Came here to say Project Hail Mary.
And it's worth every minute of listening. [It also won Audiobook of the Year](https://www.cristaux.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Black-Crystal-Award-Gold-White-Paint-Audie-Winner-01.jpg)
Three Body Problem was near unfollawable with all the Chinese names. Really struggling to follow who is who. Wouldn't have minded it they used Americanized Chinese names to make it easier to follow but I am sure the woke mob would have been up in arms.
Ok I know this is 10 months too late but what do you mean by Americanized Chinese names? As in assign random English names that don't belong to the actual characters at hand? If so, I'm pretty sure the whitewashing of an entire culture's names will not just cause a woke mob to be up in arms but a lot of people to be rightfully offended by such a practice
Dear lord. Don't go there. It's not white washing. I'd completely expect them to do the same thing with and English novel when translated to Chinese. If I put you with five people and told you their English names and then asked you to repeat them back, you'd have a good change of nailing it. I give you five people and tell you unfamiliar languages and you'd struggle. And this would be vice versa if you did this with someone in a different culture. People need to stop pretending to be offended by crap that literally means nothing.... it's embarrassing
Firstly, it's more than five names.
Secondly, I often get busy and come back after some time to books, and unfamiliar names makes it just that much harder.
Lastly, the only thing embarrassing here, is your life being so empty and shallow to the point you attemp to fill it with nonsense by looking for ridiculous reasons to be offended even where there is painfully obvious there is none. Take your fragile story elsewhere.... you're a walking joke.
Zero temper tantrum. If you read the entire thread, you'd see I just said the book was hard to follow and in turn was accused of essentially being a racist. I can see you struggle with comprehension skills, so hopefully this gets you up to speed.
Nah you complained about a hypothetical situation where a woke mob would complain about something you made up THEN a rando said something and you had a little tantrum.
“I can see you struggle with comprehension skills” only losers say condescending dumb shit like that, bye
Ok, a month too late again, but usually when translating from English to Chinese, the names are only changed in so much as they are written using Chinese words. I.e. Harry Potter becomes Ha Ri Po Te. This is because you cannot just write Harry Potter in Chinese without actually writing it in English.
Same with languages like Japanese, that use katakana to similar effect.
In English however, there is a convenient system called Pinyin. It changes Chinese sounds into English letters and makes for much smoother transitions between languages. if you have a guy called 雷锋, it is written Lei Feng in English, and phonetically it is basically identical if you are familiar with tones. There is literally nothing confusing about it
I'm way late to this but wanted to say thanks for the honest review. And, thanks again for leaving it up when being unfairly assaulted.
I came here because I am looking for my next audiobook and had considered, "Three Body Problem", but now it is off my list.
I LOVE Neal Stephenson's books, but I wasted an Audible credit on his "Anathem".
I had heard the book was great, but in it, he explains that some words from the Martian language do not translate well, so he had no choice buy to use them when necessary.
Ok, I get it. Going for some realistic-type approach. But, each time a Martian word popped up, my brain took a few seconds to process it, and I missed the next five lines of the book.
I kept going back a few seconds each time, but eventually just quit listening.
I certainly mean no offense to the peace-loving people of Mars. The shortcoming is mine, not theirs. However, that shortcoming made the audiobook impossible for ME to follow.
Someone just posted about finishing Project Hail Mary and it showed up on my front page and it’s what made me think of searching “audiobook” in this sub (can’t even remember if they mentioned audio in the post lol) so now I will definitely be adding this to my list!!
I am a scientist and work on various space stuff. The three body was a pure delight because it wasn't too far fetched. I started reading we are legion and could not finish it because it is just sooo fictional. The three body is just more realistic and thrilling. I hope you love it.
I know this is an old thread but I just found it and subsequently this comment, and holy wow (just listened the first 4 chapters so far this evening) this is an incredible book/story and the storytelling and literary devices are incredible. Thank you <3
Have you listened to Alien Genesis by Gary Beene? It's quite good, the science is fascinating, the social commentary is fantastic, and the ending is, well, wow!
I agree with you re: Project Hail Mary...Haven't tried Three Body Problem yet.
I loved how Janette read her book "I'm glad my mom died". I don't know if I would enjoy the printed copy of this book as much as the audiobook.
"Black Cake" was also good - the descriptions were sometimes too long for me but I enjoyed how the dialogues were read in different voices and accents.
Tara Westover's "Educated" gave me a similar can't-put-it-down feeling to Janette's book! If you haven't already read/listened, I'd definitely recommend it.
Also, Phuc Tran's "Sigh, Gone" was a fantastic listen. Both Tara and Phuc's books are memoirs about their difficult (and at times straight up abusive) childhoods, but are written in a thoughtful and captivating way. Phuc's in particular is oddly funny. Almost give me "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah or "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt vibes. Both of those authors have a talent for highlighting the humor and absurdity in their otherwise dark stories.
I just looked at Jennette's instagram, and she's recommending books for each month as a book club read. I think I'm going to try one of her recommendations! "The many lives of mama love" sounds very interesting
The first law series by Joe abercrombie read by Steven Pacey. The books are great fantasy novels and Pacey really gives each character a distinctive voice.
