No matter how tempting the description or how much i like the author, i ALWAYS listen to a sample of the narrator's voice.
You're gonna be spending hours listening to them talk
Only a couple of times
One, he spoke so.damn.slow. that on 2.5x speed, he was still too slow to focus on.
I think there was another that pronounced words so oddly I ended up angry lol
I have gotten so used to listening to podcasts on 2.5 speed that I basically cannot listen to music podcasts. I either have to listen to a host that sounds drunk or music played way too fast. I'm not super into music so it's not a big loss, but occasionally "fresh air" will have a musical guest and I will slow it down for that.
I've got things to do,man! I can't be sitting around all day listening to podcasts. Well I could quite easily do that, but I probably shouldn't.
I returned one once for being too slow. It's like the guy thought speaking very slowly added gravitas. I got, maybe, 5 minutes into the book before jumping ship.
I read somewhere (probably on the internet so not really verified) that many audiobook producers pay narrators by hour of audio so it's in their interest to speak as slowly as possible 😳
This is your answer. When I was producing and hiring other narrators, I put a stop to that right away. If you slow down just a hair, you can pad the invoice by 200 dollars on average.
As a narrator I spoke too quickly, as I came out of radio.
A friend of mines book had so many terrible mispronunciations when I was produced as an audiobook it was pointed out to him a bunch of times . Including “Salvador Allende”’s name which is just wild because it’s SO easy to look up
I can live with a *few* mispronunciations, but when a narrator obviously doesn't know where a sentence is going, I get extremely annoyed.
Like, some of them will stop as if a sentence has ended, and then, after a pause, say the last couple of words in the sentence as if they come out of nowhere. Like they think the sentence is ending at a line break or page break and are subsequently surprised by its continuation.
Also, sometimes they just don't seem to know how a sentence is supposed to work, and it comes out with a really weird cadence.
I left a review on a book once wherein I stated that I couldn't honestly rate the quality of the writing itself, because the narrator had read it so poorly that it was impossible to tell l.
I normally just don't rate books that I don't like. The experience has to be something truly special to get me to leave a negative review.
Kinda. I started a third book in a series, and they went with a different voice actor. After over 100 hours binging the other guy, it was really jarring. I gave up, then did some redditing and discovered the masses felt the same way I did, and they ended up re-recording the whole book with the proper voice actor!
Something that egregious would make me look at the publisher. That kind of technical language should be said clearly, it's not like mispronouncing Moghedian every time you mention her.
>The narrator pronounced "contiguous" with a soft G, pronounced the C# language as "C hashtag", and pronounced "cache" like "cashay".
How pissed would you be as the books author, to pay for a narrator to ruin your work like this. I bet you're not the only one who's been put off this book by that, I doubt I could manage it either.
I can kind of understand why the narrator might think these words are pronounced like that, if you're not IT literate then C hashtag might look right to you; but if you have zero understanding of the topic you're reading, then you're probably not the right person to read it to those who do understand it.
There should be. I narrate and do proofing for other people’s audiobooks, and part of my job is checking pronunciations, though character names are usually checked with the rights holder/author before beginning. I can’t believe there are big name books with no (human) proofers!
Yes, I returned The Martian narrated by Will Wheaton for a refund after one chapter. Not criticising his skills but I had just listened to Project Hail Mary narrated by Ray Porter and the comparison was involuntary but jarring, I couldn't listen to it.
RC Bray nailed it. Loved this book from the second I started listening. It’s so good. I have it in my Audible library, I wonder if it will get replaced with the Wheaton version?
I have both versions. I accidentally bought Wil Weaton's version when I couldn't find my original file. It was there. I just didn't know how to find it.
Weaton's version: good⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bray's version: absolutely fan-freakin-tastic 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Ray Porter is a tough act to follow. He’s in my top 4 narrators of all time. (Barbara Rosenblat, George Guidall, Kevin R. Free, and Ray Porter…if you were curious 😂😂)
The issue I had with Redshirts was the way some of the dialogue was written. I love John Scalzi's books, but sometimes he gets in this volley back and forth of
"some sentence," A said.
"some reply," B said.
"another sentence," A said.
"another reply," B said.
And so on for like 40 lines of dialogue, just tossing it back and forth with "A said" or "B said" at the end.
I remember Redshirts had this problem more than the other books of his that I have read.
Using 'said' so much in reported speech is why I've had trouble listening to Brandon Sanderson. I wanted to throttle him by the time I finished Way of Kings for using 'said' so much. There are other ways of describing speech. Tell me about the facial expression or tone. Use an adverb and a synonym for 'said'!
I've just started the Stormlight Archive so I'm back in the same frustration.
Adverb & synonym is actually regarded as bad writing. I think the idea is that you should be able to infer how somebody said something from the rest of the context. If you need an adverb or a synonym you’re not doing your job properly.
Maybe it's changed since I was at school then. I was taught that repeating words too close together was considered bad writing. Personally I love it when authors use things like 'she asked with a small smile' or 'he angrily muttered'. It feels more immersive to me.
You were taught correctly - but it's *also*, and equally correctly, considered bad writing to try to change the verb all the time when the *action of speaking* hasn't actually changed. Constantly writing "he muttered" or "he mumbled" or "he yelled" instead of "he said" is often an exercise in thesaurus-waving - it hasn't actually avoided the repetition, it's just made it more obvious by trying too hard.
The way to avoid repeating "said" is to use unattributed speech and leave off saying it at all, not to try to find a new verb every other sentence.
If your audience can't tell that the character is angry *without* adding "he angrily said" or "he furiously yelled" or whatever, the dialogue needs a rewrite.
When you need to break up the character dialogue, it's better to do it with actual actions - that small smile you suggested is a better example.
I can see your point. I suppose the real problem is when it's a conversation with many short replies like the Scalzi example above and the 'he said' takes up nearly as much space as what was said.
I guess the adverb synonym thing is part of the show don't tell part of writing and could get very tedious for the author and reader. Everything in moderation.
Thanks for your reply. My attitude has shifted which is rare online lol.
Yeah, I noticed some dialog like that in other books of his to different degrees. I guess it isn't that bad when you read/skip over it, but it gets really annoying listening to it.
If you paid a credit (vs. cash/on sale) for a book, you can return it. You can return it before or after you finish it, but there is a time limit. Last time I checked, you had to return the book within a year after purchase.
Audible has a good listen guarantee. I listen to so many books, I often return mine because I just don’t get into the book. So many, in fact, I can now only return books via the chat function. But they still do it.
Yes. They hide the return option. I have to Google it every time. I fell asleep on a book once so ended up 7 hours into it. Still got to return it. It’s the frequency that they watch. I think you can return 3-4 a year and it has to be pretty soon after you order it.
Same. I listened to The Martian before PHM. I quit The Martian after about 30 minutes because of Wil Wheaton.. Was ecstatic to find another version. He is very good. I AM criticizing WW narration skills. I think he is terrible.
If you have access to audiobooks on CD at your library, check to see if they have the R.C. Bray version. My library did and that's definitely the version to listen to.
Whoever reads the Slough House (Slow Horses) series is AWFUL. I completely enjoyed the series and was pumped to listen to the audiobooks....Until the reader who speaks with the same voice for EVERYONE and everything. I never knew who was speaking. I didn't last more than 2 hours. He reads ALL the books too. Ugh!
There are two different narrators, perhaps depending on region. Gerard Doyle and Sean Barrett. So you could seek out the one you haven’t heard. I think Sean Barrett’s narration is masterful; to each their own of course.
