Category: book Nook
I didn't realize a similar topic was under the rant board. I thought I'd shift it over to the booknook.
Here's what I wrote; let's continue the discussion.
Wow, only came across this discussion via google. Madeleine Bazard is definitely
my favorite. In fact, I've done a library search for just the books she narrates.
Pam Ward is another top fave. I like Martha Harmon Pardee as well.
I wonder if there is a way to contact these folks; they do such a great job! I really
like how they are not too dramatic, but modify their voice a bit for each character.
I think there used to be something on the nls site. I read about it in 2003 or so in the talkinb book topics. You might be able to find it at www.loc.gov/nls.
Good luck. Oh and my favorite narator is David Elias. I hope I'm not misspelling the name. lol!
I like Martha Harmon, but not Madeline. I try to avoid her unless there's absolutely no way around it. I also like Bob Askey & the woman who narates most of the Rita Mae Browne books (the Misses Murphy Mysteries).
I actually liked Madeleine. She was good. My favorite narrator wasn't even one who did things for NLS, I don't think. At least, the books I heard read by him were commercial. It was Frank Muller.
Does anyone know if Madeleine is still narrating?
I know he's not an NLS narrator, but I like Jim Dale.
Me too. He did a great job with HP.
I just finished "predator" by Patricia Cornwell and they have changed narrators! Oh my gall, the book has a whole different feel to me. For half the book I couldn't picture the characters. Madeleine Buzzard has read the entire series up till now.
One narrator who I think has quite a unique voice is Jill Ferris. I've read quite a few books she's narrated.
I too like Jill Farris; she has kind of an innocence in her voice.
I tend to prefer mature voices. Yes, I have also looked up books by narrator. A narrator can either make or ruin a book, sometimes.
My top favorites are Cyn Delafield, who has a luscious, deep, Lauren Bacall-esque voice, though sadly, she seems to narrate mainly children's books.
Also, Barbara Caruso, for her warm, sincere voice that you want to trust.
Yvonne Fair Tessler, who is no longer living, I think, though I wish this was one fact I did not know. When you spend so many hours listening to someone, you feel somehow connected. She grew on me, because I remember disliking her slightly surly tone, at first. But she displays a range of feeling, which makes the characters come to life, very much in the same way that Pam Ward does...who is next on my list.
Pam Ward does differing accents beautifully, and it's always a treat to hear her.
I haven't like the recent crop of narrators, those I seem to hear most often in the last ten years: Martha harmon Pardee, Kristen Allison--I think these two sound alike, and I can't stand them! I'm not a fan of Madelyn Buzzard, either, but I will listen to her. I try to avoid Martha, and her clones. LOL
Actually I notice that today's nls narators are starting to sound to me like news broadcasters. is this my imagination?
Ooh, I forgot to include any comment on male narrators! The unfairness of that!
Bob Askey, of course. Is there anyone who doesn't like Mr. Askey? He is perfection!
I haven't heard him in such a long time, but I would go out of my way to listen to hal Tenney, too.
And Roy Avers is good, but mostly memorable because once, a friend and I were listening to an unmemorable book which included a fair amount of cheesy romance. One of the characters called her partner "Honeybear," and roy Avers said it in such a hilarious way, that my friend and I adopted it into our own store of private jokes. So ever since, when I hear Roy Avers, I think of him as Honeybear, and my friend and I refer to him as such. LOL (Yeah, I actually had to go check NLS to find out his real name.)
I am a big fan of Mitzi Friedlander--no doubt. Several others, too. The woman who reads Chronicles of Avonlea by LM Montgomery, I'm not a big fan of. I'll have to look up her name and post it, but my Mom said her voice had this kind of witch-like sound. I kind of agree after having read the whole book,. LOL
Jill Fox, I like a lot. Madeline doesn't bother me.
I think I might think over this topic some more, and post again.
This topic is definitely a good one!
Shanda
Here is a link that might be of interest--this might be the narrator site spoken of earlier but I'm not sure.
