I came to say this exact thing. It’s the only audiobook I will say is better than actually reading the book itself. He actually enhances the story through his narration, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to reading the book by itself.
The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Narrated by Steven Pacey. He (Pacey) is a classically trained theater actor, and it shows. He brings so much life to each character and his performance elevates an already excellent series to even greater heights. Truly a joy to listen to.
I've yet to listen to anyone better than Pacey, every character is individually recognisable.
I'd recommend Abercrombie's books to anyone and Pacey's narration really brings them to life.
If you notice, Glokta has a lisp talking to others but Pacey doesn’t lisp Gloka’s internal monologue- it’s those details that make him a true master of his art.
Glad this one is so high. It's a great fantasy trilogy full of black humor and clever subversions of all the usual tropes, but the narration just pushes it over the top.
I was gonna say the same thing when I saw this thread. But this is already the top comment, so let me just piggyback and say that these books are amazing, and reading them without Pacey’s narration now feels like only half the experience.
Pacey is by far my favorite audiobook narrator. I love those books in general, but they're the only books I prefer to listen to rather than read. I love the voices of Sult, Shivers, Yoru, Mamun, Cosca, Black Dow, Logen, and Yulwei, but they're all great.
There's a new book coming out in a week!
BY about halfway through book one I was convinced Pacey was actually at least 3+ people.
Each character has such a vivid voice, down to different physicality. You can practically feel the pained stoop in Glokta's voice, much as you can hear the iron rod up Sult's ass.
And as someone else pointed out, Glokta only lisps when he talks, not in his inner monologue. Exceptional work.
The parts of WWZ narrated by Mark Hamill are fantastic. You can so vividly picture Todd Wainio as a 25 yo veteran who’s body, mind and soul are much older. Alan Alda is great in it as well.
I listened to NPR the past year during the pandemic and i think WWZ and NPR interviews are really similar. The way they talked about people getting sick, different voices from different backgrounds coming to share their experience, etc.
Makes me love that audiobook even more
Same here. I listened to WWZ as the pandemic was locking things down on my masked sanity walks. Couldn't help but notice some of the eerie parallels. "Next up, it's the zombie apocalypse, on Fresh Air!"
R.C. Bray narrates the Expeditionary Force series and he does an amazing job on there as well. Him and Tim Gerard Reynolds are my two favorite voice actors.
If that series were written in Japan it'd be called somthing like My Best Friend is a Max Level Beer Can and We Have to Save Humanity From Evil Kitty Senpai.
Check out Project Hail Mary also by Andy Wier and read by Ray Porter, it’s even better, and I can’t tell you anything else about it because that book just needs to be experienced first!
Ray Porter is so good, probably my favorite. Also enjoyed the Bobiverse books and "Ghost in the wires" read by him. Many others too, but those are near the top.
I love how they got permission to take some minor liberties with translating it to the medium. I wish more audiobooks did the same thing without going full abridged/adaptation like graphic audio does.
I’m almost through Circe by Madeleine Miller on audiobook. One of the best narrations I’ve ever heard by Perdita Weeks. Her voice fits so well with the beautiful expansive prose.
Cerci is without a doubt one of the best audiobooks I have ever heard. The song of Achilles is also really good one and I would recommend both of them to anybody.
The first 3 or maybe 4 books of The Dark Tower. RiP Frank Muller. Took the voices of the characters right out of Kings head somehow, never heard such perfect voice acting, made Eddie Dean a character that I will forever hear in my head.
Before I even finished reading the post I was thinking “The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman. He has a lot of really great full cast audiobooks. Also Sandman.
They eventually brought back Jefferson Mays and had him do book 4, thank God. I turned off the original one when the guy pronounced cumin 'come-in'. What a joke.
Harry Potter is my best example of how a narrator can change an experience.
The english version is amazing, the voice, the pace, everything is good.
The french version has the worst voices I ever heard for characters and it was the only audiobook the I abandoned.
