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Firestarter

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Firestarter

Written by: Stephen King
Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
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About this listen

Stephen King's "gem of a story" (Chicago Tribune) about a child with extraordinary psychic powers who is on the run from the government. A number-one national best seller.

Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson participated in a drug experiment run by a veiled government agency known as The Shop. One year later, they marry. Two years later, their little girl, Charlie, sets her teddy bear on fire by simply staring at it.

Now that Charlie is eight, she doesn't start fires anymore. Her parents have taught her to control her pyrokinesis, the ability to set anything - toys, clothes, even people - aflame. But The Shop knows about and wants this pigtailed "ultimate weapon". Shop agents set out to hunt down Charlie and her father in a ruthless chase that traverses the streets of New York and the backwoods of Vermont.

"Terrifying and gripping" (The Miami Herald) Firestarter is chilling proof that "Stephen King is superb" (Time).

©1980 Stephen King (P)2010 Penguin Audio Genetic Engineering Horror Science Fiction Supernatural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Scary Paranormal Fiction Exciting Government
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This is a classic Stephen King novel! The narrator was good. Worth a listen. :)

Perfectly Imperfect

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never watched the movie books always better anyway lol.
Dennis gives a great performance on this well worth the time and money.

great book

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The story is riveting! I listen in my car on the long drive to and from work and I find myself bored by the way the narrator sounds like he’s bored. It’s strange because the story is anything but boring.

Really good book, narrator was not good

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the story was great but kept cutting off on words at the end of sentences

great story but editing needs work

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I enjoedy the read. Well written however not as scary as I thought it would have been. Worth the read though. Scary to think how governments can control the lives of people.

scaredless

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I enjoyed this title. It is worth a listen. Now go and download The Stand.

It was good.

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..but very very good. I confess I have never seen the 1984 film adaptation, but if it's faithful to the novel, it's undoubtedly entertaining. This Stephen King effort reads like a screenplay - there are endless well-scripted & vividly-described scenes and action of mind's-eye complexity. Typical of a King novel, it builds on a fantastical scenario (in this one: a pyrokinetic psychic child - Charlie McGee - born of parents who were subjects of a Government experiment) and adds gut-punch visceral descriptions, guy-at-the-end-of-the-bar dialogue, and brilliant pacing.
That said, the plot is fairly two-dimensional (a child with remarkable powers is pursued, captured, and escapes using said powers. Yep. That about sums it up).. and it just doesn't have the same impact I have felt with King's best offerings.

In addition, the reading is pretty average in this Simon & Schuster Audio audiobook. Dennis Boutsikaris delivers a professional performance - reading with great diction, timbre, cadence, rate, and voice-acting - but he legitimately sounds like CBC Radio personality Stuart McLean (I actually caught myself imagining that I was listening to a 'Vinyl Cafe' story at times). Boutsikaris's tone is emotive but a little too lighthearted for the text.

Altogether, 'Firestarter' rates 8.5 stars out of 10. The producers must have dealt with the interruptions in the playback noted by other listeners - or at least I didn't notice them. The novel isn't among the best in the King catalogue, but it's an excellent book and belongs in your library.

Not Among King's Best Works..

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Great book. Narrator was good. Now to get another Stephen king book started. Highly recommend a listen.

Awesome

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