Voices for audio books

Okay, I kicked this one off some time ago on 'Book Talk' - I think - and it plummeted to the ground within minutes. But I am an optimistic soul and am going to see if it will fly at the Green Dragon...

Audio books - voices on - preferences for...

Who do you think has a voice easy to listen to for an hour at a time? And what perfect marriages of voice to text have you come across?

I have listened to very few audio books, though intend to rectify that, but have listened to many UK Radio 4 broadcasts of fiction read aloud. I probably put Juliet Stevenson high on the list, and Hannah Gordon. For the guys, Simon Russell Beale and (probably a bit old now) Robert Powell.

Any takers?

I'm glad you started this! I've only recently begun to listen to audio books in my car commuting to work. I am set on collecting all of the books Neil Gaiman has narrated. His voice is music to my ears and he has wonderful inflection and expression.

I am tempted to buy Lord of the Rings on CD, but I'm not sure about the narrators on that. I once heard Tolkien reading a bit of it and it was marvelous, wish he had done the whole thing.

This will be a starred thread for me, I need more audio books!

Two of my favourites are Robert Powell (particularly when he narrates Non-Fiction like The Adventure of English) and Saul Reichlin, whose narration of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the other Milennium books is a work of genius in melding subject matter with voice tone.

I would probably buy any book narrated by John Malkovich to be honest. But, alas, I doubt that will happen...

oh, I am so glad you started this thread. I've been toying with the idea of starting to listen to books while driving to the Nanny house. I was looking at The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and may go pick it up this morning. Yay!

I *loved* that audio Maggie. Would highly recommend it.

I tried to listen to an audio version of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld once but I had to turn it off because the reader's voice was so grating and terrible.

On the other hand, I have listened to all sorts of Torchwood and Doctor Who audiobooks, not because the books are particularly good (they almost never are) but because the cast members read them, and most of the cast members have lovely voices.

I just reserved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo audio on CD from the library. Thanks!

My favorite Audio narrator is Tim Curry. He did Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice and The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix. His voice is like butter!!!!!!! **purrrrr** My least favorite audio book narration is sadly, Peter Beagle reading his book Tamsin. I could only listen to about an hour of it and then I couldn't take anymore. It was incredibly creepy listening to an older man's voice talking as if he were a 13 year old girl. I was done when he/she started discussing periods. I have never gone back and read the book either even though I have heard that it is great.

Edited for a response to #7... OMG! I didn't realize that the audio books were narrated by the cast members. I adore it when Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper) says the word "Torchwood". She could read me the phone book.

I love Tim Curry too - I've got Sabriel narrated by him. 'Butter' is such a good description.

Jim Dale has done an amazing job with the U.S. Harry Potter books. He probably should get some kind of award for stamina, too. :-)

I saw him in Candide on Broadway, and he was great in that, too.

My daughter is a HUGE fan of all things Harry and I am looking in used book stores for the books on CD. So far we have 2, 3, and 5. We started listening to #2 in the car and were immediately transported. Now we are planning a road trip so we can listen to all of them.

Stephen Fry - I've heard him reading one of the Harry Potter books and A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I even find myself tuning in when someone is playing Little Big Planet on the PS3 which Fry also narrates. Fry's voice makes me think of a great big teddy bear.

Nathaniel Parker - The first five of the Artemis Fowl books were wonderful, lots of different voices so you have no problem figuring out which character is speaking. It seemed like he must have had so much fun narrating this series. I found I couldn't listen to the 6th Artemis book which was read by someone different; I read the book instead.

Lenny Henry - I've only heard him read Anansi Boys but thought he was great. Made me laugh out loud several times.

At the moment I'm listening to The Last Days of Dogtown read by Kate Nelligan who has a low, clear, beautiful voice. I find I don't like female narrators as much as male, but I love listening to Nelligan.

Edited to remove extra EEEs

#12 - mamzel, I love your reason for planning a road trip :o)

Driving to my MIL's takes about a half hour and the last time I went with my boys we started listening to The Hobbit read by Nichol Williamson (another great reader, even if it's abridged, but it's copied from my husband's albums that he listened to as a kid.) But that means we've only been listening to it in bits since then, on longer than five minute drives, and both boys have to be in the car so one doesn't miss anything. I think we may have to plan a road trip as well!

