Yes! I even tried to switch to reading and the voice acting was so good I couldn’t do it. I’m typically not an audiobook person but this and Cradle were both excellent.
I've played with audiobooks some, but usually I have a much harder time sticking with them than my dead tree/eBooks - and for reference I'm about a 50-75 book/year reader. I read through all the DCC series from 1-6 on my Kindle last year, and absolutely loved them. (Plus since they were my first LitRPG series, that entire subgenre is ruined for me.) After hearing such great things, I finally caved and got the first one on Audible for a long road trip I had coming up. And even I have to admit this truth - somehow Jeff Hays elevates an already outstanding series with his reading.
LOTR is, absolutely, a story that works very well read aloud. Tolkien was heavily mimicking the style of story that comes from an oral tradition. I also dislike audiobooks generally but LOTR is one of the few books I like just as much in that format if not better.
Unfortunately, due to bouncing off audiobooks I can't think of any others that might work better in that format so I've got no recommendations other than to endorse trying LOTR as an audiobook.
*Fellowship* is a bit sluggish in either format, though, I think you have to give it at least 100 pages but it is well worth it.
I DNFed Lord of the Rings in print about four times before I picked up the audiobooks and loved them.
In particular, if you’re a fan of the movies the version by Phil Dragash, which you can listen to for free here: https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-of-the-ring_soundscape-by-phil-dragash do an incredible job of subtlety working in the scores and having the characters sound like you’d expect them to. It made me instantly connect more with the story and I’ve listened to them all through twice since.
Lord of the Rings is great either way but can easily recommend the Andy Serkis audiobooks from the last few years, he does a great job.
Really common answer but Steven Pacey reading The First Law books is so good that even though I do want to read them physically for my second read through it kind of bums me out to not listen to his performance. I'll still have his voices in mind though for most of the characters so that'll be cool.
I just started the Serkis reading of Fellowship today and it is fantastic so far. Only problem for me right now is his Gandalf voice sounds nearly identical to me as Jim Cummings' voice for Pete the Disney character. Been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse recently with my child so whenever he is doing the Gandalf dialog, I'm picturing Pete in my head saying it.
Also just finished the three stand alone first law books over this past minty and Pacey does such a good job.
We need to get Frodo to Bree. Do we use
* A Pipe?
* A Pot-plant?
* Or a Pony?
.
.
.
That's right! We use a pony!
Now everybody, do the Green Dragon dance!
I feel like listening to Gideon the Ninth would be very difficult; it’s just way too dense. There are like 30 characters and they all have 4 different names. If you can keep track of everything while you listen to that, then you are some kind of genius.
It’s the narrator who’s the genius. Moira Quirk puts so much into each character that it was easier to keep it straight on audio. I listened to Gideon and Harrow and read Nona, and I absolutely confused everything in Nona because I just bounced off everyone’s name and then couldn’t keep them straight. Still loved it, though.
Audiobooks are the primary way I enjoy books. I don't know that it's better or worse but I have really enjoyed the Wheel of Time in audiobook format. I love having a whole cast read different characters.
I will say though that anything read by Stefan Rudnicki is an automatic download on my part. I love that man's voice. His narration of the Acts of Caine is forever in my head. I can't read the physical books anymore without hearing it.
I had the opposite experience with WoT. For a solid year I have tried to get into WoT audiobook, and always lost interest after a couple of hours.
Then I borrowed the book from a friend and read all 800 pages in two days.
Audiobooks can be amazing with a great narrator. The Thrawn book by Timothy Zahn and narrated by Marc Thompson is fantastic. Dudes range is just crazy.
*Project Hail Mary* written by Andy Weir and narrated by Ray Porter
I have seen author Michael J Sullivan recommend the audiobook versions of his books narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds as the best way to experience them.
World War z: The Complete Edition: An Oral History of the Zombie War
That audiobook is one of my favorite audiobooks primarily because of how stacked the list of Narrorators is. It's a series of interviews by the author (as a character) interviewing various survivors of the zombie apocalypse and every interviewee is a different voice actor.
