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Thank you for the great suggestions in this thread Allow me to add my praises for Lolita read by Jeremy Irons. Simply incredible. As for specific narrators, you could do no wrong in listening to anything by Frank Mueller. He is probably best known for his work on Stephen King's Dark Tower series, but has many other wonderfully done recordings. Just finished his work on Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. As always with Mueller, it was excellent.
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# ? Apr 30, 2010 02:08 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:12 |
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Access to Hester posted:Thank you for the great suggestions in this thread This one has been praised here several times. Just a side note, when I first read this praise, my mind read Brandon Irons, which for a reading of Lolita would be very interesting.
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# ? Apr 30, 2010 03:18 |
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SnakePlissken posted:This one has been praised here several times. Just a side note, when I first read this praise, my mind read Brandon Irons, which for a reading of Lolita would be very interesting. Haha, that would be interesting indeed. I should have been clearer, I wished to add to the praises present in this thread, as it served as the primary motivation for me securing the work. The earlier description of the reading as "a religious experience" really sealed the deal for me. Also, this may be slightly off-topic, but especially with Frank Mueller at the helm, did anyone else get the impression that Stephen King rather liberally "borrowed" a great deal of the setting/feel of All the Pretty Horses (1992) for his The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)?
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# ? Apr 30, 2010 04:41 |
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The General posted:Finished reading: The colour of magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort and Scourcery. Nigel Planer is awesome. He does the later witches books, so I suggest giving them a try. He really gets the characters perfectly
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# ? May 1, 2010 09:01 |
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The Grand Judabuddha posted:Nigel Planer is awesome. He does the later witches books, so I suggest giving them a try. He really gets the characters perfectly Probably just because I heard them first, I really like Stephen Briggs readings. It seems as if a lot of people think of Nigel Planer as the definitive Pratchett reader, though. Does anyone know of any good recordings of Raymond Chandler? Years ago, I heard a recording of The Long Goodbye by Eliot Gould, and I thought it was terrible. Audible has a bunch more read by him. I'd really love to hear somebody read Chandler well, but it seems as if nobody else has tried.
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# ? May 3, 2010 02:53 |
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Mission Earth is a guilty pleasure simply because it has a full voice cast and sound effects so it's like listening to a B SciFi movie that and it seems like it's the only good thing to come from Hubbard's work (although apparently I have to thank his editor for the series turning out the way it did because Hubbard died before even the first edit was done)
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# ? May 11, 2010 04:56 |
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What the gently caress is this? I go to the audible website, not logged in, to search for a book and see this--> Log in as a member and get this--> I've put up with your drm'd poo poo for years and you still try and gently caress me in the rear end!
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# ? May 19, 2010 10:20 |
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I'm currently reading through GRRM's Game of Thrones. I have the boko and read that for the most part. I do have the audiobook in the car though. Whenever i know i won't get a chance to read it, I listen to a chapter or two. I generally don't prefer it because the reader sounds like an absolute twat. But overall, it's okay. Just thought I'd throw my two cents in there!
