So looking for some advice here. I've never done audio books. Im one of those folks who has often found them annoying because I read SO MUCH and SO FAST that I always figured I'd get frustrated with the pace.

But. While on furlough ive taken to doing some long walks. And for lack of anything else to do, wanted to try out some audio books. I doubt its something I will do regularly, but it keeps me occupied while exercising .

Of the books I got: One I got was Lord of The Rings (a comfortable old favorite) one was a book I hadn't read before, though I have read other things by the author (which were solid but not amazing) called "Middle-game"

The result was: I enjoyed the Lord of The Rings reading a ton. Far more than I expected. Ive read the book in print dozens of times without exaggeration, but I found myself excited listening to it on tape and even picking up on new ways of looking at scenes.

The other book? Awful. Painfully awful.

I could be wrong but I suspect the book itself is fine, if nothing special, if read directly. But the audio experience was painful.

It got me thinking, that probably with audio books you need to consider *two* things not one. The quality of the material and the quality of the reader as well.

So my question is 1) For veterans of this medium any recomendations for finding a good reader?
2) Any recomendations on audio books period?

 

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett has some good audiobooks, though it's hit or miss whether you'll get a narration style one or an audioplay (which I'm less fond of). I've had many a long distance drive go by listening to one of those.

Also, James Marsters (Spike in Buffy & Angel) narrates the Dresden Files audiobooks and he does a great job.

 

I use audible for my audio books, which is far from the cheapest option out there but keeps everything in the amazon family, has a very good UI, and isn't horrifically expensive as these things go. £8 for a new book every month, with other subscription options if you want more books each month.

I always got frustrated with the pace, much like you mention in your post, but I've found that speeding up the playback really helps with that. How fast I go depends on the narration style, but its usually between 1.25x and 2x.

Aek mentioned the Dresden Files. I think they're some of the best examples of high quality narration that I've come across.

I've enjoyed working through some of the Tom Clancy novels in audiobook, and Ken Follet's Kingsbridge series is also excellent narrated (and a good read).

 

I’ve primarily listened to audio books in lieu of reading for the last decade.

Quality of narrator is incredibly important as you said. Recent audio books are almost all at least listenable these days. 2010 onwards. Prior to that it can be hit and miss.

Another thing you’ll want to consider is length. Long series like Malazan or Wheel of Time are in order of 300-400 hours long. Don’t start there.

As mentioned, The Dresden Files narrated by James Masters is one of the best examples of good narration.

But there are many others. I’d look for book you enjoy rather than good narrators though. A good book can still be listenable with a questionable narrator, but a bad book is still shit no matter how good the narrator.

Here’s a few examples of audiobooks I enjoyed, but as I said, anything produced recently should be at least good. If not excellent.

• Tigana & Lions of Al Rassan by Guy Gabriel Kay.
  
• Expanse Series by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franick
• Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne by Brian Stavely
  
• Wheel of Time
• Anything by Sanderson
• The second recording of Malazan.

Also, send me a PM if you (or anyone else) would like a point in a direction to acquire audiobooks for cheaper than normal.

 

No one recommending Harry Potter? Wut?

Jim Dale's reading is excellent.

 

I've... never listened to Harry Potter. I've never reread the series after DH. I used to read it heaps, but after DH I just went into FF and never went back to the source material.

Maybe one day. Actually, I do need a new book series to listen to...

 

When considering the reader/looking for a good reader are there any tips or things you look for?

Like with a print book for instance, I might look to see if an author I respect (not one of the newpapers) wrote a blurb. Or ill take a look at some of the book blogs I trust. Or if its a brick and mortar store ill scan the first few pages. Really... even if I cant put my finger on how to explain it fully... I kind of feel like I know how to spot a book with potential when I browse them.

Any tips on what to look for when trying to identify a good reader?

 

I find that most readers at regular speed either read artificially slow, or have been slowed down in post.

Try listening at 1.5. I've been doing it for ages. It sounds more natural to me, but I'm a fast speaker.

 

I look at a couple different things. A small but powerful thing to look at is the audiobook's publisher. If it is someone like Tor or Penguin Random House you can basically be assured that the narrator is going to be good, and that the production quality is going to be damn high. You can also look at comments/reviews of the audiobook itself. People tend to be very vocal about the narrators in those.

You could also do a deep dive and look at the narrator's body of work. Typically, the more books they've narrated or voice work in general that they've done, there is a higher probability of them being a good narrator. And finally: If you have access to a sample, I'd give it a listen. Even good narrators can have bad readings because of production or artistic reasons. For example: I was going to get the Dresden File audiobooks, however I can't fucking stand the production. Yes, I get that James Marsters breathing into the microphone was an artistic decision. It was just a choice that lowers the quality in my personal opinion.

I'd say that instead of looking for good narrators first, find a book you want to listen to and then look into the narrators. The good news is that audiobooks seem like they are becoming ever more popular, which means we'll likely have an increase in good readings.

Out of curiosity, which LOTR audiobook was it? Because if it wasn't the unabridged Rob Inglis version, you're missing out.

If you have access to a sample, I'd recommend giving it a listen.

 

It was the unabridged Rob Inglis version, yes. What's the point of reading an abridged book? Especially when its a classic.

Sounds like mixed opinions on Dresden too. I have read the books a few times, so no need for the audio really I think unless its amazing.

