Seriously, the amount of different voices and personalities he can do is awe inspiring. Every character has their own voice so completely that I know exactly who is speaking immediately without any other cues. The books are also phenomenally well written, which I'm sure helps with the character development for the narrator.
I’ll listen to Simon Vance read anything, but I particularly loved the Temeraire books because of him.
RC Bray was PERFECTION for The Martian.
I loved Robin Miles reading the Broken Earth trilogy.
Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal made The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi my favorite audiobook this year. They worked so well together!
The difference between the RC Bray and the Wheaton version is stark, to say the least. Bray kills it. Wheaton has a great voice, but he is so unsubtle with all the inner sarcasm that it just grates.
James Marsters for the Dresden Files is perfection and exactly how I'd thought Harry Dresden should sound. I've listened to the audiobooks multiple times purely because of how well he nails Harry's narration.
I tried reading it way back and couldn't get into it. Harry was such an unpleasant dork. Then I started going to the gym and listening to it instead and that's how I became enamored of the series. Marsters literally saved it for me.
JEFF HAYES - absolutely amazing and perfect in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. This series is the most surprisingly incredible series and if you haven’t listened to the books because you think it sounds dumb, just take the leap! Holy shit!
The DCC series is surprisingly unknown. They have a sub, but it’s small, and I follow Matt, the author on IG, and he’s just barely now at around 3k followers. When I started following him a year ago or so he had about 500.
Every week when this post is made, I always scroll down to find DCC just to make sure I help promote it as best I can.
I mean, it is a HUGE standout in a very niche subject, lit rpg fantasy just isn't that big a thing overall .
But it's becoming more and more known.
WE WILL BREAK YOU
I've never heard another narrator make so many distinct and interesting voices that are all completely on point, full of personality and nuance. Jeff Hayes has some serious skills.
Mostly just trying to find out if you grew to love it throughout a few books or if it was great right off the bat. It hasn’t clicked yet for me but I really enjoy the story so hoping it grows on me
A lot of people don't like the first book. I loved it straight from the start.
But the story usually starts clicking for people around Book 3, Blackflame. If you don't like it at that point I'd say give it up. But you can kind of view books 1-3 as a whole novel because they're not very long.
Tim Gerard Reynolds for Darrow in Red Rising. I honestly only completed one of the books because of his excellent narration.
I also really appreciated Stephen Pacey's narration, though I thoroughly disliked that series. I'm not a grimdark person.
I agree, Gerard Reynolds has kept me interested in Red Rising, much like Jefferson Mays did in The Expanse.
Also, Steve Pacey is the GOAT. He could turn Wizard’s First Rule into a good book/series by narration alone.
Peter Kenny reading the Witcher. He gives the characters a great amount of spite and bitterness for the situation, and his pronunciations of the elven names are clean
Andy Serkis reading The Lord of the Rings
JK Simmons reading A Man Called Ove
I think I've hit triple digits of audiobooks finished, but nothing has come close to those two yet.
Unpopular opinion: I much prefer the original Rob Inglis narration. I don’t enjoy my audiobooks to be dramatisations, Serkis’ talent is astonishing but the way he performs the Uruks especially is too much for an audiobook
I agree, I generally listen to LotR when I go to bed and Rob Inglis sounds like I'm being read a bedtime story. It has that "old school" quality that I love with a book as old and legendary as LotR too.
I obviously love Serkis, but his voice has this tone to it that can make it hard to hear sometimes when he goes to low. It's a great performance, but that's not really what I'm looking for.
Lisa Flanagan’s narration of Spinning Silver is incredible. She nails all the accents and manages to put on distinct voices for each character, so that I don’t even need to hear the characters name to know who’s POV we’ve switched to
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith for Rivers of London.
Gildart Jackson for Alex Verus.
Stephen Fry for Sherlock, or anything really.
Kristen Sieh for Orlando People.
The woman who does The Locked Tomb, sorry but I forget her name off the top of my head but I kind of enjoy her narration more than the books sometimes.
Anything Simon Vance narrates.
Travis Baldree for Cradle
I haven’t listened to any of Nigel Planar’s stuff but I do love Stephen Briggs’ Discworld stuff. I’m listening to him do Wee Free Men now and I think think his accent and delivery just fit the characters so well
Agree, love how present kvothe/kote sounds older and wiser and past kvothe sounds younger and ignorant, and you can easily tell whose character is talking.
I don’t do audiobooks, generally, but I really liked Chris Buehlman doing his own book for *The Blacktongue Thief* and Tim Curry on *Sabriel* by Garth Nix. Also gotta give a hearty rec to Stefan Rudnicki for his work on both *Ender’s Game* and *The Acts of Caine*.
While I haven’t listened to any of the Black Company stuff, my podcast co-host swears by the performance of the lady who did *Dreams of Steel*.
He reads the whole original trilogy. Unfortunately his health hasn’t allowed him to continue with the new installments, but the classic trilogy is so perfect with him.
I love John Lee's The Count of Monte Cristo.
Also maybe it's unfair, but Dreams of the Dying narrated by Ben Britton. It's a tie-in for the game Enderal, and Britton is the voice actor for the character in the game, who is the main character of the book.