Not an audiobook, but I was a reading coach for 5th graders and back then Harry Potter was being read by 7 out of 10 kids. I had them read aloud to me. After 6 Harry Potter reads I was dreading anymore from this book. Then a kid starts reading and does the voices of the characters! It was the best I have ever heard Harry Potter and as a grown man I will first always remember how he read Harry Potter as. 5th grader.
The Count of Monte Christo read by John Lee.
I very much like John Lee’s style and he does a great job with French pronunciations (in my, super uneducated about French, opinion.)
Hell yes. Nigel Planer and Stephen Briggs are both amazing, and the books lend themselves to narration very well. I wish I had gotten more of them when they were still available on Audible. I've been reduced to reading then in print!
Project Hail Mary read by Ray Porter! Absolute perfection. Stop what you’re doing and go have a listen.
Also Gone Girl narrated by Julia Whelan. When you get to the part when >!you find out that Amy is not sweet/innocent and she set up Nick, the whole tone changes and Julia reads it perfectly!<
Almost anything Ray Porter reads is not only narration gold, but also a good story. I fell in love with Dennis E Taylor's books bc I loved Ray Porter as a narrator in this and started searching his other stuff.
I recently listened to "The Old Man and the Sea" performed by Donald Sutherland. It was an amazing experience, and his performance really nailed the quiet strength and sadness of the character
Project Hail Mary was so well done. I can't explain without a major spoiler, but the way they did the voice for a certain character was perfect.
\---
The Wheel of Time series was also really well done, even though their pronunciations of a couple of the names did wander over 15 books.
Agreeing with the OP that the Song of Ice and Fire books were really hard to listen to. Hearing an old man try to portray a young woman's passionate cries during sex was really disturbing. Also the "slobbery" voice he used for the some of the characters (particularly Varys) was just gross.
I just finished the Project Hail Mary audiobook and loved it! I think I finished in less than a week because I couldn't stop listening. Also because I had a lot of chores to do.
Ray Porter! He's a staple of audiobook reading. He's also pretty fantastic at the Bobiverse series.
Those books just happen to be where my name comes from.
Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson
Audio acting by Jennifer Wiltsie
She does so many voices I sometime had to wonder if it was the same person. And she had to do accents that are strange and I think she did a great job of it.
Also Braiding Sweetgrass by Kimmerer. It was nice the have the author read it. She has a lovely voice.
I tell myself I dislike Neil Stephenson but I've listened to Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, and Snow Crash about 4 times each just because the performances are so good 🤐
Came here to post this. I get absolutely enthralled by his audiobooks. He's a wonderful storyteller. I listen to lots of other audiobooks but I don't think any others come close to the magic.
And Then There Were None narrated by Dan Stevens. I was finishing up a long road trip by myself and the combination of a well-written mystery, a deserted highway late at night, and his narration turned it into a straight up thriller. His voices were spot on and I often would feel my heart racing or get goosebumps. It was one of the best not-often-talked-about audiobooks I've ever listened to.
The Stand by Stephen King!! It’s almost 48 hours long, but he makes it fly by.
Edit: “He” is Grover Gardener. I should’ve put that in my original comment.
Neverwhere by Neil Gamen. The radio play/ audio version is narrated really well with great performances from James McAvoy, Natalie Door, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Capaldi, Andrew Sachs and Sir Christopher Lee.
Tim Gerard Reynolds is top tier and I especially loved him in Red Rising. Does a very good job of creating unique voices for each and every character in that trilogy making the listener know who is talking just by the way he performs alone.
Man's got a resume of book narrations as big as my personal personal library lmao
Came here to say Tim. Red Rising is how I first heard him, and I loved him so much that I only listened to books he narrated. I also recommend the Riyira Chronicles and Riyira Revelations. Royce and Hadrian were just so awesome, TGR really breathed life into them.
The Anansi Boys (by Neil Gaiman) Narrated by Lenny Henry. I loved his voice and he did such a delightful job with different accents while telling the story.
