive the Nebula Award.  Inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2006.  The White Dragon, published in 1978, was one of the first science fiction novels to appear on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Here is just a sample of the Anne McCaffrey books that I have in my library. Primarily from the Dragonriders of Pern series.  I believe I have read or heard all in this series over the years.  I have read many of her other works outside of the Pern sets as well.  Several from the Crystal Singer series, and several of her short stories.  And still there are so many more to go!

Bookshelf with books
Sample of Anne McCaffrey books

mccaff3-1  mccaff4

I was introduced to Anne McCaffrey’s work one summer when I was about 12 I believe.  (It might have been 13.)  My first book was Dragonsong.  Of course that’s not the first one in the series, but it was the beginning for me to Anne’s work, as well as a beginning into the fantasy fiction realm.  And I have been hooked ever since!

I used to re-read her books (those that I owned anyway) about every 2 years.  And then I found audio books and I started all over again.  There have been new books to add to the family as the years have passed, including new books preceding the original ones.

DragonsDawn for example goes back to the first settlers on Pern, and the original creation of the great dragons, but the book itself wasn’t published until 1989.  That was about 10 years after I had read Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums, Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and A White Dragon!

I saw an interview with Stephen King where he said that for him the stories come and they have to be told (or something like that).  It wasn’t as if he sat down and had to fight writer’s block to come up with something.  Rather he would get ideas that would simmer in his mind, often mingling with other ideas until a story developed that pretty much wrote itself.

From the interviews that I heard with Anne, it appears that it was very similar for her.  The stories just tumbled out.  Of course the hard part was making sure that the timelines, and specifics remained consistent, but she had a lot of help with that.

She surrounded herself with family, friends, and fans who helped to keep the details accurate.  I guess most prolific writers can be summarized as being ‘big picture’ people who can soar when they have detail driven people to keep them tethered to the ground.  Funny!  I’m claiming that as an original quote unless someone wants to prove me wrong:)

Anyway, Anne McCaffrey has always been one of my favorite authors, and I will continue to enjoy her life’s work for many years to come if I am that lucky.

Anne’s son Todd co-wrote with Anne on the Pern series before her death, and here Todd McCaffrey talks about Anne at the San Diego Comic Con.

Thank you Anne for leaving us such beautiful stories!

Midnight Crossroad – Audio Book

Hello Listeners!  Ok, I just finished this book, Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris.  As usual I picked a book based on a Narrator, in this case Susan Bennett.  As I have said before, my favorite books to listen to are Fantasy Fiction, but I also try to give a good portion of my time to non-fiction works.  Especially anything in the Self-Help or Personal Growth areas.  And that was how I found Susan.

She narrated a book called, Excuse Me, But I Was Next…, by Peggy Post.  It’s all about practical tips on how to handle different situations with tact and good manners.  I am like most people these days, and I can skimp on my manners without really realizing it, and I get impatient at times.  It’s because I am aware of this, that I picked up this particular book.  And I was not disappointed.  It is a very informative and well written book with tons of valuable tips.

But one of the surprises for me from this audio book, was that I really liked the narrator as well as the book.  Reading non-fiction work in a compelling way can often times be more challenging than reading fiction, because it can be hard to break out of the monotony.  When I researched what other work was available by Susan, I found that she does a LOT of fiction work as well.  Yippee for me!

While there was a lot to choose from, this book (series) stood out to me.  And once again, I was not disappointed.  I want to move to Midnight Texas now.  I think I would fit in well, loaner and recluse that I tend to be.  Although I am not a vampire, or a witch, or a psychic, or have some criminal past that I am running away from, I still think they could find a place for me.  Besides, they already have those positions filled in this small western town with only one stop light.  There’s a gas station, nail salon, restaurant, and a pawn shop.  Seriously…what more do you need?

Of course it would help if people weren’t dying all over the place.  But, then again, I guess you can’t have everything now can you?  I’ve just gotten a taste of these outcasts, and the ties that bind them closer than most families.  But lucky for me, I have Book 2 – Day Shift, to look forward to now!

Happy listening!

Special Mention – Terry Pratchett

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” Sir Terry Pratchett

2015 a great loss to the Literary world.

Special Mention to the late Terry Pratchett, the author of the Disc World Series, and many other wonderful works.  One of the most amazing Fantasy worlds ever imagined.

The first audio book I heard of Terry Pratchett’s work was ‘Thud’.  Not the first one in the Disc World Series of course.  I rarely ever seem to go in order.  But I became so intrigued with his characters, and the subtle sarcasm that permeates every conversation.  I’ve never heard a writing style that was so subtle, and so obvious at the same time.  Maybe it’s because I tend to notice details in writing that I find the humor so prevalent and simply perfect, but I’ve never heard another like it.  Of course the fact that he had the most amazing narrators to bring his written words to life, only made the experience that much more astounding to me.  I believe that was the first book that I ever listened to where one narrator portrayed so many completely different characters in such a realistic and consistent way.  It truly opened my eyes to what I had been missing for so many years.

After I listened to the audio book, I found the physical book for sale at the library, and I read it.  What I found was now that I had heard the characters created in auditory form, when I read the physical book I could ‘hear’ the conversations in my imagination, just as they had been in the original audio book.  What a happy revelation!  It’s so much more than I could have imagined on my own.

For those out there who have never read or listened to a Terry Pratchett book, if you like Fantasy Fiction, you have to give these a try.  If you noticed from my previous posts, 2 of my very favorite Narrators noted here, Stephen Briggs and Nigel Planer, have many Terry Pratchett books to their credit.  And they are a credit to the books.  This is a perfect example of combining a great writer with a great narrator to create truly exceptional works.

I was terribly saddened to hear of Terry’s passing in 2015.  He was a one-of-a-kind special talent.  However, he left a fantastic library of his creations for us and future generations to enjoy.  When you think about it, that’s one heck of a legacy!

 

 

 

Heather O’Neill – Narrator

Heather O’Neill is an author and narrator who resides in Canada.

I’ve listened to 3 of her narrated works so far, and loved each one.  There is Blessed are the Cheesemakers by Sarah-Kate Lynch.  See the above audio excerpt. I just recently re-listened to this one.

The characters are full-bodied, even the no-so-nice characters, and  Heather does great Irish and Australian accents.  I just love listening to her voice.

I probably never would have picked up this book, although it’s become one of my favorite stories, except that I knew Heather was the Narrator.

The first story I heard from Heather was The Cry of the Icemark, by Stuart Hill.  More my style as fantasy fiction, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Then there was The Likeness, by Tana French.  A murder-mystery, once again only picked based on Narration.  This is not my favorite genre, even though it’s still better than…should I say it…Romance.

Ugh! Don’t get me wrong, romance can be great, I just find that they tend to really over-do everything in romance novels.  TMD – Too Many Details, for my preference.

But back to Heather’s narration, both of these stories were great.  I’ve yet to try one of Heather’s works that I didn’t truly enjoy.  While she does not have as many Narrated works as others listed here on NarrationZone, she has also authored some award winning books of her own.

The most well known of her written works is Lullabies for Little Criminals.  I will warn you although this is written about a 13 girl named Baby, there are drugs, gangs, abuse, and more, so it’s not a ‘children’s book’.  There is an Audio version that is narrated in part by Heather O’Neill and Miriam McDonald.

I haven’t tried this one myself because it sounds a bit dark for my tastes, but if you have, or if you do read the book or listen to the audio version, I would greatly appreciate hearing what you think about it.  See below for more listening options.

Heather is 4 out of 4 in my Narrator rating scale, and one of my current top 10!

As always, from my home to yours, Happy Listening.

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