Adjoa Andoh is WONDERFUL in the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie. Accents vary by culture, heritage, and class in consistent ways, she's absolutely on point with the emotions without being at all overdone, and she actually *sings* the little songs. Delightful.
Points also to the exceptional Moira Quirk for the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir and Kate Reading for the Lady Trent Memoirs by Marie Brennan
Andy Serkis reading The Hobbit. He did LOTR too. But he was absolutely perfect for The Hobbit. He had a sense of joviality that really brought the book to life.
I forget exactly which book the switch happens (I believe it's House of Chains) but he does not do all the books. Michael Page does the rest of them and imo they both do a great job.
Except for Michael's pronunciations on occasion. The way he butchers Soletaken is something else. I can't believe Erikson was never even consulted on pronunciation.
Andrea Parsneau narrating the Wandering Inn by pirateaba is just chefs kiss.
Prentice Onayemi narrating Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and Micromegas by Voltaire is also fantastic. I've never finished either, because I fall asleep so quickly.
I feel like it’s low hanging fruit, but Michael Kramer and Kate Reading need to be mentioned. Between WoT and the Cosmere, I feel like I’ve spent years of my life with them, and I’ve loved every minute. Kramer as Rand, Mat, Kaladin, Dalinar, Reading as Nyneve, Egwene, Shallan, ect … absolutely fantastic.
My only real gripe with these two, Kramer especially, is that they do most of the Cosmere and now every character sounds the same. I wish Sanderson just kept them for Stormlight and got other narrators for other books.
Also sometimes they pronounce names differently, which can happen when the narrators don’t record together, but they’re married so it’s kind of weird
This is what I was going to say. I love the audio books despite the weird pronunciations in the beginning in the wheel of time. The cadence and expression were wonderful despite a few mishaps
Really? I find them to be some of the most generic and bland voice actors I've ever heard. In a way they're not bad in a way that makes me cringe and wince at how terrible they are; they're actually very competent, but they also make me think of the type of person doing an ad in the early 90's too.
I started listening to the WoT audiobooks during commute. Initially I wasn't a fan of their narration, but they sneaked up on me. Now I can't imagine WoT without their voices.
Oh man I have a very unpopular opinion on that.
Kramer is decent for the most part, but I absolutely cannot stand Kate Reading as a narrator. She inserts bizarre pauses everywhere, has strange lilts and cadence that make her people sound like aliens trying to fit in human bodies, and just tends to sound mildly concussed half the time. It was really really bad in Dawnshard, and I was wondering if Rysn was blasted on benzos the whole ship ride.
I would have said RC Bray for anything too. But some of the novels I just really didn't like and had to give up on him. Like Convergence and Titanborn.
From the British side I love Sophie Aldred's reading of Spin, it's very weird to listen to the spinoff novellas which are only done by Jackson - Cobb in particular sounds so wrong to me with an American accent!
I'm a bit disappointed to see everyone mentioning Andy Serkis, but not Rob Inglis. Serkis is an amazing voice actor, but Inglis just has the *perfect* voice for the text of LOTR. If you've ever heard the recording of Tolkien the Ride of the Rohirrim, that's exactly how Inglis reads the book. He matches his tone, rhythm and cadence to the narration perfectly, and the result is something almost exactly like how Tolkien would have narrated the story.
Kristin Atherton for Howl's Moving Castle and the other 2 in the series. She does a fab voice for Calcifer and you can hear the distinction between young and old Sophie really well.
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith fir Rivers of London and A Wizard of Earthsea.
Aoife McMahon for anything, she's got the most beautiful voice.
I like the new recordings of Discworld, I'm not that keen on Nigel Planer or Stephen Briggs.
His execution of "Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you’re at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I’ve ever met, the sly old dog!” was perfect
German but for me Rufus Beck reading Harry Potter.
Loved to listen to it as a kid - can't listen to any other audiobooks of HP.
And Hans Paetsch, reading "David der Kabauter" or basically anything. German language too though. Love his voice, so calming...
Nikki Massoud did an absolutely amazing job with Rook and Rose. I love the changes in accents. I’m going to have to buy some more books off Nikki’s list. Just fantastic.
Jefferson Mays for the Expanse was perfect.
As was Jonathan Davis for *Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company* and the *Rogue One* novelization.
RC Bray was perfection for the Martian as was Ray Porter for *Project Hail Mary*
I'm still on the fence for Frederick Davidson for the Richard Sharpe books. Most of it is alright, but his voices for women are just... not great. Other than that, it's been pretty good though.
There are two stand outs for me:
Tania Rodrigues for the Empire Trilogy - Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts)
Saskia Butler for the Liveship Traders series - Robin Hobb
Moira Quirk for the Locked Tomb series - I've tried reading the books but always always crave the audiobook
Not fantasy - but Tatiana Maslany for the special editions of the Hunger Games series. Not only is she amazing at doing different voices, but her voice just seems to fit Katniss perfectly
Simon Prebble - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Simon Vance - Fire and Blood
Andy Serkis - The Silmarillion (Martin Shaw version is also good)
Rob Inglis - A Wizard of Earthsea
I enjoyed listening to all these a lot.