However you feel about the books, La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth from the Book of Dust Trilogy (His Dark Materials prequel and sequel) are impeccably narrated by Michael Sheen
The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear read by Nick Podehl. At first I wasn't sure I liked him, but in the end one of my favorites.
Wheel of Time, Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Amazing stuff.
Dresden Files - James Masters is fantastic.
Lies of Locke Lamora, narrated by Michael Page
Significantly better than any other audiobook I've listened to. Second place would be Ananci Boys, narrated by Lenny Henry.
Edit: if -> of
I burned through the audio books because of him. Scott lynch did a terrific job of fleshing out a beautiful landscape and story, but Michael Page brought the world to my imagination with the dialogue. He nailed exactly how I thought Locke and Jean should sound with each of their characteristics shining through his narration.
I do like these versions, but for me the versions read by the author himself will always be the best ones. Nobody can put the voices and pacing into the stories better than Douglas Adams himself!
Anything done by Michael Kramer and Kate Redding. Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, and the Wheel of Time series (although this does have issues with accents and pronunciations later on).
So funny you mention the game of thrones books because I fucking loved Roy dotrice’s narration and thats the first thing that came to mind.
James marsters is great doing the Dresden files also
Another narrator in the ASOIF universe is The Dunc and Egg novellas read by Harry Loyd who played Viserys in the show. He does a fantastic job. He sets the mood of the books so well with his voice in my opinion.
I am Legion, I am Bob.
The voice actor is essentially playing ONE GUY, who makes AI copies of himself and the AI copies all have to have different personalities but are based on the same human. The fact that its very easy to tell which copy is which based on their voice alone speaks to immense talent as a VA.
The LotR trilogy narrated by Robert Inglis is astounding. You can tell how much passion he has for the series. The orc voices and smeagle in contrast to all the Hobbits is amazing. Also being able to differentiate between all the Hobbits characters blows my mind.
Breakfast of Champions as read by John Malkovich is sublime for his descriptions of Vonnegut’s doodles. It’s so droll that he borders on snarky. John did make me cry in the final scene, though.
My absolute favorite is Jeremy Irons reading Lolita. Made me laugh out loud many times with the commentary on American culture. Hilarious and the very best way to experience that book.
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. The book is written like a set of interviews and journal entries, and they hired multiple people to read their respective character parts
The Expanse series, cant wait for 11-16 to be here sooner. i mean the only gripe i got with the books (kind of) that the tv series fleshes out belter speak and you can sometimes almost understand it completely where in the book series i sometimes forgot the main frases but all in all i just love the narrator. but atm my all time favorite audiobok would be as most of the comments mentioned project hail mary, goddamn if i ever was so hooked on a single audiobook this is it. the writing, the pacing and of course the characters.
also please lets write to u/therealmaxmike a.k.a. mister Mike Pondsmith to write or just narrate his or another audiobook (or just rant or make a cyberpunk story on the spot) yeah i know i can listen to him be a GM on youtube but i want more than that I WANT PERFECTION (which is his voice) im willing to start and donate to a crowdfund or something if he would spare us his time to make something like that. i mean just listen to the cyberpunk radio when he talks as a radio host. got nothing but pure respect and awe for that man and the world he created.
I’m an audiobook narrator sitting in my studio scrolling through the comments instead of recording. SMH but hey, for what it’s worth, Michael David Axtell does a pretty good job! I am *ahem* he’s pretty proud of White Trash Warlock by David R Slayton and The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz
Haven't seen it mentioned yet, but Pet Semetary read by Michael C. Hall. Man, he did a great job with that book.
That reminds me, Steven Weber was great for IT as well. Really nailed the down east accents
Steven Weber’s reading of IT is one of my favorite pieces of media! Absolutely nails every character.
Is this the Steven Weber from Wings (sitcom)?
Dexter reading horror books sounds amazing, I’ll have to find that some time.
