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For audiobooks, does it matter who reads them?

Humes fork

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Humes fork
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I came across an audiobook of Pale Blue Dot. About half was read by Carl Sagan, the rest by someone else.

I must confess to enjoying the parts read by Sagan much more than the rest. Maybe because the other guy sounded like a corporate spokesman, but still.
 
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The narrator can destroy a perfectly good book, but a good one makes listening a memorable experience. A slight British accent helps.

For example, Simon Prebble who has done most of the Dick Francis books is excellent; he manages all sorts of accents and women's and children's voices. He's an actor. The Wilbur Smith, Courtney series books are excellent examples of a great narrator also. The narrators for Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories and Tony Hillerman's books are other examples of exceptionally well read stories.

Generally, books read by the author are not great, but I recently listened to Lawrence Krauss' Universe from Nothing, and he did a fairly good job. Too fast though. On Audible.com, you can listen to a sample for each book and decide if it is acceptable.

I have a book currently, The Sixth Extinction, read by a woman whose voice is just too monotone, and it tends to put me to sleep.

ETA: Just remembered, listening to the guy reading Einstein's Cosmos, by Michio Kaku, he seems to have practiced pronunciation of some difficult words, but misses some important concepts. He was talking about Schroedinger's cat, and allowed as how the cat has "one thousand and twenty-five atoms, and that's a very large number". I suspect he really meant 1025 atoms. :D
 
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I listened to 'A Handwife's Tale' (I think that's the title) which was supposed to be really good, but I hated it. I suspect part of it was the woman's droning voice which never quite resolved at the end of sentences, just kind of trailed away. It drove me nuts.
 
Just try a book on libravox read by different readers. Some are clearly better than others
 
pgwenthold said:
Just try a book on libravox read by different readers. Some are clearly better than others
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I found one on Libravox read by a reader with an annoyingly depressing voice. It turned out to be a really depressing story, so a good match!
 
Most audiobooks I've tried have been at least listenable (I generally don't mind a dry and boring reading). Some have been very good. But I could not get through the narration for Game of Thrones. He does a different voice for each character and I don't particularly like the voices, so it throws me way off.
 
I have not heard a lot of audiobooks, but a good reader is definitely an asset. As it happens, most of what I've heard is good, but I suppose some effort is made to get good ones, as in the radio show "Selected Shorts" which also often has very good readers doing new and classic short stories.
 
Tiktaalik said:
I listened to 'A Handwife's Tale' (I think that's the title) which was supposed to be really good, but I hated it. I suspect part of it was the woman's droning voice which never quite resolved at the end of sentences, just kind of trailed away. It drove me nuts.
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Interesting because I liked that book but the narrator doesn't stand out in my mind.

I especially cringe when some male readers try to imitate a female voice and end up sounding annoying.


One would hope the droning narrators will eventually stop being hired now that audiobooks have increased in popularity.

The "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion" reader I'm currently listening to is excellent.
 
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I've been listening to the song of fire and ice series, it's ok but dang, when the narrator does a young woman voice, it sounds like a half drunk Irish cab driver.
 
Yes, I must confess that I prefer English readers to the Americans (not all, but some). Actors make a good job of it, usually, but other "straight readers" have also been good. I've listened to books I wouldn't otherwise have "borrowed" just because I've liked the reader on other stories.
 
The British and US versions of the Harry Potter books provide an interesting comparison. The British one is read by Stephen Fry, who is an excellent voice actor. I don't know the name of the US narrator, who does a fine job of not sounding too American, but still doesn't quite reach Fry's mellifluousityTM. I found it amazing what a difference this makes to the atmosphere.

Librivox is on the far end of the scale, though - complete potluck. Some stuff is definitely being read by people whom the microphone loveth not. Still, gift horses and suchlike.
 
Floyt said:
The British and US versions of the Harry Potter books provide an interesting comparison. The British one is read by Stephen Fry, who is an excellent voice actor. I don't know the name of the US narrator, who does a fine job of not sounding too American, but still doesn't quite reach Fry's mellifluousityTM. I found it amazing what a difference this makes to the atmosphere.

Librivox is on the far end of the scale, though - complete potluck. Some stuff is definitely being read by people whom the microphone loveth not. Still, gift horses and suchlike.
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The US version was read by Jim Dale, who was born and grew up in England.