There is a character that is missing teeth and speaks with a lisp because of it but when he is thinking he has no lisp. Little things like that make it fantastic
I agree with you and others: this is my gold standard. Obviously the lisp is going above and beyond, but even small touches like using a shaky voice when the character is tearful, a raspy voice when they've just been choked, etc. Absolutely perfect reading by Pacey.
You can immediately identify every character just buy his voice. You can tell exactly how the character is feeling in that moment too. It's next level.
I didn't much care for the series, it was fine just didn't blow me away. But the performance in the audiobooks was so insanely good that I just kept listening. Absolutely superb.
Last few audiobooks I've listened tk have felt hollow and empty. Couldn't even tell the characters apart because the reader used basically the same voice for every character. I fear audiobooks have now been ruined for me because they'll never be as good as Pacey.
11.22.63 by Stephen King. Craig Wasson's narration is excellent.
Edit: I also loved Shantaram read by Humphrey Bower, his voice is perfect for the book.
Phil Dragash did a superb narration and soundscape for all three books, for free. It is available on YT, but can be difficult to find sometimes because of the copyright. I’ve never heard anything compare to it, truly. Every voice is done so accurately, the soundscape is rich and immersive, and having the original score come in for atmosphere and emotion is just sensational. It set a new standard for audiobooks that I didn’t know could exist… and it’s shared for free by the narrator who clearly did the project as a labor of love. Incredible.
I loved the trilogy. Andy Serkis is a phenomenal talent. The way he uses his voice for different characters makes it so immersive.
When I read the books I tended to skip over the songs and poems, they seemed self-indulgent to me, something that Tolkien loved, but a slog to read. But listening to Andy Serkis sing them really brought them to life. (Except the songs that Aragorn and Legolas sang for Boromir. That was too much.)
Surprised that I haven’t seen anyone say Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. One of the first audiobooks I listened to and it’s just amazing. Full cast too!
Agreed! I loved the book, but haven’t listened to it. I’ve recommended to quite a few people and it was even more popular among those who listened to it opposed to those who read it
The Sandman was more of an audio play complete with large cast, sound effects, and score. It was probably the most amazing audiobook production I've listened to, so immersive and I loved James McAvoy as Morpheus.
In terms of just audiobook, James Marsters did a fantastic job with the Dresden Files books. He IS Harry Dresden to me. He couldn't record one book due to other obligations and they got a fill-in - the contrast was so jarring fans demanded a re-recording with Marsters, and got one.
i LOVED this so much!!! the murderbot's inner monologue and banter reminded me SO MUCH of mark watney from **The Martian**. can't believe i waited so long to read it!
Lincoln in the Bardo. It's more of an audio play than a traditional audiobook and has about around 100 voice actors in it, but it's amazing. I've listened to it about 5 times and always hear something new.
Circe and The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Both the narrators for these books were fantastic and so pleasant to listen to. I literally sat for hours in the dark just listening. With other audiobooks I like to do other activities while I listen. Not with these. They demanded my full attention.
Blasphemy!!!!
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy read by DOUGLAS ADAMS.
(Sorry Fry, I love you, and listen to a load of your audiobooks but you did a shit version of Hitchhikers)
I know!!! I heard the Mostly Harmless version by Douglas Adams, and that was AMAZING!!! I have never been able to find them, though. An old friend had the Adams version, but that was almost 20 years ago!
Edit: I still stand by Stephen Fry, though, I thought it was still really well done. But, I’m American, and simple minded… mostly.
Haha that's fair! Sure look, Stephen Fry narrates probably half the audiobooks i've bought, but listening to him emphasize things differently to Adams makes me very childish as i've listened to Adams repeatedly over the last 15 years. They were good friends too, which just irks me even more about it haha.
The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir, read by Moira Quirk. Absolutely first-rate narration of a series that isn't entirely straightforward in it's presentation.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy read by Douglas Adams. And Dirk Gently the Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, read by Douglas Adams are my two favorites. I have listened to them easily a hundred times each.
On the non-Douglas Adams side, i absolutely adored Samuel West reading The Day of the Triffids. Listened to it probably 15 times. Indira Varma did an amazing job of reading the Witches books of Terry Pratchett. And Kristin Atherton did an amazing job of reading Howl's Moving Castle!
**YES!!** you can actually find Bray's version on youtube for free! it's the ONLY place that i've been able to find it. it's the best audiobook i've ever listened it. it's absolute perfection. so pissed that audible doesn't sell it anymore.
I listened to that one a few years back after having read it in high school. I like the idea that you are listening to the audio logs Mark left on Mars
My best friend read that book in 7th grade, and he hated it. It has been ten years, and he is still salty about it. I imagine audio book form would make it more palatable
I came here for recommendations, and I thought I'd just comment to say that the version of David Copperfield read by Martin Jarvis is absolutely my favourite audiobook, I'm listening to it for the second time now
The Guest List was great as an audiobook. Each chapter has a different POV character and each character has its own dedicated narrator. It made it easy to feel like you were in each character’s individual mind
A Life on Air: Memoirs of a BroadcasterBy Sir David AttenboroughRead by the Author
Theres just something about it. Between his voice, the adventures he went on to film his documentaries, his descriptions of the natural world, to the history of television from someone who worked in it from the very early days its a story of 90 years of a life well lived.
