I can’t listen to anything if I don’t vibe with the narrator, and I especially struggle with higher pitched female voices.
A few favorite narrators are Simon Vance (Dune, GWTDT) Robin Miles (The Fifth Season), Alyssa Bresnehan (Kate Martinelli series)
Ensemble casts are welcome!
by bananamelondy
17 Comments
Genesis echo by d. Hollis Anderson just released the audiobook narrated by Michael Matovu- it’s so good
I just started “Dungeon Crawler Carl” by Matt Dinniman because everyone was telling me the audiobook was super good and and literally told me to listen rather than read because the narrator was that good. Its there on audible. The narrator is Jeff Hays. I will put the synopsis of the book down below, so that you can decide if you would like to read it.
**Synopsis :-**
*The apocalypse will be televised!*
*A man. His ex-girlfriend’s cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.*
*In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.*
*The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.*
*Only a few dare venture inside. But once you’re in, you can’t get out. And what’s worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it’s game over. In this game, it’s not about your strength or your dexterity. It’s about your followers, your views. Your clout. It’s about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.*
*You can’t just survive here. You gotta survive big.*
*You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that “it” factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That’s the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.*
*They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it’s anything but a game.*
I have the same problem with higher voices, they feel painful, and whispery voices gross me out so I’m constantly looking for new ones so these are my favorite threads to watch for.
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben is beautifully narrated. A favorite to fall asleep to because it’s so calming. I go back to it several times a year.
The full cast audio of American Gods by Neil Gaiman is a lot of fun. It’s unabridged and wanders a bit as a story so it’s a long ride but the narration made it worth it for me. Mostly male dominated cast.
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman is female led, narrator is Nancy Travis, but she does a great job and didn’t bother me at all. Historical Fiction with a touch of magic like Hoffman books are and a great multi-generational story.
World War Z is considered to be one of the greatest audio books ever recorded.
I feel the exact same way. I’m a fantasy enjoyer, into swords and sorcery/medieval era high fantasy.
I’m a super big fan of Tim Gerard Reynolds. I’d put him in S tier when it comes to narrating. Especially his newer books, he’s got so good now that he can do so many different voices and accents so well. It’s better than watching a movie. Pretty much all of his fantasy books are good, I wouldn’t recommend ArtoftheAdept tho because the author literally assassinates all his characters in the last 2 books of the series.
My favourites are:
– legends of the first empire, the rise and fall, and then riyria chronicles+revelations
– aldoran chronicles
– street rats of aramoor
– the cycle of galand/arawn
Michael Kramer is also super good, currently listening through the licanius trilogy and am enjoying it. He also does 10/10 in the Stormlight archive which is also a 10/10 book series.
Derek Perkins is another good narrator, He’s actually the first audiobook narrator I ever listened too, I loved his narration of the godling chronicles.
Kate Reading is decent, I’m not a big fan but I really enjoyed her narrating “codex alera”. Great series all in all if you want a comfort read. However, I hated her narrating the stormlight archive so much so that I skip all her chapters and only listen to the male narrator, but I guess it’s a preference thing, I genuinely feel like my ears are being attacked sometimes.
Project Hail Mary is a phenomenal read by itself, but the audiobook really elevated it! So much fun.
James Naughton narrates books by Barry Lopez. He turns them from simple masterpieces into events. The perfect match between subject and sound.
Also perfect is the marriage of Mitch Rapp and George Guidall. Unbelievable how well these two go together.
I think the same is true of Jack Reacher and Dick Hill. Perfection.
And literally anything by Edoardo Ballerini, especially *Caravaggio*.
Yes, Simon Vance is an expert. As is John Lee.
I suggest mythos by Stephen Fry if you’re interested in mythology (it’s beginner friendly). He is the writer and narrator.
I love the narration in The Expanse series, done by Jefferson Mays.
If you’re not familiar, there are a lot of “culture clash” themes in those stories and characters speaking different languages and dialects, including a made-up patois slang… Mays really nails this. Very enjoyable.
Also really like the Slough House series, narrated by Gerard Doyle.
For classic espionage, Simon Prebble does a great job narrating The Day of the Jackal by Frederic Forsyth
*Horizon* by Barry Lopez
Definitely recommend Brent Weeks and Guy Gavriel Kay books since you love Simon Vance(he is so so good). Also recommend any Star Wars book read by Marc Thompson, She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World, The Audible productions of Sandman are so amazingly good, both versions of the Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy, Audible’s new 1984 with Andrew Garfield, The Locked Tomb series, Children of Time and its sequels,Coraline, Murderbot(I love Kevin R Free, but many people also like the full cast, so I don’t think you can really go wrong with either)
Yahtzee Croshaw, funny author with great characters. Narrates his own audiobooks.
Differently Morphus and Existentially Challenged – Governmental agency involved in the regulation of magic and extra dimensional beings.
Mogworld – Main character is undead. Hijinks insue.
The Jacques McKeown series – An unemployed star pilot tries to get by in a universe where transporters are a thing. The first book in the series is Will save the galaxy for food.
The 2 Necromancers series by L. G. Estrella, narrated by Fred Berman. 2 Necromancers try to earn a pardon for past crimes by doing odd jobs for a kingdom. Strong found family vibe.
The Traveler’s Gate Trilogy by Will Wight, narrated by Travis Baldtree. Magic is used by calling energy and creatures from other worlds called territories. People who can draw from their territories are called travelers. The first book in the series is House of Blades.
The Belgariad.
I like the king slayer chronicles narrator.
I really like what Edoardo Ballerini has done (Wool, 4MK series, When THe Sea Came ALive)
The Lord of the Rings. Narrated by Andy Serkis.
Discworld books. All of them are well done.
The First Law Trilogy. Narrated by Steven Pacey.