Anyhow:
http://www.loc.gov/nls/narrators/
Enjoy,
Shanda
Madeline Bazard is starting to get on my nerves. For some reason I've been getting a lot of books narrated by her lately. I used to like her but not so much anymore. Martha Harmon Pardee is one of my favorites. She does great accents when they are called for. I like some others but generally try to get past whether or not I like the narration and just pay attention to the story. Roy Avers is one narrator who makes that difficult. I do not like his voice.
All-time favorite has to be John Stratton. I've heard him do all kinds of books and loved every single one of them. It's very fortunate that he did The Red Badge of Courage, otherwise I might not've gotten through it, as I really didn't care for the story.
I like David Palmer as well (is it true he passed away?), and Eric Sandvold is good too. As for female narrators, I like Kerry Kundith and Ilona Dulasky, the spellings of whose names I probably just shot straight to hell. lol
As for Madeline, I don't mind her that much.
Problem is, I haven't really read any current books from NLS, so my knowledge of the newer narrators is next to nothing. Some of the other narrators I've listened to probably aren't even living anymore. I'd be willing to bet Phyllis Dorflinger isn't, at any rate.
Becky
I'm a huge fan of fantasy novels and for me there is none better than Erik Sandvold.
Wow, thanks for the above website. Unfortunately, I didn't recognize most of the names, and I didn't see a few narraters I do know.
I did learn how to spell Madelyn Buzzard. *lol*
Well since we're on the topic here are my favorites.
Eric Sandvold. At first I couldn't get into him since he didn't always feel real to me. I mean who wants to listen to what's supposed to be an intense sword fight read by someone who reads with no inflection? Fortunately Eric has improved beyond all recognition as far as I'm concerned.
John Polk. I like his deep, calm voice. I really like how he narrated the Dragonlance Legends trilogy, even if his differing pronuciations from Peter Johnson put me off at first. Actually I thinkk he should have been the narrator from the beginning.
Jon Beryl (is he still narrating or even living?). He narrated the Belgariad and one of the Malloreon novels by David Eddings. He has a voice that lends itself well to fantasy and even humorous novels.
Bob Askey (is there even anyone who doesn't like him). I like his deep, calm voice with just the tiniest hint of sardonic amusement when called for. I just finished reading Bill Cosby's Fatherhood, which he narrates excellently. I actually don't like Hal Tenny as much as others seem to. He narrated the first four novels of the Malloreon novesl and, to be quite honest I don't really feel he has the right voice for fantasy novels. But I like Kristin Allison and Martha Harman-Pardee. There are others I'm sure but I'll have to think about them.
Michael Sharer I believe for Nls books. Hell, I love all or almost all his voice characterizations. God, When he is saying things said by the bad pointless guys he sounds really bored. It's really how they usually talk about things anyways.
And for people who has read Atlas, I love how he does Francisco. I imagine he would talk in that tone. Sly and careful, and thought out.
I love Madeline Buzzard, Mary Woods, even though I don't think she reads anymore. For some reason, I love ray foushee,it's something about his voice. Here are a couple more of my favorites:
Jill Fox, Carol Jordan Stuart, Christopher Walker, Pam Ward, just to name a few.
Myne are Jim Dale, Carrie Condeth, Madalin Brazard, and the narators of the twilight series, the alex cross series, the alex delaware series, the women's murder club series, and the pendergast series.
Can't think of there names, but love them!
I just finished a really cute book by a narrator named June Carter. She was perfect for this book, although I can't remember if I've heard her do other books. I probably have, but she just didn't stand out in my memory. But for this book, The Anonymous Miss Addams by Kasey Michaels, she had to do an upper class British accent, a cockney accent, and a French accent. She did all three excellently.
I remember her, she read a book that I had years ago, I can't remember the name of it. It was about this girl named Jane or Janie who was kidnapped or something like that.
I am not a big fan of most CNIB (and thereby NLS) narrators... but the commercial narrators I love are:
Women: Christina Moore, Carrington MacDuffy, Stina Nielsen, Carol Monda, and Barbara Rosenblat
Men: I LOVED Frank Muller (such a shame what happened to him), Scott Brick, and David Collacci.