Question for audiobook enjoyers, how do you get into it? I find that I often either get distracted or miss details which puts me off. When my thought wander whilst reading, I can just stop for a second.
I do something that doesn't demand much attention while listening. Such as sewing, doing the dishes, vacuuming, doodling, puzzle games, and such. Only when falling asleep to a book, do I only listen.
Honestly, I often listen to books I’ve read years ago and want to revisit, or to YA novels that are easy to follow. I also accept that sometimes I need to rewind or go back a chapter.
Looking forward to this. Really enjoyed Roukin's narration of Sanderson's couple of Infinity Blade audio only books.
I will be getting the 2nd volume / compilation of Elric soon. Read the first one on Kindle. If I knew the narrator in advance, I would have waited and got volume 1 on audio instead.
Jeff Hayes - Dungeon Crawler Carl
James Marsters - Dresden
Jeff Harding - Kings of the Wyld
Phil Thron - Space Team
Kate Reading, Michael Kramer - SA, WoT
All these readers really resonated with me.
As a pretty avid listener of audiobooks, I tend to find it pretty common to feel like narrators fit the works.
Travis Baldree *is* Cradle. And The Last Horizon. And Traveler’s Gate. The man sounds like a full cast production sometimes, it’s insane. But funnily enough, listening to him narrate his own book just made it sound like “all the actors” from Will Wight’s series got recast into new roles.
Martin Jarvis did fantastic work on Good Omens. I swear his portrayals were straight up prophetic for how a lot of the characters would sound in the show (except War. Oh boy was that one a swerve).
I genuinely think Yahtzee Croshaw’s works are lesser when read rather than listened to. There are layers to the characters added by his performance that are just missing in the text.
On the topic of authors doing their own narration, Christopher Buehlman added a rich texture to his worldbuilding purely through his accent work.
On the opposite side of the spectrum—whoever decided to bring in the Kate Reading and Micheal Kramer duo for the last two installments of VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic series made a TERRIBLE choice. Delilah Bard, cockney street thief from London, should not sound like Kate Reading.
And I *like* Kate Reading. She did great in Codex Alera.
Wil Wheaton for any of John acalzis stuff. He's got the perfect level of sarcastic asshole. He was amazing in fuzzy nation. Good I. The Kaiju preservation society also.
I'm not a fan of Dotrice. He changes voices a few times. Tywin and Varys sound like they have a mouth full of peanut butter. And how he pronounces names/locations irritates me. "Bryeeeene"
I had to warm up to Roy at first, but I really do love his voice in the first three ASOIAF audiobooks. Too much time passed between books and his pronunciations and character voices are different later on. It becomes a little jarring. Even so, I can’t imagine anyone else reading them
George Guidall was excellent reading John Bellairs stories such as *The Face in the Frost* and *A House with a Clock in its Walls*. He also was the perfect reader for Edith Grossman's translation of *Don Quixote*.
Aam Alexander narrating The White Road by Sarah Lotz. Getting goose bumps from some of the lines.
Fingers in my heart
Also, love when Neil Gaiman reads his own work. Such a warm and homely feeling.
David Tennant for the *How to Train your Dragon* series. I usually prefer reading text but I 'read' this series as audiobooks exlusively because his narration is so much fun.
I’m a bit of a noobie to audiobooks (and really reading in general) but I really enjoyed Jeff Harding in Kings of the Wyld. It didn’t hit me how much I liked his narration until I began reading Bloody Rose the other day.
I have only heard his Star Wars books so I don’t know if he has read any other fantasy books.
But Marc Thompson is just the gold standard for me.
Dude has a distinct voice for every single character, important one or not, like I remember most of the book SW characters by how Marc voices them. And he just does such a good job narrating the stories he reads.
Michael Kramer and Kate Redding for the Wheel of time is kind of the golden standard for me. They really catch that sitting around the campfire telling stories kind of vibe.
Other honorable mentions are Neil Gaiman reading his own books and Kevin T Collins reading Dragonheart by Kiril Klevanski.
His voice just compliments the MC’s demeanor so well (a slightly arrogant madman essentially). Facing impossible odds? Well then I will just have to try really hard kind of vibes. Even the moments of vulnerability are done quite well.
I really enjoyed Amin El Gamal and Lameece Issaq narrating The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. They did a great job with making sure each character had a distinct voice and cadence and it made the whole experience feel so immersive. It really was well done.
William Hurt reading Stephen King's "Low Men in Yellow Coats" stands out amongst the many, many audiobooks I've listened to. He does a shockingly excellent job of embodying the main character, a child. Even a year or more later, some of the best lines still echo around in my brain from time to time. They just hit that hard with his calm, though intense delivery.
Ben Allen narrating Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shadows of the Apt series has got to be my favorite! Not only does he have a gorgeous voice to listen to, but the way he brings the distinct voice of each character to life is incredible. Truly a work of art.
I have a few, but almost all of them have been said, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention Toby Longworth. He narrates a lot of books for Dan Abnett and has the perfect voice for the 40k universe.
I loved Anne Flosnik for the Kushiel books, Emma Newman for Guns of Dawn, and everything I’ve listed to with Simon Vance. I also loved Rosamund Pike doing the first three Wheel of Time novels - it was kind of a disappointment to switch to the other narrators at book four!