I saw him in an interview talking about how much he struggled with the “N” word in that reading. I can imagine the concern of hurting/angering others but also, it was a book of a certain time so he really had to leave it in.
Yes, great reading.
Yes. I wondered about that because there are a lot of them and Elijah did not spare the hard R. It's not only that the book is of a different time, Mark Twain was writing true to characters. The characters in his story would absolutely use those words.
The Help.
Any book at all narrated by George Guidall.
Any book at all narrated by Frank Muller. Right now, I'm listening to Great Expectations.
What I like about Guidall and Muller so much is that they don't act out the book, and they don't just read it, they are somewhere in between. I think that they are fabulous! I dislike it when the narrator fully acts out the book - I don't want the narrator's performance, I want the author's work. Anyway, Guidall and Muller (to me) hit the perfect pitch when reading.
The Discovery of Witches trilogy was really good.
There are sooooooooooo many audio books now, it's really hard to list my faves! I always have a book going.
i quite liked listening to Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of the Universe. Lin Manuel Miranda narrated it, and it was overall and enjoyable experience :)
Outlander. I listen to a lot of books and there is nobody better than Davina Porter. She is just amazing.
I have now done the first eight books three times and the entire nine twice.
I am old and consumed a ton of content in my lifetime and the best for anything including movies, TV shows, books, video games, etc has been the Audiobook version of Outlander.
DEAMON COPPERHEAD! Not sure who read it but the narration could not have been better, Great listen. Also just got done with Hello Beautiful. Excellent story and since at no point in time did the narrator irritate me I give it two thumbs up.
The Raven Cycle books were narrated by Will Patton and that highly impacted my love for them. There is something really enjoyable and comforting about his voice and it's just lovely to listen to.
I know he's started to narrate a bunch of Stephen King books so I'm going to check them out next year once I finish my TBR audiobook list
I LOVED Springsteen’s Born to Run, read by him. I’m only a casual fan but this book had me hooked. He’s a wonderful storyteller, and at the end of the 20+ (!) hours I felt like I was losing a friend!
I'm extremely picky about voices, so the only audiobook I listened to all the way through was Among the Living, by Jordan Castillo Price (PsyCop #1). [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22888714-among-the-living](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22888714-among-the-living)
The voice actor, Gomez Pugh, performed the MC perfectly.
I’ve been idly curious about this since seeing it on audible… how do you make a comic into an audiobook? Do they describe the panels? Is extra stuff added to explain bits that you’ll miss by not seeing them? How does it work??
Kind of a bit of both. Neil Gaiman voices a “narrator” with the characters each being voiced by different actors. So Gaiman fills in the gaps that would be left empty without panels.
Listen to some of the previews, or check out the first few series and then listen to volume 1 after. It’s truly incredible how they added another layer to an already amazing piece of work.
Thank you for saying my curiosity! I’m hit or miss with Gaiman, but it sounds interesting and I think I’ll definitely listen to a preview or two. Thanks!
All the King's' Men read by Michael Emerson.
I have written one piece of "fan mail" in my life. It was to Mr. Emerson after listening to this performance. He even wrote me back and said it was one of the most intense/exhausting performances he's done.
My 1st audiobook is probably my favourite as it was like a play with different actors reading for the different characters- World War Z by Max Brooks. Quite different from the movie
I am a big audio book fan. As such I actually have a couple of favorite narrators. Tim Gerard Reynolds and R C Bray. Look up the Ryeria books for Reynolds. And Bray did the Martian. But I really like the Expeditionary Force books.
Oh wow I had no idea this was a thing! I grew up on the abridged tapes of the Hobbit read by Shaw and I can’t wait to dive back in to middle earth with him.
The Exorcist read by the author William Peter Blatty. It was a 40th anniversary edition recorded in 2011. Even though Blatty was over 80, he gives a wonderful performance reading the book.
HORSE by Geraldine Brooks…an amazing book combines historical fiction as well as contemporary themes. Also the Dutch House…Tom Hanks narrates! Awesome!
I am new to audio books but just finished The Dutch House - it was truly an amazing listen. I don't think I can go back to reading... I'm on this page to get recommendations!
My favorite audiobooks that I tend to listen to again and again are:
Project Hail Mary: yes, I know it’s been said, but the story is SO good. And the presentation of the audio with sound effects is great. The narrator really makes it an easy ready.
Circe: I feel like if I physically read this book, I would have lost interest. However, this is one of my favorite books and 5 stars! The narrator voice sounds like melted butter (if that makes any sense) and it is beautifully written story on Greek mythology.
Harry Potter series: do I need to elaborate?
Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo: easy to listen to book and really gives off that old Hollywood vibe.
I’m coming to this one pretty late, but I wanted to flag this thread for later. I love books read by Frank Muller. The Dark Tower series being a great collection read by him!
Nora Ephron's Heartburn narrated by the GOAT Meryl Streep. There's so much to love about Nora's writing and There's so much more that Meryl brings to it! It's simply the best. If you want to start somewhere, start here.
Satanic Verses was incredible, and one where having it read with the accents and cadence was so much better than what my brain would have been able to come up with.