Kate
I don't know most narrators by name, and sadly, I haven't listened to an audio book in ages. I really want to change this! My favourite narrators are those who know how to bring a character to life. There's nothing worse than a monotone narrator, unless the book/character honestly calls for it. Sometimes, even authors can screw up the readings of their own texts. Speaking of authors, I have a set of tapes consisting of various things actually read by J.R.R. Tolkien! These are all little clips from books and poems, and from what I understand, they were never meant to be released to the public but were his personal collection. I honestly wish that he had read a full book or even just his poetry because once you hear Elvish spoken by him, you'll never go back. He's got this accent, even when speaking regularly, that is absolutely incredible! I also adore the dramatised versions of The Hobbit (both the 1967 BBC and the 70's version) and The Lord of the Rings from the BBC. As for regular books, I love how Stephen Fry narrates Harry Potter. Jim Dale has his good points too but I prefer the British editions of the books and guess I've just become used to Stephen Fry. They each put a different spin on things. There is also another commercial narrator, Flow Gibson, whose voice I love and I liked the commercial narrator of Indian in the Cupboard.as well.
Indian in the Cupboard? Actually if I'm not mistaken that was the author herself, Lynn Reed banks I believe her name is. I know she has read at least part of that series. And I totally agree about Frank Muller. The first book I ever heard read by him was Stephen King's The Green Mile. Then I read The Gunslinger. I think he could actually have done a decent job on the Lord of the Rings. It's just a shame that even had he survived his days of narrating audiobooks were most likely over since I seem to recall that he sustained some severe head injuries as a result of that motorcycle accident despite the fact that he was wearing his helmet. Whether as a result of complications from that accident or not I believe it was a stroke or series of strokes that ultimately killed him. But he'll definitely be sorely missed.
That's right! I'd forgotten that it was read by the author. In any case, she did an excellent job. I actually prefer when Stephen King reads his own books. I loved his reading of The Dark Tower series. I only wish that he would've continued till the end instead of letting others pick it up. Today, his versions are almost impossible to find. I only heard one book read by Frank Muller, Blackhouse, but I know he was a friend of Stephen King and I was unaware that he died. I thought he was recovering from that accident. Then again, considering the horrible injuries that he received to the brain, perhaps, it was all for the best that he's no longer suffering with them. As with Harry Potter, I think that Lord of the Rings should be read by a British narrator. Some things just sound better when they're read by a person from their country of origin.
I like the way Stephen Fry reads the Harry Potter series, but not too keen on the Jim Dale ones. I also like Gabriel Wolf as the narator of The Hobbit.
I'm the opposite. I just couldn't get into Stephen King's narrating his own books. And while i generally agree that it's best to have a book narrated by someone from the author's own country I'm less picky about that if the chosen narrator has a good voice for narrating and a good ear for accents and dialects. And from what little I heard Frank Muller had both. Another narrator I like is Anthony Heald.
I don't really listen to tNLS stuff, but two of my favorite narrators are Dick Hill and Scott Brick. They narrate for commercial books, but I really enjoy them.
I like Dick Hill. That deep, calm voice and he's reasonably good at accents. About my only complaint is that for the Magic Kingdom of Landover books he does make the character Abernathy sould disturbingly like the Geico Gecko.
My favourite narrators are Barbara Rosenblat, Frank Muller and Jimm Dale. I don't really get stuff from the NLS much, so I cant' speak for those. Though, I did hear Madeline narrate a few books, and I liked her.
I Love Dick!
Dick Hill is good, but sometimes his voice extremes get on my nerves a bit. He scared me out of a dead sleep while I was "reading?" the Sword of Truth series more than once. Heh.
Scott Brick I'm back and forth on, but he's not bad. Frank Muller is among my favourites, and George Guidell is definitely an acquired taste but a good one. I'm not big on the NLS narrators, sadly...but I do think King does a good job reading his own books.
I do prefer Frye to Dale with Harry Potter...but is it me, or does he sound like he's got one hell of a cold through most of it? Extreme nasality puts me off in certain places.
