Richard Armitage 30 day challenge
25.) Q: an audio book you would like him to record
A: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
This book was my first foray into fantasy, and it left a lasting impression on my imagination. To hear it told in Richard’s voice, with his knack for voice-acting , would be quite enjoyable!
Plot Summary:
“Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, sets out from Arcadia Beach, New Hampshire in a bid to save his mother, who is dying from cancer, by finding a crystal called “the Talisman.” Jack’s journey takes him simultaneously through the American heartland and “the Territories”, a strange fantasy land which is set in a universe parallel to that of Jack’s America. Individuals in the Territories have “twinners,” or parallel individuals, in our world. Twinners’ births, deaths, and (it is intimated) other major life events are usually paralleled. Twinners can also “flip” or migrate to the other world, but only share the body of their alternate universe’s analogue.
In rare instances (such as Jack’s), a person may die in one world but not the other, making the survivor “single-natured” with the ability to switch back and forth, body and mind, between the two worlds. Jack is taught how to flip by a mysterious figure known as Speedy Parker, who is the twinner of a gunslinger named Parkus in the Territories. In Parkus’s world, the beloved Queen Laura DeLoessian, the twinner of Jack’s mother (a movie actress known as the “Queen of the B Movies”) is also dying.
Various people help or hinder Jack in his quest. Of particular importance are the werewolves, known simply as Wolfs, who inhabit the Territories. These are not the savage killers of tradition: they serve as royal herdsmen or bodyguards, and can sometimes under stress voluntarily change to wolf form. A sixteen-year-old Wolf, simply named Wolf, is accidentally pulled into America by Jack Sawyer and adopts Jack as his pack, serving as his companion. Wolf is extremely likeable, kind, loyal and friendly, much like a dog, though his wolf nature shows through on occasion. On the other hand, some Wolfs have joined the malevolent faction which is trying to stop Jack.
As the story goes back and forth between the Territories and the familiar United States, or “American Territories” as Jack comes to call them, Jack escapes from one life-threatening situation after another. Accompanied by Wolf and later by his childhood friend Richard, Jack must retrieve the Talisman before it falls into the hands of evil schemer Morgan Sloat, Richard’s father, who, we later learn, was Jack’s father’s business partner before arranging to have the latter murdered. He wants to seize their business from Jack’s mother. Morgan Sloat’s twinner, Morgan of Orris, also plans to seize the Territories in the event of Queen Laura’s death.”
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I think I’ve read this story for I remember Jack and his mother. But maybe I never got to finish it since I don’t remember how it ended – much like most of Stephen King’s books except for Salem’s Lot. But I do love Peter Straub!
Richard reading this would be awesome 🙂 But then I wouldn’t be listening it as often as I’d like, say, his reading of North & South.
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I went through a phase in my teens where I tried to read the Stephen King stuff because that was what “everyone else” was doing 😉 only problem was that I didn’t like horror stories *laughs* so I read a few of the psychological thrillers instead. (the book of short stories that contained the Shawshank Redemption was also one I read at that time.) Stephen King is a great story teller, but his stuff is generally too dark for me.
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I sure wish he *would* record North and South. Steven King is certainly not my cup of tea so it wouldn’t something I’d want him to do unless it was something other than the “horror stories”! The “Proposal Scene” from North and South that he *did* record only whetted my appetite for the whole thing. I think I have all of his audio work – that is the three Georgette Heyer’s novels; all the Robin Hood related stuff including “The Siege” and “The Witchfinders”, and The Lords of the North, which to my mind can only be called “A Performance”, not merely a reading. I even love all the voice-over things he’s done. Oh yes! His voice is indeed, “Out of this World” and I could listen to it endlessly!! 🙂
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the “Talisman” isn’t one of the Stephen King horror stories. it gets dark in places, but it’s more of a journey/fantasy type story, like the LOTR 😉 Although I really like the audio-books RA has done so far, it wouldn’t hurt to branch out into other genres too, like he did with LOTN 🙂
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🙂 Anything really…though it should be really, realy looong….( or Collected Works of some fanfic writers 😉 )
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Richard recording fanfic stories! that would just be wrong. I love fanfic, and there are a lot of them in this fandom that stay close to canon and are clean/respectable, but even hearing him recite a tame intimate scene would cause mass hysteria 🙂
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I think I’ve only ever read It by King and that scared the daylight out of me. Ditto the series. There’s just nothing scarier than an evil clown. Having said that, if Richard recorded the audiobook I’d endure the story once more, although I shudder to think what dreams/nightmares that would give me 😉
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my favorite, other than “The Talisman”, was “Different Seasons” which is a collection of short stories that went on to become “The Shawshank Redemption”, “Stand by Me”, and “Apt Pupil” 🙂 “Thinner” was good too. I’m sitting here thinking of how many of his stories became movies, and there are A LOT!!
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