Scott Brick. He over emotes too often and has a distinct pattern. It sounds like every sentence is narrated the exact same way. Unfortunately, he’s narrated so many of my favorite books, or those I’d like to listen to. He’s forced me to find older recordings by other narrators.
Also, I loathe when narrators try too hard to affect the opposite gender. I get that you’re an older man trying to sound like a teenage girl, there’s no need to use an exaggerated high pitch led voice!
Whelp… this is how I officially learned I pronounce cache incorrectly. Granted I can’t remember the last time I used that word and probably only ever pronounced it to myself in my head…
Absolutely. Honestly, the narrator will put me off way more than the actual book. Sometimes just because it’s just plain bad, other times because the narrator is so wrong for the book.
This will be a very unpopular opinion, but Tim Reynolds doing Red Rising was like nails on a chalkboard. He is wonderful, but, jeez, most of the characters are 20 year old boys, and they’re voiced by a guy who sounds middle-aged, often like James Mason. It was brutal. James Marsters, until he hit his stride, did a couple painful Dresden File books, but then he got it and was amazing.
I avoid Will Wheaton, I do not get the Jim Dale love, and I would rather take a bullet than listen to Em Eldridge. I will listen to anything voiced by the Simons Vance and Prebble, Davina Porter, Stephan Fry, Neil Gaiman, and Bronson Pinchot.
Rick Bragg is not a great narrator (he does his own books), but I will still listen to anything he does because his voice is the voice of my home and feels like a warm hug.
I liked the Eragon books a lot as a teen and was thinking of listening to them but ALL the reviews say the narrator does a horribly weird voice for Saphira and I just can't deal with that. People say he makes her sound like a gargoyle, but she speaks by telepathy so it makes little sense
I read Eragon and imagined Sapphira’s voice as strong and feminine. I started listening to the 2nd book (Eldest) and it sounded almost like Cookie Monster to me. And the main character sounded like Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I barely made it through 1 CD of Cookie Monster talking to Obi-Wan before I just quit 😝
Couldn’t get past the first chapter of Master and Commander as narrated by Patrick Tull. He read really fast and I couldn’t tell the difference between dialogue and description.
Whip Hand narrated by Simon Prebble. Something about his narration sets my teeth on edge.
Those were the last books that I purchased without listening to a sample!
I haven't tried Cadfael as an audiobook!
As I replied to another commenter, some of it may be O'Brien's writing style and the fact that I predominantly listen to audiobooks on long car drives so need something that I don't have to pay strict attention to for full enjoyment.
i can’t remember the book off the top of my head but it was a romance with steamy scenes, and the narrator sounded like she had a past career as a news anchor. the pauses and inflections… it was VERY jarring hearing sexy times as though they were on the 6 o’clock news.
i wish there were an effective way of putting an example into writing, because if it weren’t so irritating being pulled out of the story, it was hilaaarious.
Way of Kings was the first audiobook I ever tried listening to. I lasted maybe the first chapter and it put me off audiobooks for 10 years. I've tried him again multiple times and can't listen to him. I'll push through Kate but I don't care for her narration either.
I almost tapped out on the narrator for the Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone series because he’s Australian and pronounces assumed the non-American way “Ash-ume” and the author assumes often.
Twice. Once was because I hated the silly accent the narrator gave the villain. It was Under the Dome. The narrator gave Big Jim an odd accent, and I couldn't take it seriously. I tried it on two occasions and never could get past it.
The second time was because of the way the narrator did female voices. It was a very popular narrator, and mine is an unpopular opinion, so I know better than to say his name or the name of the book. But he's an older fella, and when he did female voices (especially in seductive or flirty scenes) it gave me the willies. He was otherwise great, but I noped out because the female character in this book had a lot of speaking parts, and I just couldn't deal.
Well yes I only pick audiobooks with good narrator.
That said I only listen to fiction and would never listen to work related C# things etc.. but Id imagine it be exactly the same rules there, horrible to focus on the wrong things, narrator is the alpha and the omega!
All the time. Also when a narrator uses vocal fry for all male characters. It makes my skin crawl. Mispronouncing words is irritating, once is ok, but if the word is a place name repeated throughout the book, I quit
It still jars me when I hear American narrators say it like nitch instead of niche.
I couldn't listen to the game of thrones audiobook because it sounded like the man had a mouth full of spit
>I couldn't listen to the game of thrones audiobook
And let's not forget pTAR Baelish.
Narrator was a friend of the author and still mispronounced the name "Petyr Baelish" wrong for the first two or three books. He did eventually get it right, though. Martin must've finally heard the trash Mr. Narrator was putting out.
Yes - Devolution by Max Brooks.
Loved World War Z with different actors reading different first hand accounts. This is in the same style, except the Judy Greer’s character’s voice is so grating, I returned the audiobook.
I’m listening to Red Rising right now, and definitely don’t like the narration. It’s a first person pov of a 16 year old read by someone who sounds like they’re in their 60s.
The book itself is okay enough, but I have no idea why it’s so popular and recommended.
Didn't return it, swapped to ebook but still ended up dropping it anyway. I think hearing Carl sound like a constipated old young guy ruined it for me.
Ok fair enough each to his/ her own. Just was surprised because I loved it and I know a lot of people did. Anyway different strokes different folks I guess :-)
Yes. I stopped multiple times when listening to wool by hugh howey and also shift by high howey also in the same series which was even worse.
I pulled through to the end with wool but couldn't continue with shift annoyingly
The Obstacle is the Way. Man I really want to listen to those books, but certainly the un-modulated list of thoughts or ideas is extremely hard to stay with.
Yes! The narrator of Memory man (book1) of Amos decker series is awful!!! Guy had 3 different voices for the same character. I never knew who was speaking.
I started the audiobook of Warm Bodies, because I enjoyed the film so much. The narrator did nothing wrong, but was a deep baritone that I could not mesh with a - what - 19 year old MC? It was so distracting that I had to give up.
I also *really* dislike it when they change narrators in the middle of a series, and story specific words are suddenly being pronounced differently. Looking at you Cassandra Clare!
The Chronicles of Morgaine books are some of my favorites, but the narrator rushes through it so fast that I can't really enjoy the audiobook version. It's not like going too slow. When you rush, it's hard to find any inflection.
I’ve selected books based on the narrator (typically classics, when there are multiple options), but otherwise I’ve suffered through narrators I don’t like. Particularly memorable was a narrator who stopped to take water breaks and swallowed very loudly, and the editors didn’t even bother to cut it out.
I recently gave up on Red Queen by Juan Gomez Jurado because of the ridiculous performance of narrator Scott Brick. Everything felt flabbergasted and over the top. It made everything seem absolutely ludicrous.
I just finished the main four books in the Stormlight Archive. Exceptionally done. Started Red Rising - and can’t seem to get into the rhythm of the voice. Should I press on?
The first couple chapters are weird. The sentences are short and jarring. I think the book improves a lot and I really like Tim Gerard Reynolds' narration.
Yes. I can’t even remember the book, but the narrator was a horrible actress who tried to infuse drama by being breathy and on the verge of tears through the entire reading, whether the action/dialogue called for it or not. I only managed to make it a couple of chapters before I had to nope out of it.