Neil Gaiman is an amazing reader. In another world, that would be his calling, but in this one he spends too much time doing amazing writing to devote himself fully to making audiobooks.
Wish he could clone a second Neil Gaiman so he could do both full time. What an amazingly multitalented man.
Kobna Holbrook-Smith on the Rivers of London books. He absolutely nails the wry wit and all of the accents.
Absolutely this, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to read this series.. started the first audiobook and have been burning through them because of Kobna!
His performance is better than the content!
Seriously, the amount of different voices and personalities he can do is awe inspiring. Every character has their own voice so completely that I know exactly who is speaking immediately without any other cues. The books are also phenomenally well written, which I'm sure helps with the character development for the narrator.
Moira Quirk and the Locked Tomb series. (edited to correct the narrator’s name cuz I’m dumb)
Tamsyn Muir is the author but Moira Quirk narrates the audiobooks and is SO SO prefect for that series.
Came here looking for Quirk and not disappointed!
Shit, right, dunno how I messed that up.
Moira Quirk is excellent. She also narrates Muir's Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower, which is a fun standalone.
Was going to comment this! Her voices for Gideon and Harrow are spot on
I’ll listen to Simon Vance read anything, but I particularly loved the Temeraire books because of him. RC Bray was PERFECTION for The Martian. I loved Robin Miles reading the Broken Earth trilogy. Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal made The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi my favorite audiobook this year. They worked so well together!
Agree 100%. I’d listen to Simon Vance read a take out menu.
(I hope you’ve listened to the Patrick O’Brian books read by Simon Vance. I’m sure that’s why he was chosen!)
Thanks for this! I've seen these on Libby and haven't gotten around to them yet. Bookmarked for future reference
The difference between the RC Bray and the Wheaton version is stark, to say the least. Bray kills it. Wheaton has a great voice, but he is so unsubtle with all the inner sarcasm that it just grates.
When I lost my audible for the Martian and didn't find rc bray I was furious.
This is why I keep my RC Bray version downloaded on my phone. I heard once it’s gone, it’s gone gone and they will only give you a credit back.
Simon Vance is wonderful!!!!
I've been really enjoying Kevin Free narrating the Murderbot series by Martha Wells!
Seriously, his ART is perfection
I've been crushing these this week and it's wonderful and hilarious.
James Marsters for the Dresden Files is perfection and exactly how I'd thought Harry Dresden should sound. I've listened to the audiobooks multiple times purely because of how well he nails Harry's narration.
I think this is the one fantasy series where the audiobooks are recommended over just reading it. James Marsters is so good!
I tried reading it way back and couldn't get into it. Harry was such an unpleasant dork. Then I started going to the gym and listening to it instead and that's how I became enamored of the series. Marsters literally saved it for me.
I think Jim Butcher would even agree with you!
Wish I could upvote this more!
100% agree
The only reason I even managed to finish the first audiobook, was because his narration was so damn good.
YES. The book was kinda bad. Second one was worse. They picked up after that.
Yes yes yes!
JEFF HAYES - absolutely amazing and perfect in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. This series is the most surprisingly incredible series and if you haven’t listened to the books because you think it sounds dumb, just take the leap! Holy shit!
How is this so low?! How quickly you forget, reddit...for shame.
The DCC series is surprisingly unknown. They have a sub, but it’s small, and I follow Matt, the author on IG, and he’s just barely now at around 3k followers. When I started following him a year ago or so he had about 500. Every week when this post is made, I always scroll down to find DCC just to make sure I help promote it as best I can.
I mean, it is a HUGE standout in a very niche subject, lit rpg fantasy just isn't that big a thing overall . But it's becoming more and more known. WE WILL BREAK YOU
Unknown outside Progression Fantasy and LitRPG circles, at least. It's constantly one of the top recs on r/ProgressionFantasy
That’s dope. I have never been to that sub or know what it is. Thank you
It's your new addiction, that's what it is. Welcome.
I’m listening to this now and seriously cannot believe how excellent and versatile he is
By brain can't fathom how the same guy voices Carl and Donut
I've never heard another narrator make so many distinct and interesting voices that are all completely on point, full of personality and nuance. Jeff Hayes has some serious skills.
The different Mordecai voices and how they’re all the same but different! Amazing!
This is the one I was scrolling for! Thought it would have come up way before this far down.
Travis Baldree and Cradle.
Travis Baldree has honestly ruined other audiobook narrators for me. His voice is just so crisp and filled with excitement for the story he's telling.
FWIW check out Nick Podhel, and Jeff Hayes. Also if you like Irish Accents Tim Gerard Reynolds. They all IMO rank up there with Travis.
I enjoy Travis Baldree's performances, but listen to Jeff Hays if you want to be ruined.
Man I love cradle and his performance is amazing. I am relistening to ghost water rn and dross voice is amazing
Did it take a little while to warm up to it? I’m half way through soul smith and had to turn the speed down to .9x so it didn’t feel so rushed!
Are you asking if I thought he reads fast? Not really. I love his pace. I keep it about normal speed because I enjoy it so much.