 

Abridged audiobooks don't really get made anymore. They were basically a thing just because of cassette tapes, and a desire to have a shorter and cheaper production. And some were closer to radio adaptations with a full cast than a more traditional narration.

When it comes to abridged audiobooks, some are damn good and some are awful. I have it on good information that the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory abridged audiobook is fucking awful, with the abridging done incredibly poorly. In contrast, the Star Wars audiobooks up until sometime around/between Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi were almost all abridged, and were all exceptionally well done. Even in comparison to newer audiobooks coming out these days (like with Brandon Sanderson's stuff), I have yet to listen to an audiobook with a production quality higher than any of the Star Wars audiobooks (including the abridged ones).

 

If there's ever a choice, I'd always go for an unabridged recording. There's not many that I've seen recently that are abridged, but they still crop up from time to time, and they're just never quite as good.

Also, and this is definitely personal preference, I've rarely enjoyed an audiobook for a novel I didn't read myself first. But that runs completely counter to Innonime's post earlier, so YMMV.

The BBC did a series of Radio Plays, which aren't bad, and certainly capture the spirit, but aren't as good as the originals. Tony Robinson did a bunch of abridged versions, which are better.

The unabridged recordings were done by Nigel Planer, Stephen Briggs, and Celia Imrie. I've got the lot as MP3 cds (annoyingly, my car can't play that format, so I have to copy them to a player first); which are by far the best versions of these.


The HP series recorded by Stephen Fry is pretty good, and a staple of my childhood - I often put them on if I'm having trouble sleeping.

Hyperion cantos recorded by Victor Bevine is excellent, and available on Audible. Again, however, they were favourite books of younger me, and kept my occupied for an entire (rainy) summer holiday.

The Night's Dawn trilogy recorded by John Lee is another long and great series. However, the semi-gratuitous sex scenes kind of threw me when I was listening to them; because hearing it verbalised is somehow more explicit than reading it (again, available on audiobook).

I tend to prefer a single narrator to one per character. Hyperion is about the only exception to this, and that's more due to the format of the book than anything else.

 

I'm not gonna rec anything, 80% of what I listen to is LitRPG... it's a relatively new genre and I often find myself... settling...

 

+1 to Dresden Files. I'm re-listening to the series right now in preparation for the new releases this summer. The first few books are really low production quality, but after that the quality goes up and Marsters really gets into it. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and these are definitely among my favorites.

Some of the best audiobooks are auto narrated biographies. Bossypants, American of Purpose, etc.

 

I always thought all of Douglas Adams work that he self narrated was some of the best content out there.

 

For me, the best narrators tend to be professional actors / voice actors who know how to get into the character's voice and convey their personality and emotions. Some things that can make me hate a narrator's reading would be:

• Emotionless, monotone voice
• Using exactly the same voice and speaking style for all characters
• Not giving any indication when the speaker changes so it's impossible to know who's talking
  
• Terrible voices for the opposite sex (like men who do ridiculous high pitched female voices)
• Bad recording quality
• Breathing and mouth noises

Listening to the 5 minute audio sample and reading the reviews is usually enough to have a pretty good idea if you'll like a narrator. People will say in their reviews if the narration sucks. Be wary if a book has multiple narrators, because even if you like the person reading the sample, it might switch to someone terrible for the next chapter.

If you do accidentally buy a book with bad narration and don't want to finish it, I've found you can usually get away with returning it to get your credit back. Audible has a great return policy, no questions asked.

Here are a few of my personal favorites for narration:

• Agatha Christie's Poirot books narrated by Hugh Fraser, who played Hastings in the TV series and does a spot-on impression of David Suchet's Poirot.
  
• Jefferson Mays' narration of The Expanse books is excellent. (Just make sure you don't accidentally buy the version of Cibola Burn narrated Erik Davies, which sucked.)
• Most Georgette Heyer books have pretty good audiobooks, but I especially liked Sarah Woodward's narration of The Grand Sophy.
• Children of Time (possibly the best science fiction book of the last decade in my humble opinion) has beautiful narration.
  
• As others have said, The Dresden Files narrated by James Marsters is a classic.

 

how are asoiaf if anyone has ever tried those?

 

Tomb of Sargeras Audio Drama
If you enjoy Warcraft there are two pretty good short stories set before the Legion expansion. They're read by Steven Pacey which is my favorite narrator out of all I've ever listened to, and I typically go through an audiobook every week while working or hiking. The free audio drama should give you an idea of how he is at least.

He has also narrated The First Law by Joe Abercrombie, which is probably my all time favorite fantasy universe and I typically listen to all the books in no particular order once per year. At the moment the series consist of one thrilogy, three standalone books, one collection of short stories based on minor characters in the preceding six books and currently he is publishing a second trilogy set about 20 years after the first trilogy.

My second favorite narrator is probably Mark Boyett which typically narrates sci-fi fantasy books, including Undying Mercenaries
and Rebel Fleet, both written by B.V, Larson. They're not the greatest works of fiction ever written but I've always found them fascinating and often downright hilarious.

 

while not my favorite author, I do enjoy joe abercrombie. Dont know if you just didnt mention them, but he actually also has a second trilogy set in a different world which is also worth checking out.

 

It's been a long time, but the narrator isn't great. His pronunciation of some words is extremely grating. Pea-Tire for Petyr Baelish is the one I recall.