I’m looking for suggestions of books that you gave a shot on audio and didn’t enjoy, but gave a second chance in print.
I recently read Consider Phlebas in print and rather enjoyed it after letting it languish on my Audible account for probably over a year. I seem to remember having problems with the narrator doing lots of accents.
I also thought that Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series was better to read than listen to. I thought the narration fell flat a lot, though I seem to be in a minority there.
I hope this won’t be a seen as a threadshit–I don’t have any better in print than on mp3 examples, but I do have a shining example of the exact opposite for me was Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell which I could not get through in print, but loved the audio book of.
I don’t know – my experience has generally been the opposite, with the audiobooks adding more to the experience. The audiobook of McCullouch’s Truman, for instance, is enlivened with actual recordings of Truman speeches, when McCullouch is quoting. And over the end credits they have Truman playing a waltz on the piano.
John Lithgow reading Thomas Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities does an amazing job with differing characters’ voices and accents. I was amazed, too, at how James Doohan could do a convincing imitation of the other people on the Enterprise crew when reading Star Trek novels.
Th Penguin audio recording of Tales from the Arabian Nights uses two narrators, a man and a woman, with authentic accents, and it adds immeasurably to the feel of the book.
Besides the Truman bio cited above, other books occasionally use appropriate music. The Penguin audio of Machiavelli’s The Prince uses period Italian music in the background (with Fritz Weaver reading) and the Penguin audio of The Iliad uses a Greek lyre occasionally behind Derek Jacobi’s reading(my main complaint is that this version is unbelievably abridged, with some female voice giving recaps. You get the feeling that Jacobi rea the whole thing, but they only released an abridged version. Which is odd, because the Penguin audio of The Odyssey – read by Ian McKellan – is unabridged)
The cases where I’m disappointed in the audio version are where the reader sounds unsure or amateurish. Especially when the author himself reads. Michael Lewis is terrible at reading his own work. So is John McPhee, who sounds like someone reading a work cold, which he;'s never seen before (rather than the author). This extends to clasic authors. Hemingway reading his own stuff sounds disinterested. T.S. Eliot is the worst. I’d say that he sounds like a soulless robot reading his own poetry, but that would be an insult to soullless robots. His reading of [ii] The Wasteland* could drive a sensitive soul to suicide.
As for the OP’s choices, I’ve only hear one Dresden File book read, but I thought they did a great job. On hearing rather than reading some books on audio I have caught things that I had not in the vprint version. This was the case with Josepg Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces, and with Spider Robinson’s reading of Robert Heinlein’s Rocketship Galileo.
It may be because the opposite is more common that the OP specifically asked for books that didn’t work for you in audio. The thread may go in that opposite direction anyway, in which case I’ll have some titles to contribute. But the one book I read recently that fits the OP’s request is the Leonard Rosen mystery All Cry Chaos: I started listening to the audio version, and, while there was nothing wrong with the narration, I just wasn’t “getting” or appreciating the story as much as when I gave up and read it for myself.
(There have also been plenty of books that I haven’t even tried listening to because I was pretty sure that reading it for myself would work better. Included in this category are books that have long passages worth skimming; books that have bits worth stopping and thinking about or highlighting or writing myself notes about; books where the narrator isn’t very good or doesn’t seem to have the right “voice”; and books where the speed of the narration just isn’t fast enough (though this last can be alleviated by technology that allows you to change the playback speed).)
Feel free to contribute in the other direction as well - I certainly don’t consider it threadshitting and am always happy for possible new titles to check out.
as an audiobook. Lovely lovely book chock full of information. Unfortunately the narrator alternated pronunciations on some things. Poor General ‘Foofius’ … how much indignity can a Fabian have and I don’t think the Suebi Tribe had anything to do with the production of Sue-Bee Honey … :(
Except for Dance with Dragons. I couldn’t get through the audio book. The guy reading sounded like an old man who desperately needed to clear his throat.
The only voices he separated were male from female. All the female characters sounded alike, and all the male characters sounded alike.
I haven’t gotten to that one, in audio.* That’s sad. Thanks for the warning. I’ll look for it at the library instead of downloading it from audiobooks.
I read that one. I got the pdf in the Hugo packet last year. I strongly recommend paying the membership fee needed to be an absentee voter. In the past that’s been $50, and you get a downloadable voter packet with all of the nominated works. It’s an amazing deal. Looks like the next Hugo Award sponsor isLoncon 3.
The downside is that the original version cuts out several sections of the book. That was corrected with the “complete” edition which restored these missing sections. (You could also get a “lost” edition which was designed for people who had the original audiobook and only had the missing sections.)
I liked both the book and the audiobook versions. But Simon Prebble did an outstanding job on the reading so it’s one of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to. So it’s understandable that you’d enjoy that version.
Okay, here’s one of the other direction: I tried to read John Scalzi’s Agent to the Stars, but after a couple of chapters I thought “meh” and gave up on it. But a while later I listened to the audio version, narrated by Wil Wheaton, and thought it was wonderful. Wheaton really makes the main character (a Hollywood agent, who is the first-person narrator) likeable and relatable, and makes the humor work.
This goes back a bit, but the Spencer novels by Robert Parker. In fact, some of them were exceptionally good while others were stinkers. They had at least four different readers that I remember. The one that sticks in my mind most was Bert Reynolds. In one novel he was exceptionally good capturing the voices of each character consistently and well probably the best of the series. In the next one I listened to, Simply put, he sounded drunk. He couldn’t keep the characters separated and a good portion of the time his voice sounded slurred.
I will say that for a while some audio book companies tried going with two audio actors - one male doing all male actors and one female doing the women’s roles. It didn’t work.
Also, any Louise Erhrich book narrated by the author. All her books are wonderful in print, but the I one I tried first as an audiobook, The Master Butchers Singing Club, was read by the author in an affected poetry workshop style that was impossible to listen to.
I disagree. He doesn’t have the most mellifluous voice; and there are many of his books that are (mercifully) read by other narrators; but of the books and stories he reads himself (e.g. his autobiographical On Writing) he does a pretty good job and I enjoyed hearing them from the man himself.
Yeah - I’m afraid King didn’t do justice to *Wind Through the Keyhole * - it wasn’t awful, but it could have been a lot better. I haven’t heard him tackle anything else; tho would be interested to hear him discussing his non-fiction works.
Neil Gaiman, on the other hand, does a good job with his own works; however, I’m so thankful he* let/had Lenny Henry narrate Anansi Boys - he was amazing!
I also LOVE Katharine Kellgren in the Bloody Jack historical YA series by L.A. Meyer. Not only does she absolutely bring Jacky Faber to life, but her other character voices are wonderful - from prissy Virginia belles to drunken Scotsmen - many of whom sing as well!
[SIZE=“1”]* or whoever makes these decisions…[/SIZE]
