*audiobook; corrected
Do they do anything particular with their voice or tone in order to enhance the story?
My copy of the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, narrated by Stephen Fry. It is relentlessly british.
The version read by Douglas himself is also great
Gilbert Gottfried reads 50 Shades of Gray
Fun story: my boyfriend and his sister used to live together and we’d all party at their place. After months of his sister crushing hard on this guy she worked with, she and him had gone to her room for some alone time. Her asshole brother decided that was the time to blast this audio directly through her bedroom door.
8 years later and they’re still dating so I guess it worked.
You can edit titles here on Lemmy btw
Do you mean audiobook rather than ebook?
Yes!
Listen to samples of books read by Stephen Fry. He’s among the best reading voices out there.
Fun fact fyi, unlike Reddit, post titles are editable on Lemmy
Any of the Terry Pratchett audiobooks that were read by Nigel Planer! Most probably know him best as Neil from The Young Ones in the 80s but he’s been in a ton of things since then including a few of the live action Discworld tv specials! He really has a great talent for bringing the books to life usind the right amount of humor that series really needs!
‘Toast on Toast’ read by Steven Toast.
Didn’t know that existed but I’ll download it right now
Anything I’ve listened to with Ray Porter reading it. His intonation is great and just brings that something extra to the stories. In particular Project Hail Mary and the Bobiverse books. He also did Paradox Bound, which felt like a fine time travel story but his portrayal of the voice of the “faceless men” made the character 's menace come to life for me in a way I don’t think would be captured in text.
Gideon the Ninth. Hands down. The book is 100% strong female POV, which I usually like, but as dude, I was missing a lot of subtlety. My kid lent me their audio book and holy shit, Moira Quirk does an absolutely fantastic job. The characters jump right out of the speakers and into my brain, highlighting all the understated humor that I was missing. 10/10, wish I could hear it again for the first time.
Ooh I’ll have to try it. I loved the paper books
I’m in love with Moira Quirk’s voice, great suggestion.
Wow. Gee whiz. My suggestions can’t compete with John Malkovich or Nigel Planer, but…
Some (maybe most?) Star Wars novels are packed with sound effects and electronic voice distortion effects. I’ve listened to Labyrinth of Evil, Darth Plagueis, and Path of Destruction.
Also, I recall being impressed listening to the Silmarillion and the narrator’s pronunciation. Sure, it was a professional production so they had to get it right, but still impressive to hear.
Thandiwe Newton is an amazing reader! Her rendition of Jane Eyre is stunning. I’m currently working my way through her reading of War and Peace and it’s equally gorgeous.
She has a voice for each character and helps one dig into the stories. Listening to her, I’m not brought out of the story thinking of her as an actress.
I’d listen to her read the phone book!
Anything with George Guidall.
He has a deep, resonant voice. I don’t know how else to describe it, but it’s very comforting.
He has done probably hundreds of audiobooks but one series I remember him doing was The Cat Who… line of mysteries. Very lightweight but fun books.
There’s a studio called SoundBooth Theater that does whole ass performances.
Currently listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman, narrated by Jeff Hayes. And it’s awesome. He does the scoffs, laughs, sings in character voices, has crazy sound effects and music, etc.
I second Dungeon Crawler Carl. Have fun with!
Tolkien’s work is wonderful as audio books just ‘cause they’re written like they should be presented as an oral history. Lots of editions exist out there.
I really liked Rob Inglis’ read
Same!