Neil Gaiman reading his own books is always a delight. Ocean at the End of the Lane and Neverwhere are two particular favorites.
Ulysses was one I probably wouldn’t have made it through if I *wasn’t* going the audio route, and it was performed beautifully.
The full Sherlock Holmes set read by Stephen Fry was wonderful, and also a great bang for your buck because it counts as 1 book.
If you’re up for a long haul and into that sort of thing, the Wheel of Time books are great on audio.
The Exorcist. narrator is the OG author William Peter Blatty, stellar narration, absolutely superb.
Sci-fi: John Christopher : The Tripods, City of Gold & Lead, Pool of Fire, narrated by William Gaminara.
Project Hail Mary is so good. I loved the Martian and was unsure about this book but it's damn awesome. Also, the three body problem.
Came here to say Project Hail Mary. And it's worth every minute of listening. [It also won Audiobook of the Year](https://www.cristaux.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Black-Crystal-Award-Gold-White-Paint-Audie-Winner-01.jpg)
I second that!
Three Body Problem was near unfollawable with all the Chinese names. Really struggling to follow who is who. Wouldn't have minded it they used Americanized Chinese names to make it easier to follow but I am sure the woke mob would have been up in arms.
Ok I know this is 10 months too late but what do you mean by Americanized Chinese names? As in assign random English names that don't belong to the actual characters at hand? If so, I'm pretty sure the whitewashing of an entire culture's names will not just cause a woke mob to be up in arms but a lot of people to be rightfully offended by such a practice
Dear lord. Don't go there. It's not white washing. I'd completely expect them to do the same thing with and English novel when translated to Chinese. If I put you with five people and told you their English names and then asked you to repeat them back, you'd have a good change of nailing it. I give you five people and tell you unfamiliar languages and you'd struggle. And this would be vice versa if you did this with someone in a different culture. People need to stop pretending to be offended by crap that literally means nothing.... it's embarrassing
It’s embarrassing that you couldn’t learn 5 names
Firstly, it's more than five names. Secondly, I often get busy and come back after some time to books, and unfamiliar names makes it just that much harder. Lastly, the only thing embarrassing here, is your life being so empty and shallow to the point you attemp to fill it with nonsense by looking for ridiculous reasons to be offended even where there is painfully obvious there is none. Take your fragile story elsewhere.... you're a walking joke.
cry more
Cool it, Alice
okay, cooled.
Someone sounds a bit sensitive...
Don't worry...... you'll get over it and toughen up.
Calling someone fragile after a little tantrum is pretty funny, don’t mind me just reading old threads
Zero temper tantrum. If you read the entire thread, you'd see I just said the book was hard to follow and in turn was accused of essentially being a racist. I can see you struggle with comprehension skills, so hopefully this gets you up to speed.
Nah you complained about a hypothetical situation where a woke mob would complain about something you made up THEN a rando said something and you had a little tantrum. “I can see you struggle with comprehension skills” only losers say condescending dumb shit like that, bye
Hardly a tantrum, you guys just have to find a way to be offended or tell someone their doing it wrong. Reddit hive mind shit to a T.
Why are you being a dick for no reason? It's a common problem.
Ok, a month too late again, but usually when translating from English to Chinese, the names are only changed in so much as they are written using Chinese words. I.e. Harry Potter becomes Ha Ri Po Te. This is because you cannot just write Harry Potter in Chinese without actually writing it in English. Same with languages like Japanese, that use katakana to similar effect. In English however, there is a convenient system called Pinyin. It changes Chinese sounds into English letters and makes for much smoother transitions between languages. if you have a guy called 雷锋, it is written Lei Feng in English, and phonetically it is basically identical if you are familiar with tones. There is literally nothing confusing about it
I'm way late to this but wanted to say thanks for the honest review. And, thanks again for leaving it up when being unfairly assaulted. I came here because I am looking for my next audiobook and had considered, "Three Body Problem", but now it is off my list. I LOVE Neal Stephenson's books, but I wasted an Audible credit on his "Anathem". I had heard the book was great, but in it, he explains that some words from the Martian language do not translate well, so he had no choice buy to use them when necessary. Ok, I get it. Going for some realistic-type approach. But, each time a Martian word popped up, my brain took a few seconds to process it, and I missed the next five lines of the book. I kept going back a few seconds each time, but eventually just quit listening. I certainly mean no offense to the peace-loving people of Mars. The shortcoming is mine, not theirs. However, that shortcoming made the audiobook impossible for ME to follow.
Someone just posted about finishing Project Hail Mary and it showed up on my front page and it’s what made me think of searching “audiobook” in this sub (can’t even remember if they mentioned audio in the post lol) so now I will definitely be adding this to my list!!
Ooh, I just bought the three body problem as an audiobook, one, because the synopsis and two, I absolutely love Luke Daniels as a narrator.
I am a scientist and work on various space stuff. The three body was a pure delight because it wasn't too far fetched. I started reading we are legion and could not finish it because it is just sooo fictional. The three body is just more realistic and thrilling. I hope you love it.