Another one that no one has mentioned here that's halfway decent is Sam Tsoutsouvas. He's not brilliant, but he'll do. Nice rich voice, on the whole. What do you folks think of Buck Sherner?
I've always been amazed by the tallent of the narraters. I almost feel like they're old friends. lol Yeah, I know, I need a life.
I love Mr. Asquey, of course!
Ray Fushay is another one of my favorites. I like David Hartly-Margalin, Madalyn Buzzard, Marry Woods, Faith Potts, Martha Harmon Pardee, and all the other NLS classics. The only one I'm not overly crazy about is Chuck Benson. He has the same cadence throughout each book and it reminds me of machine gun fire. lol
The really wierd thing is sometimes when I've been reading for a long time, my thoughts come out in my head as if they're being read by these folks. Yeah, wierd, I know.
Since this got brought back to the top, I'll post to it again. I still don't read a ton of audio books, but I've read a few more recently.
I love Scott Brick as a narrator. Also like Carolyn McCormick, who I believe is the one reading most of the Women's Murder Club series. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that? I've also been reading the Michael Bennett series by James Patterson. Those are read by two different guys, one for Bennett, one for the villain. I don't know their names, but I like them.
Someone asked earlier on this thread if there's a way to contact these narrators. I think many actually have Twitter accounts. I know Scott Brick does. And, on a follow Friday, he listed a ton of other narrators that do too, though I didn't recognize their names, so I don't remember them. But you could look up the different ones on Twitter, probably.
Pipi, I had to laugh at your, "I love Dick." Pipi and others have a Twitter hash tag going: #ILoveDickAndBrick. Grin.
I am reading a book called "Child 44" read by Dennis Butzicaris (forgive my butchering of his last name). I'm only about 20% of the way through the book, but he has now become one of my favs.
For female narrators, I really like robin Miles. Unfortunately I don't like a lot of the books that she's narrated, so I'm kinda bummed about that.
I am also new to audio books, just recently checked out the NLS player once the local library said they'd served up the local elderly and fixed income populations. Man, I'm actually quite impressed. All I remember was the beastly tapes we used to get in school, pretty nasty that.
Still not quite the same as reading it for myself, but a Braille display for my iPod is a bit in the distant future. Anyway here's two of them I recently read:
Eric Straton doing the Four Seasons by Stephen King. I had read this book before, but his intonation is really good on Apt Pupil (not a story for the delicate mind). But he does a great job with all four.
Also Pam Ward, who now reads for Audible I have seen rumored, did a great job with Dolores Claiborn.
I apologize if I have butchered spelling: I don't think I can make the device spell things out
I'm about to try having them read Ray Kurzweil's book we'll see how one of his books does as audio being read to us.
One advantage of having the book read to us is if you want to do something with your hands, say, work in the garage, smoke a cigar / pipe or whatever, it can happen.
@SisterDawn Glad to see I'm not the only audiobook neophyte on here: seems most the blind have more experience with all this. I'll definitely use this topic as a resource.
Raising a glass to all who have contributed.
Beers,
Someone a long time ago started a "what are you reading" thread on booknook. You might want to scan through that to get more audio book recommendations. At least I think most of the books discussed there are from NLS. The best way to experience different narrators and figure out who you like and who you don't is to listen to lots of books.
Ah great suggestion.
So, I don't know how many of these talking players have this, but the NLS one has what appears to be some sort of digitized compression algorithm in it: you move the arrows with the Brailled S next to them, and it speeds up or slows down playback. Only of course it's digital so you don't get the annoying chipmunk sound like the old tape decks when you fast-forwarded through some dreadful grandmotherly rendition of a book.
I'm guessing the algorithm proportionally removes silence, but don't know as I don't have the source to look at it: it's theirs, so not going there.
But i did try this and it seems somewhat like speeding up the voice in Windows or any other device. Have any of you got used to reading like that? I haven't actually tried using it on a chapter of a book yet.
I Love Dick and Brick!