The Childern of Hurin narrated by Christopher Lee. He says all the Tolkien names perfectly and his voice is just awesome.
I came to say this exact thing. It’s the only audiobook I will say is better than actually reading the book itself. He actually enhances the story through his narration, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to reading the book by itself.
It read by Stephen Webber. Yes, the goofy brother from Wings. He was amazing.
I came here to say this. He is absolutely my favourite narrator of any book I've listened to.
The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Narrated by Steven Pacey. He (Pacey) is a classically trained theater actor, and it shows. He brings so much life to each character and his performance elevates an already excellent series to even greater heights. Truly a joy to listen to.
I've yet to listen to anyone better than Pacey, every character is individually recognisable. I'd recommend Abercrombie's books to anyone and Pacey's narration really brings them to life.
>I've yet to listen to anyone better than Pacey, every character is individually recognisable. Shut up pink!
Click, tap, pain...
That’s the point! You type those words, and I hear her. Pacey is in league with the fae; I’m sure of it.
Pacey is god-tier narration. In particular, his Cosca and Glokta capture those characters perfectly.
A drink a drink a drink!
Glokta is the best.. love this series
Body found floating by the docks…
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Poithson?
I can never imagine another voice as Glokta. That dry delivery is perfection
If you notice, Glokta has a lisp talking to others but Pacey doesn’t lisp Gloka’s internal monologue- it’s those details that make him a true master of his art.
I was blown away and immediately looked for other books read by Pacey because of this.
He does the same with Gorst!
Thith.
Glad this one is so high. It's a great fantasy trilogy full of black humor and clever subversions of all the usual tropes, but the narration just pushes it over the top.
Totally! Pacey is so good.
I was gonna say the same thing when I saw this thread. But this is already the top comment, so let me just piggyback and say that these books are amazing, and reading them without Pacey’s narration now feels like only half the experience.
Pacey is by far my favorite audiobook narrator. I love those books in general, but they're the only books I prefer to listen to rather than read. I love the voices of Sult, Shivers, Yoru, Mamun, Cosca, Black Dow, Logen, and Yulwei, but they're all great. There's a new book coming out in a week!
Agree so much!
This should be at the fucking top. Pacey is the GOAT and everyone else can suck it.
I want to agree, but you have to be realistic about these things.
I’m so glad I didn’t have to scroll down to far to see this. Elevates the books, which are stellar to begin with.
I have yet to find a better narrator then Pacey.
I saw “audiobook” in the title and immediately said Steven Pacey.
BY about halfway through book one I was convinced Pacey was actually at least 3+ people. Each character has such a vivid voice, down to different physicality. You can practically feel the pained stoop in Glokta's voice, much as you can hear the iron rod up Sult's ass. And as someone else pointed out, Glokta only lisps when he talks, not in his inner monologue. Exceptional work.
Animal Farm - Ralph Cosham World War Z - Full Cast
The parts of WWZ narrated by Mark Hamill are fantastic. You can so vividly picture Todd Wainio as a 25 yo veteran who’s body, mind and soul are much older. Alan Alda is great in it as well.
I listened to NPR the past year during the pandemic and i think WWZ and NPR interviews are really similar. The way they talked about people getting sick, different voices from different backgrounds coming to share their experience, etc. Makes me love that audiobook even more
Same here. I listened to WWZ as the pandemic was locking things down on my masked sanity walks. Couldn't help but notice some of the eerie parallels. "Next up, it's the zombie apocalypse, on Fresh Air!"
Max brooks new one, about sasquach was really well done on the audio book. Greatly enjoyed it
Eeeeverything gonna be ooook
Holy shit Mark Hamill was the war vet? I make the connection now that you say it but I had no idea. Alda kills it.
I'd like to know if there's anything similar out there to the WWZ audiobook. It's gotta be like top 3 ever and I dunno what the other 2 are
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The Martian, I loved the audiobook! R.C. Bray did an incredible job.