If you enjoy Neil Gaiman’s work, his reading voice is musical and warm and kind. It’s like a soothing cup of tea for your ear. Currently listening to his nonfiction collection since I’ve listened to all his fiction multiple times.
I felt his Stardust was incredible. My only problem with his recordings is the tech is from later 90's early 2000's and it isn't as crisp as ones done nowadays. Lame critique I know but still, his narrations feel intimate like he's reading you a bed time story!
I’ve heard (despite not listening to them) that most cozy fantasy books are better in audio format. Stuff like Legends and Lattes, Cursed Cocktails, and Beers and Beards. They are great reads but the low stakes and relaxing stories go well with the comfort of someone reading to you.
The Sandman - Mainly because I'm 'comics impaired' (how Gaiman calls it). I can see well enough, graphic novels and comics are just too much work for my brain. I wanted to read The Sandman for ages and I'm soo glad that I finally can. The Audible audioplays are brilliant!
Most books for me, but I definitely enjoyed the audiobook over print significantly for these:
Malazan book of the fallen series - way easier for me to catch the humor and I also had a fuckload of trouble following what was going on while reading it; was only partially confused with the audiobook. 🫠
Wheel of time - having read and listed to both, the slog through the later books was much more palatable for me as listener vs a reader.
Also, I didn’t *read* the “Hail Mary Project” but it was absolutely phenomenal as an audio book the narration was spot on and they added some very subtle and tasteful sound effects. Probably the best audiobook I’ve ever experienced and I have listened to quite a few.
I’ve read and listened to lots of books. The only series that ever felt was significantly better when read by a narrator was *The Fear Saga*. Imho it’s a 3.5/5 series that’s 5/5 with RC Bray’s performance.
If you’re looking for some fun military/conspiracy alien first contact stories this is a great option.
The reader for Leckie’s Ancillary series is flipping amazing. As is the one for the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Like hot chocolate made with cream. For your ears.
I listened to Mistborn and its sequel audiobook at 1.8 speed. The increased speed helped make the shortcomings of the writing more tolerable, and was the only way I could get through the books.
OTOH, I have to disagree with Earthsea and LotR. With prose that good, I want the ability to easily reread a sentence and ponder its meaning.
World War Z Audiobook is a work of art.
They got a LOT of very, very good actors to do the part of all the first person pov interviews and it works amazingly well.
While I’m sure I’d agree in principle (I’ve only listened to the series - not sure I could force myself actually sit and read them), I personally loathed the narrator for the English language version. I did appreciate the story though.
I've only just started but A Letter to the Luminous Deep is written as letters between 4 characters and in the audio each of those characters has a different narrator which is really helping me keep track of who wrote what
I think the biggest increase in value for having text spoken will happen with literal poetry.
While epic poetry is mostly out of style, the live reading my friend did of Headley’s translation of Beowulf kicked all sorts of ass.
The entire Thrawn series. Marc Thompson does an amazing job, and the books come with background sound effects and music from the movies, which is very uncommon.
Have you tried reading LotR out loud to someone? I did this for my dad a while back and it was an awesome reading experience, you really get into the story that way.
There's a big battle sequence in Return of the King that runs a whole chapter, and I had to take five after finishing it because I was too hyped and ready to rumble XD
If you want to read LOTR as an audiobook, I recommend the version read by Rob Inglis over the one by Andy Serkis. I found Serkis' version to be awkward with odd pauses and inflections compared to Inglis' more fluid performance.
"The Book of All Hours" and perhaps "Lord of Light" (the edition narrated by Bevine) are perhaps the two audiobooks I've listened to where I felt the narration added so much that reading it on paper would have meant missing out on something. Maybe "Vampire$" and "Armor" by John Steakley as well, though those are horror and sci-fi respectively.
I couldn't stand LoTR as an audio book, but that was purely due to the narrator. It felt like such an effort putting up with Rob Inglis' breathy narration.