I don't care for Stephen King reading his own books. I feel like there should be more from him when he does it.
Leo, I speed up any books on the nls player. I love it that way. I get slightly disappointed when I read an audio book on my computer or phone because I don't have that speeding up option.
I love braille, but just don't have the access to it. I find audio books are a decent compromise and keeps me able to read. My goal is to read 100 books this year. I will make it as I've read over 80 now. I love to read and am pretty much always doing it. I've mastered the art of multi tasking. I can cook clean, play with my daughter, exercise, pretty much anything I set my mind to, while reading. I was excited to learn that the doctor's office I was in today didn't have that no cell phones allowed rule so I was able to read during the 2 hour test I had to take today.
again I Love Dick and Brick!
I love being able to speed books up. I'm not one of those who likes it so fast that every narrator sounds like a chipmunk, but I hit the speed up button at least once for all books and twice for some narrators who seem to read particularly slow. It's so nice to be able to speed up the voice without changing the pitch. I find I can tolerate some narrators better than I could when I only listened to cassettes. Some female narrators sounded horrible when I sped them up on the cassette players but don't sound so bad sped up on the digital players.
I pretty much speed them all up. It took some getting used to at first. I didn't mind the nen sounding like chipmonks but I am glad that the ladies now sound normal. lol It drives me nuts to have to listen to something using normal speed. Not sure if that's a good thing but whateryagunnado?
Thanks again guys.
I just bought a flash drive just for the books, am working late, and so have the player on in the background. I was going to say something most sighted people can't: except, the cigar rollers and other factory workers of yesterday had readers who read to them while they were working.
With my job being software development, can't really read a deeper work while working, but am reading the last of the Earth's Children series. These are by Jean Auel, and a bit longish or repetitive, but now that I have read most of them, gotta do the last one.
I really like Jack Fox, and has anyone heard Gabriella Cavallero? She has a unique voice.
I recently read a book on the Fitzgeralds and Kennedys, narrated by Art Metzler. Boy, is his voice different! It took me a while to get use to it. *smile*
I like Jack Foxx too as well as David Hartley-Margolin. They both have pleasant deep voices and are good readers.
oh, if we're talking about the professional payed folks I do like Jim Dale, he did well reading Harry Potter. I love his impersonation of the voices of padfoot and moony, but then again they are my favorite characters. I love Albus's voice as well and also minervas. Umbridges voice was hilarious. He's a good actor anyway, I love his acting.
I've never heard frie read HP but I loved him reading hih hiker's guide, and I love the guy who reads atlas too I forgot the guy's name the professional one I mean, rand would be proud of him. I don't mind lemony snicket's or daniel handler reading of his own books either funny really. the brittish guy is pretty cool too. the lord of the rings guys did well, erm....., and well actually there's one more nls reader I like the guy who did the sord of truth books didn't do too badly.
I forgot some of my faves. I like Steven Lang, I adore John Glover, and Anthony Healy? Think that's the dude's name. He's read some of the Star Wars books. Whilst the ones I've read are abridged, I like them because they have the sound effects. Gotta love the light saber sounds! *grin*
I may have been the guy who started the thread on the rant board because I had just gotten a book in the mail at the time and put it in my cassette player only to find that it was narrated by Bill Wallace, whose voice drives me up the wall because he's so freaking mellodramatic and sounds like a drama queen when it doesn't sound as if he's talking down to you. I love listening to Jake Williams, though. Most narrators I hardly even notice one way or the other, which I think is a good thing.
Actually Hellschild it's Anthony Heald. I like him too. As for Jack Fox, I like him too. I heard he's retired now.
My favorite narrator of all time reads for commercial audio books. Susan Ericksen. I first found her reading the In Death books, and she does such a fantastic job. She has a few books up on bard.
I'm also a Fri girl with Harry Potter. Jim Dale is alright, but I think it's Fri's more steady cadence that allows me to actually fall into the story instead of focusing on the narrator's voice.
I don't care much for Mitsy Freedlander. she does accents well enough, but I just don't like her speaking voice.
