recommend me an audiobook?

[boxofdelights]

I just signed up for Audible. Is there anything from there that you would recommend? I read everything, but don't have a lot of experience listening to books. I do listen to podcasts. I care a lot about the enjoyability of the voice.

Comments

[sovay]

I read everything, but don't have a lot of experience listening to books. I do listen to podcasts. I care a lot about the enjoyability of the voice.

Normally I don't listen to audiobooks, but I have just been listening to Jeannelle M. Ferreira's The Covert Captain, read by Violet Dixon. I love the novel, and the narrator is so good that I don't care about her lack of English accent.

[isis]

Ooh, thanks for this rec, in passing!

[boxofdelights]

Thank you! I have the Covert Captain in paper, but I put the audiobook on my list too.

[isis]

I listen to a lot of audiobooks, though I don't buy from Audible, I get them from my library. One of my absolutely favorite series to listen to is the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith, as read by Lisette Lecat. The books are set in Botswana (they're not really mysteries, more slice-of-life human frailties and foibles, sort of like Lake Wobegon in Africa) and Lecat, who is South African, does the variety of African and Indian accents beautifully.

More recently, I loved Elizabeth Bear's Karen Memory in audiobook, read by Jennifer Grace. Also the Diviners series by Libba Bray, read by January LeVoy, is excellent.

Other readers I really love are Katherine Kellgren and Jeff Woodman.

[boxofdelights]

Thank you for the recs, and for reminding me that the library is a good place to test whether I want to listen to someone for several hours! I will seek those voices out.

[rachelmanija]

True Grit by Charles Porter, read by Donna Tartt. One of the two best audiobook performances I've ever heard. I LOVE her voice and she either has or uses an accent that's perfectly suited to this book.

Lord of the Rings, unabridged, read by Rob Inglis. The other best.

If you like Bruce Springsteen, he reads his own autobiography. TBH I just like listening to his gravelly voice, but it's also an interesting, well-written book if you're interested in him.

If you like Stephen King, he has a lot of really good audio performances and I could rec some specific ones.

[boxofdelights]

Thank you! I like Bruce Springsteen's voice too, and I didn't know his autobiography was good. I have also put True Grit on my list.

[telophase]

My husband and I commute together and listen to audiobooks in the car, mostly fantasy. The narrator who does Scott Lynch's Locke Lamora books is one of our favorites, as are the Terry Pratchett books read by Nigel Planer or Steven Briggs.

[boxofdelights]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will check them out.

[malnpudl]

Seconding the Pratchett rec. I have listened to all of them at least three times (and will again, and again). Much delight.

[rmc28]

I very much enjoyed Adjoa Andoh's narration of Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy trilogy, and I have Provenance on my to-buy list at some point.

I've also enjoyed Kevin R Free narrating All Systems Red (& again I intend to get the sequels when I'm caught up with my current audiobook purchases).

[loligo]

Seconding the Murderbot audio rec. I just posted a couple days ago that I love Kevin Free's narration so much that I would pass up a print copy of the book to listen to the audio instead -- which is pretty much unheard of for me!

Did you notice much difference between the first Radch book and the others? The first one has a different narrator (Celeste Ciulla) and I quite liked her performance. Given the first-person narration, she became the voice of Breq for me, and I was reluctant to try to get used to someone new, so I switched to reading for the rest of the series.

[boxofdelights]

Did you read Murderbot before listening to the audio? I am interested that you and Rachel both recommended it, but I don't like the idea of Murderbot sounding like a man.

[loligo]

No, I started with audio. I had assumed, ever since Murderbot explained the purpose of Sec Units in the first book, that its human parts appear male, because its makers would want to make their product look maximally intimidating to humans. But I don't know how much of that assumption was shaped by the voice of the narrator.

(I basically picture it looking like a Ken doll turned into a weapon-loaded cyborg -- bland and generic, yet ticking all the cultural boxes for masculinity.)

