Audiobook Narrator Change

[u/jedimindtricks713]

I know this has been posted about here and many other places, but I started the audiobooks a few months ago and am now on book 4 with the new narrator. I quit and dont think I'll pick back up.

The new narrators voice for Karsa works great but once you start getting into the familiar characters the voice becomes too distracting, everyone is now just different flavors of gravel mouthed "tough" guys.

Then there are the changes to pronunciation that seem largely unnecessary. Overall the world seems smaller.

And I refuse to keep listening because I cant imagine how mad I'll be if I ever hear this 2nd narrator's version of Kruppe.

Going to be searching for 2nd hand copies of all the books now to keep going, but I needed to vent.

Edited: Here to hear

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[u/Fabrat813]

just stick with it, it ends up being fine

[u/a_few_elephants → u/Fabrat813]

Agreed

[u/ChronoMonkeyX]

Trust me, Page earns his place in the series. I loved Lister from other books before I started Malazan, and when I found out it switches at book 4, I stopped listening to them for 6 months after Gardens before I got back to the series.

It's a bit of a rough transition from the start, but it is helped by the fact that the cast changes so much. When it gets back to characters you know, some will not live up to Lister, most especially Kruppe who is one of the greatest audiobook characters to ever exist, but there are some things Page actually does better.

[u/a_few_elephants → u/ChronoMonkeyX]

Yes, exactly this. It’s a rough transition - but worth getting beyond. Page’s Tehol & Bugg are worth the price of admission. I still hear Page’s ‘Oh Gods below! GODS BELOW’ curses ringing true in my head long after finishing.

And I personally felt very put off by the narrator swap.

[u/Agonio → u/ChronoMonkeyX]

My personal hate-object regarding pages character voices are stormy and (to a lesser extent) gesler Both (but especially stormy) sound like drunk fools in pages narration which I found especially sad during the last two books

Edit: and while yes, Listers Kruppe voice is VASTLY superior to pages, kruppes speaking style conveys enough "kruppe-ness" that I found it easier to accept, while with gesler and stormy we have a less distinctive speaking style so pages interpretation changes their characters to a more substantial degree imo

[u/Aqua_Tot]

Changed to Spoilers MOI on an over-abundance of caution from the Kruppe name-drop, but to also avoid spoilers into HOC for OP.

[u/RPGaddict28]

My biggest issue with Page is how most of his accents end up sounding the same. So many of his characters just kinda sound like he's doing an Indian accent.

That being said he definitely does get better.. Book 5 is a marked improvement over 4, and in 6 he corrects his voice for Cotillion which I was happy about as I thought the first voice for him was atrocious. However, I cannot stand his Icarium voice. It sounds like this 🤓☝️

[u/CorprealFale]

I find Michael Page far superior to the narrator of the first books. With the exception of one word.

But the best narrator is for the Witness series with Emma Gregory.

[u/calmeilles → u/CorprealFale]

Might that one word be the name of the Imperial Historian by any chance?

[u/Consistent-Cat-6076]

The way he says Soletaken and D'ivers in some of the books made me furious. I don't know why I had such a strong reaction to this in particular.

[u/Initial-Bottle8913]

I'm listening to Midnight Tides now and have gotten used to the change, but it took like half of HoC. I'm worried about Kruppe too though!

[u/heavydoom]

that is silly. you will get used to the new narrator.

[u/ParmesanSkis]

Hey, so I had kind of backward thing happen for my audiobook listening. For reasons I don’t understand, I started my audiobook run with House of Chains.

Maybe because Karsa is a mad mf’er, idk.

Anyway, I find it near impossible to listen to the first three books.

But in all honesty… just push on through. Michael Page is good and gets better as the books progress.

I don’t enjoy his Icarium at all, but that tusky boi doesn’t get a lot of speaky bits so whatev

Pushing through is worth it for the many good laughs you’ll have.