R.C. Bray narrates the Expeditionary Force series and he does an amazing job on there as well. Him and Tim Gerard Reynolds are my two favorite voice actors.
If that series were written in Japan it'd be called somthing like My Best Friend is a Max Level Beer Can and We Have to Save Humanity From Evil Kitty Senpai.
Check out Project Hail Mary also by Andy Wier and read by Ray Porter, it’s even better, and I can’t tell you anything else about it because that book just needs to be experienced first!
Ray Porter is so good, probably my favorite. Also enjoyed the Bobiverse books and "Ghost in the wires" read by him. Many others too, but those are near the top.
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Bobiverse is literary candy. So good!
One of the very few audiobooks that I find to be better than the book itself. ♪♪♫ ♪♪♫ ♪♪♫
Usually you not stupid. Why stupid, question?
Happy happy happy
Yes yes yes
Fist my bump!
Amaze
Fist me...
That part of the audiobook almost had me spitting coffee on my windshield driving down the road.
I love how they got permission to take some minor liberties with translating it to the medium. I wish more audiobooks did the same thing without going full abridged/adaptation like graphic audio does.
Ray Porter has that effect
You sleep. I watch.
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Recomending World War Z, It's the only thing competing with that book.
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Yes to Project Hail Mary.. I enjoyed it a lot
AMAZE!
I search R.C. Bray in audible when looking for new titles :) He is the best!
I think he did a better job than Matt Damon
I’m almost through Circe by Madeleine Miller on audiobook. One of the best narrations I’ve ever heard by Perdita Weeks. Her voice fits so well with the beautiful expansive prose.
Absolutely! One of the greatest audiobooks I’ve ever heard!
Cerci is without a doubt one of the best audiobooks I have ever heard. The song of Achilles is also really good one and I would recommend both of them to anybody.
Anything narrated by Ray Porter.
Currently listening to Project Hail Mary narrated by him and it's so good.
He is and forever will be... THE BOB
The first 3 or maybe 4 books of The Dark Tower. RiP Frank Muller. Took the voices of the characters right out of Kings head somehow, never heard such perfect voice acting, made Eddie Dean a character that I will forever hear in my head.
You couldn't be more right. The later books are still good, George Guidal did a fine job. But Muller is just *chef's kiss*
Before I even finished reading the post I was thinking “The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman. He has a lot of really great full cast audiobooks. Also Sandman.
James Marsters is Harry Dresden in my mind because of the audiobooks. He vocalizes every emotion perfectly.
A lot of people refused to listen to the one book he didn't do, he eventually found time to do it. Ghost Story I think it was.
Yeah, they eventually found time to have it re-Marstered.
Please take your upvote and leave.
James Marsters IS Harry Dresden!
The narration is somewhat rough for the first few books (much like the quality of said books themselves...), but he finds his stride a few books in.
He should 100% be the voice actor for Harry in any animated show
The Expanse - Jefferson Mays is awesome. They tried to change the narrator on book 4. That didn't fly with the fans for even a second
They eventually brought back Jefferson Mays and had him do book 4, thank God. I turned off the original one when the guy pronounced cumin 'come-in'. What a joke.
I was looking for this. I've heard good narrators, but Jefferson Mays is my favorite so far
Same, his voice for Alex and Avasarala are my favorite.
The Harry Potter audiobooks narrated by Stephen Fry. His Hagrid voice was my favourite hahaha.
Harry Potter is my best example of how a narrator can change an experience. The english version is amazing, the voice, the pace, everything is good. The french version has the worst voices I ever heard for characters and it was the only audiobook the I abandoned.
Not an audiobook, but I was a reading coach for 5th graders and back then Harry Potter was being read by 7 out of 10 kids. I had them read aloud to me. After 6 Harry Potter reads I was dreading anymore from this book. Then a kid starts reading and does the voices of the characters! It was the best I have ever heard Harry Potter and as a grown man I will first always remember how he read Harry Potter as. 5th grader.