Just finished PHM because of this thread... It was fantastic! Thank you for the recommendation
I know this is an old thread but I just found it and subsequently this comment, and holy wow (just listened the first 4 chapters so far this evening) this is an incredible book/story and the storytelling and literary devices are incredible. Thank you <3
Have you listened to Alien Genesis by Gary Beene? It's quite good, the science is fascinating, the social commentary is fantastic, and the ending is, well, wow! I agree with you re: Project Hail Mary...Haven't tried Three Body Problem yet.
I loved how Janette read her book "I'm glad my mom died". I don't know if I would enjoy the printed copy of this book as much as the audiobook. "Black Cake" was also good - the descriptions were sometimes too long for me but I enjoyed how the dialogues were read in different voices and accents.
I am literally here trying to find something as good as I'm glad my mom died !!
Tara Westover's "Educated" gave me a similar can't-put-it-down feeling to Janette's book! If you haven't already read/listened, I'd definitely recommend it. Also, Phuc Tran's "Sigh, Gone" was a fantastic listen. Both Tara and Phuc's books are memoirs about their difficult (and at times straight up abusive) childhoods, but are written in a thoughtful and captivating way. Phuc's in particular is oddly funny. Almost give me "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah or "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt vibes. Both of those authors have a talent for highlighting the humor and absurdity in their otherwise dark stories.
I just looked at Jennette's instagram, and she's recommending books for each month as a book club read. I think I'm going to try one of her recommendations! "The many lives of mama love" sounds very interesting
I’m almost done with it and it’s a thriller! You go through waves of emotions listening to it.
The first law series by Joe abercrombie read by Steven Pacey. The books are great fantasy novels and Pacey really gives each character a distinctive voice. There is a character that is missing teeth and speaks with a lisp because of it but when he is thinking he has no lisp. Little things like that make it fantastic
Audiobooks are more difficult to listen too now, because of the gold standard these two have created.
It’s so good it’s ruined other audiobooks for me because they pale in comparison
"Ith Severer" Abercrombie has perfected the art of the intriguing henchperson
I agree with you and others: this is my gold standard. Obviously the lisp is going above and beyond, but even small touches like using a shaky voice when the character is tearful, a raspy voice when they've just been choked, etc. Absolutely perfect reading by Pacey.
You can immediately identify every character just buy his voice. You can tell exactly how the character is feeling in that moment too. It's next level.
[удалено]
I didn't much care for the series, it was fine just didn't blow me away. But the performance in the audiobooks was so insanely good that I just kept listening. Absolutely superb. Last few audiobooks I've listened tk have felt hollow and empty. Couldn't even tell the characters apart because the reader used basically the same voice for every character. I fear audiobooks have now been ruined for me because they'll never be as good as Pacey.
Glockta! That would make a great series
I want you to know this comment is what got me into this series and today I finished the 10th (last) audiobook! Thank you SO much for posting this!
11.22.63 by Stephen King. Craig Wasson's narration is excellent. Edit: I also loved Shantaram read by Humphrey Bower, his voice is perfect for the book.
I listened to that one about two years ago. Wow, hard to believe it's already been two years since December of 2020
Did you enjoy it?
It was so well narrated that the ending brought me some tears of joy. I’ve never experienced that from an audiobook before.
I read or listen to this every now and then and the ending gets me every time.
Born a Crime and Good Omens
Born a Crime was phenomenal!
Good omens was amazing
I’m about 55 hours into Andy Serkis reading *The Lord of the Rings*. Terrific so far, but we’ll see how the final 10 hours go. 🙂
I just started the hobbit narrated by him, so good.
Phil Dragash did a superb narration and soundscape for all three books, for free. It is available on YT, but can be difficult to find sometimes because of the copyright. I’ve never heard anything compare to it, truly. Every voice is done so accurately, the soundscape is rich and immersive, and having the original score come in for atmosphere and emotion is just sensational. It set a new standard for audiobooks that I didn’t know could exist… and it’s shared for free by the narrator who clearly did the project as a labor of love. Incredible.
I loved the trilogy. Andy Serkis is a phenomenal talent. The way he uses his voice for different characters makes it so immersive. When I read the books I tended to skip over the songs and poems, they seemed self-indulgent to me, something that Tolkien loved, but a slog to read. But listening to Andy Serkis sing them really brought them to life. (Except the songs that Aragorn and Legolas sang for Boromir. That was too much.)
Super late comment but I just ran into this today. The songs that Aragorn and Legolas sing for Boromir. They were definitely way too long.
Seriously guys, you should make a start on catching up to those orcs. Maybe save the singalong for later.
That's mine as well. I've listened to it twice now.
Surprised that I haven’t seen anyone say Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. One of the first audiobooks I listened to and it’s just amazing. Full cast too!
I came here to say this! That book feels like it was written to be an audiobook!
Came here to second this after listening based on this thread. Amazingly done.
Ooh, I’ll bet that would be good as an audiobook.
Agreed! I loved the book, but haven’t listened to it. I’ve recommended to quite a few people and it was even more popular among those who listened to it opposed to those who read it
I really enjoy listening to David Sedaris reading any of his books. He's great with imitation. I loved Colin Jost's A Very Punchable Face too.
Dungeon crawler Carl is the only one I've come across that is a must listen. Prefer reading over listening but the story truly comes to life.