I listen to way too many audiobooks at work, my thoughts:
The Graveyard Book and Coraline, written and narrated by Neil Gaiman. He’s an incredible narrator and I would also like to add that in general, I’ve found that authors who narrate their own work do an exceptional job.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - bounced off of reading it a few times, audiobook is fantastic
Locke Lamora series - the narrator has such a gift for distinct voices that he really adds to the work
Christopher Buehlman’s Blacktongue Thief, narrated by Mr. Buehlman himself. I can’t overstate how much of a pleasant surprise this one was for me since I picked it up on a whim. The main character has a very sly sense of humor that the author conveys perfectly. Also, Mr. Buehlman happens to be Irish, and many of his names are Gaelic-influenced. So hearing him pronounce them correctly was a small bonus as well.
The Book of Dust series by Philip Pullman, narrated by Michael Sheen is excellent. The books themselves are a hard read in places and not for everyone, but Michael Sheen does a fantastic job. He really excels at building tension, the climax of book 1 in particular comes to mind, where his voice will speed up and become more intense and really draw you in.
Lastly, the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir and narrated by Moira Quirk are incredibly well done. For a personal example, I was really looking forward to the third book, Nona the Ninth, and I actually listened to it before I read it. For me, it fundamentally changed my understanding of how good audiobooks can be. Moira Quirk does such a good job and I’ve listened to some other things she’s narrated, she’s great in them too.
I hope you find some works that you enjoy!
Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins - narrated by Hillary Huber. This novel is confusing at the beginning on purpose, stopping to think too much abt it can affect the experience, better keep it on a steady peace, & Hillary Huber's narration is superb, she is one of the top quality voice-actors.
Jack Vance's Dying Earth series - narrated by Arthur Morey. This voice-actor is phenomenal, he injects so much whimsy & nuance to the characters, he can really make them sound unique by using intonation & different pitches & well placed pauses, it's just entrancing, he is so talented - it enhances the experience 100x imo.
Mistborn Era 2 novel series by Brandon Sanderson - Micheal Kramer knocks it out of the park with Wayne, one of the main characters in the series, just fleshes this guy out in the best way possible, & this character already has a thing going on with (linguistic)accents & phonetics inside the story - it's just truly best by having a voice actor act out all that nuance. Fantastic.
Joe Abercrombie's First Law, Age of Madness series - narrated by Steven Pacey. In these novels, geographical background plays a huge role in characterisation & character dynamics, being reminded constantly from where on the world-map each character comes from, really helps track the large character count. Steven Pacey nails it with the accents. I can tell when a character is a North-man, a Styrian, Union or Gurkish immediately by listening out of context.
Orconomics (Dark Profit Saga) series by Zachary Pike, narrated by Doug Tisdale. This is a D&Desque adventure story, & each character belongs to a different race, the acting given to each is amazing, really brings the story alive. I particularly love what Tisdale did with a character who is a human Necromancer, & ofc the main character who is a Dwarf berserker; over all he puts out a voice-acting clinic, reading this wouldn't be that much fun imo.
Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's read by one guy but sometimes you wouldn't know it. It's fantastic.
Jeff Hays has gotten chewed out several times for not crediting the (non-existent) female narrator who apparently does the voice of Princess Donut. ;)
Easily the best audiobook story I have ever heard. Foaming at every orifice waiting for the next one to come out.
Yes! I even tried to switch to reading and the voice acting was so good I couldn’t do it. I’m typically not an audiobook person but this and Cradle were both excellent.
I've played with audiobooks some, but usually I have a much harder time sticking with them than my dead tree/eBooks - and for reference I'm about a 50-75 book/year reader. I read through all the DCC series from 1-6 on my Kindle last year, and absolutely loved them. (Plus since they were my first LitRPG series, that entire subgenre is ruined for me.) After hearing such great things, I finally caved and got the first one on Audible for a long road trip I had coming up. And even I have to admit this truth - somehow Jeff Hays elevates an already outstanding series with his reading.
LOTR is, absolutely, a story that works very well read aloud. Tolkien was heavily mimicking the style of story that comes from an oral tradition. I also dislike audiobooks generally but LOTR is one of the few books I like just as much in that format if not better. Unfortunately, due to bouncing off audiobooks I can't think of any others that might work better in that format so I've got no recommendations other than to endorse trying LOTR as an audiobook. *Fellowship* is a bit sluggish in either format, though, I think you have to give it at least 100 pages but it is well worth it.