Thanks to V. c. andrews books, I've associated Cristin Allison with more trashy sort of teen girl books. I like her though well enough.
Erin Jones is another good one, along with kimberly Schraf. If you like legal thrillers, check out the author Lisa Scottoline.
Lemoney Snicket is another good reader. I got the opportunity to hear him read a few of his own books, and I really found it a pleasure to hear him. On the flip side, I heard tim Curry reading some of the Snicket books too, and he just makes me laugh.
Ah, yes. Thanks for the correction, Bryan. I couldn't remember if it was Heald or Healy. Lol. but yes, he's awesome!
I prefer Dale over Fry. I couldn't get into Steven Fry's HP narration. I liked him in Hitchhiker's Gide infinitely better than Douglas Adams' own narration. When Adams read it a lot of the humor was lost. Simon Jones, who played Artur in the radiodrama, would have been an excellent narrator for te unabridged books since he's got that excellent narrator's voice.
I have to say that I resoundingly second Pipi's love of Dick and Brick. However I now have an even more personal admiration for those two narrators in particular and it all came about because of Twitter and the #ILoveDickAndBrick hash tag. To cut a long story short a few months back Pipi and I were discussing audio books and for no better reason than it sounded outrageous and something that no man should ever proclaim publically, I decided to invent the hash tag #ILoveDick. Of course she and I both knew that the Dick in question was the narrator Dick Hill, but nobody else was aware of that fact which made it especially entertaining. Well, it did to me anyway though I do admittedly have a small mind.
Over time we extended the hash tag to include Scott Brick, because we both happen to really enjoy his work too and so the #ILoveDickAndBrick hash tag was born.
Now the thing is that Scott Brick is actually on Twitter and also, I might add, he is somebody who clearly enjoys interacting with his fans so one afternoon I said something to him and included the #ILoveDickAndBrick hash tag at the end. I must confess that I never expected to get any response from him, after all, were you faced with such a thing would your first inclination not be to run far away and quickly? Fortunately though he also has a sense of humor and far from being shocked or horrified he responded saying how funny he found that hash tag and that he'd been showing it to friends and family who had also gotten a laugh from it.
Anyway recently my 32nd birthday came to pass and my wife has made it a bit of a custom to put together an audio birthday card for me. So imagine my shock at the end of hearing lots of messages from good friends when up pops a familiar voice saying "Dan Brown, this is Scott Brick". He went on to leave me a message but then stunned me even further by going to the additional effort of emailing Dick Hill, something that even my wife and Pipi (who had both had a hand in setting this surprise up) had no knowledge of and so in the middle of Scott's message, I also got a message from Dick too.
Now if that isn't enough to catapult two narrators to the top of people's lists I don't know what is. They're both wonderfully talented narrators but also human beings who are willing to take the time to reach out to people above and beyond the call of duty.
It's now 2 weeks on from that birthday surprise and I still can't help but break out into a big grin every time I hear those birthday messages.
So there you have it folks, don't ever be ashamed to love Dick and Brick. I wasn't. I love Dick and Brick!
Dan
Cool. I'm not familiar with Scott Brick but I'm very familiar wih Dick Hill since he narrates both te abridged and nabridged versions of th Landover novels. And if I'm not mistaken he is or at one time was married to another narrator. I think her name was Suzie Breck. I would hope they're still married but of course things don't always work out...
I like the cat that did the Green Mile, Ray foushee
I prefer the comercial audiobook narrator, Frank Muller (may he rest in peace). Then I just today finished reading A Stolen Life, written and narrated by Jaycee Dugard. An in tis particular instance I'm glad se did the narration erself, rather than letting some actor or actress put their own spin on it. Jaycee's no professional but I took in what she had to say perhaps in spite or even because of that fact.
Yeah, I read that one, too. Man, that had to be hard to write, let alone narrate.