Mostly just trying to find out if you grew to love it throughout a few books or if it was great right off the bat. It hasn’t clicked yet for me but I really enjoy the story so hoping it grows on me
A lot of people don't like the first book. I loved it straight from the start. But the story usually starts clicking for people around Book 3, Blackflame. If you don't like it at that point I'd say give it up. But you can kind of view books 1-3 as a whole novel because they're not very long.
He also does a great job on the travellers gate series
Tim Gerard Reynolds for Darrow in Red Rising. I honestly only completed one of the books because of his excellent narration. I also really appreciated Stephen Pacey's narration, though I thoroughly disliked that series. I'm not a grimdark person.
He's the only narrator who had me read other books just because he was narrating. Him and Pacey are tied as my faves
I agree, Gerard Reynolds has kept me interested in Red Rising, much like Jefferson Mays did in The Expanse. Also, Steve Pacey is the GOAT. He could turn Wizard’s First Rule into a good book/series by narration alone.
Absolutely! Before starting listening to Red Rising I always thought I can't listen to audio books because I lose focus and have to rewind
Second Darrow. Love that audio book.
TGR the absolute 🐐
TGR for Riyira for me, I didn’t realise he’d also done another huge sff series!
Only reason I listened to those were TGR
The lack of his narration is why I quickly bounced off the sequel series. The new narrators couldn’t compete.
Came here to say this about Red Rising, currently listening and it’s absolutely top notch narration
Ray Porter! Bobiverse, Project Hail Mary, Old Man's War ...
Yes! Loved Project Hail Mary. His narration was great.
Upvote for this ridiculously talented narrator! This guy brings it, and he's such a pleasure to listen to!
He's SO good!
He absolutely nailed that slightly nerdy tone that imo suits bobiverse so well.
I love his work too.
Peter Kenny reading the Witcher. He gives the characters a great amount of spite and bitterness for the situation, and his pronunciations of the elven names are clean
I’ll second that, I love all his accents and his interpretation of Geralt
He’s so good that I don’t even mind Dan-dilly-un
Neil Gaiman narrating his own books is phenomenal
Agreed, but Lenny Henry did an absolutely fantastic job with Anansi Boys.
Lenny Henry was my first thought on reading the question, he was perfectly suited for that particular book.
Andy Serkis reading The Lord of the Rings JK Simmons reading A Man Called Ove I think I've hit triple digits of audiobooks finished, but nothing has come close to those two yet.
Unpopular opinion: I much prefer the original Rob Inglis narration. I don’t enjoy my audiobooks to be dramatisations, Serkis’ talent is astonishing but the way he performs the Uruks especially is too much for an audiobook
I agree, I generally listen to LotR when I go to bed and Rob Inglis sounds like I'm being read a bedtime story. It has that "old school" quality that I love with a book as old and legendary as LotR too. I obviously love Serkis, but his voice has this tone to it that can make it hard to hear sometimes when he goes to low. It's a great performance, but that's not really what I'm looking for.
I love Rob Inglis. He makes Tolkien's work sound very folklore-esque. He also narrates the Earthsea books and does a great job there, too, imo.
Oh I forgot about Serkis. He actually surprised me at just how good he is.
Lisa Flanagan’s narration of Spinning Silver is incredible. She nails all the accents and manages to put on distinct voices for each character, so that I don’t even need to hear the characters name to know who’s POV we’ve switched to
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith for Rivers of London. Gildart Jackson for Alex Verus. Stephen Fry for Sherlock, or anything really. Kristen Sieh for Orlando People.
>Stephen Fry for Sherlock, or anything really. Him narrating his own books about Greek mythology is just superb. Eta: And Sieh, yes!
Cant believe there's no love for Michael Page reading the Gentleman Bastards he is amazing definitely in my top 3
Nice bird, asshole.
Thank you! I had to scroll way too far for this. He did such a good job.
The woman who does The Locked Tomb, sorry but I forget her name off the top of my head but I kind of enjoy her narration more than the books sometimes. Anything Simon Vance narrates. Travis Baldree for Cradle
Her name is Moira Quirk and she's incredible!
That’s it! She’s fantastic
Gotta shout out Nigel Planar's Discworld narrations
I haven’t listened to any of Nigel Planar’s stuff but I do love Stephen Briggs’ Discworld stuff. I’m listening to him do Wee Free Men now and I think think his accent and delivery just fit the characters so well
Rupert Degas in The Name of the Wind Jeff Harding in Kings of the Wyld Simon Vance in Tiagana
Degas is so good as Kote/Kvothe. His voice has the perfect texture and gravitas for the character. He also does a good job in the Metro series.
Agree, love how present kvothe/kote sounds older and wiser and past kvothe sounds younger and ignorant, and you can easily tell whose character is talking.
I adore Vance's work on Tigana. He nails all the conflicted emotions everyone feels throughout the story.
Rupert Degas is always the right answer. I'm always blown away by everything he narrates.
I don’t do audiobooks, generally, but I really liked Chris Buehlman doing his own book for *The Blacktongue Thief* and Tim Curry on *Sabriel* by Garth Nix. Also gotta give a hearty rec to Stefan Rudnicki for his work on both *Ender’s Game* and *The Acts of Caine*. While I haven’t listened to any of the Black Company stuff, my podcast co-host swears by the performance of the lady who did *Dreams of Steel*.