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# ? May 19, 2010 10:23 |
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Well I guess I shouldn't harsh too bad on World War Z. It was enjoyable. I've now turned to a couple antique works, Librivox offerings in a similar vein I thought worth mentioning. Seems the general narrative based around being the last survivor of a plague, lately revived in "I am Legend," "Omega Man," and of course "Last Man on Earth" starring Vincent Price, began as far as works of English-Language fiction with "The Last Man" by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. I'm having major difficulty with Ms. Shelley's Victorian lady's language and style though, personally. But it's notable as possibly the first English language plague-themed science fiction novel. Public domain and free download: http://librivox.org/the-last-man-by-mary-shelley/ More enjoyable for me, I guess being a guy and all I guess, is Jack London's attempt, published in 1912. More of a novella, it's the story of the destruction of the world's population from the perspective of nearly the sole survivor, a California university professor. Well read by volunteers and free to download and listen. http://librivox.org/the-scarlet-plague-by-jack-london/ And what compares eerily well to World War Z for me is The "History of the Plague in London" by Daniel Defoe, published in 1722 - a few years after the great plague. It apparently was released as spurious journalism, where in fact Defoe didn't witness all the events in the story in person but merely wrote down second-hand stories as his own. At this early time, apparently fictional writing; viz, "the novel" was a relatively new idea in England. It's a story of London during the year of the Bubonic plague in London, based on general recollections and anecdote, easily as frightening as World War Z, and if you liked one you will enjoy the other. Note that there are a couple chapters, including the first, where he mostly recites figures such as death tolls week-to-week. I kinda fast-forwarded through that part. Also, some of the archaic language may seem a bit strange to us now (Uses "I say!" for emphasis very frequently, for example), but generally a very easy listen for Americans nonetheless. Of some interest BTW is Defoe's speculations that the agent of the disease itself might possibly be seen through the use of a microscope. Mostly though he describes it as the will of God, or God's punishment. VERY well read. Free free free. http://librivox.org/a-journal-of-the-plague-year-by-daniel-defoe/ SnakePlissken fucked around with this message at 01:36 on May 20, 2010 |
# ? May 20, 2010 01:30 |
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Big thanks to the people who recommended Pratchett's books in audio format. I'm on "Mort" right now and am enjoying the hell out of them. It's almost like a radio production. Though, a friend lent me 'Equal Rites' read by some Celia something or other instead of the very enjoyable Nigel Planar, and she was atrocious. Not only was her voice annoying and grating, but she varies the volume of her voice so much that it was impossible to listen for 5 minutes at a time without turning my stereo up or down several times.
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# ? May 20, 2010 20:20 |
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If anyone's interested in more than audiobooks of Pratchett's titles, the BBC did excellent radio plays of (the ones I've found) Wyrd Sisters, Small Gods, Mort and Guards! Guards!, which at least up until recently you could still find on BBC iplayer.
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# ? May 21, 2010 00:04 |
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Nilbop posted:If anyone's interested in more than audiobooks of Pratchett's titles, the BBC did excellent radio plays of (the ones I've found) Wyrd Sisters, Small Gods, Mort and Guards! Guards!, which at least up until recently you could still find on BBC iplayer. I've seen these around, but they all seem to be abridged? Confirm/deny?
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# ? May 21, 2010 00:09 |
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Habibi posted:I've seen these around, but they all seem to be abridged? Confirm/deny? Yes they are, but what can you do? Have a 10 hour radio play? They're very well done reguardless.
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# ? May 21, 2010 00:25 |
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Habibi posted:I've seen these around, but they all seem to be abridged? Confirm/deny? Like The General said, yeah they are all abridged, but they are remarkably well adapted. I personally never read Small Gods, but I can definitely set it as one of my favourites now.
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# ? May 21, 2010 00:46 |
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I would like to recommend the audiobook for House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. It's read John Lee who seems to be a prolific reader although this is the first time I've listened to him. He has a variety of UK accents nailed and has really good inflection. My only complaint is that the first person sections from the female protagonist (about a third of the book) are not read by a female actor but I think that's pretty minor and I don't think it's very common anyway. I liked it a lot in the Ender's Game and Time Traveler's Wife audiobooks. Syrinxx fucked around with this message at 06:15 on May 21, 2010 |
# ? May 21, 2010 06:12 |
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Jeremy Irons reading Lolita makes me feel dirty. I'm about half way through, I had to put a pause on it. Accidental Billionaires is pretty entertaining, another couple hours to go, will say more when it's done.
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# ? May 21, 2010 11:26 |
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I have been listening to the 2007 "full cast" version of Dune. I have not read the book in forever, and in the last 10 years have only really known Dune as the lovely David Lynch version and shittier-but-more-faithful Sci-Fi miniseries, so I had forgotten how good the actual text is. This full cast version is pretty good, and they drop the "he said" or "she said" for the full cast reading, which makes it sort of only 99% unabridged, but oh well! The main narrator is very good, and he reads all of the "italics of what people are thinking of RIGHT NOW" that Frank Herbert had a constant hard on for writing instead of the actors reading what they are thinking, so you get very used to his voice. On that note though, the only bizarre thing is that like one out of every six chapters the "full cast" thing is dropped and the main narrator just reads everything. It is a little bit weird, but the guy is good enough that he could have just read the whole thing and it would have still been good. It's just a bit jarring to get used to the actors voices only to have it drop back into the narrator doing all of them, and then the next chapter to go back to actors.
