Audio King! (Hearts in Atlantis (Audio CD))

Member Name: razielle

Product:	Hearts in Atlantis (Audio CD)
Date:	19/03/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lovely vocal style, soft, no sudden loud bangs!

Disadvantages: none

I love most audio books, they're perfect for putting on just before you go to sleep, or to have on in the background while you're doing something else.

Actually, I've just been listening to Hearts in Atlantis on audio CD while reading reviews on Dooyoo!

This story is read by William Hurt, though I must admit that I didn't read that fact right away, and thought it was John Malkovich! In any event it is an interesting reading style, very nice to hear, and flows very nicely.

The original novella was written by Stephen King, and while there is a touch of the paranormal here, this is no horror story.

We absolutely get King's voice coming through in this tale of Bobby Garfield, a boy who gets a library card for his birthday, when what he really wanted was a bike. Then there is the visitor, Ted Brautigan, who becomes Bobby's friend, and together the pair discuss books, until one day Ted offers to pay Bobby to read papers to him, saying that his eyes aren't very good. Bobby discovers Ted has moments of being quite distant, even 'out of it', and later that Ted has psychic abilities, and at one point this is transferred to Bobby, enabling him to win at card tricks (which would certainly not have pleased his mother, who had warned him against any form of gambling, due to his deceased father's habits).

Also running through this story is a childhood love-interest, a girl named Carol who is Bobby's best friend.

Ted introduces to Bobby the idea of the existence of parallel worlds, and Bobby realises that Ted is hiding from somebody, or something. It turns out that there are messages being left by the pursuers via 'lost pet' notices in the town.

I like the part where Ted tells Bobby 'when you find a book that has both a good story, and good words... treasure THAT book'.

Hopefully I haven't given too many spoilers here and upset anybody, and I won't reveal how it ends, but I would absolutely rate this audiobook highly.

I've heard some corkers, and some stinkers, and this is no stinker! :-)

Summary: From the Stephen King novella