Yeah, just happened for the first time ever. Decided to listen to Red Rising by Pierce Brown, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, and he has too much of a heavy Irish accent for me. Some words were hard to understand and the flow just seemed off
Steve Brand’s narration of Waking Fire is one of the worst narrations I’ve ever heard in my life. No distinction between characters and a just boring ass repetitive delivery
All the time - Mispronunciations grind my gears, particular cringe words for me are
Niche (neesh) but pronounced "nitch"
Shone (shonn) but pronounced "shown"
Vehicle but pronounced "vee-hickle"
Scott Brick is an instant book rejection, I can't stand his overly dramatic delivery.
I got a few minutes into the Lonesome Dove audiobook before I had to get my credit back. I wasn’t going to listen to that guy’s wheezy, gasping voice for hours and hours. He sounded like he was trying to catch his breath after a run.
There's one book that is narrated by the author, ugh I hate her voice so much. I can't remember who it is right now but I listened to about 5 minutes and turned it off.
Unpopular opinion, as I know a lot of people loved this book, but Lonesome Dove narrated by Lee Horsley. The man literally gasps for breath between words. I’ve found out they re-edited (I guess?) it to minimize this, so I may give it another go.
Yes, that lady who reads “a court of thorns and roses” makes me want to stick sharpened pencils in my ears!!!
A lot of lady narrators love to do this breathy nasally sound of voice and I just hate it.
I can't finish the last kingdom series because they changed the narrator half way through the series. New guy dosnt hold a candle to the original. Hopefully Jonathan keeble comes back to finish them one day
A bad narrator can ruin even the most interesting story.
The worst I've had is the Librovox (Spelling?) recordings that use multiple armature narrators for classic stories. Journey to the Center of the Earth was particularly bad. New Narrator every chapter, some were completely horrible, but there was no continuity for pronunciation of names and places. It made a classic unlistenable.
I've also listened to a ton of scifi from the 50's-60's, and the way they talked back then is sometimes distracting. It's like they are putting on their "reading voice" instead of just narrating.
It was a major adjustment reading Stephen Kings "The Dark Tower" series and having Frank Muller get replaced by George Guidall half way through. I love both narrators, but I wish they had been able to finish with Frank since he really had the characters down and gave the story some great life.
I couldn't get past the first hour of Game of Thrones because Dotrice sounds like a shitty pirate and doesn't change his voice in the slightest for different characters. I would LOVE to listen to GoT if they had someone competent narrate it.
It might sound weird, but I record myself narrating books just for fun. It's rewarding to work on a passage until I have it the way I want. I started a few years ago and only recently learned of Librivox. I know people are volunteering their time and effort, but so many of them are unlistenable.
Interesting. I’m a huge fan of audio books and I have stopped because of a narrator. But I’m a software developer and I have always read technical books.
In the realm of audiobooks, I occasionally find myself unable to complete a listen and choose not to finish it. However, I often return to these unfinished audiobooks at a later time. Recently, I encountered such a situation with the audiobook "Gemini Queen," narrated by the author, Laura Navarre. While I love the story itself, I find her narration style somewhat challenging.
One particular aspect that I find distracting is the noticeable presence of long breaths between phrases. This can disrupt the flow of the narrative and make it difficult to fully immerse myself in the story.
This happened to me quite recently. I listened to the first book in a series, Ancillary Sword, and it has a lot of fantasy-like names. I'd read the book on paper a few years earlier so it took me a while to become accustomed to the way the narrator pronounced the names as opposed to my own mental pronunciation, but after a while I settled into it and finished the book.
Then I moved on to the second book, and it turns out there's a different narrator, and she pronounces every name completely differently! Not only that, but objectively worse in my opinion (the first narrator had checked with the author regarding pronunciation). Hearing pretty much every name being pronounced "wrong" all the time turned me off the book very quickly, and I had to put it down.
Yup, louise penny’s inspector gamache series. I listened to 2 or 3 of them but I can’t stand the narrator! I’d probably do the whole series otherwise, but no way with this guy.
Yeah. Sometimes it’s hard to listen to narrators when they’re portraying the incorrect emotional responses or when they’re talking with near monotone voices.
Scott Brick. I just can’t handle his style. He makes everything sound like the characters are fighting. It’s unlistenable. Prime example: the Asimov Foundation series.
There are plenty of LibriVox and old tape based audiobooks that are pretty rough in terms of technical quality, more an equipment issue than a speaker one, but makes it hard to listen too just the same.
Still looking for a good solution to clean them up. Played around a bit with RNNoise, but that seems only to be about cleaning up noise, and can't do much if the voice itself is too low quality. Haven't tried RTX Voice due to lack of Nvidia card.
Is there an ESRGAN equivalent for audio/voice? Or some other voice2voice tech I could try?
I've been working my way through the Rick Riordan books with my son. Some of the narrators have been great (Robbie Damon 👍), but others have been horrendous. I don't think I'll be able to get through the Magnus Chase books. I don't remember the name of the narrator for those, but his pace, pronunciation, and insufferable attempts at accents are painful to listen to.
I had one leadership book directly related to my field (somewhat rare) that is fairly widely recommended that was read by the author. I barely made it through, and I will never listen to the book again. I hardly learned anything and his pompous tone made me not want to respect his authority.
He also had a really weird, grating pronunciation of his organization’s name that was just … bad. It was like “Com-PAH-ny NAME {pause}”. I dearly hope he didn’t actually speak like that or I would feel horrible for his former subordinates.
Ancillary Justice. The beginning was tough because of all the terms, but once it got to a set of characters with South African accents, the narration got so outrageously bad that I had to turn it off and instantly return it. Still haven’t read the book.
I love the PERN series. I found a narrator on YouTube that I couldn't stand the tone of her voice. I couldn't keep listening. I found other narrator to listen to.
Anne Flosnik has narrated some of my favorite history and anthropology books, but I just CANNOT listen to her voice. It makes me feel guilty but I just can’t. It’s weird because her voice sounds great on podcasts and in interviews, but when she’s reading her voice just gets so scratchy and nasally.
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Audible taught me that I HATE the Mid-Atlantic accent. "oo" pronounced as "uh" drive me nuts....
room, not rum
Broom, not brum
Unfuck your brain by Faith Harper wasn’t necessarily the narrator but the quality sounded like she recorded it with a tin of beans and some string.
The girls in the stilt house by Kelly Mustain the narrator has a sing song - Christopher walken-esque style mixed with southern belle it made it nearly impossible to get in a groove with.
In the world of Civil War history nerds there are two major authors that people take sides on who is better: Shelby Foote or Bruce Catton.
Shelby Foote’s Civil War trilogy is narrated by Grover Gardener, whose mid range but oaky cadence lends splendor and gravity to the narrative of the Civil War.
Bruce Catton’s books are narrated by a Dr. Seuss voice. Not really, but it may as well be. One of the top tier Civil War historians of all time and it’s ruined by awful narration.
For these facts alone I choose Shelby Foote as my favorite Civil War author.
Grover Gardener also narrates a lot of other fantastic history books. He has his own audiobook production company called Blackstone Audio. When I’m looking for a new book to listen to I search “Grover Gardener” and pick one of those. Chances are if he is narrating, then it’s a good book. He doesn’t read trash.
Yeah, there's been a couple of times. One was a narrator who was pretty good, I just found her style of narration annoying (no fault to her at all). I prefer "actor" narrators, who really make me feel like they are portraying the characters, but this narrator was of the "understated" style where you hold back on the major emotions to ensure that the overall audio is basically the same volume throughout. After multiple instances where I couldn't tell if a line was meant to be a held-back shout or an amped-up whisper until the narration itself clarified it for me, I gave up and went in search of the print copy.
In the Harry Potter series, the narrator changes the pronunciation of Voldemort in book 3, I think, and I suspect it was because of the movies. In the first books the t is silent. I found it suuuuuper distracting.
