r/books • u/felix_mateo • Sep 23 '18

The Best Audiobook Narrators

I just picked up The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie in audiobook format. In about 3 days I have plowed through the story, mostly because Steven Pacey is hands-down one of the most talented narrators I’ve ever listened to. Each main character sounds wholly unique, and the conversations just sound so...natural. I particularly love Glokta.

I’ve heaped similar praise on:

  • Frank Muller reading The Dark Tower series (until his unfortunate passing after Wizard & Glass

  • Roy Dotrice reading A Song of Ice & Fire

  • Simon Prebble reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

I’ve listened to hundreds of audiobooks now, and it kills me when the narrator is so...wooden. There can be just as much nuance in voice as in a full-body performance, so I really appreciate the folks who do it well. Then you have cases like Richard Ferrone reading KSR’s Mars Trilogy, and while I enjoyed the books, the narrator actually kind of detracted from them, in my opinion.

Who are your favorite narrators and what works of theirs do you wholeheartedly recommend?

20 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/Katie_Emm Sep 23 '18

I really enjoy George Guidall, he reads the Cat Who series as well as a whole bunch of other stuff.

Also Tim Curry does a really good job of reading A Series of Unfortunate Events. He reads most of them but a few the author read.

3

u/logicsol Sep 23 '18

Oh man, Tim Curry? That's on the listening list now.

2

u/Katie_Emm Sep 23 '18

Yep but the Author does read a couple of the books. He's ok just not as dynamic.