I listened to James Herriot's dog stories, read by Christopher Timothy. He played Herriot in the All Creatures Great and Small series and he does a wonderful job with the various accents. He does an amusing Mrs. Pumphries, sounding much like the actress on the the series.

I am rediscovering Harry Potter with audio. So many details in the first few chapters that I have "lost" through the movies, or even quick rereads. I even thought that the book was starting with an unfamiliar prologue, LOL. Didn't remember how much *Mr. Dursley* there was at the beginning. And how delicious to feel his distress building as he notices all the strangeness around him.

I didn't want to leave the car when I got home. Hagrid had just arrived at the hut on the rock and Jim Dale managed to make me see even more than I recall from the movie.

@13 re: male vs. female narrators. The Audiobooks group seems to agree that male narrators are preferable. I have found that women with deeper voices seem to do well, also. I have listened to Dragonsinger with an...adequate female narrator.

Has anyone had success listening to an mp3 player in a car that doesn't have the appropriate "hookup"? Many older books that I want are only available on cassette at my library. They also offer access to Overdrive, and I am seriously considering buying my first mp3 player just for that. But I don't know how to make it work for the car; my commute is almost an hour each way.

@2 Mrs. Lee, I loved hearing Tolkien as Treebeard!! Those were available on cassette tape at the time. I wish I had splurged on them anyway.

I bought tapes of the real James Herriot (Alf Wight) for my parents. They took it on a trip to Florida and loved it, but his gentle voice made them sleepy. Not good for a road trip!

What about LotR or the Hobbit narrated by James Earl Jones?

Henry Strozier is probably my favorite narrator, but he doesn't do much work these days. I can pick him out of commercial voice overs every time. He is and forever will be Arkady Renko.

Love CJ Critt, one of the best female narrators.

Hate Scott Brick. Every sentence is a declarative sentence!

I'll have to dig a bit more. I do 2-4 audio books a month.

18> James Earl Jones narrated the Hobbit and LotR???? I must have it!

Edited to say I think you are pulling our leg. I just searched for it and all I could find is James Earl Jones reading the bible. (which I am not interested in)

9 Belladonna

Most of the Doctor Who audiobooks I've heard were read by either David Tennant or Tom Baker, and all of the Torchwood audiobooks were read by some cast member. Eve Myles (aka Gwen) read Torchwood: Border Princes and Torchwood: In The Shadows.

21> thanks! I just ordered those two from Amazon!!

22 Belladonna

Enjoy :)

I second sandragon on Stephen Fry - I have his versions of the Harry Potter books and he is wonderful. I can't abide the Jim Dale versions although I know many love him - people seem to prefer the one they heard first.

There's also one reader for the Pratchett books that I like but I can't quite recall which one it is at the moment. Stephen Briggs, maybe? I know it isn't Nigel Planer - thought he was awful.

16> you can get various thingies (sorry for the excessively technical terminology) for your car that your mp3 player connects to, depending on what your car has. We still have a cassette player in a couple of our cars and have a sort of cassette with a wire sticking out of it - you insert the cassette part into the cassette deck of the car with the wire sticking out, and then plug the wire into the earphone jack of the mp3 player. Works like a charm. There are also little boxes that broadcast very short range on the FM band - you plug your mp3 player into the little box and tune your radio to the appropriate FM band. Haven't tried one myself, but my brother-in-law likes his. I need to get one of those - my latest car only has a CD player.

I just bought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo audio from Barnes and Noble but they did not have any Neil Gaiman, can you imagine! Bummer. I started listening on the way home and I think it will be great to listening.

edit to try to get the touchstone to work....

@24 I have heard that the cassette connection is better than the FM band, but my car only has a CD player. If I had had a choice, I would have opted for CD/cassette combo/mp3! I like open-ended.

20> Sorry Belladonna, I should have been clearer. I was suggesting that Hobbit or LotR narrated by JEJ would be perfection, not that such a perfect combination actually existed.

#24 -- I can't abide Jim Dale's reading of Harry Potter either . . . and I've never heard the other version. Next time I get an urge to listen to the HP audio books, I plan to try and track down the Stephen Fry versions. I really don't like the way Dale does certain voices. His "Hermione" bugs me, and since she's a major character, that continually grates on my nerves. He also ignores some clear cues in the text -- he will make his voice low, and then the text will say that the character "squeaked" or something like that. Those are the sort of things that the director should have caught, even if the reader didn't.