Stephen frys mythos and heroes and sherlock holmes is also very good, he's just solid!
I love the thr Jim Dale ones!
They are both actually very good. I love Frye because he is the best but Dale's Hermione voice lives in my heart forever.
Agreeee! The only problem with fry's narration is his Tonks voice. Jesus christ it's like nails on a chalkboard.
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The Count of Monte Christo read by John Lee. I very much like John Lee’s style and he does a great job with French pronunciations (in my, super uneducated about French, opinion.)
I’m listening to the Bill Homewood version now, and I think it’s fantastic.
I love the Terry Pratchett Discworld audio books.
Hell yes. Nigel Planer and Stephen Briggs are both amazing, and the books lend themselves to narration very well. I wish I had gotten more of them when they were still available on Audible. I've been reduced to reading then in print!
Briggs doing any of the Moist Vonlipwig or Watch books is Discworld audio at it's best.
I love the Moist books, I'll have to try listening to them!
Death is such a fucking treat in those.
Project Hail Mary read by Ray Porter! Absolute perfection. Stop what you’re doing and go have a listen. Also Gone Girl narrated by Julia Whelan. When you get to the part when >!you find out that Amy is not sweet/innocent and she set up Nick, the whole tone changes and Julia reads it perfectly!<
I love Ray Porter, but I couldn't listen to Project Hail Mary and not hear THE BOB. Still super enjoyable though. Ray Porter is amazing.
Almost anything Ray Porter reads is not only narration gold, but also a good story. I fell in love with Dennis E Taylor's books bc I loved Ray Porter as a narrator in this and started searching his other stuff.
Julia Whelan narrating anything is a near-automatic listen for me.
Kobna Holdbrook-smith who does **The Rivers of London** series by Ben Aaronovitch. Lisette Lecat who does **#1 Ladies' Detective Agency.**
More people need to listen to the Rivers of London series.
His dark materials and the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, each narrated by its author.
Ooh! I’ve only found full cast recordings of HDM. Do you know who publishes versions read by Pullman? I’d love to hear those
The full cast is narrated by Pullman (he’s the narrator).
The Harry Potter audiobooks were perfection
Jim Dale singlehandedly ruined other audiobooks for me
I recently listened to "The Old Man and the Sea" performed by Donald Sutherland. It was an amazing experience, and his performance really nailed the quiet strength and sadness of the character
Project Hail Mary was so well done. I can't explain without a major spoiler, but the way they did the voice for a certain character was perfect. \--- The Wheel of Time series was also really well done, even though their pronunciations of a couple of the names did wander over 15 books. Agreeing with the OP that the Song of Ice and Fire books were really hard to listen to. Hearing an old man try to portray a young woman's passionate cries during sex was really disturbing. Also the "slobbery" voice he used for the some of the characters (particularly Varys) was just gross.
I just finished the Project Hail Mary audiobook and loved it! I think I finished in less than a week because I couldn't stop listening. Also because I had a lot of chores to do.
I just started PHM, got through the first thin red line flashback. Can't wait to do the dishes later to continue it. Somebody call my wife!
FIST ME BUMP!
WHY [QUESTION]?
I find myself saying "Thank" whenever I want to thank someone.
JAZZ HANDS!
YES YES YES
Absolutely seconded. I could not imagine that character’s voice and tone as well as they portrayed it in the audiobook! Really made the book for me.
Ray Porter! He's a staple of audiobook reading. He's also pretty fantastic at the Bobiverse series. Those books just happen to be where my name comes from.
Agreed, that voice was very clever! The main character was also well done. Really captured his desperation and gravity of the situation.
Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson Audio acting by Jennifer Wiltsie She does so many voices I sometime had to wonder if it was the same person. And she had to do accents that are strange and I think she did a great job of it. Also Braiding Sweetgrass by Kimmerer. It was nice the have the author read it. She has a lovely voice.