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# ? May 24, 2010 20:31 |
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Bioalchemist posted:What the gently caress is this? I go to the audible website, not logged in, to search for a book and see this-->
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# ? May 25, 2010 20:18 |
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coyo7e posted:Seems obvious to me: you get a big first-timer discount when you Join. It doesn't say "all members get this rate," it says "Join now, 60% off!" I'd disagree. Says "Members price" Not "Join now and save big." On a side note, Audible cornered me and demanded I spend 5bux the other day. While checking my library a splash page came up "CLICK HERE TO CHECKOUT AWESOME $5 DEALS!" and I said "Sure, why not?" In the middle of all the crap was the one book I had wishlisted (To remind me to buy it next time I had credits) was in the middle in the sea of crap. Sigh.
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# ? May 25, 2010 23:41 |
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I'm really psyched. Seems the audio version of Anathem is finally reaching the "cut-out bins" stage at Amazon and ebay, which means I can finally afford it. I just bought a copy of this 28-CD novel for under $3 plus another $5 or so for shipping (!!). I've got a little road trip in a couple weeks, I can't wait.
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# ? May 25, 2010 23:56 |
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I have a job this summer painting walls all day long and audiobooks have been my salvation. I can listen to about three-fourths of one per day if I get into the story or about half of one if I feel like listening to music for a few hours. Anyway, I'm trying to save money at the moment and I've had to resort to free resources. Thankfully, there are many free recordings of good quality that are widely available. Here (besides my city's main branch public library which has an excellent collection) are a few of my favorites: The New Yorker Fiction podcast Well this is a pretentious first suggestion but I suggest it first because it is a very well-done program that has given me many hours of enjoyment and reflection. Each episode is about 30 minutes long and consists of a brief interview and a reading of a short story by a guest contributor to the New Yorker. The selected stories are usually fantastic and well-read and the interviews are rarely tedious. The interviews have helped me understand the story better without explaining or unpacking everything. Below are a few episodes that I have enjoyed listening to several times. If you are doubtful that you will enjoy them, at lest try the first three: "Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolff "Symbols and Signs" by Vladimir Nabokov "The Gospel According to Mark" by Jorge Luis Borges "Dance in America" by Lorrie Moore "A Summer's Reading" by Bernard Malamud "Spring Fugue" by Harold Brodkey Lit2Go For traditional audiobooks you can't go wrong with anything from Lit2Go, a fine collection of recordings offered by a collaboration between various colleges in Florida. I've listened to readings of Shakespeare plays, Moby Dick, and some others. This is a fantastic offering with some excellent readers. Highly recommended. Librivox I like Librivox in principle. It is a very democratic project. Unfortunately, many of the Librivox readers have reading voices that I cannot stand to listen to. There are many good readers, but even their efforts are undermined by the several bad ones that share a novel with them. I don't usually feel up to the task of checking each chapter of the book to make sure the readers don't have nasal or affected voices, but I recently discovered that you can sort by "solo projects" under the advanced search menu. I prefer to hear the books by one reader so "solo projects" are my preferred way of finding material from that site. I'm fascinated by this man's accent and this story is very funny: The Parenticide Club by Ambrose Bierce I'm looking forward to this reading of The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope iTunes U Besides being a great way to learn more about any subject you can think to type into the search bar, I have discovered that this is a great way to find long recordings of poets reading their own poetry. Of course, university auditoriums are where most poetry readings are held these days and many universities have made recordings of these public readings available for free online through iTunes U. Today I listened to a reading by Richard Wilbur, a poet who I very much enjoyed reading as an undergrad. It wasn't the best lineup of his work, but I was surprised to see that the recording was from the 1960s and that it had several poems of his that are not even published in his collected works. Wilbur has a deep and sonorous voice and it was great to hear his own poems and the anecdotes associated with them from his own mouth. So if you're a diehard fan of a particular poet or author, it's worth checking this iTunes U service to see if you can find a recording of an interview or a public reading. Happy listening.
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# ? May 27, 2010 01:24 |
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jeeves posted:I have been listening to the 2007 "full cast" version of Dune. I have not read the book in forever, and in the last 10 years have only really known Dune as the lovely David Lynch version and shittier-but-more-faithful Sci-Fi miniseries, so I had forgotten how good the actual text is. Main narrator is Simon Vance. I honestly wish I could get a copy of the German version of this with Jürgen Prochnow (duke Atreides in the David Lynch version) narrating.
