*audiobook; corrected
Do they do anything particular with their voice or tone in order to enhance the story?
You can edit titles here on Lemmy btw
My copy of the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, narrated by Stephen Fry. It is relentlessly british.
The version read by Douglas himself is also great
Gilbert Gottfried reads 50 Shades of Gray
Fun story: my boyfriend and his sister used to live together and we’d all party at their place. After months of his sister crushing hard on this guy she worked with, she and him had gone to her room for some alone time. Her asshole brother decided that was the time to blast this audio directly through her bedroom door.
8 years later and they’re still dating so I guess it worked.
Do you mean audiobook rather than ebook?
Yes!
Listen to samples of books read by Stephen Fry. He’s among the best reading voices out there.
Wow. Gee whiz. My suggestions can’t compete with John Malkovich or Nigel Planer, but…
Some (maybe most?) Star Wars novels are packed with sound effects and electronic voice distortion effects. I’ve listened to Labyrinth of Evil, Darth Plagueis, and Path of Destruction.
Also, I recall being impressed listening to the Silmarillion and the narrator’s pronunciation. Sure, it was a professional production so they had to get it right, but still impressive to hear.
The Alan Partridge autobiography’s voiced by Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge but I suppose you’d only like it if you’d seen enough Alan Partridge.
I listened to Dubliners by James Joyce narrated by irish actor Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Sherlock) and it was hands down the best narration I’ve ever heard.
I loved the first few Magic 2.0 books that came out.
When it starts, the narrator (Luke Daniels) says “performed by…” and my first thought was jerk off motion.
Ten minutes into the book, and yeah, it’s a performance! Not just making his voice high pitched for females, but some characters sound like they are being read by an actual VO artist.
Edit to add name.
I used to be bad at listening to audiobooks. ADHD brain would go way off for unknown amounts of time without realizing I wasn’t listening.
Then in 2017 I had eye surgery and decided audiobooks were the best form of media consumption, so I practiced focusing on them. Magic 2.0 was the series that clicked for me. Now I listen to dozens of audiobooks each year. I’ve finished 55 so far in 2024.
So yeah, Luke Daniels will forever be a favorite of mine! Though he only has a handful of truly unique voices so you’ll start hearing familiar characters in the wrong series sometimes, lol.
There’s a studio called SoundBooth Theater that does whole ass performances.
Currently listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman, narrated by Jeff Hayes. And it’s awesome. He does the scoffs, laughs, sings in character voices, has crazy sound effects and music, etc.
A stitch in time by Andrew Robinson. Written and narrated by the actor that played Garak on DS9.
American Gods, full cast
Thandiwe Newton is an amazing reader! Her rendition of Jane Eyre is stunning. I’m currently working my way through her reading of War and Peace and it’s equally gorgeous.
She has a voice for each character and helps one dig into the stories. Listening to her, I’m not brought out of the story thinking of her as an actress.
I’d listen to her read the phone book!
Anything I’ve listened to with Ray Porter reading it. His intonation is great and just brings that something extra to the stories. In particular Project Hail Mary and the Bobiverse books. He also did Paradox Bound, which felt like a fine time travel story but his portrayal of the voice of the “faceless men” made the character 's menace come to life for me in a way I don’t think would be captured in text.
Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files, read by James Marsters (Spike, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
Marsters does a unique voice for most of the characters, and it’s a treat. I repurchased Ghost Stories because the narrator had changed and the Marsters version was released afterwards.