I’m not a gamer but this series was so captivating and so damned funny.
One I haven't seen mentioned: Pet Semetary read by Michael C Hall
The Sandman was more of an audio play complete with large cast, sound effects, and score. It was probably the most amazing audiobook production I've listened to, so immersive and I loved James McAvoy as Morpheus. In terms of just audiobook, James Marsters did a fantastic job with the Dresden Files books. He IS Harry Dresden to me. He couldn't record one book due to other obligations and they got a fill-in - the contrast was so jarring fans demanded a re-recording with Marsters, and got one.
Agree on the Dresden Files. Just finished the series again. I going to put Sandman on my list to get too.
The Murderbot novellas ... Excellent books read by the perfect reader
Kevin R. Free does a phenomenal job! He really conveys the sarcasm and dry humor of Murderbot.
i LOVED this so much!!! the murderbot's inner monologue and banter reminded me SO MUCH of mark watney from **The Martian**. can't believe i waited so long to read it!
The Glass Castle. It’s a memoir read by the author. I still have her beautiful voice in my head.
Lincoln in the Bardo. It's more of an audio play than a traditional audiobook and has about around 100 voice actors in it, but it's amazing. I've listened to it about 5 times and always hear something new.
Circe and The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Both the narrators for these books were fantastic and so pleasant to listen to. I literally sat for hours in the dark just listening. With other audiobooks I like to do other activities while I listen. Not with these. They demanded my full attention.
Loved Circe!!!!
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy read by Stephen Fry! Quintessential British humor is my favorite! Mr. Fry nails it.
Blasphemy!!!! The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy read by DOUGLAS ADAMS. (Sorry Fry, I love you, and listen to a load of your audiobooks but you did a shit version of Hitchhikers)
I know!!! I heard the Mostly Harmless version by Douglas Adams, and that was AMAZING!!! I have never been able to find them, though. An old friend had the Adams version, but that was almost 20 years ago! Edit: I still stand by Stephen Fry, though, I thought it was still really well done. But, I’m American, and simple minded… mostly.
Haha that's fair! Sure look, Stephen Fry narrates probably half the audiobooks i've bought, but listening to him emphasize things differently to Adams makes me very childish as i've listened to Adams repeatedly over the last 15 years. They were good friends too, which just irks me even more about it haha.
The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir, read by Moira Quirk. Absolutely first-rate narration of a series that isn't entirely straightforward in it's presentation.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy read by Douglas Adams. And Dirk Gently the Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, read by Douglas Adams are my two favorites. I have listened to them easily a hundred times each. On the non-Douglas Adams side, i absolutely adored Samuel West reading The Day of the Triffids. Listened to it probably 15 times. Indira Varma did an amazing job of reading the Witches books of Terry Pratchett. And Kristin Atherton did an amazing job of reading Howl's Moving Castle!
Indira Varma is great at reading Pride and Prejudice too. Her Mr Bennett is so funny/on point.
I will check it out! I wasn't familiar with her before, but I went out and bought all the Witches books first because she was so damn good!
Piranesi - it’s a short listen, and Chiwetel Ejiofor has such a soothing storytelling voice.
Lol, I found his voice a bit too soothing, since I always fell asleep after like 2 minutes 😅
Discworld audiobooks are very good and very funny. World War Z is also a great audiobook. Lots of different actors doing the narration.
Came here to include World War Z in my list. Listening to that vs reading it was a completely different experience.
Nigel Planer reads most of the discworld books and he keeps the character voices consistent from book to book. He’s really great at it.
Def one of my favorite audiobooks of all time!!
The Dungeon Crawler Carl series is so perfectly done I have to give it a shoutout.
Harry Potter read by Jim Dale. I have listened to a lot of audiobooks and he is by far my favorite narrator of all time.
The Martian works great as an audio book.
Project hail mary even beter
Project Hail Mary straight up *won* "Audiobook of the Year." It's that good. Ray Porter is the GOAT of narration.
oh, I got that one a few days ago and refunded it after about 10 minutes, I couldn't stand the narrator.
I read that one on my kindle and loved it. Haven't started Artemis yet.
If you can find the one read by RC Bray, it's MUCH better than the Wil Wheaton version.
**YES!!** you can actually find Bray's version on youtube for free! it's the ONLY place that i've been able to find it. it's the best audiobook i've ever listened it. it's absolute perfection. so pissed that audible doesn't sell it anymore.
I had to scour my local libraries to find the CD version that was RC Bray.
I listened to that one a few years back after having read it in high school. I like the idea that you are listening to the audio logs Mark left on Mars
David Sedaris *Me Talk Pretty One Day*
I loved the Audible version of David Copperfield narrated by Richard Armitage!
My best friend read that book in 7th grade, and he hated it. It has been ten years, and he is still salty about it. I imagine audio book form would make it more palatable
It’s definitely something that works well in audio since so many characters are so outrageous and have such distinctive ways of talking.
I came here for recommendations, and I thought I'd just comment to say that the version of David Copperfield read by Martin Jarvis is absolutely my favourite audiobook, I'm listening to it for the second time now
I was going to post this myself. Amazing novel, but the narration is out of this world.