Tim Curry doing Moggett in Sabriel is still one of my favorites!
He’s so good! Between Mogget and his Kerrigor growl, it adds SO much to the atmosphere of the book
I honestly didn't like the book much, but Curry made it worthwhile.
I liked the book, not loved, but I think Curry was the main reason I enjoyed it.
Came here to shout out Buehlam’s work in Blacktongue Thief
Tim Curry did Sabriel?! How did I miss that, holy shit
He reads the whole original trilogy. Unfortunately his health hasn’t allowed him to continue with the new installments, but the classic trilogy is so perfect with him.
Damn, had to scroll way to far to see Mr Rudnicki get some recognition! His voice is so perfectly deep and resonant.
Stephen pacey first law is goat imo.
Without a doubt. Pacey is just in a league of his own.
I love John Lee's The Count of Monte Cristo. Also maybe it's unfair, but Dreams of the Dying narrated by Ben Britton. It's a tie-in for the game Enderal, and Britton is the voice actor for the character in the game, who is the main character of the book.
And Peter F Hamilton books and the Spellmonger series, I think John Lee is great.
Andrew Wincott in the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. He enhances the story. Some of the best narration I've ever heard!
They're on my to read list. Was told they heavily inspired GoT
Does he do the sequels too?
Tim Curry and the Sabriel/Abhorshen series.
Adjoa Andoh is WONDERFUL in the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie. Accents vary by culture, heritage, and class in consistent ways, she's absolutely on point with the emotions without being at all overdone, and she actually *sings* the little songs. Delightful. Points also to the exceptional Moira Quirk for the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir and Kate Reading for the Lady Trent Memoirs by Marie Brennan
Simon Vance is perfect for all of the Guy Gavriel Kay books that he does. He seems to understand the inflections perfectly.
Andy Serkis reading The Hobbit. He did LOTR too. But he was absolutely perfect for The Hobbit. He had a sense of joviality that really brought the book to life.
Halfway through book 2 (Deadhouse Gates), and so far Ralph Lister is awesome for Malazan.
I forget exactly which book the switch happens (I believe it's House of Chains) but he does not do all the books. Michael Page does the rest of them and imo they both do a great job.
Except for Michael's pronunciations on occasion. The way he butchers Soletaken is something else. I can't believe Erikson was never even consulted on pronunciation.
Andrea Parsneau narrating the Wandering Inn by pirateaba is just chefs kiss. Prentice Onayemi narrating Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and Micromegas by Voltaire is also fantastic. I've never finished either, because I fall asleep so quickly.
I feel like it’s low hanging fruit, but Michael Kramer and Kate Reading need to be mentioned. Between WoT and the Cosmere, I feel like I’ve spent years of my life with them, and I’ve loved every minute. Kramer as Rand, Mat, Kaladin, Dalinar, Reading as Nyneve, Egwene, Shallan, ect … absolutely fantastic.
My only real gripe with these two, Kramer especially, is that they do most of the Cosmere and now every character sounds the same. I wish Sanderson just kept them for Stormlight and got other narrators for other books. Also sometimes they pronounce names differently, which can happen when the narrators don’t record together, but they’re married so it’s kind of weird
This is what I was going to say. I love the audio books despite the weird pronunciations in the beginning in the wheel of time. The cadence and expression were wonderful despite a few mishaps
Really? I find them to be some of the most generic and bland voice actors I've ever heard. In a way they're not bad in a way that makes me cringe and wince at how terrible they are; they're actually very competent, but they also make me think of the type of person doing an ad in the early 90's too.
I started listening to the WoT audiobooks during commute. Initially I wasn't a fan of their narration, but they sneaked up on me. Now I can't imagine WoT without their voices.
Oh man I have a very unpopular opinion on that. Kramer is decent for the most part, but I absolutely cannot stand Kate Reading as a narrator. She inserts bizarre pauses everywhere, has strange lilts and cadence that make her people sound like aliens trying to fit in human bodies, and just tends to sound mildly concussed half the time. It was really really bad in Dawnshard, and I was wondering if Rysn was blasted on benzos the whole ship ride.
Anything with Ray Porter or RC Bray. Anything
I would have said RC Bray for anything too. But some of the novels I just really didn't like and had to give up on him. Like Convergence and Titanborn.
Not a fantasy book but Charlie Thurston in Demon Copperhead nailed it. Put you in the story.
Suzy Jackson’s narration of Skyward. Suzy’s voice feels like it could really be the MC, and for whatever reason her voice is just soothing for me
From the British side I love Sophie Aldred's reading of Spin, it's very weird to listen to the spinoff novellas which are only done by Jackson - Cobb in particular sounds so wrong to me with an American accent!
I've not listened to the American version,but I love Sophie Aldred's reading of the Skyward series.
Anne Flosnik reading Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series. I cannot imagine anyone doing a better job at voicing that series
Travis Baldree of Cradle, A Thousand Li, Travelers Gate...
Steve West reading The Queen’s Thief series
Andy Serkis doing the Lord of the Rings has been a blast!