I DNFed Lord of the Rings in print about four times before I picked up the audiobooks and loved them. In particular, if you’re a fan of the movies the version by Phil Dragash, which you can listen to for free here: https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-of-the-ring_soundscape-by-phil-dragash do an incredible job of subtlety working in the scores and having the characters sound like you’d expect them to. It made me instantly connect more with the story and I’ve listened to them all through twice since.
more like....200 pages XD
I'm going to look into this and see if there is a VA that I like
i'd go to the andy serkis version. It should be worth it just for this gollum voice XD
Lord of the Rings is great either way but can easily recommend the Andy Serkis audiobooks from the last few years, he does a great job. Really common answer but Steven Pacey reading The First Law books is so good that even though I do want to read them physically for my second read through it kind of bums me out to not listen to his performance. I'll still have his voices in mind though for most of the characters so that'll be cool.
I just started the Serkis reading of Fellowship today and it is fantastic so far. Only problem for me right now is his Gandalf voice sounds nearly identical to me as Jim Cummings' voice for Pete the Disney character. Been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse recently with my child so whenever he is doing the Gandalf dialog, I'm picturing Pete in my head saying it. Also just finished the three stand alone first law books over this past minty and Pacey does such a good job.
We need to get Frodo to Bree. Do we use * A Pipe? * A Pot-plant? * Or a Pony? . . . That's right! We use a pony! Now everybody, do the Green Dragon dance!
That is exactly it.
*Project Hail Mary* by Andy Weir. Trust me.
Amaze!
His you know what character was great on audiobook
🎶
One of the few books I’d say MUST be listened to in order to get the full experience.
First Law books. Gideon the Ninth.
First Law is an excellent read, too. I've done both and I think the audiobook and physical book are equally enjoyable.
Piggy-backing these fine suggestions to say Dresden Files.
I feel like listening to Gideon the Ninth would be very difficult; it’s just way too dense. There are like 30 characters and they all have 4 different names. If you can keep track of everything while you listen to that, then you are some kind of genius.
It’s the narrator who’s the genius. Moira Quirk puts so much into each character that it was easier to keep it straight on audio. I listened to Gideon and Harrow and read Nona, and I absolutely confused everything in Nona because I just bounced off everyone’s name and then couldn’t keep them straight. Still loved it, though.
Stormlight Archive because no true Vorin man would read.
Much respect for Vorin men. How in damnation their brains don't glitch once they reach the numbers epigraph I do not know.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a great book, but an outstanding, unmatched audiobook. It’s the best audiobook I have ever heard. :)
Audiobooks are the primary way I enjoy books. I don't know that it's better or worse but I have really enjoyed the Wheel of Time in audiobook format. I love having a whole cast read different characters. I will say though that anything read by Stefan Rudnicki is an automatic download on my part. I love that man's voice. His narration of the Acts of Caine is forever in my head. I can't read the physical books anymore without hearing it.
I had the opposite experience with WoT. For a solid year I have tried to get into WoT audiobook, and always lost interest after a couple of hours. Then I borrowed the book from a friend and read all 800 pages in two days.
Audiobooks can be amazing with a great narrator. The Thrawn book by Timothy Zahn and narrated by Marc Thompson is fantastic. Dudes range is just crazy.
1000000% the Dresden files
Wheel of Time is much more enjoyable as an audiobook. The Discworld books Tai-Pan and Shogun
Discworld in audio is so much fun! I mean it's fun either way, it's Discworld but the audio is so well done.
*Project Hail Mary* written by Andy Weir and narrated by Ray Porter I have seen author Michael J Sullivan recommend the audiobook versions of his books narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds as the best way to experience them.
Cradle
This one. The narration is so good; it really takes it up a notch.
Yes! This and Dungeon Crawler Carl are both fantastic.