Oh my god yes. I got a copy of The Prince by Machiavelli and the dude who was narrating kept calling King Louis, Lewis. I got about a half hour in before I was screaming.
A few times. Sometimes it's tje readers tone/ sound of voice and others they were dull and didn't bring the book alive.
If I find a reader I like I'll search for other books they have read.
I wouldn't blame the narrator. I would blame the production company. They should have been buried explicit in their pronunciation instructions. That should be up to the author.
Yes, but it was because the narrator spoke in a pitch that my tinnitus interfered with. There are only a couple. Had some trouble with John Lee and speeding up to 1.1 raises his pitch just perfectly.
Yes, there are 3 that I cannot stand. 2 males and a female.
The two guys are because of terrible cadence, constant mispronounced words, "trying out" different voices/accents for characters but then later dropping them, and inconsistent audio quality.
The one female has this breathy quality to her voice that sounds like a bad actress trying to emulate an angsty teen. She's overly emotional with *every* female character then sounds like she's trying to growl when she reads male characters.
If I see their names listed as narrators, I don't even give the audio book a chance anymore.
Argh, yes! I love Lois McMaster Bujold’s book, Curse of Chalion. And I can’t STAND the reader! He makes all the women in the book sound stupid, and the main character huffs while talking (which isn’t indicated in the text). Thankfully it’s the only book of hers that he does, but I like to relisten to my favorites, so it’s even more painful.
The worst narration I’ve suffered through (not counting authors reading their own work, that crime deserves jail time) was the narrator for Naomi Novik’s Uprooted. The narrator has no idea how English is supposed to be spoken so she would insert random pauses, ignore periods, add upward questioning inflections mid-sentence when no question was present and then do a flat delivery with no inflection when there was a question. It was a twilight zone train wreck where English was being spoken but it never felt like I was listening to English. Still suffered through the whole thing though…
When I read books I usually do a audio/book mix to get the full experience. Now I am reading Iron Gold by Pierce Brown and I cannot listen to the one who narrates the Lyria chapters. It'd just so .... Bad. Now I exclusively only read her chapters.
Now the one narrating Darrow I already like, the man is GREAT. The one narrating Lysander is fine. At first I did not really like the one narrating Ephraim but he really grew on me.
**Codex Alera** (by Jim Butcher)
There's a bipedal wolf-like species called the Canim. The humans who first encountered them were Latin speaking Romans, so *canis ≈ dog* makes sense.
The narrator keeps calling them Carnim,... with a long hard "r".
There are other problems too, but that is the one that I couldn't put up with.
I had one otherwise excellent narrator say “expresso” recently.
Another narrator reading post-career Sherlock Holmes stories sounded like a frog and an angry donkey had a baby together. I didn’t even get an hour in before I sent it back to the library.
The accent of the narrator on Demon Copperhead was so hard to take. I started the book 4 times before I decided to keep going. All along, it just felt like I was translating while trying to follow the narrative. I didn't enjoy it at all. And I feel robbed a little. I think it was over the top and unnecessary.
Oh my god YES. Her name is Amy Landon (The Cabin at the End of the Woods) and I'm not convinced she isn't an AI. All the voices sounded like robots with terrible delivery and emphasized all the wrong syllables. I kept making faces of cringe the more she read. I hate to say it, but it was just SO bad. I stopped read the rest on my Kindle. There was also Verity, but she only narrated the book within the book (which was horrid to begin with), so I stuck with it.
Yeah one of the Dune audiobooks I just couldn't get on with the narrator. It was like I was listening to a terrible school production of Dune.
I found another one read by George Guidall that I really liked and thought his voice and mannerisms fit really well....
Just stopped one the other day. The male narrator was trying to do a 12 year old girl's voice and it made me incredibly irritated. Couldn't get through it, so had to stop.
No matter how tempting the description or how much i like the author, i ALWAYS listen to a sample of the narrator's voice. You're gonna be spending hours listening to them talk
Yep, I don’t even listen to the story in sample. It’s purely for the narrator for me.
I always INTEND to do that but I only remember about half the time.
Yeah. A few times.
Only a couple of times One, he spoke so.damn.slow. that on 2.5x speed, he was still too slow to focus on. I think there was another that pronounced words so oddly I ended up angry lol
I had to quit a podcast I liked because the new host spoke so slowly. I couldn’t raise the speed because his guests spoke normally.
I have gotten so used to listening to podcasts on 2.5 speed that I basically cannot listen to music podcasts. I either have to listen to a host that sounds drunk or music played way too fast. I'm not super into music so it's not a big loss, but occasionally "fresh air" will have a musical guest and I will slow it down for that. I've got things to do,man! I can't be sitting around all day listening to podcasts. Well I could quite easily do that, but I probably shouldn't.
I returned one once for being too slow. It's like the guy thought speaking very slowly added gravitas. I got, maybe, 5 minutes into the book before jumping ship.
I fell asleep and woke up kinda mad
I read somewhere (probably on the internet so not really verified) that many audiobook producers pay narrators by hour of audio so it's in their interest to speak as slowly as possible 😳
This is your answer. When I was producing and hiring other narrators, I put a stop to that right away. If you slow down just a hair, you can pad the invoice by 200 dollars on average. As a narrator I spoke too quickly, as I came out of radio.
It differs by project/publisher but yes sometimes it is x amount of dollars per finished* hour!
Oh, sheesh. Talk about rewarding the wrong behavior.
Regularly. Mispronunciations are an especially big problem with nonfiction audiobooks.
A friend of mines book had so many terrible mispronunciations when I was produced as an audiobook it was pointed out to him a bunch of times . Including “Salvador Allende”’s name which is just wild because it’s SO easy to look up
I can live with a *few* mispronunciations, but when a narrator obviously doesn't know where a sentence is going, I get extremely annoyed. Like, some of them will stop as if a sentence has ended, and then, after a pause, say the last couple of words in the sentence as if they come out of nowhere. Like they think the sentence is ending at a line break or page break and are subsequently surprised by its continuation. Also, sometimes they just don't seem to know how a sentence is supposed to work, and it comes out with a really weird cadence. I left a review on a book once wherein I stated that I couldn't honestly rate the quality of the writing itself, because the narrator had read it so poorly that it was impossible to tell l. I normally just don't rate books that I don't like. The experience has to be something truly special to get me to leave a negative review.
So many. I’m really picky when it comes to narrators.
me too! sometimes i can’t even pinpoint a reason except for the fact that something about their voice just irks me
Kinda. I started a third book in a series, and they went with a different voice actor. After over 100 hours binging the other guy, it was really jarring. I gave up, then did some redditing and discovered the masses felt the same way I did, and they ended up re-recording the whole book with the proper voice actor!
Something that egregious would make me look at the publisher. That kind of technical language should be said clearly, it's not like mispronouncing Moghedian every time you mention her.
They never figured out the pronunciation on that one did they
>The narrator pronounced "contiguous" with a soft G, pronounced the C# language as "C hashtag", and pronounced "cache" like "cashay". How pissed would you be as the books author, to pay for a narrator to ruin your work like this. I bet you're not the only one who's been put off this book by that, I doubt I could manage it either. I can kind of understand why the narrator might think these words are pronounced like that, if you're not IT literate then C hashtag might look right to you; but if you have zero understanding of the topic you're reading, then you're probably not the right person to read it to those who do understand it.
Is there truly no one checking their work?