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# ? May 27, 2010 03:43 |
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Just finished the Librivox version of Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness.' Strongly recommend, especially if you are a fanatic for "Apocalypse Now" like I am. I think most of Conrad is public domain, so I'm going to look for more there. I'm going to try 'Nostromo' soon. (Nerd points, Nostromo is the name of the ship in 'Alien.') BTW, Some of these, the book is really meant to be read -- listening is not enough. That said, listening doesn't taint your experience like watching a film based on a book does. I may go back and read the book in some instances of all these many audiobooks I listen to at the gym and so forth. But when I do, I don't think my appreciation will be tainted like somebody who's watched the NZ version of LOTR and hasn't read the books. SnakePlissken fucked around with this message at 04:37 on May 29, 2010 |
# ? May 29, 2010 04:23 |
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Mk28 posted:I like listening to factual books on audio. I prefer to read fiction. I have a long road trip tomorrow and would love any suggestions for a good factual read... like good American history stories or the latest in quantum theory, anything
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# ? Jun 9, 2010 06:18 |
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Drunkards walk is an interesting book about statistics, though it's really kind of heavy and I'm not sure it would be good driving material. Predictably Irrational is pretty awesome. It's behavioural economics, and really shows how retarded people can be over something as small as a penny. Traffic is an interesting look on driving and the bullshit it creates. Tipping Point, an interesting look about how small things cause major changes. Or I guess you could pick up some Pimsleur and learn a new langauge
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# ? Jun 9, 2010 14:35 |
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KarmaticStylee posted:I have a long road trip tomorrow and would love any suggestions for a good factual read... like good American history stories or the latest in quantum theory, anything The last time I took a road trip I listened to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States read by Matt Damon (Will Hunting). This version covers only the 20th century, so it is abridged in that it skips 1492-1900, but there is also a new section appended which covers through the Clinton years. It's about 8 hours long. e: Looks like I was too late. Your road trip began yesterday. pizzapotamus fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Jun 11, 2010 |
# ? Jun 11, 2010 00:21 |
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pizzapotamus posted:The last time I took a road trip I listened to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States read by Matt Damon (Will Hunting). This version covers only the 20th century, so it is abridged in that it skips 1492-1900, but there is also a new section appended which covers through the Clinton years. It's about 8 hours long. The full version read by Zinn's son is on audible, but it's sort of ridiculously expensive if you don't get the new membership discount.
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# ? Jun 11, 2010 01:39 |
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Mathlete posted:I have a job this summer painting walls all day long and audiobooks have been my salvation. I can listen to about three-fourths of one per day if I get into the story or about half of one if I feel like listening to music for a few hours. Inter-Library Loan owns bones, I've got a nearly inexhaustible supply of free audiobooks that way. I listen to them primarily at work, really helps the day go by faster. Just got through The Moon is a Harsh Mistress for the second time, the ending is well-read and the narrator makes it more poignant than just reading the text. I think I've pimped it in this thread before, but the book was originally written in a kind of nadsat-esque style (being told from the point of view of a future resident of the Moon, where there's a heavy Russian influence) so the whole book is narrated with a Russian accent, dropped articles, etc. It works really well, IMO. Just started Richard K Morgan's "Thirteen" ("Black Man" in the UK) and really enjoying it so far, grabbed my attention out of the gate.
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# ? Jun 11, 2010 02:36 |
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Does Audible produce their own stuff, or do they just resell other companies' products? I know they're an Amazon subsidiary and all that.
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# ? Jun 11, 2010 14:48 |
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Tanith posted:Does Audible produce their own stuff, or do they just resell other companies' products? I know they're an Amazon subsidiary and all that. Both. They do in-house stuff, and then there's things like The Dresden Files which they yoink from Buzzy Multimedia who do them.
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# ? Jun 11, 2010 17:14 |
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Tornhelm posted:Both. They do in-house stuff, and then there's things like The Dresden Files which they yoink from Buzzy Multimedia who do them. Ah, good to know. Also the one thing about Recorded Books Inc that strikes me is how I wish they would tell you the name of the person who does the "Recorded Books presents an unabridged recording of..." because some of those voices are ones I'd like to hear reading things.