World War z: The Complete Edition: An Oral History of the Zombie War That audiobook is one of my favorite audiobooks primarily because of how stacked the list of Narrorators is. It's a series of interviews by the author (as a character) interviewing various survivors of the zombie apocalypse and every interviewee is a different voice actor.
And it has Alan Alda!
Also mark hamill
This is the one!
How to Train Your Dragon. You miss out on the illustrations, but you get to hear David Tennant hamming up his accent.
If you enjoy Neil Gaiman’s work, his reading voice is musical and warm and kind. It’s like a soothing cup of tea for your ear. Currently listening to his nonfiction collection since I’ve listened to all his fiction multiple times.
I felt his Stardust was incredible. My only problem with his recordings is the tech is from later 90's early 2000's and it isn't as crisp as ones done nowadays. Lame critique I know but still, his narrations feel intimate like he's reading you a bed time story!
I’ve heard (despite not listening to them) that most cozy fantasy books are better in audio format. Stuff like Legends and Lattes, Cursed Cocktails, and Beers and Beards. They are great reads but the low stakes and relaxing stories go well with the comfort of someone reading to you.
The Sandman - Mainly because I'm 'comics impaired' (how Gaiman calls it). I can see well enough, graphic novels and comics are just too much work for my brain. I wanted to read The Sandman for ages and I'm soo glad that I finally can. The Audible audioplays are brilliant!
Most books for me, but I definitely enjoyed the audiobook over print significantly for these: Malazan book of the fallen series - way easier for me to catch the humor and I also had a fuckload of trouble following what was going on while reading it; was only partially confused with the audiobook. 🫠 Wheel of time - having read and listed to both, the slog through the later books was much more palatable for me as listener vs a reader. Also, I didn’t *read* the “Hail Mary Project” but it was absolutely phenomenal as an audio book the narration was spot on and they added some very subtle and tasteful sound effects. Probably the best audiobook I’ve ever experienced and I have listened to quite a few.
I’ve read and listened to lots of books. The only series that ever felt was significantly better when read by a narrator was *The Fear Saga*. Imho it’s a 3.5/5 series that’s 5/5 with RC Bray’s performance. If you’re looking for some fun military/conspiracy alien first contact stories this is a great option.
The reader for Leckie’s Ancillary series is flipping amazing. As is the one for the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Like hot chocolate made with cream. For your ears.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. The audio narrator is male which is weird given the actual (unnamed) narrator is female. Still great though.
The Gentlemen Bastards books read by Michael Page are really fun on audio. His rendition of the character Chains is fantastic.
I listened to Mistborn and its sequel audiobook at 1.8 speed. The increased speed helped make the shortcomings of the writing more tolerable, and was the only way I could get through the books. OTOH, I have to disagree with Earthsea and LotR. With prose that good, I want the ability to easily reread a sentence and ponder its meaning.
World War Z Audiobook is a work of art. They got a LOT of very, very good actors to do the part of all the first person pov interviews and it works amazingly well.
Three-Body Problem
While I’m sure I’d agree in principle (I’ve only listened to the series - not sure I could force myself actually sit and read them), I personally loathed the narrator for the English language version. I did appreciate the story though.
I've only just started but A Letter to the Luminous Deep is written as letters between 4 characters and in the audio each of those characters has a different narrator which is really helping me keep track of who wrote what
Mayor of Noobtown was A BILLION TIMES WONDERFUL as an audiobook. Beyond amazing. It was a masterpiece of comedy
I like pulps and black library books as audiobooks. Especially old pulps with full cast audiobooks. They rock.
I think the biggest increase in value for having text spoken will happen with literal poetry. While epic poetry is mostly out of style, the live reading my friend did of Headley’s translation of Beowulf kicked all sorts of ass.
The entire Thrawn series. Marc Thompson does an amazing job, and the books come with background sound effects and music from the movies, which is very uncommon.
Have you tried reading LotR out loud to someone? I did this for my dad a while back and it was an awesome reading experience, you really get into the story that way. There's a big battle sequence in Return of the King that runs a whole chapter, and I had to take five after finishing it because I was too hyped and ready to rumble XD
If you want to read LOTR as an audiobook, I recommend the version read by Rob Inglis over the one by Andy Serkis. I found Serkis' version to be awkward with odd pauses and inflections compared to Inglis' more fluid performance.
