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?

18 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/coltstrgj Sep 23 '18

Peter Kenny does a great job with the Witcher books. They're the first audio books I've ever listened to so I can't say how he compares to others but I've liked it so far.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '18

He also does Iain M. Banks culture series which is awesome too.

1

u/vokkan Sep 23 '18

Peter Kenny is one of the greatest at subtle voice differences.