Katherine Kellgren does a fantastic job with the Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer -- I've only heard a bit of her narration, but what I've heard has been great.

Other than that, I can't think of any particularly good (or bad!) ones off the top of my head. I only occasionally listen to audio books, usually when I have a long drive ahead of me (my drive to work is usually under ten minutes, so it would take me a while to get through a book that way!). Next time I hear a good narrator, I'll mention it on this thread.

(Edit -- typos)

28> I ordered my copies from amazon.co.uk. Stephen Fry and JKRowling saved my kids' lives (kept us from killing them on a 5 day cross-country drive). I expect if you dig around on the Internet you can find samples to make sure you like Fry, though.

Lemony Snickett (aka Daniel Handler) reads the audio versions of A Series of Unfortunate Events. He has a very pleasant voice. It actually almost hypnotised me. And there are a couple of musical interludes with his zany musical group. They're quite clever.

Neil Gaiman's voice is lovely, as has been mentioned.

I've been listening to the audiobook version of World War Z. They got quite a good cast to do all the voices. Most of them are really good, but there are a couple of terrible ones - the Chinese doctor, particularly. His accent is appalling. And the English guy is definitely not English. I was a little disappointed at them cutting out a lot of the interviews to make it shorter, but I can understand why they did. It did take away some of the wider picture though, particularly the Russian and Brazilian parts, and the Japanese otaku.

Audio books are expensive. I've just been looking. Some of the books on Amazon have a "listen" option so you can hear the narrator for a bit and get the flavor. Other narrators I've been trying on YouTube and having some success in hearing them.

#31 -- But you can check them out for free at most public libraries! ;-) And if they don't have the one you want, sometimes they will get them for you through inter-library loan.

*steps off librarian soapbox and wanders away*

We've been on a Dresden Files audiobook kick at my house lately. James Marsters does a wonderful job with them.

Another one who can't stand Jim Dale. I also hated Carol Higgins Clark who read her own book. Just awful.

I really liked Simon Prebble, who did a lot of Dick Francis books. I also liked both Hugh Fraser and David Suchet, who each did a great job doing both Poirot and Inspector Japp. Really versatile.

Wow, I knew I could rely on Dragons to nourish and nurture this thread!

#31 - yes, the price of audio books is what has put me off so far. I think I'll start a wish list for my kids to pick from for next birthday and Christmas, though.

Have to say I haven't joined the Harry Potter league and therefore haven't listened to either Stephen Fry or Jim Dale, but I always fancied Jim Dale... One of the few dishy idiot comedy actors. Remember 'Lock Up Your Daughters'?

31 - I do plan to try my library, but I live in a very rural area with a very limited library and not easy access to inter-library loans, though it can be done.

#34 -- Oh, I forgot about Simon Prebble. He is quite good -- he did a young adult series ("The Gatekeepers" by Anthony Horowitz) and I remember thinking he did it very well.

Don't listen to anything Stephen King reads. He has this weird squeaky voice. I barely made it through Hearts in Atlantis.

Someone's whose voice rocks my world is Peter Coyote but I've listened to only one thing he read, The Four Agreements.

I agree ! Tim Curry is the best I've come across so far. I didn't know he did an Anne Rice book I'll have to get that one. I loved him reading Bad Beginning : Book the First by Lemony Snicket

It's funny, I thought I'd love Curry's rendition of A Christmas Carol, but he's no Patrick Stewart. Now that guy can narrate.

oh sorry my first post was in response to #9 (^_^)

I love Patrick Stewart. I didn't know he did audio books. Does anyone know off hand what titles hes done?

He's done The Last Battle, which is the only reason why I listened to it. It's my least favorite of the Narnia books.

I just won The Return of the King CD set on Ebay! With shipping, $11.40. I'm pleased, I only hope it turns out to be as advertised!

>42 MadBluebird:
Dark Mirror was the first Patrick Stewart narration I listened to. Helps to be a Star Trek fan though.

Jesper Christensen does a perfect reading of all the Harry Potter books in Danish. The best audiobooks I have ever heard.
But them being Danish they probably aren't that interesting for much of you :-)

To give you an idea of who Jesper Christensen is, he is Mr. White in the two new James Bond

I really love Jim Dale's reading of the Harry Potter books. I thought he did a wonderful job.