It's difficult for me to decide which version is better. Jim Dale's is based on the US versions of the HP books (a minus), but he is a more playful reader. He tries to give each character his/her own voice characterization that's a lot of fun considering the nature of HP books*. Stephen Fry does not do as much voice characterization/differentiation, but… it's so immensely British as I think HP should be done.

The reader and his/her approach how to do an audiobook is immensely important to me. Herein lies a problem, as the reader is not heavily advertised, and his/her style is only revealed by listening in.

I believe that the reader should get equal billing to the author for the audio version of the book. And there should be proper and carefully selected audio samples. A lot of samples I tried are tedious to work through, as they are simply taken from the beginning (with intro music and intro narration) with very little actual text from the reader itself, and, since it's from the beginning, with very little dramatic embellishment. I don't think that publishing companies put much effort into advertising. Considering how expensive most audiobooks are that's bad service to us customers. I don't buy and don't listen to many audiobooks because it's so tedious finding out which book and reading is worth my money.

Even if you know the reader, it can be a bad reading. I have a version of Crichton's "Andromeda Strain" read by Chris Noth. I know him. I know he's a capable actor (that's usually a plus), but this reading is simply tedious. He doesn't do any character differentiation making it very hard to follow who's talking. At least he should do different characterization for general narration and another for speech. He's emphasizing the wrong parts all over -- he's making little side comments more important than the really important bits and pieces.

Then I have a version of "The Silence of the Lambs", in German, read by the lady who provide the German speaking voice for Jodie Foster. She mostly does a good job, but when it comes to English words and names, her pronunciation is atrocious. For instance, she doesn't know how to pronounce "precious" (which was left as is for the sequences with Buffalo Bill. There's no German word that can quite grasp the same meaning), so Buffalo Bill comes across too ridiculous.

*I'm not saying that this way to do an audio version is the way to do one. It works for the HP books, but other books need other approaches. Some people like audiobooks where the reader keeps dramatization and emotion out. I, however, like that quite a bit. Ultimately I think that an audiobook is a different media than a book, and should be treated as such. I have numerous versions of "The Lord of the Rings", in both English and German, and a straight out reading sucks, no matter who does it. By far the two best versions are dramatized audio plays, with multiple actors. It's funny how the German audio play I have, done a long time before the movies, uses a very similar sequence of events as the Peter Jackson movies, different from the books. By contrast, the British one (it's a BBC radio dramatization) is completely different.
 
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elgarak said:
It works for the HP books, but other books need other approaches. Some people like audiobooks where the reader keeps dramatization and emotion out. I, however, like that quite a bit.
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I agree that it depends on the book, and the quality of the performance. I like the dramatization when it "fits". Sometimes, just reading the story well is enough.

I get my audiobooks from the library. I think I'd have a really hard time picking ones to buy. As you say, even people you've liked in other media may not "fit" the story or their performance doesn't "fit".

BTW, I could listen to Stephen Fry reciting his shopping list.....
 
Lolly said:
BTW, I could listen to Stephen Fry reciting his shopping list.....
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Yes. Stephen Fry does great readings, no matter what. It's evident he loves literature, likes to do it justice, and is very knowledgeable all around, so he knows how to emphasize.

Sometimes I think readers are hired guns. They come in a studio, given a text, and drone on. They don't do preparation and read the book through before they do the recording.

There's a big voice-over industry here in Germany due to dubbing everything. A lot of actors earn their money this way, and there's easy money to be made doing audiobooks and porn dubbing.

Except that they approach jobs like I describe above, and no one cares. There's even dubbing of mainstream media (i.e., not porn, where the not-caring is somewhat justifiable) where no one seems to care about the quality. Like re-releases of blockbuster movies that for some reason or another need a new audio track. Example: Raiders of the Lost Ark was given a new dub, since the old masters were not sufficient for a 5.1 surround sound. It sucks. Big time. There's the same actor doing Harrison Ford as always (he also did the old dub), but it's noticeable he doesn't wants to do it. And he's one of the old professionals who usually does a good job no matter what. The old dub was much much better.
 
I can't bear watching dubbed foreign movies. Even if you don't understand a word and have to rely on the subtitles, it is never "right" having somebody else's voice coming out of the actors.
 
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