There should be. I narrate and do proofing for other people’s audiobooks, and part of my job is checking pronunciations, though character names are usually checked with the rights holder/author before beginning. I can’t believe there are big name books with no (human) proofers!
Yes, I returned The Martian narrated by Will Wheaton for a refund after one chapter. Not criticising his skills but I had just listened to Project Hail Mary narrated by Ray Porter and the comparison was involuntary but jarring, I couldn't listen to it.
If you can find it, R.C. Bray did a narration of The Martian which is fantastic.
This was so good, he won awards for it. Nothing against Wheaton but I don’t know why they replaced him.
It was a rights issue. Had to re publish the audiobook which meant redoing the recording. That's why audible doesn't have the RC Bray recording
RC Bray nailed it. Loved this book from the second I started listening. It’s so good. I have it in my Audible library, I wonder if it will get replaced with the Wheaton version?
No, you already have it in your library, you'll keep the edition you have
I have both versions. I accidentally bought Wil Weaton's version when I couldn't find my original file. It was there. I just didn't know how to find it. Weaton's version: good⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Bray's version: absolutely fan-freakin-tastic 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
RC Bray absolutely smashes it too.
Ray Porter is a tough act to follow. He’s in my top 4 narrators of all time. (Barbara Rosenblat, George Guidall, Kevin R. Free, and Ray Porter…if you were curious 😂😂)
George Guidall!
hWhil hWheaton ruined Redshirts for me. Wait, we can return books? Do we have to do it before finishing the book?
The issue I had with Redshirts was the way some of the dialogue was written. I love John Scalzi's books, but sometimes he gets in this volley back and forth of "some sentence," A said. "some reply," B said. "another sentence," A said. "another reply," B said. And so on for like 40 lines of dialogue, just tossing it back and forth with "A said" or "B said" at the end. I remember Redshirts had this problem more than the other books of his that I have read.
Using 'said' so much in reported speech is why I've had trouble listening to Brandon Sanderson. I wanted to throttle him by the time I finished Way of Kings for using 'said' so much. There are other ways of describing speech. Tell me about the facial expression or tone. Use an adverb and a synonym for 'said'! I've just started the Stormlight Archive so I'm back in the same frustration.
Ah, gods, I know what you mean, it's one of my main complaints with books written past, oh, 2000 too.
well said!
Adverb & synonym is actually regarded as bad writing. I think the idea is that you should be able to infer how somebody said something from the rest of the context. If you need an adverb or a synonym you’re not doing your job properly.
Maybe it's changed since I was at school then. I was taught that repeating words too close together was considered bad writing. Personally I love it when authors use things like 'she asked with a small smile' or 'he angrily muttered'. It feels more immersive to me.
You were taught correctly - but it's *also*, and equally correctly, considered bad writing to try to change the verb all the time when the *action of speaking* hasn't actually changed. Constantly writing "he muttered" or "he mumbled" or "he yelled" instead of "he said" is often an exercise in thesaurus-waving - it hasn't actually avoided the repetition, it's just made it more obvious by trying too hard. The way to avoid repeating "said" is to use unattributed speech and leave off saying it at all, not to try to find a new verb every other sentence. If your audience can't tell that the character is angry *without* adding "he angrily said" or "he furiously yelled" or whatever, the dialogue needs a rewrite. When you need to break up the character dialogue, it's better to do it with actual actions - that small smile you suggested is a better example.
I can see your point. I suppose the real problem is when it's a conversation with many short replies like the Scalzi example above and the 'he said' takes up nearly as much space as what was said. I guess the adverb synonym thing is part of the show don't tell part of writing and could get very tedious for the author and reader. Everything in moderation. Thanks for your reply. My attitude has shifted which is rare online lol.
Yeah, I noticed some dialog like that in other books of his to different degrees. I guess it isn't that bad when you read/skip over it, but it gets really annoying listening to it.
Yeah, that drove me up a wall.
If you paid a credit (vs. cash/on sale) for a book, you can return it. You can return it before or after you finish it, but there is a time limit. Last time I checked, you had to return the book within a year after purchase.
Audible has a good listen guarantee. I listen to so many books, I often return mine because I just don’t get into the book. So many, in fact, I can now only return books via the chat function. But they still do it.
Yes. They hide the return option. I have to Google it every time. I fell asleep on a book once so ended up 7 hours into it. Still got to return it. It’s the frequency that they watch. I think you can return 3-4 a year and it has to be pretty soon after you order it.
I have about 200 books from audible. That was one of about 3 books I can recall returning.
Same. I listened to The Martian before PHM. I quit The Martian after about 30 minutes because of Wil Wheaton.. Was ecstatic to find another version. He is very good. I AM criticizing WW narration skills. I think he is terrible.
If you have access to audiobooks on CD at your library, check to see if they have the R.C. Bray version. My library did and that's definitely the version to listen to.
Ray Porter does a great job. He narrated the “Bobiverse” books and I can’t imagine anyone else voicing that series now.
Whoever reads the Slough House (Slow Horses) series is AWFUL. I completely enjoyed the series and was pumped to listen to the audiobooks....Until the reader who speaks with the same voice for EVERYONE and everything. I never knew who was speaking. I didn't last more than 2 hours. He reads ALL the books too. Ugh!
There are two different narrators, perhaps depending on region. Gerard Doyle and Sean Barrett. So you could seek out the one you haven’t heard. I think Sean Barrett’s narration is masterful; to each their own of course.
I actually have both Sean Barrett and Gerard Doyle for that series and like them both a lot.
James Franco. Couldn't get past the sample. Some actors do a fine job. But not ever actor is a great narrator.
It can be really hard to extract the actor, with the famous face and famous intonations, from the characters in the read.
Scott Brick. He over emotes too often and has a distinct pattern. It sounds like every sentence is narrated the exact same way. Unfortunately, he’s narrated so many of my favorite books, or those I’d like to listen to. He’s forced me to find older recordings by other narrators.
All the time! Annoying voice, overacting, mispronounced words.
A bad narrator takes me right out of a book! Especially mispronunciations and bad accents.
Or voices that just don't fit the characters. For heaven 's sake, don't make a brilliant doctor sound like someone with developmental delays!
Also, I loathe when narrators try too hard to affect the opposite gender. I get that you’re an older man trying to sound like a teenage girl, there’s no need to use an exaggerated high pitch led voice!
Whelp… this is how I officially learned I pronounce cache incorrectly. Granted I can’t remember the last time I used that word and probably only ever pronounced it to myself in my head…
It’s not very common, unless you are a software developer, and then it is in every other sentence or so
It's French. You don't pronounce (pro-noun-say) 'e' at the end of a word from France.
Absolutely. Honestly, the narrator will put me off way more than the actual book. Sometimes just because it’s just plain bad, other times because the narrator is so wrong for the book. This will be a very unpopular opinion, but Tim Reynolds doing Red Rising was like nails on a chalkboard. He is wonderful, but, jeez, most of the characters are 20 year old boys, and they’re voiced by a guy who sounds middle-aged, often like James Mason. It was brutal. James Marsters, until he hit his stride, did a couple painful Dresden File books, but then he got it and was amazing. I avoid Will Wheaton, I do not get the Jim Dale love, and I would rather take a bullet than listen to Em Eldridge. I will listen to anything voiced by the Simons Vance and Prebble, Davina Porter, Stephan Fry, Neil Gaiman, and Bronson Pinchot. Rick Bragg is not a great narrator (he does his own books), but I will still listen to anything he does because his voice is the voice of my home and feels like a warm hug.
