Do they do anything particular with their voice or tone in order to enhance the story?
My copy of the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, narrated by Stephen Fry. It is relentlessly british.
The version read by Douglas himself is also great
Luke Daniels and Andy Serkis both really bring that extra to the books they narrate.
That’s the guy! Luke Daniels performs the Magic 2.0 books (i made another comment about this).
Dude could do (maybe does?) voice over work and make bank.
Anything I’ve listened to with Ray Porter reading it. His intonation is great and just brings that something extra to the stories. In particular Project Hail Mary and the Bobiverse books. He also did Paradox Bound, which felt like a fine time travel story but his portrayal of the voice of the “faceless men” made the character 's menace come to life for me in a way I don’t think would be captured in text.
Simon Vance is my personal favourite narrator. The Dune audiobooks have a cast of narrators/actors but I wish Simon voiced the whole books, he’s amazing. The way he intonates adds so much to the text, but doesn’t ever get annoying. His acting for the characters is great too.
He also narrated Scaramouche and I genuinely can’t tell if I liked the book or his narration of the book.
Eduardo Ballerini reading Jess Walter’s The Cold Millions
Fun fact fyi, unlike Reddit, post titles are editable on Lemmy
Gilbert Gottfried reads 50 Shades of Gray
Fun story: my boyfriend and his sister used to live together and we’d all party at their place. After months of his sister crushing hard on this guy she worked with, she and him had gone to her room for some alone time. Her asshole brother decided that was the time to blast this audio directly through her bedroom door.
8 years later and they’re still dating so I guess it worked.
I listened to Dubliners by James Joyce narrated by irish actor Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Sherlock) and it was hands down the best narration I’ve ever heard.
Neil gaimon is always good with his narration. The audible books that include a full cast are absolutely superb.
Bonus points for nigel plainar as solo narrator for his discworld books. Does an amazing job.
I’m a big fan of the legend of sleepy hollow on librivox read by Chip
‘Toast on Toast’ read by Steven Toast.
Didn’t know that existed but I’ll download it right now
Tolkien’s work is wonderful as audio books just ‘cause they’re written like they should be presented as an oral history. Lots of editions exist out there.
I really liked Rob Inglis’ read
Same!
Gideon the Ninth. Hands down. The book is 100% strong female POV, which I usually like, but as dude, I was missing a lot of subtlety. My kid lent me their audio book and holy shit, Moira Quirk does an absolutely fantastic job. The characters jump right out of the speakers and into my brain, highlighting all the understated humor that I was missing. 10/10, wish I could hear it again for the first time.
Ooh I’ll have to try it. I loved the paper books
Steven Pacey reading Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series is outstanding. The books themselves are among my favourites, but Steven makes them even more special. He has different voices (and accents) for the characters and manages to stay consistent with them. His pacing is also excellent.
Came here looking for this. Was not disappointed 🙏
Going to give a less well known book here, but figure some of Lemmy would appreciate it. Wrath Goddess Sing is a good book made amazing by a narrator who was actively working with the author.
