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Insomnia | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Signet
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.01
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Avg. Customer Rating:  402 reviews
Sales Rank: 14875
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 672
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 4.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0451184963
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780451184962
ASIN: 0451184963
Publication Date: September 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Ralph Roberts hasn't been sleeping well lately. Every morning he wakes just a little bit earlier until pretty soon, he isn't sleeping at all. It wouldn't be so bad if not for the strange hallucinations--and the nightmares that keep coming to life.
Book Description
Ralph Roberts has an incurable case of insomnia, but lack of sleep is the least of his worries. Each night he stays awake, he witnesses more of the odd activity taking place in his town after dark than he wants to know. His bizarre visions keep getting more intense, the strange deaths have just begun, and Ralph knows he isn't hallucinating.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 397 more reviews...
 LET THE GOOSE BUMPS RISE, AND ENJOY EVERY LINE September 26, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
A method actor who received much of his training at the famed Actor's Studio, Eli Wallach has been delivering stellar performances on both stage and screen for the past 50 years. He gives us one more outstanding performance as he narrates Stephen King's lauded Insomnia.
While Wallach's name might not be familiar to some, his face certainly is as he has appeared in numerous major films, such as The Magnificent Seven, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and The Misfits. He has received four Emmy nominations, and received a Tony for his role in The Rose Tattoo. Wallach also penned his autobiography The Good, The Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage, which I surely recommend. His narration of Insomnia leaves listeners both chilled and thrilled by his rendering of this iconic tale.
Many of us probably have a sleepless night or two, but few are as troubled by insomnia as Ralph Roberts., a widower who lives in Derry, Maine. Ralph's problem is not a mere case of tossing, turning, then finally dropping off. No, Ralph's insomnia involves seeing things, hazes or auras if you will as well as colors around his friends. He becomes aware not only of another plane of existence but that his hometown is in grave danger from an evil force. To compound matters Ralph's lady friend, Lois Chasse, suffers from the same malady, and it seems they've been chosen to put things right - if possible.
Listen, let the goose bumps rise, and enjoy every line.
- Gail Cooke
 Perhaps One Of King's Worst August 1, 2008
This was the slowest paced of any Stephen King book I have read. The set-up to the traditional King "battle of good and evil" that occurs in the last 100 pages of nearly all his books could have been honed down, sparing the reader 500 pages of one useless waste of time. Dull, dull, dull. Yawn, yawn, yawn. A jolt of Red Bull could barely keep me awake for this ineptly written tale. The story of the mythological three Fates is neither new to modern literature nor particularly interesting as interpreted by King. Although the characters of Ralph and Lois are likeable, their being wrapped up in a mystery they don't understand leads the reader to lose interest quickly. King needed serious editing on this book. It should have had the the pacing of an Alfred Hitchcock film, but instead, King wrote it like Erich Von Stroheim directed it: a tortured and boring development for an idea that didn't merit it. I needed toothpicks to keep my eyelids open for most of it. As for the King fright-o-meter: listening to crickets chirp in the dead of evening is scarier. Watch "Blair Witch" instead. Even THAT was more frightening than this stinker.
Tough to pigeon-hole December 10, 2007
I felt compelled to review this book. This is one of my favorite stories of all time, from any author. I don't really understand reviewers who are disappointed because this isn't "typical King." What would typical King be? Those of us who have been lifelong readers of Stephen King understand that there is no typical Stephen King story. He has given us such diverse gems as The Eyes of the Dragon, Christine, The Green Mile, and The Langoliers. For me this book was no harder to get into than The Dark Tower or The Talisman. I know one thing from reading his stories - it is ALWAYS worth the effort. Insomnia is no exception. In my opinion, this is his most imaginative tale of all. The character development is incredibly deep and true, and the way all loose threads are tied up in the end is absolutely amazing. I think those expecting "typical King" have watched one too many screen adaptations of his early work. Just take the ride - you won't be disappointed!
 A Portal Novel Among King's Works November 4, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book takes me back. I read it after school for about a week straight following its release, and I remember thinking how it was one of the first times Stephen King really showed us the interconnectedness of his works, something he'd been hinting at for years. "I'm actually only writing one long story in dozens of volumes," King had said on occasion, and Insomnia proved him right. With cross-over's, tie-in's, and references to so many previous King tales, from Pet Sematary and the Gunslinger on, Insomnia was like some massive transit station held between two manic looking red book covers.
As for the tale it tells in its own right, Insomnia, King's mid-90's mega-novel, breaks the traditional storytelling mold by being set among a cast composed mostly of people in their seventies and beyond. As he is stricken with insomnia and begins to see some very strange things in the dead of night, Derry, Maine resident and man of advanced years, Ralph Roberts, is unwittingly a witness to creatures from an alternate dimension caught up in the midst of a terrible war. On one side are beings of good who serve order, and on the other are those who seek to bring about the chaotic reign of the dreaded Crimson King, a figure of inhuman evil and insanity who comes to be of great importance in King's Dark Tower (and other) books. Alongside Ralph is another senior citizen and fellow insomniac, Lois Chasse, who has also seen the creatures who inhabit the night. Together these unlikely heroes quest to halt the plans of evil, which have been fed by and become focused on the growing dissention in Derry which surrounds the visit of a powerful and divisive figure in the "Pro-Choice" movement who is scheduled to speak at a crowded civic center. In due time Lois and Ralph learn the murderous intentions of the Crimson King, who has possessed the mind of a citizen of Derry. This man is being unwittingly employed by evil to carry out an act of mass murder, all with a goal of eliminating a single individual who stands in the way of the Crimson King and his minions.
Insomnia has a likable tone and a denser than expected storyline that skips along at a rapid pace and is populated by familiar landmarks, references to other books, and characters so welcoming that it takes a devoted Stephen King reader a long time to notice there really isn't a lot going on in this novel. Mostly if King's career is studied as a whole Insomnia fits in more as a gathering point to re-direct the entire canon toward the conclusion of the "one long story" foreshadowed in the Dark Tower. Although it contains a beginning, middle, and end, and could be read alone without turning the page of any other Stephen King book, Insomnia really functions best when it is understood to be what it is at its core: a signpost passed by on a much longer literary journey.
Three and a half stars.
In the court of the crimson king October 17, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The rusted chains of prison moons is shaterd buy the sun. I walk a road, horizons change the tourment's begun. The purple piper plays his tune, the choir softly sing; Three lullabies in an ancient tongue, for the court of the crimson king. king crimson. Feed your head.
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