I was also very impressed with Neil Gaiman when I listened to The Graveyard Book, I thought he did an excellent job.

The other one who has really stuck out for me but I cannot remember his name is whoever does the Artemis Fowl books. They were very well read.

#36 MrsLee, I use an MP3 player and download my audio books through my library system. Does your library subscribe to an audio book supplier?

I know it has already been said, but Stephen Fry reading the Harry Potter books works really well.

I've just purchased the first Wheel of Time on Audio CD... I'll let you know how that goes.

I would dearly like to listen to my MP3 player on long journeys - books or music - but run into the problem of only having one power socket in the car. That one is used up with my sat-nav, which is always in play on long journeys, partly because there might be a diversion somewhere and partly because it acts as my 'hands-free' phone. I think I can buy a splitter (as my sons call it) but haven't got around to doing it yet.

Another Must-Do...

I saw some three-way splitters recently and it boggled my mind to imagine all those sockets in use. I would also need something to anchor all the electronic elements on the passenger seat!

#48 - jennieg, you just took several leaps of technology beyond me. I have no MP3, don't think my library has that service, either. :)

#51 - and that's another problem. I already have two spectacle cases on the passenger seat (one for ordinary, one for sunglasses), a bottle of water, usually a sheet of paper with written directions for the final stage ("white gate after the holly hedge") and, of course, a book in case I arrive too early. These all slide about enough as it is.

We need the following: a tray divided into compartments, including a thin slot for the paper, made from something stiff enough to hold its shape but padded so that nothing rattles, and with a grippy base to stop it sliding around..

If anyone sees one of these, promise to share?

#52 I should frame that message, MrsLee. I don't think I've ever been even one technological step ahead of anyone.

Lisette Lecate does a wonderful job narrating The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books. Her voice is so melodic and through her I know how to pronounce all the names ;-)

Another favourite narrator is Barbara Rosenblat reading the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. She's great fun.

Oh, I forgot about Lacate. I loved her in those books.

Probably of rather limited interest, but one of my treasured possessions is a vinyl record of the late great Patrick Mynhardt reading four of Herman Charles Bosman's short stories.

#55 - Oooo, I'll have to get some of those! I just received my Return of the King audio CDs, I'll let you know what I think. The narrator is Rob Inglis.

A friend loaned me her Comedy of Errors production, with David Tennant as one of the twins. It's pretty good, although I'm not being very patient with Shakespeare's story for some reason.

#58 - I adored Inglis reading Return of the King. He kept me great company at a lonesome workplace.

#59 - Good to hear!

I am a Jim Dale fan for the Harry Potter books although I'd love to hear Stephen Fry's versions.

I absolutely hated Stephen King reading The Gunslinger. Had to stop after about 1/2 a cassette. Blech.

I adored hearing Ellen Archer read Kate Atkinson's When Will there be Good News?. She even did the men well, without trying too hard.

I'm currently listening to The Private Patient by P.D. James, read by Rosalyn Landor and really dislike how she does the men. All gravelly and dropped octave. Sounds like a woman trying to sound like a man in an irritating way.

In high school I tried to listen to Dixie Carter read Gone With the Wind but the way she pronounced Tara made me want to retch.

Hehehe. I posted in #13 that Fry's voice makes me think of a great big teddy bear.

I just decided to check what else the library might have on CD read by Stephen Fry and found out he's narrated several Paddington Bear stories as well as some Winnie the Pooh.

#63 good ears, sandragon.

Not an audio book, but years ago in the UK the BBC used to run a 15-minute children's TV programme called 'Jackanory' in which actors would just tell a story. Sometimes they read it from a visible book (yeah, yeah, as opposed to the invisible kind) and sometimes they recounted it on location somewhere. My recollection is that it was usually one book a week, read in five weekday episodes.

Anyway, in this series the Pooh stories were covered, a chapter per day, by Willie Rushton. Willie Rushton, in case anyone doesn't know (and actually I'd be quite surprised to find anyone who DOES know) was a - gosh, what was he? - I suppose a satirical actor/comedian. A regular on 'I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue'. And he read Pooh completely perfectly. No "voices". No affectations. No suggestion that it was anything other than straightforward narrative of events that had happened. He had an utterly matter-of-fact voice and never gave a hint that what he was speaking was funny. It was fab.

And I absolutely cannot abide the appalling Alan Bennet recordings.