13 votes

What do Audible narrators sound like?

20 comments

  1. [3]
    tomf
    Link
    This is great. Scott Brick makes everybody sound like a whiny bitch. It sucks because he's the most employed in the space. I have grown to deal with it... but I really wish he'd retire.

    This is great.

    Scott Brick makes everybody sound like a whiny bitch. It sucks because he's the most employed in the space. I have grown to deal with it... but I really wish he'd retire.

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      first-must-burn
      Link Parent
      He's top of my list for unpleasant narration. I will almost refuse listen to things he does, unless I am very interested in the source.

      He's top of my list for unpleasant narration. I will almost refuse listen to things he does, unless I am very interested in the source.

      1 vote
      1. tomf
        Link Parent
        yeah, this is where I am. What got me is that the first bit of Jurassic Park was pretty good, but then he slipped back into his normal pattern. There was another series where he wasn't doing his...

        yeah, this is where I am. What got me is that the first bit of Jurassic Park was pretty good, but then he slipped back into his normal pattern. There was another series where he wasn't doing his sing-song stuff and it was pretty good. I should just write the guy... maybe nobody has told him that he's ruining macho characters :)

        1 vote
  2. xk3
    Link
    The harsh reviews are a bit funny to read. (Un)fortunately a lot of the bad Audible narrations have been updated. Fantasy Football Romance - Box Set: Seasons 1-4 seems to still be robotic so that...

    The harsh reviews are a bit funny to read. (Un)fortunately a lot of the bad Audible narrations have been updated. Fantasy Football Romance - Box Set: Seasons 1-4 seems to still be robotic so that one is likely to not have been updated between the time this article was written

    3 votes
  3. [3]
    battybattybat
    Link
    I enjoy listening to audiobooks, mostly checked out from my local library through the Libby app (which supports filtering by narrator). I would hate for anyone to completely write off audiobooks...

    I enjoy listening to audiobooks, mostly checked out from my local library through the Libby app (which supports filtering by narrator).

    I would hate for anyone to completely write off audiobooks after reading this thread, so here are a few narrators I can recommend. The books listed are just the recordings that I've listened to, but there are many more to choose from for each narrator.

    Narrator Book Title Author
    Simon Prebble The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
    Edoardo Ballerini Wool Hugh Howey
    Luke Daniels The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu
    Lynne Thigpen Parable of the Sower Octavia E. Butler
    Ben Sullivan The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder

    If anyone has some female narrators they really like I'd love some recommendations!

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      first-must-burn
      Link Parent
      Kate Reading! She co-narrated The Wheel of Time with Michael Kramer (they are married) and now they do the Stormlight books. Unfortunately, most of her solo work is romance novels. She did Connie...

      Kate Reading! She co-narrated The Wheel of Time with Michael Kramer (they are married) and now they do the Stormlight books. Unfortunately, most of her solo work is romance novels. She did Connie Willis' The Bellwether, which is one of my favorite books.

      3 votes
      1. battybattybat
        Link Parent
        Thanks! Romance novels are not off limits for me at all. :)

        Thanks! Romance novels are not off limits for me at all. :)

        1 vote
  4. [11]
    lou
    (edited )
    Link
    Audiobooks add way too much noise to a book. As the article exemplifies, most narrators are awful. They all sound super annoyed because they have to read 500 pages out loud. No one can avoid...

    Audiobooks add way too much noise to a book. As the article exemplifies, most narrators are awful. They all sound super annoyed because they have to read 500 pages out loud. No one can avoid sounding like that because reading 500 pages of anything out loud is awful. They are over it by page ten.

    Narrators sound like they were recorded in a bathroom using a phone from 2007. Some were literally recorded in the 1990s. How can all podcasts on Earth manage to sound better than every single audiobook? Going from podcast to audiobook is a huge downgrade. I hate audiobooks. I have difficulty understanding why anyone would prefer audiobooks to podcasts, unless you don't have a lot of time and must read a book for college or work.

    2 votes
    1. [8]
      tomf
      Link Parent
      which audiobooks have you listened to? Simon Vance often has a little street noise if you listen close, but most books i’ve listened to were recorded in a booth. there are old recordings that were...

      which audiobooks have you listened to? Simon Vance often has a little street noise if you listen close, but most books i’ve listened to were recorded in a booth.

      there are old recordings that were on tape and some others recorded by volunteers for blind people — but almost all of these have a good quality recording with a professional performance available now.

      5 votes
      1. [7]
        lou
        Link Parent
        I don't read new books so that is probably why I only listened to awful audiobooks.

        I don't read new books so that is probably why I only listened to awful audiobooks.