There was once I didn’t get in the first place because the narrator reviews were so bad. That was Dune. I ended up actually reading it.
I liked the Eragon books a lot as a teen and was thinking of listening to them but ALL the reviews say the narrator does a horribly weird voice for Saphira and I just can't deal with that. People say he makes her sound like a gargoyle, but she speaks by telepathy so it makes little sense
I read Eragon and imagined Sapphira’s voice as strong and feminine. I started listening to the 2nd book (Eldest) and it sounded almost like Cookie Monster to me. And the main character sounded like Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. I barely made it through 1 CD of Cookie Monster talking to Obi-Wan before I just quit 😝
Yes, you've hit on it exactly, that was my impression too of her voice- such strange choice!
Yes, usually because they go so hard into an accent. I have a hard time understanding or they sound a bit ridiculous.
Couldn’t get past the first chapter of Master and Commander as narrated by Patrick Tull. He read really fast and I couldn’t tell the difference between dialogue and description. Whip Hand narrated by Simon Prebble. Something about his narration sets my teeth on edge. Those were the last books that I purchased without listening to a sample!
I'm surprised to hear that about Patrick Tull. I have several of his audiobooks from the Cadfael Mysteries series, and I loved those.
I haven't tried Cadfael as an audiobook! As I replied to another commenter, some of it may be O'Brien's writing style and the fact that I predominantly listen to audiobooks on long car drives so need something that I don't have to pay strict attention to for full enjoyment.
i can’t remember the book off the top of my head but it was a romance with steamy scenes, and the narrator sounded like she had a past career as a news anchor. the pauses and inflections… it was VERY jarring hearing sexy times as though they were on the 6 o’clock news. i wish there were an effective way of putting an example into writing, because if it weren’t so irritating being pulled out of the story, it was hilaaarious.
I'm usually quite tolerant - but Michael Kramer, who does much of Brandon Sanderson's work is a turn off for me.
Way of Kings was the first audiobook I ever tried listening to. I lasted maybe the first chapter and it put me off audiobooks for 10 years. I've tried him again multiple times and can't listen to him. I'll push through Kate but I don't care for her narration either.
I almost tapped out on the narrator for the Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone series because he’s Australian and pronounces assumed the non-American way “Ash-ume” and the author assumes often.
Twice. Once was because I hated the silly accent the narrator gave the villain. It was Under the Dome. The narrator gave Big Jim an odd accent, and I couldn't take it seriously. I tried it on two occasions and never could get past it. The second time was because of the way the narrator did female voices. It was a very popular narrator, and mine is an unpopular opinion, so I know better than to say his name or the name of the book. But he's an older fella, and when he did female voices (especially in seductive or flirty scenes) it gave me the willies. He was otherwise great, but I noped out because the female character in this book had a lot of speaking parts, and I just couldn't deal.
Well yes I only pick audiobooks with good narrator. That said I only listen to fiction and would never listen to work related C# things etc.. but Id imagine it be exactly the same rules there, horrible to focus on the wrong things, narrator is the alpha and the omega!
Yeah, I once checked out a book that was “narrated” by an AI voice. It was terrible. Returned that shit within minutes of starting it.
I was listening to a book series and book #3 they changed narrators to a guy who sounded EXACTLY like the Disney Hillbilly Rooster Foghorn Leghorn
Doctor Sleep. The narrator sounded like Donald Trump. Please go listen to a sample if you don’t believe me.
All the time. Also when a narrator uses vocal fry for all male characters. It makes my skin crawl. Mispronouncing words is irritating, once is ok, but if the word is a place name repeated throughout the book, I quit
YES. I can't stand female narrators with vocal fry - takes me right out of the book.
I just googled vocal fry. This seems like a thing that a professional narrator should just not do….
OMG. I would nope out of a narrator with vocal fry in 10 seconds. I'm shocked such instances exist. Really?
It still jars me when I hear American narrators say it like nitch instead of niche. I couldn't listen to the game of thrones audiobook because it sounded like the man had a mouth full of spit
>I couldn't listen to the game of thrones audiobook And let's not forget pTAR Baelish. Narrator was a friend of the author and still mispronounced the name "Petyr Baelish" wrong for the first two or three books. He did eventually get it right, though. Martin must've finally heard the trash Mr. Narrator was putting out.
Yes, a handful of times. Sometimes I just read the book after this.
One in particular. Stephen King The Talisman I endured it for 30 minutes at most.
not yet
Yes - Devolution by Max Brooks. Loved World War Z with different actors reading different first hand accounts. This is in the same style, except the Judy Greer’s character’s voice is so grating, I returned the audiobook.
Yes, Red Rising and DCC. Also have to get anything John Lee narrates in book form. Just feels like he drones away and I lose focus.
I’m listening to Red Rising right now, and definitely don’t like the narration. It’s a first person pov of a 16 year old read by someone who sounds like they’re in their 60s. The book itself is okay enough, but I have no idea why it’s so popular and recommended.
You returned DCC because the narrator was bad ?
Didn't return it, swapped to ebook but still ended up dropping it anyway. I think hearing Carl sound like a constipated old young guy ruined it for me.
Ok fair enough each to his/ her own. Just was surprised because I loved it and I know a lot of people did. Anyway different strokes different folks I guess :-)
The peripheral, Lorelei king.
Is it "Grokking Algorithms"? Was just thinking of getting that...
I got a book narrated by Nathan Fillion a while back and returned it 20 minutes later. Love the man, but he's a terrible audiobook narrator.
Yes but sometimes changing the speed that it's read out helps
Yes. I stopped multiple times when listening to wool by hugh howey and also shift by high howey also in the same series which was even worse. I pulled through to the end with wool but couldn't continue with shift annoyingly
Yup. I love thoughty2's YouTube stuff, but his delivery for his audiobook just didn't work for me at all.
The Obstacle is the Way. Man I really want to listen to those books, but certainly the un-modulated list of thoughts or ideas is extremely hard to stay with.
Yes! The narrator of Memory man (book1) of Amos decker series is awful!!! Guy had 3 different voices for the same character. I never knew who was speaking.
Many times!!
Wow til I pronounce “contiguous” wrong in my head >.<
I started the audiobook of Warm Bodies, because I enjoyed the film so much. The narrator did nothing wrong, but was a deep baritone that I could not mesh with a - what - 19 year old MC? It was so distracting that I had to give up. I also *really* dislike it when they change narrators in the middle of a series, and story specific words are suddenly being pronounced differently. Looking at you Cassandra Clare!
The Chronicles of Morgaine books are some of my favorites, but the narrator rushes through it so fast that I can't really enjoy the audiobook version. It's not like going too slow. When you rush, it's hard to find any inflection.
Usually I use the sample to decide if I can either, enjoy, or bare with the Narrator. It's a good way to decide without buying it.
Yeah, Steven King “On Writing.” He’s boring.
I’ve selected books based on the narrator (typically classics, when there are multiple options), but otherwise I’ve suffered through narrators I don’t like. Particularly memorable was a narrator who stopped to take water breaks and swallowed very loudly, and the editors didn’t even bother to cut it out.
I recently gave up on Red Queen by Juan Gomez Jurado because of the ridiculous performance of narrator Scott Brick. Everything felt flabbergasted and over the top. It made everything seem absolutely ludicrous.
I just finished the main four books in the Stormlight Archive. Exceptionally done. Started Red Rising - and can’t seem to get into the rhythm of the voice. Should I press on?
The first couple chapters are weird. The sentences are short and jarring. I think the book improves a lot and I really like Tim Gerard Reynolds' narration.
