[originally part of an audiobook roundup post, which is where the comments all are, and split up for MT import; use the previous links]
The current audiobook is The Curse of Chalion, because I was going through these 6-8 hour audiobooks too quickly. The narrator isn’t so good at the female voices, but his portrayal of Cazaril is growing on me, and I like the book quite a bit. After that, I may try some Austen, or maybe The Orchid Thief. Anyone have favorite unabridged audiobooks to recommend?
Anyone have favorite unabridged audiobooks to recommend?
You already know my very favoritest: the Patrick Tull readings of Patrick O’Brian.
The only other ones that spring to mind are the Ian Carmichael readings of Dorothy L. Sayers. I’m not sure how many he did, but I know he did the Peter/Harriet arc (Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night, Busman’s Honeymoon), and all are excellent.
(In the television adaptations, Edward Petherbridge looks more like Wimsey is supposed to, but Carmichael has the character and voice. I’ll take the latter.)
I’m not much of an Agatha Christie fan, but the late Joan Hixon did Miss Marple superbly. She recorded several of those novels; again, I’m not sure which ones exactly.
David: Carmichael also played Lord Peter in some BBC radio adaptations; I listened to _Whose Body?_ and really liked it, and also have _Clouds of Witness_ queued up on the iPod. If I can’t get any more of the BBC plays, I might go with the Carmichael narrations–Audible.com has several of them.
Coming back to this after quite a while…
Other unabridged audiobooks that I’ve enjoyed in the past couple of years include:
1. Michael Pritchard (Books on Tape) reads Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series. The female characters all start to sound alike after a time, but the primary voices — Archie, Wolfe, Fritz, Saul, Kramer — are distinct and perfect.
(Note: avoid Pritchard’s readings of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series; they were earlier, and he really didn’t get the style of the dialog.)
2. Michael Kramer (Books on Tape) reads Donald E. Westlake’s Dortmunder series. We’ve already discussed these.
3. Less enthusiastically, Richard Ferrone reading the Bernie Rhodenbarr series by Lawrence Block. Love the books, and the reader is slowly growing on me (though very far initially from my mental impression of how Bernie should sound).
I see that Lawrence Block reads his own books in some recordings; I’ll have to try to track one of those down.
David, I can’t listen to any Nero Wolfe reading that isn’t Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton–the A&E TV series spoiled me.
And Dortmunder is fated never to sound right to me out loud.
I think I’m likely to find the Bernie Rhodenbarr books too digressive to work on audio, alas.
Meanwhile, Stephen Briggs’ readings of Terry Pratchett’s books continue to be excellent.