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# ? Jun 14, 2010 19:20 |
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PBCrunch posted:I started Scott Brick's reading of In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. His over enunciation of pretty much every word is going to make this book hard to get through. I actually remember his smug, snotty reading of the book more than its content. Seemed like everything he said was in a sighing "what are you gonna do?" kind of disinterested condescending tone and it drove me nuts
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# ? Jun 15, 2010 03:55 |
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Malloreon posted:Are most audiobooks abridged? I freely admit to just starting to read this tread, but I had to respond to this. there are some book that in unabridged are as dull and drawn out as can be. it is certain authors that are the worst for it too examples are: Tom Clancy Michael Crichton Patricia Cornwell and some of the Clive Cussler's as well these usually have decent stories that just seem to get bogged down in way too much detail that has no bearing on the story as a whole
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# ? Jun 17, 2010 12:50 |
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I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and I really have mixed feelings about them sometimes. Often if I'm not particularly enjoying a book, or it seems out of character for the author, I wonder if it's related to the way the narrator is handling emphasis and the character voices. Some of them go a bit over the top. For example I'm listening to "Under the Dome" by Stephen King right now, and the guy (Raul Esparza) throws in a lot of southern drawl, Keanu Reeves-esque surfer dude, and weird British/Indian accents (all a bit out of place in a small non-diverse Maine town, although I might have missed descriptors that implied some of them), as well deadpan delivery, a few extremely unintelligent-sounding voices, and smarmy attitude into various characters. The guy is pretty talented, sure, but it's affecting the way I'm interpreting the characters and story far more than if I were reading instead of listening, or even if a less theatrical person had narrated it. Locus fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Jun 17, 2010 |
# ? Jun 17, 2010 19:33 |
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It seems that the norm for audiobooks is for one person to voice all the characters. This seems faintly ridiculous to me, is it mainly a question of expense? Is it significantly more expensive to hire a few different actors? World War Z really benefited from a diverse range of actors. That said I can agree with a single narrator in some cases, such as Jeremy Irons for Lolita.
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# ? Jun 18, 2010 06:01 |
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It's most likely a lot cheaper. And some people do voices so well you just don't notice it's the same person. Though at times they don't do the right voice for the right character and I get confused for a moment or two. On the plus side you know who's talking before the "whomever said" comes up. Jeremy Irons did such a fantastic job with Lolita. I still feel dirty from listening to it. Edit: World War Z had some subpar voice actors though. Whomever did that chinese guy really irritated me and really hampered my enjoyment of the book. I'm not sure if I ever completed it. But that was really a horrible accent to start the book off with.
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# ? Jun 18, 2010 10:44 |
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Markeh posted:It seems that the norm for audiobooks is for one person to voice all the characters. This seems faintly ridiculous to me, is it mainly a question of expense? Is it significantly more expensive to hire a few different actors? World War Z really benefited from a diverse range of actors.
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# ? Jun 18, 2010 19:31 |
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Furry Neo posted:WWZ had an advantage in that it was effectively a series of monologues with only a few exceptions. Thus, they could bring in actors to record long stretches whenever was most convenient for them to record. Were you to have a cast of actors reading a book where there are multiple characters carrying on conversations throughout - Pride and Prejudice, let's say - you'd need to get them into the same studio at the same time, and you'd need someone to direct their reactions and get them on the same page, and so forth. It would require a great deal more work to put together than one person in a booth. Not really. A lot of voice acting is done independantly with no contact between voice actors. I mean in a professional setting and not just online audio dramas.
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# ? Jun 18, 2010 19:38 |
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Audio Renaissance's Dune stuff has a sort of full cast, but will randomly default to having Simon Vance/whatever his other names are narrate everything. Phillip Pullman's stuff, however, If you like the books and pretend the movie didn't happen, the audiobook versions are really impressive.
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# ? Jun 19, 2010 04:21 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:12 |
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The General posted:Not really. A lot of voice acting is done independantly with no contact between voice actors. I mean in a professional setting and not just online audio dramas.
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# ? Jun 21, 2010 19:50 |