The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (Audiobook Review)

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Title: The Tommyknockers
Author: Stephen King
Narrator: Edward Herrmann
Copyright: 2010, Blackstone Audio
Duration: 27 hours, 46 minutes
Genres: science fiction, horror, aliens
Filed in: Audiobook Reviews
Review copy provided by Blackstone Audio.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:
Late last night and the night before,
Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door.
While walking through the wooded acreage of her Haven, Maine home, novelist Bobbie Anderson stumbled across something very interesting. Literally. After picking herself up off the ground, Bobbie looked back to see a thin piece of metal jutting out of the soil. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, Bobbie began to dig, in spite of the strenuous protests of her faithful dog, Pete. Bobbie doesn’t know it yet, but she is about to unearth something never before seen on this world. Let’s hope the world survives it.
Bobbie’s best friend, Jim Gardner, was in the next state when Bobbie made her big find, but he began to get the nagging feeling that she was in trouble. Having fallen on some hard times himself, Jim decided it was time to return to Maine. He arrived, some two weeks after Bobbie’s discovery, to find that his friend, and her familiar old house, had undergone some big changes. Bobbie, a lithe woman before, was now almost grotesquely thin and on the verge of collapse. Also, Bobbie was never very handy, but Gardner finds that she has rigged up her old water heater with some kind of new power source that is like nothing he has ever seen, her old typewriter hacks out novels while she sleeps, and her old farm tractor has a new gear that reads “up.”
Unbeknownst to Jim, there are strange things going on all over Haven. Spreading out from Bobbie’s house, in an ever widening radius, people have begun to change. They know things about each other now, deep, dark secrets that have never been discussed out loud. And it seems like everyone in town is inventing gadgets that defy the laws of science. Well, earthly science anyway, and they all use power sources, tangles of wire and D-cell batteries, just like the one in Bobbie’s water heater.
As days turn into weeks, the townsfolk of Haven resemble human beings less and less, and their collective mind powers grow stronger. Gardner has been immune to the effects so far; he believes the metal plate in his head may be the reason for this. Jim knows he must get out and tell someone what is happening in Haven, but he also knows that he is only safe as long as he is helping Bobbie dig. Time grows ever shorter as more and more of the artifact is uncovered, and Gardner has no idea what to do about it.
On the surface, The Tommyknockers is a pretty good science fiction tale, and pretty creepy too. A whole town full of people slowly turning into something alien, “becoming,” as they say in Haven, while a few regular folks are caught in their midst, forced to play along. In that regard, this story reminds me a little of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find something that’s a little more down to Earth, although no less terrifying. There are all kinds of horrors in the world; sometimes they lurk beneath the surface of the Earth, and sometimes they lurk beneath the surface of a human being. Both of King’s main characters, Bobbie and Gard, have terrors hidden within them. For Bobbie, it’s an over-bearing sister who wants to run her life. For Gard, it’s the bottle.
Stephen King spent five years writing The Tommyknockers, an unusually long time for one book. In his foreword, which is included in this audiobook, King says “this book was not so much written as gutted out.” The sentiment mirrors the overall theme of the book itself: demons must be exorcised, sometimes forcibly, like a rotted tooth. This coming from a man who has fought a few personal demons in his own life. Jim Gardner eventually comes to the realization that in order to save Haven, the artifact must be dug out and removed, just as his own demon must be removed, and that of his friend Bobbie, for them to be whole again.
Just as with authors, narrators can sometimes grab me right away, and sometimes they take a little while to grow on me. Edward Herrmann was of the latter variety: I was dubious at first, but over time I began to appreciate his style. He doesn’t really do voices very well, but he has a relaxed style that feels very natural.
Hermann is widely known for his role as Richard Gilmore on The Gilmore girls, and as Max the head vampire in the film The Lost Boys. He has also done voice work for The History Channel, PBS, and a lengthy television ad campaign for Dodge throughout the 1990’s.
Yes, Stephen King knows about personal demons, and I can see where The Tommyknockers might have been difficult for him to write, but I’m glad he did. This is one of my favorite King books.

CHECK OUT THESE OTHER AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS:
It by Stephen King (Audiobook Review)
The Dark Half by Stephen King (audiobook Review)
Insomnia by Stephen King (Audiobook Review)

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If you like this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:
Get “The Tommyknockers” by Stephen King (Unabridged Audiobook) from Blackstone Audio.

This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
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