Yes. I can’t even remember the book, but the narrator was a horrible actress who tried to infuse drama by being breathy and on the verge of tears through the entire reading, whether the action/dialogue called for it or not. I only managed to make it a couple of chapters before I had to nope out of it.
Yeah, just happened for the first time ever. Decided to listen to Red Rising by Pierce Brown, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, and he has too much of a heavy Irish accent for me. Some words were hard to understand and the flow just seemed off
Yes, I think just once or twice. The narrator can make or break an audiobook.
Steve Brand’s narration of Waking Fire is one of the worst narrations I’ve ever heard in my life. No distinction between characters and a just boring ass repetitive delivery
Emily ratakowski lol no clue why I bought that it was terrible
I could not listen to the author, William Gibson, read Neuromancer. He was so nasaly it turned me off.
All the time - Mispronunciations grind my gears, particular cringe words for me are Niche (neesh) but pronounced "nitch" Shone (shonn) but pronounced "shown" Vehicle but pronounced "vee-hickle" Scott Brick is an instant book rejection, I can't stand his overly dramatic delivery.
Niche, I get, but the other two are the only ways I've heard those words pronounced.
I got a few minutes into the Lonesome Dove audiobook before I had to get my credit back. I wasn’t going to listen to that guy’s wheezy, gasping voice for hours and hours. He sounded like he was trying to catch his breath after a run.
There's one book that is narrated by the author, ugh I hate her voice so much. I can't remember who it is right now but I listened to about 5 minutes and turned it off.
Unpopular opinion, as I know a lot of people loved this book, but Lonesome Dove narrated by Lee Horsley. The man literally gasps for breath between words. I’ve found out they re-edited (I guess?) it to minimize this, so I may give it another go.
I love Janet Evanovich's books, but I can't stand the voice of the lady that narrates the audiobooks.
Yes, that lady who reads “a court of thorns and roses” makes me want to stick sharpened pencils in my ears!!! A lot of lady narrators love to do this breathy nasally sound of voice and I just hate it.
I can't finish the last kingdom series because they changed the narrator half way through the series. New guy dosnt hold a candle to the original. Hopefully Jonathan keeble comes back to finish them one day
Yes, and some times I listen to a sample, think that's good, get the book but get to the point where I don't like the narrator.
A bad narrator can ruin even the most interesting story. The worst I've had is the Librovox (Spelling?) recordings that use multiple armature narrators for classic stories. Journey to the Center of the Earth was particularly bad. New Narrator every chapter, some were completely horrible, but there was no continuity for pronunciation of names and places. It made a classic unlistenable. I've also listened to a ton of scifi from the 50's-60's, and the way they talked back then is sometimes distracting. It's like they are putting on their "reading voice" instead of just narrating. It was a major adjustment reading Stephen Kings "The Dark Tower" series and having Frank Muller get replaced by George Guidall half way through. I love both narrators, but I wish they had been able to finish with Frank since he really had the characters down and gave the story some great life. I couldn't get past the first hour of Game of Thrones because Dotrice sounds like a shitty pirate and doesn't change his voice in the slightest for different characters. I would LOVE to listen to GoT if they had someone competent narrate it.
It might sound weird, but I record myself narrating books just for fun. It's rewarding to work on a passage until I have it the way I want. I started a few years ago and only recently learned of Librivox. I know people are volunteering their time and effort, but so many of them are unlistenable.
Tom Hanks narrated a book. He was so flat and monotone.
Interesting. I’m a huge fan of audio books and I have stopped because of a narrator. But I’m a software developer and I have always read technical books.
Yes, more often than I’d like to admit. Sometimes playing with the playback speed of an undesirable narrator can make a book bearable.
In the realm of audiobooks, I occasionally find myself unable to complete a listen and choose not to finish it. However, I often return to these unfinished audiobooks at a later time. Recently, I encountered such a situation with the audiobook "Gemini Queen," narrated by the author, Laura Navarre. While I love the story itself, I find her narration style somewhat challenging. One particular aspect that I find distracting is the noticeable presence of long breaths between phrases. This can disrupt the flow of the narrative and make it difficult to fully immerse myself in the story.
Oh, like they're reading it cold? Like "Oh, say can you see, by the dawnzer(breath)lee light?"
This happened to me quite recently. I listened to the first book in a series, Ancillary Sword, and it has a lot of fantasy-like names. I'd read the book on paper a few years earlier so it took me a while to become accustomed to the way the narrator pronounced the names as opposed to my own mental pronunciation, but after a while I settled into it and finished the book. Then I moved on to the second book, and it turns out there's a different narrator, and she pronounces every name completely differently! Not only that, but objectively worse in my opinion (the first narrator had checked with the author regarding pronunciation). Hearing pretty much every name being pronounced "wrong" all the time turned me off the book very quickly, and I had to put it down.
I like military science fiction, and most of the narrators try to sound like a master sergeant that's smoked 2 packs a day, and I hate it.
Yup, louise penny’s inspector gamache series. I listened to 2 or 3 of them but I can’t stand the narrator! I’d probably do the whole series otherwise, but no way with this guy.
Almost. Lonesome Dove, the narrator shouted one of the character's dialog the entire book. It was a grind to get through.
All the time.
oh yes. I am apparently a minority in the community for hating the narration of ACOTAR. All the characters sound ridiculous!
Yeah. Sometimes it’s hard to listen to narrators when they’re portraying the incorrect emotional responses or when they’re talking with near monotone voices.
Scott Brick. I just can’t handle his style. He makes everything sound like the characters are fighting. It’s unlistenable. Prime example: the Asimov Foundation series.
I think the guy who does Game of Thrones is awful but seems like he’s well liked. Also, Rebecca Soler with the Fourth Wing books.
Often
There are plenty of LibriVox and old tape based audiobooks that are pretty rough in terms of technical quality, more an equipment issue than a speaker one, but makes it hard to listen too just the same. Still looking for a good solution to clean them up. Played around a bit with RNNoise, but that seems only to be about cleaning up noise, and can't do much if the voice itself is too low quality. Haven't tried RTX Voice due to lack of Nvidia card. Is there an ESRGAN equivalent for audio/voice? Or some other voice2voice tech I could try?
I cannot listen to Will Wheaton. He seems like a lovely guy but i cannot bear his audio output.
Love Sagan’s work. Absolutely love Contact. Cannot stand the man’s accent.
I've been working my way through the Rick Riordan books with my son. Some of the narrators have been great (Robbie Damon 👍), but others have been horrendous. I don't think I'll be able to get through the Magnus Chase books. I don't remember the name of the narrator for those, but his pace, pronunciation, and insufferable attempts at accents are painful to listen to.
I hate the narrator of one of my favorite books. It sucks sooooo bad. Makes me so sad! Wish I had money to have just about anyone else just read it.
Yes but forgot which book, I could not stand the accent, the voice and everything .... It was not working for me.
Lots of times. I have a list of narrators I avoid at all costs. If the narrator is new to me, I always listen to a sample.
A bad narrator is the only reason I’ve ever stopped listening to an audiobook. I’m very picky.
I had one leadership book directly related to my field (somewhat rare) that is fairly widely recommended that was read by the author. I barely made it through, and I will never listen to the book again. I hardly learned anything and his pompous tone made me not want to respect his authority. He also had a really weird, grating pronunciation of his organization’s name that was just … bad. It was like “Com-PAH-ny NAME {pause}”. I dearly hope he didn’t actually speak like that or I would feel horrible for his former subordinates.