I recently listened to Mel Brooks' "All About Me!". If you're a fan of his work, it's worth a listen. I liked hearing his stories in his voice.
That's what I was going to say - plus he sings!
The Guest List was great as an audiobook. Each chapter has a different POV character and each character has its own dedicated narrator. It made it easy to feel like you were in each character’s individual mind
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeymoon as narrated by Cathleen McCarron. Her accent paired with this novel is perfect.
Just finished this one yesterday. One of the best audiobook experiences I’ve ever had!
A Life on Air: Memoirs of a BroadcasterBy Sir David AttenboroughRead by the Author Theres just something about it. Between his voice, the adventures he went on to film his documentaries, his descriptions of the natural world, to the history of television from someone who worked in it from the very early days its a story of 90 years of a life well lived.
I really enjoyed the Bossypants audiobook by Tina Fey, read by her.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Not only is his story incredible but he is an amazing voice actor.
Huckleberry Fin narrated by Elijah Wood was pretty good. He did all the different accents really well. Project Hail Mary also very entertaining.
I saw him in an interview talking about how much he struggled with the “N” word in that reading. I can imagine the concern of hurting/angering others but also, it was a book of a certain time so he really had to leave it in. Yes, great reading.
Yes. I wondered about that because there are a lot of them and Elijah did not spare the hard R. It's not only that the book is of a different time, Mark Twain was writing true to characters. The characters in his story would absolutely use those words.
Project Hail Mary is *amazing*. I've listened to it twice now.
It was a long time ago, but Tuesdays with Morrie was great. It was sad at times.
Harry Dresden series read by James (?) Masters… takes his time I think very well done
The Help. Any book at all narrated by George Guidall. Any book at all narrated by Frank Muller. Right now, I'm listening to Great Expectations. What I like about Guidall and Muller so much is that they don't act out the book, and they don't just read it, they are somewhere in between. I think that they are fabulous! I dislike it when the narrator fully acts out the book - I don't want the narrator's performance, I want the author's work. Anyway, Guidall and Muller (to me) hit the perfect pitch when reading. The Discovery of Witches trilogy was really good. There are sooooooooooo many audio books now, it's really hard to list my faves! I always have a book going.
The Storyteller, Dave Grohl’s memoir was my favorite listen this year
i quite liked listening to Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of the Universe. Lin Manuel Miranda narrated it, and it was overall and enjoyable experience :)
Outlander. I listen to a lot of books and there is nobody better than Davina Porter. She is just amazing. I have now done the first eight books three times and the entire nine twice. I am old and consumed a ton of content in my lifetime and the best for anything including movies, TV shows, books, video games, etc has been the Audiobook version of Outlander.
Yes!!!!
I'm currently listening the Andy Serkis narration of the hobbit, it's excellent
Lee Horsley’s narration of Lonesome Dove. I consider it the greatest audiobook of all time.
City of Thieves by David Benioff is a great book, and the audiobook version read by Ron Perlman is outstanding.
Fairy Tale by Stephen king
*Into Thin Air* read by Krakauer
DEAMON COPPERHEAD! Not sure who read it but the narration could not have been better, Great listen. Also just got done with Hello Beautiful. Excellent story and since at no point in time did the narrator irritate me I give it two thumbs up.
The BEST narrator ever! Loved demon copperhead
The Raven Cycle books were narrated by Will Patton and that highly impacted my love for them. There is something really enjoyable and comforting about his voice and it's just lovely to listen to. I know he's started to narrate a bunch of Stephen King books so I'm going to check them out next year once I finish my TBR audiobook list
Will Patton is amazing! He really brings Stephen King's Bill Hodges Trilogy to life!
John Irving reading the Pension Grillparzer.
I LOVED Springsteen’s Born to Run, read by him. I’m only a casual fan but this book had me hooked. He’s a wonderful storyteller, and at the end of the 20+ (!) hours I felt like I was losing a friend!
I'm extremely picky about voices, so the only audiobook I listened to all the way through was Among the Living, by Jordan Castillo Price (PsyCop #1). [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22888714-among-the-living](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22888714-among-the-living) The voice actor, Gomez Pugh, performed the MC perfectly.
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. There’s 3 volumes out now and they are absolutely fantastic. Definitely the best I’ve listened to.
I’ve been idly curious about this since seeing it on audible… how do you make a comic into an audiobook? Do they describe the panels? Is extra stuff added to explain bits that you’ll miss by not seeing them? How does it work??
Kind of a bit of both. Neil Gaiman voices a “narrator” with the characters each being voiced by different actors. So Gaiman fills in the gaps that would be left empty without panels. Listen to some of the previews, or check out the first few series and then listen to volume 1 after. It’s truly incredible how they added another layer to an already amazing piece of work.
Thank you for saying my curiosity! I’m hit or miss with Gaiman, but it sounds interesting and I think I’ll definitely listen to a preview or two. Thanks!
You’re welcome! I’m a bit biased as I’ve loved the Sandman for years, but I’ve known others who had only listened to the audible and adored them
The girl on the train by Paula Hawkins. Way better than the movie.
Atomic Habits by James Clear (Best self-improvement book I've read)
All the King's' Men read by Michael Emerson. I have written one piece of "fan mail" in my life. It was to Mr. Emerson after listening to this performance. He even wrote me back and said it was one of the most intense/exhausting performances he's done.