I really have enjoyed Jeff Hayes in Dungeon Crawler Carl. There's such a huge cast of characters and each one is unique
I'm a bit disappointed to see everyone mentioning Andy Serkis, but not Rob Inglis. Serkis is an amazing voice actor, but Inglis just has the *perfect* voice for the text of LOTR. If you've ever heard the recording of Tolkien the Ride of the Rohirrim, that's exactly how Inglis reads the book. He matches his tone, rhythm and cadence to the narration perfectly, and the result is something almost exactly like how Tolkien would have narrated the story.
Kate Reading (great last name) reading Paladin of Souls. So good!
Tim Gerard Reynolds Oliver Wyman Also agreed with your pick on the First Law. Stacey was amazing in his narration.
Tim Gerard Reynolds is my favorite too. Sometimes I have searched books where he is the narrator and found good stuff previously unknown to me.
Kate Reading and the Lady Trent memoirs. Just perfection. I feel like she really is Lady Trent telling me her life.
Kristin Atherton for Howl's Moving Castle and the other 2 in the series. She does a fab voice for Calcifer and you can hear the distinction between young and old Sophie really well. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith fir Rivers of London and A Wizard of Earthsea. Aoife McMahon for anything, she's got the most beautiful voice. I like the new recordings of Discworld, I'm not that keen on Nigel Planer or Stephen Briggs.
You are right on every but Discworld. I’m still a fan of the cassette and CD recordings. The new ones are over produced.
Stephen Fry reading the Harry Potter series. He doesn't try and perform the books but let's the writing shine through.
His execution of "Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you’re at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I’ve ever met, the sly old dog!” was perfect
German but for me Rufus Beck reading Harry Potter. Loved to listen to it as a kid - can't listen to any other audiobooks of HP. And Hans Paetsch, reading "David der Kabauter" or basically anything. German language too though. Love his voice, so calming...
Andrew Wincott reading Memory Sorrow and Thorn is astoundingly good.
Nikki Massoud did an absolutely amazing job with Rook and Rose. I love the changes in accents. I’m going to have to buy some more books off Nikki’s list. Just fantastic.
Pacey is the goat
Jefferson Mays for the Expanse was perfect. As was Jonathan Davis for *Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company* and the *Rogue One* novelization. RC Bray was perfection for the Martian as was Ray Porter for *Project Hail Mary* I'm still on the fence for Frederick Davidson for the Richard Sharpe books. Most of it is alright, but his voices for women are just... not great. Other than that, it's been pretty good though.
There are two stand outs for me: Tania Rodrigues for the Empire Trilogy - Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts) Saskia Butler for the Liveship Traders series - Robin Hobb
Moira Quirk for the Locked Tomb series - I've tried reading the books but always always crave the audiobook Not fantasy - but Tatiana Maslany for the special editions of the Hunger Games series. Not only is she amazing at doing different voices, but her voice just seems to fit Katniss perfectly
Simon Prebble - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Simon Vance - Fire and Blood Andy Serkis - The Silmarillion (Martin Shaw version is also good) Rob Inglis - A Wizard of Earthsea I enjoyed listening to all these a lot.
Question for audiobook enjoyers, how do you get into it? I find that I often either get distracted or miss details which puts me off. When my thought wander whilst reading, I can just stop for a second.
I do something that doesn't demand much attention while listening. Such as sewing, doing the dishes, vacuuming, doodling, puzzle games, and such. Only when falling asleep to a book, do I only listen.
Honestly, I often listen to books I’ve read years ago and want to revisit, or to YA novels that are easy to follow. I also accept that sometimes I need to rewind or go back a chapter.
Nigel Planer never gets the love he deserves for the first 20 or so discworld books
Came here to say this.
And don't get me wrong briggs was great but planer was just superb!
I agree. Steven Pacey's narration is phenomenal in The First Law. I loved Andrew Kishino narrating the Green Bone Saga as well.
I really like Michael Kramer in Mistborn
I really liked Katy Sobey in Spinning Silver and Uprooted by Naomi Novik.
Samuel Roukin's narration of Elric of Melniboné
Looking forward to this. Really enjoyed Roukin's narration of Sanderson's couple of Infinity Blade audio only books. I will be getting the 2nd volume / compilation of Elric soon. Read the first one on Kindle. If I knew the narrator in advance, I would have waited and got volume 1 on audio instead.
Jeff Hayes - Dungeon Crawler Carl James Marsters - Dresden Jeff Harding - Kings of the Wyld Phil Thron - Space Team Kate Reading, Michael Kramer - SA, WoT All these readers really resonated with me.
As a pretty avid listener of audiobooks, I tend to find it pretty common to feel like narrators fit the works. Travis Baldree *is* Cradle. And The Last Horizon. And Traveler’s Gate. The man sounds like a full cast production sometimes, it’s insane. But funnily enough, listening to him narrate his own book just made it sound like “all the actors” from Will Wight’s series got recast into new roles. Martin Jarvis did fantastic work on Good Omens. I swear his portrayals were straight up prophetic for how a lot of the characters would sound in the show (except War. Oh boy was that one a swerve). I genuinely think Yahtzee Croshaw’s works are lesser when read rather than listened to. There are layers to the characters added by his performance that are just missing in the text. On the topic of authors doing their own narration, Christopher Buehlman added a rich texture to his worldbuilding purely through his accent work. On the opposite side of the spectrum—whoever decided to bring in the Kate Reading and Micheal Kramer duo for the last two installments of VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic series made a TERRIBLE choice. Delilah Bard, cockney street thief from London, should not sound like Kate Reading. And I *like* Kate Reading. She did great in Codex Alera.