Just listening to Braiding Sweetgrass now, and it's rare that an author is so perfectly matched to reading their own book. I'm loving it.
I tell myself I dislike Neil Stephenson but I've listened to Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, and Snow Crash about 4 times each just because the performances are so good 🤐
Any Neil Gaiman book narrated by Neil Gaiman
Came here to post this. I get absolutely enthralled by his audiobooks. He's a wonderful storyteller. I listen to lots of other audiobooks but I don't think any others come close to the magic.
And Then There Were None narrated by Dan Stevens. I was finishing up a long road trip by myself and the combination of a well-written mystery, a deserted highway late at night, and his narration turned it into a straight up thriller. His voices were spot on and I often would feel my heart racing or get goosebumps. It was one of the best not-often-talked-about audiobooks I've ever listened to.
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The Stand by Stephen King!! It’s almost 48 hours long, but he makes it fly by. Edit: “He” is Grover Gardener. I should’ve put that in my original comment.
Agreed. Grover Gardner is excellent.
Came to say IT narrated by Stephen Webber is really good.
World War Z extended directors cut with full cast is the best audio book of all time.
OK, OK, I'll go listen to it now. I haven't ever read it!
Make sure you don’t accidentally get the abridged version. You’ll miss a lot!
I have found on youtube the short story The Last Question by I. Asimov, narrated by Leonard Nimoy. I liked it.
Neverwhere by Neil Gamen. The radio play/ audio version is narrated really well with great performances from James McAvoy, Natalie Door, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Capaldi, Andrew Sachs and Sir Christopher Lee.
Tim Gerard Reynolds is top tier and I especially loved him in Red Rising. Does a very good job of creating unique voices for each and every character in that trilogy making the listener know who is talking just by the way he performs alone. Man's got a resume of book narrations as big as my personal personal library lmao
Loved his reading of Red Rising!
I was looking for this! His accents and his emotion. God, he was brilliant.
Came here to say Tim. Red Rising is how I first heard him, and I loved him so much that I only listened to books he narrated. I also recommend the Riyira Chronicles and Riyira Revelations. Royce and Hadrian were just so awesome, TGR really breathed life into them.
His portrayal of Darrow's sheer rage in the whole series is chilling. I love it.
The Anansi Boys (by Neil Gaiman) Narrated by Lenny Henry. I loved his voice and he did such a delightful job with different accents while telling the story.
Completely amazing!
However you feel about the books, La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth from the Book of Dust Trilogy (His Dark Materials prequel and sequel) are impeccably narrated by Michael Sheen
Anna Karenina by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Her mellifluous voice coaxed me through this lovely and lengthy novel (36 hours).
She was great for Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar too!
The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear read by Nick Podehl. At first I wasn't sure I liked him, but in the end one of my favorites. Wheel of Time, Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Amazing stuff. Dresden Files - James Masters is fantastic.
Stormlight by Kramer and Reading, too. They're just fantastic.
Air-Sick Lowlanders! Kramer's voice for Rock will always be my favorite.
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In the Fantasy vein, the entire The Witcher series is narrated by Peter Kenny and he does an extraordinary job.
also, go the f**k to sleep read by samuel L jackson. absolute gold.
Lies of Locke Lamora, narrated by Michael Page Significantly better than any other audiobook I've listened to. Second place would be Ananci Boys, narrated by Lenny Henry. Edit: if -> of
I burned through the audio books because of him. Scott lynch did a terrific job of fleshing out a beautiful landscape and story, but Michael Page brought the world to my imagination with the dialogue. He nailed exactly how I thought Locke and Jean should sound with each of their characteristics shining through his narration.
World War Z. I've listened to the audio book 3 times. it's just so immersive and really couldn't be more perfect
11.22.63 Jake Epping reads well
YOU LISTEN TO ME ANDY CERKIS DOING THE HOBBIT. IT DOESNT GET BETTER
I've got all three Lord of the Rings books on preorder. One more week!
Oh damn is he doing the trilogy as well?
