I mean that if there’s more than one character in the book there should be someone different doing the rule instead of one narrator doing all the voices.
The experience of an audiobook is meant to be as immersive and as close to the written text as possible.
well I’m sure that whoever is producing the audiobook puts an effort into selecting the right narrator one badly voice and I’m taken out of the experience.
One example that comes to my mind is the example of Jim Dale with the Harry Potter books, his performance is not bad (I prefer Stephen Fry anyway) but his Hermione is horrendous and given how heavily Hermione is featured the books it made getting through his version impossible.
by BetterGrass709
15 Comments
I disagree. but maybe you should stick to Graphic Audio?
I’d rather have more narrative options and pay less for some of them.
Full cast audio books are nice as a rare treat, but I find the more distracting than immersive.
This is why I mostly read fiction as ebooks and listen to memoirs as audiobooks. Hearing one person trying to do all the voices takes me out of the story. Full audio dramas are so much better.
My personal preference is that all audiobooks are read by foghorn leghorn and maybe Gilbert Gottfried, may his soul rest in peace.
No exception, my personal preference shall be imposed upon everyone.
All of them? No. Many of them, yes. Some readers are fantastic but some just can’t do a certain voice, or are just bad at doing voices entirely. Usually I get used to that, but I can see how it must be difficult when a main character is given a voice you don’t like. Still, it’s not a feasible request.
My first encounter with full cast audiobooks were the Redwall series. Those were something special. But I grew up listening to radio plays and that is probably why I prefer it. Sometimes even in a full cast, the person doing a main character may be a choice you don’t like. It’s all a bit luck, really.
No. No no no absolutely not. Full cast productions are so often a mixed bag of mediocre and bad acting, I despise them. Single or dual narration is the way.
Definitely not for me. I’ve only listened to one audiobook with two narrators and couldn’t even finish the second chapter.
I really don’t like different voices in an audiobook. I just listened to the new Abby Jimenez book and it did a version of this and I found it annoying. All of her books have alternating chapters from the perspective of the man and the woman (she’s a romance novelist if you’re unfamiliar with her). In the audiobook for the new book, the actor also voices the the character in the other character’s chapters. I didn’t like it.
A novel is different than a play.
You can still have a bad performance with a full cast. Having more people involved doesn’t guarantee good acting from all of them. Like most things in life, what people do or don’t find annoying is subjective.
Contrarily, I’d be happy if narrators just read the book without trying to do voices at all
No, because that’s not how novels work
I think that would quickly make many audiobooks prohibitively expensive. More actors = more salaries to pay = more cost to the consumer.
Also, some audiobook narrators are extremely good at doing many different voices, and I think it would be a shame to lose that.
God no, I avoid full-cast audiobooks. I don’t even like it when they have a male performer for the male POV sections and a female performer for the female POV characters. Just cast ONE excellent performer and have them read the whole book, please.
Respectfully disagree.
James Marsters, Jeff Hays, Kevin R. Free, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Moira Quirk, Rupert Degas, Rachel Dulude… So many great voice actors can carry a novel by themselves. If anything I find full cast performances over produced.
I don’t need a giant cast and musical interludes to enjoy Murderbot., it’s great without them.