[telophase]

I read the novellas first, and then listened to the first one with Toby in the car, which was his first time with the story. Afterward, I asked Toby whether he imagined Murderbot as male- or female-bodied afterward and he said male-bodied, because of the narrator. I envision Murderbot as female-bodied, and I think that's because the author is, but I'm not entirely sure.

[luzula]

I tend to see Murderbot as more female than male too, but I think that's because they are fannish and fandom is more a female than a male space.

[malnpudl]

Poking my nose in here: I was also very resistant to a male narrator for Murderbot (and very disappointed at the choice), but I gave it a shot anyway and LOVED what Kevin Free did with it. Instantly forgot all my reservations and it just flowed. Probably helps that he doesn't sound... excessively masculine? For lack of a better way to put it.

[rmc28]

All three are read by Adjoa Andoh in my copies, which might be a UK/US difference. Andoh is a British actress with a whole string of TV appearances here (including as Martha's mother in Dr Who!) and I was particularly impressed by her use of accents to play up the colonial/class themes: https://flower-of-justice.dreamwidth.org/5101.html

[boxofdelights]

I remember Ann Leckie said she loved Adjoa Andoh's reading too. I will check it out.

I'm not sure about Murderbot, though. I don't want it to sound like a man in my head!

[carbonel]

I just finished listening (again) to the Audible version of Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, and recommend it highly. The reader does a great job with both the accents and the complicated names. And, of course, I love the story.

I also recommend the Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch. I believe all six novels, plus a novelette, are available from Audible.

I do not recommend London Falling by Paul Cornell. I bought that one when I had an Audible subscription, and I had trouble sorting what the reader was saying, even with the volume turned up. I ended up getting the book from the library and reading the text version instead.

And both sets of Harry Potter readers (Jim Dale for US, Stephen Fry for UK) are great, but I think only the former versions are available at Audible.

[boxofdelights]

I loved the Goblin Emperor! I am definitely putting that on my list. It doesn't seem like it would be easy to read aloud.

My husband got a bit grumpy with that book before I pointed out the list of names in the back.

[loligo]

I asked this question around 6 months ago and here's what people recommended on my post.

I'm finding that I particularly like audiobooks of stories written in first person. My next favorite is the sort of omniscient with colorful commentary (like Terry Pratchett). Least favorite is tight third.

[boxofdelights]

Thanks so much!

[randomdreams]

Radiolab. This American Life. More later...

[boxofdelights]

Good suggestions.

[seascribble]

Mary Beard's SPQR. Very pleasant to listen to, feels a lot like a podcast but many more hours.

[lydy]

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Seriously, wonderful reader.

If you want to be incredibly disturbed, Jeremy Irons reading Nobokov's Lolita.

[lydy]

Oh, and the Murderbot series has a wonderful reader.

[tylik]

So much depends on what you want to read Molly Harper write romance and paranormal romance, narrated by Amanda Ronconi, and they are funny and smart and perfect end of a stressful week recovery books. Amanda Ronconi's narrations are not only spot on, they make them better.

Diane Armstrong's Winter Journey, narrated by Deidre Rubenstein... okay, I'll admit I don't remember the narration as much as I remember the emotional impact of the book, but the whole thing worked wonderfully. (Kind of the polar opposite in subject matter - forensic odontologist looking into WWII grave sites in Poland.)

I'm generally fond of Grover Gardner's narrations of Bujold's works.

Vikas Adams it superb in Rachel Aaron's nice dragon books.

Julia Whelan is generally strong - and did Tara Westover's Educated, which I recommend highly.

Gerard Doyle is also terrific - and particularly so in Adrian McKinty's Sean Duffy books.

Want to narrow the field a little more?

[replyhazy]

I really love John Scalzi's Lock In. I have it in the mildly sarcastic tones of Wil Wheaton, but you can also get it read by Amber Benson. The first person narrator is not gendered in the narrative so either works great!