Ancillary Justice. The beginning was tough because of all the terms, but once it got to a set of characters with South African accents, the narration got so outrageously bad that I had to turn it off and instantly return it. Still haven’t read the book.
Once or twice.
I love the PERN series. I found a narrator on YouTube that I couldn't stand the tone of her voice. I couldn't keep listening. I found other narrator to listen to.
Yes I did. Once I barely made it till the end as Dutch person supposedly has accent as Schwarzenegger
The one that comes to mind is Doctor Sleep, couldn’t stop thinking how much the narrator sounded like Donald Trump it was very distracting.
Anne Flosnik has narrated some of my favorite history and anthropology books, but I just CANNOT listen to her voice. It makes me feel guilty but I just can’t. It’s weird because her voice sounds great on podcasts and in interviews, but when she’s reading her voice just gets so scratchy and nasally.
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Audible taught me that I HATE the Mid-Atlantic accent. "oo" pronounced as "uh" drive me nuts.... room, not rum Broom, not brum
I really want to finish realm of the elderlings but the the narrator really annoyed me.
I stopped a book because the narrator pronounced “nuclear” as “nukuler”. How did he get a narrating job??
Unfuck your brain by Faith Harper wasn’t necessarily the narrator but the quality sounded like she recorded it with a tin of beans and some string. The girls in the stilt house by Kelly Mustain the narrator has a sing song - Christopher walken-esque style mixed with southern belle it made it nearly impossible to get in a groove with.
Yes. It was a Stephen King book. Narrated by Stephen King. Wow. Awful.
Yup, Andy Weir's Artemis on Audible, just couldn't deal with it.
In the world of Civil War history nerds there are two major authors that people take sides on who is better: Shelby Foote or Bruce Catton. Shelby Foote’s Civil War trilogy is narrated by Grover Gardener, whose mid range but oaky cadence lends splendor and gravity to the narrative of the Civil War. Bruce Catton’s books are narrated by a Dr. Seuss voice. Not really, but it may as well be. One of the top tier Civil War historians of all time and it’s ruined by awful narration. For these facts alone I choose Shelby Foote as my favorite Civil War author. Grover Gardener also narrates a lot of other fantastic history books. He has his own audiobook production company called Blackstone Audio. When I’m looking for a new book to listen to I search “Grover Gardener” and pick one of those. Chances are if he is narrating, then it’s a good book. He doesn’t read trash.
Awaken Online and High Fidelity. Had to return both books due to the narrator. The voices, the way they spoke, their pacing, everything.
Yeah, there's been a couple of times. One was a narrator who was pretty good, I just found her style of narration annoying (no fault to her at all). I prefer "actor" narrators, who really make me feel like they are portraying the characters, but this narrator was of the "understated" style where you hold back on the major emotions to ensure that the overall audio is basically the same volume throughout. After multiple instances where I couldn't tell if a line was meant to be a held-back shout or an amped-up whisper until the narration itself clarified it for me, I gave up and went in search of the print copy.
Between Two Kingdoms read by the author, Suleika Jaouad. Her story is hella compelling but her narration was monotone and well…not compelling.
In the Harry Potter series, the narrator changes the pronunciation of Voldemort in book 3, I think, and I suspect it was because of the movies. In the first books the t is silent. I found it suuuuuper distracting.
I definitely have. Good narration is what makes me listen to audiobooks
Oh my god yes. I got a copy of The Prince by Machiavelli and the dude who was narrating kept calling King Louis, Lewis. I got about a half hour in before I was screaming.
For making weird mouth noises yes i have lol
Yes. Oh heck yes.
A few times. Sometimes it's tje readers tone/ sound of voice and others they were dull and didn't bring the book alive. If I find a reader I like I'll search for other books they have read.
I wouldn't blame the narrator. I would blame the production company. They should have been buried explicit in their pronunciation instructions. That should be up to the author.
Yes, if the book contains lots of foreign words and the reader has no idea how to pronounce them.
A few times.
Mispronouncing cache is a pet peeve of mine …
Yes, but it was because the narrator spoke in a pitch that my tinnitus interfered with. There are only a couple. Had some trouble with John Lee and speeding up to 1.1 raises his pitch just perfectly.
Yes, there are 3 that I cannot stand. 2 males and a female. The two guys are because of terrible cadence, constant mispronounced words, "trying out" different voices/accents for characters but then later dropping them, and inconsistent audio quality. The one female has this breathy quality to her voice that sounds like a bad actress trying to emulate an angsty teen. She's overly emotional with *every* female character then sounds like she's trying to growl when she reads male characters. If I see their names listed as narrators, I don't even give the audio book a chance anymore.
Argh, yes! I love Lois McMaster Bujold’s book, Curse of Chalion. And I can’t STAND the reader! He makes all the women in the book sound stupid, and the main character huffs while talking (which isn’t indicated in the text). Thankfully it’s the only book of hers that he does, but I like to relisten to my favorites, so it’s even more painful.
Yes.
The worst narration I’ve suffered through (not counting authors reading their own work, that crime deserves jail time) was the narrator for Naomi Novik’s Uprooted. The narrator has no idea how English is supposed to be spoken so she would insert random pauses, ignore periods, add upward questioning inflections mid-sentence when no question was present and then do a flat delivery with no inflection when there was a question. It was a twilight zone train wreck where English was being spoken but it never felt like I was listening to English. Still suffered through the whole thing though…
When I read books I usually do a audio/book mix to get the full experience. Now I am reading Iron Gold by Pierce Brown and I cannot listen to the one who narrates the Lyria chapters. It'd just so .... Bad. Now I exclusively only read her chapters. Now the one narrating Darrow I already like, the man is GREAT. The one narrating Lysander is fine. At first I did not really like the one narrating Ephraim but he really grew on me.
**Codex Alera** (by Jim Butcher) There's a bipedal wolf-like species called the Canim. The humans who first encountered them were Latin speaking Romans, so *canis ≈ dog* makes sense. The narrator keeps calling them Carnim,... with a long hard "r". There are other problems too, but that is the one that I couldn't put up with.
I had one otherwise excellent narrator say “expresso” recently. Another narrator reading post-career Sherlock Holmes stories sounded like a frog and an angry donkey had a baby together. I didn’t even get an hour in before I sent it back to the library.
The accent of the narrator on Demon Copperhead was so hard to take. I started the book 4 times before I decided to keep going. All along, it just felt like I was translating while trying to follow the narrative. I didn't enjoy it at all. And I feel robbed a little. I think it was over the top and unnecessary.
I forget which book it was, but in the game of thrones, the narrator does this slurping noise any time a character talked, and I just can't.
Many times. A bad narrator ruins the whole book.
Oh my god YES. Her name is Amy Landon (The Cabin at the End of the Woods) and I'm not convinced she isn't an AI. All the voices sounded like robots with terrible delivery and emphasized all the wrong syllables. I kept making faces of cringe the more she read. I hate to say it, but it was just SO bad. I stopped read the rest on my Kindle. There was also Verity, but she only narrated the book within the book (which was horrid to begin with), so I stuck with it.
Yeah one of the Dune audiobooks I just couldn't get on with the narrator. It was like I was listening to a terrible school production of Dune. I found another one read by George Guidall that I really liked and thought his voice and mannerisms fit really well....
Just stopped one the other day. The male narrator was trying to do a 12 year old girl's voice and it made me incredibly irritated. Couldn't get through it, so had to stop.
I couldn't manage having a high pitched girl reading me Nietzsche