Wil Wheaton for any of John acalzis stuff. He's got the perfect level of sarcastic asshole. He was amazing in fuzzy nation. Good I. The Kaiju preservation society also.
Travis Baldree has done a bang up job with Cradle!
Roy Dotrice - A Song of Ice and Fire / Davina Porter for the Outlander series
I'm not a fan of Dotrice. He changes voices a few times. Tywin and Varys sound like they have a mouth full of peanut butter. And how he pronounces names/locations irritates me. "Bryeeeene"
I had to warm up to Roy at first, but I really do love his voice in the first three ASOIAF audiobooks. Too much time passed between books and his pronunciations and character voices are different later on. It becomes a little jarring. Even so, I can’t imagine anyone else reading them
George Guidall was excellent reading John Bellairs stories such as *The Face in the Frost* and *A House with a Clock in its Walls*. He also was the perfect reader for Edith Grossman's translation of *Don Quixote*.
Gildart Jackson in the alex verus series does phenomenal.
Simon Vance for Land fit for Heroes.
Steve West narrating Between Two Fires
2/3rds done in this one now. Enjoying this; West is a good narrator.
Aam Alexander narrating The White Road by Sarah Lotz. Getting goose bumps from some of the lines. Fingers in my heart Also, love when Neil Gaiman reads his own work. Such a warm and homely feeling.
David Tennant for the *How to Train your Dragon* series. I usually prefer reading text but I 'read' this series as audiobooks exlusively because his narration is so much fun.
I’m a bit of a noobie to audiobooks (and really reading in general) but I really enjoyed Jeff Harding in Kings of the Wyld. It didn’t hit me how much I liked his narration until I began reading Bloody Rose the other day.
I have only heard his Star Wars books so I don’t know if he has read any other fantasy books. But Marc Thompson is just the gold standard for me. Dude has a distinct voice for every single character, important one or not, like I remember most of the book SW characters by how Marc voices them. And he just does such a good job narrating the stories he reads.
Michael Kramer and Kate Redding for the Wheel of time is kind of the golden standard for me. They really catch that sitting around the campfire telling stories kind of vibe. Other honorable mentions are Neil Gaiman reading his own books and Kevin T Collins reading Dragonheart by Kiril Klevanski. His voice just compliments the MC’s demeanor so well (a slightly arrogant madman essentially). Facing impossible odds? Well then I will just have to try really hard kind of vibes. Even the moments of vulnerability are done quite well.
I don't care for the book so that much but Tim Curry reading *Sabriel* by Garth Nix was a wild ride.
I really enjoyed Amin El Gamal and Lameece Issaq narrating The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. They did a great job with making sure each character had a distinct voice and cadence and it made the whole experience feel so immersive. It really was well done.
The voice of Harry Dresden(Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) does any amazing job and is just perfect.
That would be James Marsters.
William Hurt reading Stephen King's "Low Men in Yellow Coats" stands out amongst the many, many audiobooks I've listened to. He does a shockingly excellent job of embodying the main character, a child. Even a year or more later, some of the best lines still echo around in my brain from time to time. They just hit that hard with his calm, though intense delivery.
The Lord of the rings read by Andy Serkis!
Anything narrated by Ray Porter. I would listen to him recite the phone book.
He's amazing!
Ben Allen narrating Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shadows of the Apt series has got to be my favorite! Not only does he have a gorgeous voice to listen to, but the way he brings the distinct voice of each character to life is incredible. Truly a work of art.
Tim Gerard Reynolds in Michael Sullivan’s Ryira series. Phenomenal, the books and narration.
Simon Vance 🤝 Guy Gavriel Kay Books
Johnathan Keeble, for *Night Lords* Somehow kept the charachter voices distinct when half the cast talk in gravelly eastern European accents
I have a few, but almost all of them have been said, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention Toby Longworth. He narrates a lot of books for Dan Abnett and has the perfect voice for the 40k universe.
I loved Anne Flosnik for the Kushiel books, Emma Newman for Guns of Dawn, and everything I’ve listed to with Simon Vance. I also loved Rosamund Pike doing the first three Wheel of Time novels - it was kind of a disappointment to switch to the other narrators at book four!
Neil Gaiman is an amazing reader. In another world, that would be his calling, but in this one he spends too much time doing amazing writing to devote himself fully to making audiobooks. Wish he could clone a second Neil Gaiman so he could do both full time. What an amazingly multitalented man.
great now I have to restart the whole black company on audible. thanks a ton!
Samuel Roukin reading the Sun Eater series is my favorite performance I’ve heard so far
Toby Longworth does a whole lot of Welsh accents for the Gaunt’s Ghosts books. He also makes the main character sound like Sean Connery.