My thoughts exactly. And the matter-of-fact way she describes what he did to her. I don't think I would have her strength of character. If someone had kidnapped and tortured me for eighteen years the way Garrido did to her I don't think I'd have it in me NOT to hate them, and hate them bitterly at that. I'd want them dead and I'd probably want to be the one to do it. As it is I hope someone in that prison makes good on the threats they made against the Garridos. But I would be honored were I ever to have the chance to meet Jaycee, even if only briefly. She's only a month older than me LOL.
the thing that made me sick was this dude's wife was jealous because she had his kids. Hello, chickie, he was raping her?
yeah, tim curry made me laugh, too, he's er... hilarious. snicket was pretty good.
Patrick Stewart did a pretty good job on The Last Battle.
Hello, interesting topic, I don't know much about NLS, but like other such as Chivers audio books, and Isis audio books.
I'm back with more opinions. Heh.
The guy who read the Sword of Truth talking books was nick Sullivan, and I have to say he was quite good. I've got something else read by him as well kicking around somewhere, I think (a Dean Koontz novel if memory serves).
I think what kills Jim Dayle for me is his pronunciation. Just listen to how he says the word "Harry!" when someone is excited to see the titular character...he really pulls the last syllable out and makes it ridiculous. He does more voices, to be sure, and they're more varied, but...well, when I listened to Goblet of Fire, I thought Moaning Myrtle sounded about as thick as a brick, and that just...doesn't suit, I'm afraid. Dayle's talented as hell but I think he outdid himself in a not-so-good way, and that's why I prefer Frye.
Do any of you folks like Ron McLarty or Paul Michael? I find the latter sounds a bit like Brick, and I tend to like them both. Really, I guess I'm not too hard to please when it comes right down to it. There are only a handful of audiobook narrators (commercial or four-track) that I can't stand, and two of them read the David Eddings books I loved as a teenager (they'd be Hal Penney and Cameron Byerly (sp?). The only others I distinctly dislike are John Bedford Lloyd and Campbell Scott.
Another awesome narator is L J. Ganzer.
Actually it's Cameron Beirle. And al Tenny. I agree. Admittedly both took a wile to grow on me but I have both the Belgariad and Malloreon novels as read by Beirle and I love them all. I also agree with you about John Bedford Lloyd. I think what gripes me about Jim Dale is he bought into te film pronunciation of VOldemort, which pronounces the T. And I distinctly remember reading on Rowling's own web site, and more than once, that the T was to be taken as silent. So the name would be pronounced as Voldemor. Interestingly enough both Dan Radcliffe and Gary Oldman slipped up into the proper pronunciation several times throughout the movies.
I like the two who do the "Wheel of Time" series. after so many books, I can't imagine the book without their voices. I read a lot of fantasy, so the most memorable and entertaining for me is Kristin Allison. She has a unique inflection and tone. I think she also does a great job with pronunciation, which isn't too easy in the fantasy genre.
Dan, that is an absolutely hilarious story about Scott Brick and Dick Hill. And belated happy birthday, by the way. I've never heard anything read by Dick Hill but have gotten a few books that Scott Brick narrates and agree he is very good. Andddddd I do know he likes to communicate with his fans because he joined an email list I'm on for discussing mysteries. He wrote to me off list to ask me some questions about NLS and we had a correspondence going for a short time.
I'm about to start a book by Nelson DeMille read by one of my very least favorite narrators, Roy Avers. I'm actually dreading it. I love the John Corey series by DeMille and have liked the narrators of the first four books in this series. But NLS is using Roy Avers for the fifth book, and I just know I won't enjoy the book as much as the previous four.
I definitely agree about Roy Avers.
Anybody remember those Disney read-along books? I grew up with those guys too. I finally found a bunch of their names. The only one I had known for awhile was Roy LaTreece because he was in a few other things I listened too and even a live-action show I watch. Some of the others were Robie Lester, Paul Frees, and Hal Smith. Smith was actually the first voice of Whit in Adventures in Odyssey, which I listened to for years and never realized. lol
Becky
Paul Frees (SP?) was also the voice of several characters in that 1970's animated film of The Hobbit.
