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

Just get rid of the stupid music

Dolan's Caddy
Crouch End &
Suffer the Children are the 3 best in my opinion

some were great

the last story in the anthology that Stephen King read. ugh I hated it. a baseball story that dragged on forever. I quit 30 minutes left.

There’s something for everyone.

Not all stories will appeal to everyone. I’ve just finished listening to Salem’s Lot and commented about how I disliked the music. Same applies here. Distracting and doesn’t bring anything to any of the stories. The recordings are starting to feel a little “dated”, compared to the quality we are used to nowadays. I skipped a couple of stories because the voice of the narrators was just painful to listen to.

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.

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.

Great Stories. Poor format.

Stephen Kings short stories are phenomenal, no if ands or buts about it. However, you aren't getting your money's worth for the expensive price you pay. Nightmares and Dreamscapes is divided into several audio volumes for whatever reason and I feel like I spent 30 dollars for 10 dollars worth of audiobook. I'd recommend this to someone who has money to waste. Get rid of the volume format and I'd give it 5 stars I'm sure.

Okay..

Enjoyed listening to a book I haven't read in well over 20 years, however... the short stories are split by the chapters which I found to be irritating.

Not impressed with narrators

Only whoopie and tim curry narrate well. Book states there is another story after head down and it is not included

great book!

great stories! my only issue was the non story in which King wrote an essay on a baseball team...I skipped it... didn't fit the title at all. other than that loved it.

Great Stories, Mixed Bag on Narration

Would you consider the audio edition of Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Volume I to be better than the print version?

I loved Nightmares and Dreamscapes in print and we got the audio version for a road trip.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the reading of Suffer the Children. It's not my favorite story but the narration is perfecto. Whoopi is awesome, with an emotive but even and soothing voice.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I liked most of the narration except I had a really hard time with Tim Curry reading Crouch end. I had to keep adjusting the volume to accommodate the super quiet then SUPER LOUD! Then quiet etc. tones of his voice. This was my favorite story from this collection in the book, and I missed a lit of it because I kept having to turn down the volume to accommodate the sudden shouting then it woyld be nearly a whisper and I would have to readjust. It was very frustrating. I also felt the sound quality could have been levelled out quite a bit by the folks who made the recording. Tim Curry's voice had enough bass to drown out the actual words and Yeardley Smith's voice came through as shrill unless you messed with the bass & treble levels. She was an interesting choice for the Rainy Season... once I got the sound levelled out it worked. Really, really loved Whoopi, though!

Any additional comments?

Great stories and an interesting list of readers, Stephen and Tabitha King included! Level out the sound and tell Tim Curry to shout & whisper less because it takes away from the story when you're constantly readjusting the volume!