*audiobook; corrected
Do they do anything particular with their voice or tone in order to enhance the story?
Gideon the Ninth. Hands down. The book is 100% strong female POV, which I usually like, but as dude, I was missing a lot of subtlety. My kid lent me their audio book and holy shit, Moira Quirk does an absolutely fantastic job. The characters jump right out of the speakers and into my brain, highlighting all the understated humor that I was missing. 10/10, wish I could hear it again for the first time.
I’m in love with Moira Quirk’s voice, great suggestion.
Ooh I’ll have to try it. I loved the paper books
‘Toast on Toast’ read by Steven Toast.
Didn’t know that existed but I’ll download it right now
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.
Fun fact fyi, unlike Reddit, post titles are editable on Lemmy
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.
No one has posted an example of one read by the author, so I will: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Funny, insightful, and a truly incredible autobiography in his own voice and with full knowledge of all the languages he can speak.
Merlin Sheldrake reading his Entangled Life is one I’ve listened to numerous times. Delightful, educating. Always uplifting.
His pace is a little slow, so I listen to him at 1.10 or 1.15 speed.
That said, the content carries better with his voice as it is his experiences he’s written about. And he’s a decent musician
You can edit titles here on Lemmy btw
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.
Wil Wheaton brings a lot to the books he narrates, but the best combo I’ve heard so far is John Malkovich reading Breakfast of Champions.
Dear god no. Wil Wheaton has the most grating, whiny, nasal voice I’ve ever heard, immediately puts me off any book he narrates. He only has one reading style which doesn’t translate at all between different books
Eat a dick, Captain Picard
I highly recommend Super Powereds by Drew Hayes, largely because of Kyle McCarley’s narration. They’ve been my “comfort books” for over 5 years, getting around 10 listens from me despite the series being ~179 hours. (I never listen at 1x speed, though.) He has a unique voice for every single character, which is frankly insane because there are ~65 recurring characters and over 150 total different speakers in the series. He makes it so easy to get into.
Also, there’s at least one mysterious moment where a character is not named. Thanks to the voice he does, audiobook listeners were able to conclusively determine which character that was.
Travis Baldree has also become a favorite narrator of mine. The Cradle series is great, and it just wouldn’t be the same without Travis’s performance.
Steven Pacey reading Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series is outstanding. The books themselves are among my favourites, but Steven makes them even more special. He has different voices (and accents) for the characters and manages to stay consistent with them. His pacing is also excellent.
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.
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!