Speaking of The Hobbit, the early-90's audio versions of the Tolkien books were narrated brilliantly. I think his name is Robert English. Recorded Books, Inc. has many good narrators. One of my favorites is George Guidal, who did the Cat Who series. Another good one is C.J. Critt, original narrator of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. One would think that the narrator of that series would need to be somewhat younger, closer to the age of the main character. But somehow the narration of that series works.
Becky
Ah yes, Rob Inglis. I only wish Audible had those. Because all they have is those 1970's NPR versions which, though generally faithful tot he books, use American actors and therefore American pronunciations for a lot of the names. They also suffered from the combined fact tat limited budget meant that each actor/actress played three or more parts and also the fact that unlike the BBC, who generally gather all their actors together for recording sessions, each person would record their parts separately and they were edited together. You could definitely hear a difference in the quality of each recording. Then you have the BBC versions of these programs. Their 1981 radioplay of the Lord of the Rings is probably the best one out there in my opinion despite not featuring the Tom Bombadil scene. And they didn't take the eccessive Hollywood liberties that Peter Jackson did with the movie trilogy. Granted I liked and still do like those movies but I don't like how many of te characters were changed in ways that went against Tolkien's writing. Then you have the BBC version of the Hobbit which I actually couldn't get into surprisingly since I generally like the BBC.
Aww, Tom Bombadil is one of my favorite characters! I've seen the first movie, but I probably won't watch any of the others. The movie adaptations of Harry Potters 3-6 have turned me off to book-based movies. I agree about the BBC. I have their version of Pet Sematary. Very well-done, and the American accents were near enough flawless.
Becky
Wow. I didn't know they did tat. But I sort of agree about te Harry Potter movies. I'm still not keen on the guy they got to play Dumbledore after Richard Harris passed away, but I do like Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. Though I do agree they could have been a lot more faithful to the books without adding too much to the movie times. Particularly in the lastfilm, which makes no mention at all of the tre reason arry was able to return after Voldemort seemingly killed him. But I'm generally extremely skeptical of movies based on books since Hollywood generally seems to ahve an aversion to letting a good story rest on its own merits. Although the GreenMile was a reasonably close adaptation.
Yeah, Fiennes did all right as Voldemort. A lot of the actors did quite well, with the exceptions of the guys who played Lupin and Sirius. I just wasn't feeling those actors at all. Actually, most of my friends who've seen the seventh movie say that it follows the book more than movies 3 through 6. I still don't have a desire to see it, though. I haven't read The Green Mile, but I've seen bits and pieces of the movie. I hear that most of the movie adaptations of King's books are very different from the original stories. I know Pet Sematary was. I saw the movie first, and then four years later I read the book. It was almost unrecognizable! But even the Steven King movies pale in comparison to Legend of the Seeker as far as changing the original story. That show was... just ridiculous. lol
Becky
Yeah, the last movie did follow the book more closely tan te previous ones, but there were things they changed that made absolutely no sense. For instance in the movie there's no mention of Pious beig under the Imperius Curse and then Voldemort kills him personally. Then in the book Grindlewald actually tried to protect the Elder Wand from Voldemort, yet in the film he actually told him where it was. First of all how would he have known seeing as he'd been imprisoned for the last fifty-odd years?
They took out Grindlewald's redemption? Those bastards! lol. Talking of the HP books, do you prefer Fry or Dale? I heard Fry for the first time last year, and he just couldn't capture my attention.
Becky
I've never heard the Fry versions. But I've heard him narrate the unabridged version of te Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and while he did an ok job on those books he defiitely doesn't have the right voice for the HP books. By contrast it's hard to picture Jim Dale reading anything else LOL.
Hello, I have a coppy of the lord of the rings read by Rob Inglis. It's quite good. I like it. I also like the narrators of Chivers and Isis audio books.
I have all the Rob Inglis versions of Lord of the Rings and I agree they're great.
Here's a question for lovers of Mark Twain. Who did the best job narrating The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
I personally liked Dick Hill best. I've heard a lot of other versions but none of those seemed as good to me. Now if Frank Muller had ever narrated a version of it I've no doubt it would have been excellent. That's one narrator who is definitely sorely missed.