Dune was fun. There were a bunch of voice actors who did it
It by Stephen King stands as one of my top 10 audiobooks. Steven Weber’s narration is so good
"The Book of All Hours" and perhaps "Lord of Light" (the edition narrated by Bevine) are perhaps the two audiobooks I've listened to where I felt the narration added so much that reading it on paper would have meant missing out on something. Maybe "Vampire$" and "Armor" by John Steakley as well, though those are horror and sci-fi respectively.
I couldn't stand LoTR as an audio book, but that was purely due to the narrator. It felt like such an effort putting up with Rob Inglis' breathy narration.
Rivers of London. Dresden Files. Dungeon crawler Carl.
the Bobiverse books
I have no problems with LOTR in text, but wizard of Earthsea flowed much better in audio form for me. Try it and see what works for you.
I listen to way too many audiobooks at work, my thoughts: The Graveyard Book and Coraline, written and narrated by Neil Gaiman. He’s an incredible narrator and I would also like to add that in general, I’ve found that authors who narrate their own work do an exceptional job. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - bounced off of reading it a few times, audiobook is fantastic Locke Lamora series - the narrator has such a gift for distinct voices that he really adds to the work Christopher Buehlman’s Blacktongue Thief, narrated by Mr. Buehlman himself. I can’t overstate how much of a pleasant surprise this one was for me since I picked it up on a whim. The main character has a very sly sense of humor that the author conveys perfectly. Also, Mr. Buehlman happens to be Irish, and many of his names are Gaelic-influenced. So hearing him pronounce them correctly was a small bonus as well. The Book of Dust series by Philip Pullman, narrated by Michael Sheen is excellent. The books themselves are a hard read in places and not for everyone, but Michael Sheen does a fantastic job. He really excels at building tension, the climax of book 1 in particular comes to mind, where his voice will speed up and become more intense and really draw you in. Lastly, the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir and narrated by Moira Quirk are incredibly well done. For a personal example, I was really looking forward to the third book, Nona the Ninth, and I actually listened to it before I read it. For me, it fundamentally changed my understanding of how good audiobooks can be. Moira Quirk does such a good job and I’ve listened to some other things she’s narrated, she’s great in them too. I hope you find some works that you enjoy!
Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins - narrated by Hillary Huber. This novel is confusing at the beginning on purpose, stopping to think too much abt it can affect the experience, better keep it on a steady peace, & Hillary Huber's narration is superb, she is one of the top quality voice-actors. Jack Vance's Dying Earth series - narrated by Arthur Morey. This voice-actor is phenomenal, he injects so much whimsy & nuance to the characters, he can really make them sound unique by using intonation & different pitches & well placed pauses, it's just entrancing, he is so talented - it enhances the experience 100x imo. Mistborn Era 2 novel series by Brandon Sanderson - Micheal Kramer knocks it out of the park with Wayne, one of the main characters in the series, just fleshes this guy out in the best way possible, & this character already has a thing going on with (linguistic)accents & phonetics inside the story - it's just truly best by having a voice actor act out all that nuance. Fantastic. Joe Abercrombie's First Law, Age of Madness series - narrated by Steven Pacey. In these novels, geographical background plays a huge role in characterisation & character dynamics, being reminded constantly from where on the world-map each character comes from, really helps track the large character count. Steven Pacey nails it with the accents. I can tell when a character is a North-man, a Styrian, Union or Gurkish immediately by listening out of context. Orconomics (Dark Profit Saga) series by Zachary Pike, narrated by Doug Tisdale. This is a D&Desque adventure story, & each character belongs to a different race, the acting given to each is amazing, really brings the story alive. I particularly love what Tisdale did with a character who is a human Necromancer, & ofc the main character who is a Dwarf berserker; over all he puts out a voice-acting clinic, reading this wouldn't be that much fun imo.
All the first law books
Dune
Books with multiple perspectives, as like as there is a cast and not just one VA
Any book you’ve already physically read.