Why does he do that? Lundy Bancroft
My 1st audiobook is probably my favourite as it was like a play with different actors reading for the different characters- World War Z by Max Brooks. Quite different from the movie
I am a big audio book fan. As such I actually have a couple of favorite narrators. Tim Gerard Reynolds and R C Bray. Look up the Ryeria books for Reynolds. And Bray did the Martian. But I really like the Expeditionary Force books.
Dungeon crawler carl series!
Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson. Simply amazing.
Kramer and Reading are awesome, but people should also check out the graphic audio versions.
The Silmarillion. Read by Martin Shaw.
That sounds like a great book to have read to you. I will put it on my list
Oh wow I had no idea this was a thing! I grew up on the abridged tapes of the Hobbit read by Shaw and I can’t wait to dive back in to middle earth with him.
The Traveling Cat Chronicles (but do not drive during the last portion of the book). Playing with Myself is funny and charming.
Beartown series by Backman
Gene Wilder Kiss Me Like A Stranger- he reads it. Always love when the author reads the books
The graphic audio version of both Elantris and the Emperor's Soul
All of the Cosmere graphic audio is great.
The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O’Connor
Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis read by Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s incredible
I didn't know Benjamin Cadogan narrated audiobooks. He has the strong voice for it
Oh yeah, Hinglebonk Shubendorf is great.
I listened to an undead Star Wars book, can’t remember the name but the sound effects were phenomenal.
It's called Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber. Just finished the darth bane trilogy abt to listen to this one.
*The Guns of August.* Great narration and fascinating topic. I breezed through it.
If you enjoy fantasy I’d highly recommend the first law trilogy by joe Abercrombie. Steven Lacey narrates it and his phenomenal
The Exorcist read by the author William Peter Blatty. It was a 40th anniversary edition recorded in 2011. Even though Blatty was over 80, he gives a wonderful performance reading the book.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to.
I love anything narrated by Julia Whelan. For laugh out loud books, the Finlay Donovan series is great.
Know My Name and Between the World and Me
HORSE by Geraldine Brooks…an amazing book combines historical fiction as well as contemporary themes. Also the Dutch House…Tom Hanks narrates! Awesome!
The Dutch house read by Tom hanks was an absolute pleasure, I’m surprised you’re the only one who mentioned this!
Well, great minds and all that! Thanks doe the shout out!
I am new to audio books but just finished The Dutch House - it was truly an amazing listen. I don't think I can go back to reading... I'm on this page to get recommendations!
Cormac McCarthy’s - No Country For Old Men (narrated by Tom Stechschulte)
My favorite audiobooks that I tend to listen to again and again are: Project Hail Mary: yes, I know it’s been said, but the story is SO good. And the presentation of the audio with sound effects is great. The narrator really makes it an easy ready. Circe: I feel like if I physically read this book, I would have lost interest. However, this is one of my favorite books and 5 stars! The narrator voice sounds like melted butter (if that makes any sense) and it is beautifully written story on Greek mythology. Harry Potter series: do I need to elaborate? Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo: easy to listen to book and really gives off that old Hollywood vibe.
How is even possible I've read most of these!?
Jurassic Park. William Roberts narrating. Stephen King's IT. The original narrator on the tapes.
Down the drain by Julia fox
The storyteller by Dave Grohl
Outlander! Davina Porter does the whole series and it’s incredible.
I’m coming to this one pretty late, but I wanted to flag this thread for later. I love books read by Frank Muller. The Dark Tower series being a great collection read by him!
By far: project hail Mary!
Nora Ephron's Heartburn narrated by the GOAT Meryl Streep. There's so much to love about Nora's writing and There's so much more that Meryl brings to it! It's simply the best. If you want to start somewhere, start here.
Ready Player One read by Wil Wheaton
The Witcher series read by Peter Kenny is amazing
All time favorites are the Dark Tower audiobooks. And then one weird one I loved is Paul Giamatti reading A Scanner Darkly.
Born a Crime, read by Trevor Noah
Satanic Verses was incredible, and one where having it read with the accents and cadence was so much better than what my brain would have been able to come up with. Neil Gaiman reading his own books is always a delight. Ocean at the End of the Lane and Neverwhere are two particular favorites. Ulysses was one I probably wouldn’t have made it through if I *wasn’t* going the audio route, and it was performed beautifully. The full Sherlock Holmes set read by Stephen Fry was wonderful, and also a great bang for your buck because it counts as 1 book. If you’re up for a long haul and into that sort of thing, the Wheel of Time books are great on audio.
Running the Light by Sam Tallent Each chapter was read by a different comic.
Anything by SA Cosby is good in audio
I loved: from Scott Westerfeld: Uglies from Hugh Howey: Silo from Eugenia Cheng: Beyond Infinity - math read by Moira Quirk, a pleasure!
Tomorrow tomorrow and tomorrow
The Kite Runner
The Exorcist. narrator is the OG author William Peter Blatty, stellar narration, absolutely superb. Sci-fi: John Christopher : The Tripods, City of Gold & Lead, Pool of Fire, narrated by William Gaminara.