        1 vote
        1. [2]
          updawg
          Link Parent
          But do you only listen to old, obscure books? I can only think of one "bad" recording and a lot of people love it so that might be largely personal preference.

          But do you only listen to old, obscure books? I can only think of one "bad" recording and a lot of people love it so that might be largely personal preference.

          1 vote
          1. lou
            Link Parent
            I do not read anything new or mainstream.

            I do not read anything new or mainstream.

        2. [4]
          tomf
          Link Parent
          toss out a name. i want to hear what you’re hearing, though :) there are some terrible rips out there, too. Stephen J Cannell, that guy at the end of a lot of tv shows in the 80s who ripped the...

          toss out a name. i want to hear what you’re hearing, though :) there are some terrible rips out there, too. Stephen J Cannell, that guy at the end of a lot of tv shows in the 80s who ripped the paper out of the typewriter and it made a ‘C’, wrote a decent serious of cop books (also with whiny Scott Brick, my nemesis) — anyway, the only recording i can find for the last book sounds like it was recorded by Edison on wax. I don’t know how people can listen to low quality audio anyway, but this is… inaudible.

          1. [3]
            lou
            Link Parent
            All books by Greg Egan sound like they were recorded in a bathroom by someone who was pissed off. Also Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Probably some other classic sci-fi I can't remember.

            All books by Greg Egan sound like they were recorded in a bathroom by someone who was pissed off. Also Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Probably some other classic sci-fi I can't remember.

            4 votes
            1. updawg
              Link Parent
              There are 77 titles by Marcus Aurelius on Audible. Most of them seem to be versions of his Meditations, many of them with high quality recordings, including at least one read by a movie star.

              There are 77 titles by Marcus Aurelius on Audible. Most of them seem to be versions of his Meditations, many of them with high quality recordings, including at least one read by a movie star.

              1 vote
            2. tomf
              Link Parent
              oh yeah, Adam Epstein sounds terrible compared to Paul Boehmer (Dichronauts) -- I only listened to samples. Like, I used to work in the music business and I know a lot of people who produced and...

              oh yeah, Adam Epstein sounds terrible compared to Paul Boehmer (Dichronauts) -- I only listened to samples.

              Like, I used to work in the music business and I know a lot of people who produced and edited audiobooks for their bread and butter. The quality of so many audiobooks is shameful.

    2. Weldawadyathink
      Link Parent
      I think you are just getting unlucky with your narrator selections. A bad narrator can make for a miserable audiobook experience. But a good narrator can make for a better experience than reading...

      I think you are just getting unlucky with your narrator selections. A bad narrator can make for a miserable audiobook experience. But a good narrator can make for a better experience than reading a book yourself. The easiest example of this is dramatized books. They are an acquired taste, but they can absolutely give you an experience a book can’t. For a more traditional narrating experience, a good example is Phil Dragash’s Lord of the Rings books (available on archive.org). This was a hobby project, so there are some narration issues, but it is still very good. Comparable to the best podcasts for sure. Finally, I am currently reading through three His Dark Materials trilogy read by Ruth Wilson (Mrs Coulter from the TV show). It is a fantastic rendition of a fantastic book.

      2 votes
    3. first-must-burn
      Link Parent
      If you like older work, you might check out things narrated by George Guidall. His heyday was with recorded books in the 80s and 90s.

      If you like older work, you might check out things narrated by George Guidall. His heyday was with recorded books in the 80s and 90s.

      2 votes
  5. [2]
    protium
    (edited )
    Link
    Somewhat related, but what are people's thoughts on author-narrated audiobooks? I see a lot of value in literally having the authors voice come out through the text, but at the same time someone...

    Somewhat related, but what are people's thoughts on author-narrated audiobooks? I see a lot of value in literally having the authors voice come out through the text, but at the same time someone more experienced in narrating is probably better at sounding pleasing to the listener and making the content accessible.

    I find that I prefer non-fiction to be author narrated, while I think there's more of an art to narration in fiction that only a good performer can bring out.

    2 votes
    1. Shevanel
      Link Parent
      I’m 100% with you. Fiction is told from the perspective of a variety of characters, and often an omniscient narrator. That narrator isn’t usually meant to be the author themselves, so it would...

      I’m 100% with you. Fiction is told from the perspective of a variety of characters, and often an omniscient narrator. That narrator isn’t usually meant to be the author themselves, so it would make sense to find someone to embody that story-teller’s perspective. On the other hand, non-fiction books are ostensibly the author speaking to their audience directly, so as long as the author isn’t a terrible speaker, it usually works out halfway decently. There are exceptions in either case, of course, but I usually don’t shy away from self-narrated NF.

      1 vote