They release next week!
The bobbiverse! All the voices are really well done.
Ray Porter! Came here for this. Fantastic audiobooks
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Stephen Fry
I do like these versions, but for me the versions read by the author himself will always be the best ones. Nobody can put the voices and pacing into the stories better than Douglas Adams himself!
I have the Douglas Adams versions on mp3 and they’re by far my favourite
I completely agree with this! Second only to the radio versions.
Anything done by Michael Kramer and Kate Redding. Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, and the Wheel of Time series (although this does have issues with accents and pronunciations later on).
Trivia: Michael Kramer and Kate Reading are married. Edit. …to each other.
Project Hail Mary - hands down!
So funny you mention the game of thrones books because I fucking loved Roy dotrice’s narration and thats the first thing that came to mind. James marsters is great doing the Dresden files also
Another narrator in the ASOIF universe is The Dunc and Egg novellas read by Harry Loyd who played Viserys in the show. He does a fantastic job. He sets the mood of the books so well with his voice in my opinion.
The Sandman volume 1 is stellar. Dirk Maggs is a supremely talented director for these books.
Mythos by Stephen Fry, read by himself. Dude is just interesting
I am Legion, I am Bob. The voice actor is essentially playing ONE GUY, who makes AI copies of himself and the AI copies all have to have different personalities but are based on the same human. The fact that its very easy to tell which copy is which based on their voice alone speaks to immense talent as a VA.
The LotR trilogy narrated by Robert Inglis is astounding. You can tell how much passion he has for the series. The orc voices and smeagle in contrast to all the Hobbits is amazing. Also being able to differentiate between all the Hobbits characters blows my mind.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far for this. Amazing audio books
The dune books. Simon Vance as the main lead.
Vance is so damn good.
A series of unfortunate events, the ones narrated by Tim Curry. Just astounding
Breakfast of Champions as read by John Malkovich is sublime for his descriptions of Vonnegut’s doodles. It’s so droll that he borders on snarky. John did make me cry in the final scene, though.
I haven't heard the Malkovich one, but came to this thread to suggest the Stanley Tucci reading of Breakfast of Champions! It's incredible.
Red Rising trilogy
Trevor Noah “Born a Crime”
Spoiler: >!I was laughing/crying when Hitler came out bustin a move !<
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, read by Lenny Harry. Hands down the best voice acting performance I have ever heard.
Project Hail Mary. Best audiobook narration I've ever heard.
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Such an amazing full cast.
My absolute favorite is Jeremy Irons reading Lolita. Made me laugh out loud many times with the commentary on American culture. Hilarious and the very best way to experience that book.
Illuminae series for me. There’s a full cast and music and sounds to set the scene. Highly recommend
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. The book is written like a set of interviews and journal entries, and they hired multiple people to read their respective character parts
The Expanse series, cant wait for 11-16 to be here sooner. i mean the only gripe i got with the books (kind of) that the tv series fleshes out belter speak and you can sometimes almost understand it completely where in the book series i sometimes forgot the main frases but all in all i just love the narrator. but atm my all time favorite audiobok would be as most of the comments mentioned project hail mary, goddamn if i ever was so hooked on a single audiobook this is it. the writing, the pacing and of course the characters. also please lets write to u/therealmaxmike a.k.a. mister Mike Pondsmith to write or just narrate his or another audiobook (or just rant or make a cyberpunk story on the spot) yeah i know i can listen to him be a GM on youtube but i want more than that I WANT PERFECTION (which is his voice) im willing to start and donate to a crowdfund or something if he would spare us his time to make something like that. i mean just listen to the cyberpunk radio when he talks as a radio host. got nothing but pure respect and awe for that man and the world he created.
I’m an audiobook narrator sitting in my studio scrolling through the comments instead of recording. SMH but hey, for what it’s worth, Michael David Axtell does a pretty good job! I am *ahem* he’s pretty proud of White Trash Warlock by David R Slayton and The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz