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What is your favourite audiobook?
Some books are adapted to the medium of audiobooks better than others. A mediocre narrator can taint what is otherwise a great story. Likewise, an outstanding narrator can uplift what is an average story.
For me, His Dark Materials is the best audiobook I've listened to. It's read by the author, and has a full cast of (fantastic) voice actors for each character, it brings the story to life so wonderfully. To the point that even if I read the book now, I hear a good amount of the voice cast speaking for each character.
If you haven't heard it, I can recommend it! Honourable mention goes to Stephen Fry reading the Harry Potter series.
What is your favourite audiobook?
A Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones basically) narrated by Roy Dotrice. Too bad we will never get to hear books 6 and 7 in his voice. It's only one narrator but he does great voices and he keeps it consistent throughout the books. These audiobooks helped me through an otherwise unbearable commute a few years back.
I've listened to these, and they're pretty good. I can't remember who it was that did the 4th book, but I remember it being a relief when it was back to Dotrice for Dance with Dragons.
Dotrice has done all five books, but for some reason book four was really hard to find. Audible had it but it wouldn't show up in the search for some reason. I eventually found it and switched to it because I couldn't stand the other narrator after listening to three books by Roy Dotrice.
Good to know! To own the truth, I pirated the audiobooks, so it was a case of getting whatever was available!
I'm not much for audiobooks since I generally prefer to read books myself and when I need "background noise" to keep my mind busy while I do something mundane, I usually just listen to podcasts.
However, it's funny you should mention Stephen Fry since he is my favorite person in the world and when I signed up for Audible once a few years ago, even though I had already read it several times before, I got the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy audiobook purely because he was the narrator. It was every bit as wonderful and hilarious as I thought it would be (as were the others narrated by Martin Freeman). And for those who didn't know, Stephen Fry and Douglas Adams were very close friends... Fry even wrote Adams obituary, so him narrating the first audiobook is incredibly appropriate.
I have never actually read Harry Potter though... so maybe I should look into getting the audiobook versions if Fry is the narrator for those too. :)
p.s. If you have never had the delight of hearing Fry speak before, I highly recommend this little clip of him discussing language.
Stephen Fry is a national treasure, I love his work. If you've not read/listened to his memoirs, I can definitely recommend them! He's had a very interesting life, and there are some fantastic larger-than-life characters he seems to have come across in his time. Really worth your time.
Yeah, I have read all three and would second the recommendation. I would also seriously recommend the TV documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive as well. And the follow up to that, The Not So Secret Life... 10 Years On is also good too.
p.s. If memoirs, autobiographies and documentaries on mental illness aren't people's thing... I would at least suggest they watch QI. It's by far the best panel show ever made, IMO, and easily in my top 10 favorite TV shows, panel or otherwise.
I love Stephen Fry! I didn't know he did audiobooks! That's awesome, I'll look into all those… I'll definitely get the HHGG, as I've not read it yet (only watched the 1981 series).
Oooh, the series is fabulous! It's far superior to the film IMHO. The books are magical as well
I haven't heard Stephen Fry's HHGG but the Harry Potter series was absolutely fantastic. Definitely liked it more than the Jim Dale version.
The original Thrawn trilogy on Audible was really good. The books themselves are a bop, but something about the added sound effects really brings home the star wars setting.
Oh my. I think there's a version of Rime of the Ancient Mariner out there, read by Ian McKellan as well. I must try to locate it.
This was actually far easier than expected. I swear the last time I looked a couple of years ago it was nowhere to be found!
That's Sir that Ian McKellan to you sir!
This is so hard, because I love audiobooks! Anything by Neil Gaiman is amazing, especially because he reads them himself; I think my favorite is The Graveyard Book.
I also absolutely love "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern- Jim Dale's reading of it is a masterpiece for me. Another favorite is "The Thirtheenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield and read by Bianca Amato
ASOIAF by Roy Dotrice. Stormlight archive by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. LOTR by Rob Inglis.
I love audiobooks, and could name lots of favorites, but I'll single out World War Z by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks' son).
(note, if you've seen the movie version of World War Z with Brad Pitt don't let it bias you - they took a truly original book about zombies and turned it into an absolutely generic and mediocre movie about zombies)
The book is structured as a Studs Terkel style oral history - the premise being there was a zombie outbreak in the recent past, and the author is going around interviewing survivors about their experiences. Each chapter is an interview with a different person, and they're woven together very well to give the full arc of the "outbreak" from the initial cases, to the mass infection, the survivors finding ways to live, and the mopping-up once it's contained.
The format of the book obviously lends itself well to audio, but where it really shines is the quality of the voice acting. Max Brooks, because of his family connections to Hollywood, was able to assemble an amazing cast to provide the voices. They're all great, but the two that really stuck in my mind is Alan Alda as the de-facto President, and Nathan Fillion as a grunt who was on the "front lines" of the Army trying to fight the outbreak using conventional military tactics.
The BBC rendition of Rendezvous with Rama.
Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology read by Neil himself. It's this perfect combination of storyteller and narrator that I cannot recommend enough. I love Loki as a character (he is my spirit animal), and he figures prominently in all of the stories Neil tells. And his voice... swoon So. So. Good. So good. He does a bit of voice acting for different characters, but nothing ridiculous (not like the narrator for all of Tolkien's work... ugh), and I'm sure the accent is part of it. Could not get enough of it. Absolutely my favorite audiobook and I wish there was more of it. That's my only criticism: it's too short.
I like "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Lowen and "People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. First reason is because they are on youtube, feeding into the second reason which is I am lazy and both these both would take me weeks and weeks to finish. Third reason, is I love unlearning the rich man's lies! Popular, revisionist history is essential in a world where history is written by the winners.
Plus, these books are both really beautifully written and a real pleasure to listen to. If you are taking Amtrak anywhere soon, I suggest you spend some time with these volumes.