Audiobooks - narrators

[Mooserp]

I've just finished listening to an audiobook. I don't normally but I got it as an Audible free trial.

Although I quite enjoyed listening to it, I was frequently irritated with the narrator. Mainly the way she put emphasis on the wrong words (IMO) and made the characters speak in odd ways. Women tending to sound a bit weak and unsure and everyone sounding either questioning or threatening, rather than speaking normally.

I wondered if this was a common thing, if there is an accepted 'style' of narrating? Or if anyone else ever got irritated by them?

I just listened to Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce, narrated by Juliet Stevenson. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, but that one immediately leapfrogged all the others and became my favourite ever. The story was wonderful and the narration just exquisite.

I hate it when they switch narrators halfway through a series or for the final book in a 3 parter.

I've just finished listening to My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal and narrated by Lenny Henry. Utterly brilliant. Loved the story and Lenny Henry was fantastic - loads of accents, all believable, very well done.

Adjoa Andoh is my absolute favourite narrator. Americanah has already been mentioned but I’ve just finished ‘The Girl with the Louding Voice’ and thought it was perfect. I’d thoroughly recommend

MY favourite recent audiobooks
The Dutch house
Hamnet
The mirror and the light
Pachinko
Free food for millionaires
Burial rites
Rebecca ( narrated by Juliet Stephenson)

Another Dutch House and Strike audio fan here!

I just returned Graham Norton’s new book on audible as I was finding listening to him read it was making me uncomfortable. I fully intend to read the book and I do really like GN normally, but not he’d affected a tone I didn’t like. I had similar with Jenny Eclair reading her book.

I nearly didn’t preserve with The Weekend either for this reason, glad I did though.
Just downloaded The Other Bennet sister on the basis of this thread.

Other good ones:
Summerwater
Guest List
Small Pleasures.

Rebecca (narrated by Anna Massey)
The Regeneration Trilogy (narrated by Peter Firth) are my favourite audiobooks.

I've not heard Juliet Stephenson's version of Rebecca as pp mentioned but have enjoyed others she's done.

On the other hand, none of the Dorothy L Sayers narrators are good imo. Disappointing.

Also, lots of non fiction books are poorly narrated, especially history. Maybe it's too expensive to get a good narrator? Narrators who can't pronounce foreign names and even some that sound like robots.

Definitely listen to the preview and also read reviews that mention the narrator.

Just listened to the midnight library (story not worth the hype imo). Narration was ok but I was surprised, and a bit put off, by the mispronunciation of quite a few words, particularly place names eg La Jolla and Cauis.

And in general steer clear from books narrated by authors!

Agreed. I have been listening to a Jordan Peterson book. I actually didn't know anything about him but I saw a thread on MN where people seemed to love or hate him and I was intrigued. The book was quite interesting in parts (could have done with an edit) but his voice kept up for the same haranguing tone for over 10 hours which was rather off putting - I had to turn him down a few times to get through it.

Sometimes with a really long book (especially the classics) I get both the audio and the ebook out of the library because I like reading but I can carry on listening if I am out and about.

I like Alex Jennings as a narrator. It is an amazing skill to be able to differentiate different voices without going off into parodies of regional accents.

I agree about books narrated by the authors. Barbara Kingsolver, who I love, narrates her book Unsheltered. I enjoyed the book itself but her reading of it was really off-putting. Not for any concrete reason but because she's just quite good enough at it.

On the other hand, Anna Downes narrates her own thriller, The Safe Place, and I thought she was brilliant. I think she's an actor by training.

When DD was younger she used to listen to Jacqueline Wilson books, and quite a few of them are narrated by JW herself. It was just like having Dame Jacqueline round to your house to read a bedtime story, and DD loved it.

Alex Jennings is fantastic. My absolute favourite.

I have just finished Inside Story by Martin Amis and Alex Jennings reading was completely exceptional.

So many books are ruined by poor narration. I hate that thing were you know narrators are reading the prose for the first time, and just varying the intonation and hoping the listener won’t notice.

Michael Sheen and Anton Lesser are brilliant, could listen to them forever.

I've recently finished The Heart's Invisible Furies read by Stephen Hogan, and he was just fabulous.
Also really like Neil Gaiman, he often reads his own books.

The narrator makes so much difference to an audiobook. My most favourite audiobook is The Girl With All The Gifts, narrated by Finty Williams. The book is so much better than the film and the reading is wonderful. I agree that authors narrating their own books are often the worse!

Anyone happen to be able to recommend any other audiobooks narrated by Finty Williams? (I've already listened to Fellside).

@Krook

Stephen Fry should narrate all audiobooks, in my opinion 😀 His autobiographies are wonderful to listen to.

I was just about to say that I never got through Harry Potter on audible because of SF's apparent necessity to change English pronunciation rules and put stress on syllables which don't have them whilst doing a stupid "teenage boy imitates girl to piss her off" voice for Hermione, and a weird mock Scottish for Professor McGonagall. I have Myths on Audible waiting but he's put me off audio books in general.

@flyingant

Finty Williams also narrates Citadel by Kate Mosse, if historical fiction is your thing?

I like Stephen Crossley as a narrator. Lovely voice to listen to.

Hugh Grant reading A Christmas Carol is absolutely brilliant.

Juliet Stevenson is my favourite narrator. I e just re/listened to her reading The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock and loved it just as much the second time round.

Currently listening to a Star Wars book about Thrawn (yes, I needed something seriously low brow this last month) and it’s the first ‘production’ of an audio book I e ever listened to. The narrator Marc Thompson is doing a great job but the sound engineer is having a field day. Every scene has sound effects. It’s great to listen to during the day, really adds to the drama, but I tend to listen to audiobooks before I go to sleep and all the explosions, beeps, comm screeches and back ground humming of a Star Destroyer’s engines is really not restful.

Thanks @mum2jakie

second listening to the sample!

stephen fry narrating a book would put me off. he sounds so fake and full of himself.

@flyingant if you click on the narrators name it comes up with other titles they narrate

I'm currently listening to The End of the Affair (Graham Greene) narrated by Michael Kitchen, and I'm really loving it. I have never read any Greene, had no idea what it was about, and really it's about nothing much at all, but the narration is perfect. I really love it.

Ooo, good tip @Danu2021, thank you!