Dragons & Jetpacks discussion

I’m just about to finish The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie and loved it. What other audiobooks would people recommend. I’ve listened to Dune as well. X

The Stormlight Archives series by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. The Licanius trilogy by James Islington.

The First Law series audiobooks is great. I loved Inquisators Gloktas insights, funny stuff "Excellent, sign here" or "I'll probably be found by the docks floating". Ferro's "Shut up Pink!. Ninefingers " you got to be realistic" or "I"m still alive". Dogman "Back to the mud"

DUNE audiobook is awesome, loved it.

If you've heard the other audiobooks I've mentioned I know of other good audiobooks to listen to.

I've read the first of The Licanius trilogy so will try the other two as audiobooks.
The others I have read them all as books already. I've got to that age where audiobooks in the car are mostly more relaxing after work than music. Tere are still the odd days though that nothing but Machinehead full blast will do.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm definitely going come back to you again for more ideas. x

Anansi Boys is still one of my favourites, read by Lenny Henry. I also think Stephen Briggs does a great job with all the unabridged Discworld books ( Thud is my favourite of the few I've got). Currently listening to The Fold by Peter Clines, which was recommended by Dawn over on the Defenders Vs West Coast Avengers thread, and really enjoying it so far. I'll have a think tomorrow about others I've listened to and see if I can think of any others.

Loved the Bobiverse books narrated by Ray Porter. He's awesome. He does The Fold too and was fantastic there as well :) I also loved Tim Curry's narration of the Sabriel trilogy.

I agree. Tim Curry did do a great job on Sabriel audiobook. I enjoyed it.

The Themis Files series by Sylvain Neuvel is great and works really well on audio.

The Wool Trilogy was awesome and is read by one of my favorate narrators Tim Gerard Reynolds.

My all time favorite audio book is Company of Liars.

Thanks guys. I think the narrator makes or breaks the audiobook for me, even if its a really compelling book. Will definitely check some of these out

Tim Gerard Reynolds is great in everything! I liked his Red Rising and Prince of Thorns and he also does Michael J. Sullivan novels! I also enjoy Jim Dale (Harry Potter) and Simon Vance The Emperor's Blades, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc.

A few others I liked:
The Martian
The Raven Boys
Cinder
A Court of Thorns and Roses

I am picky about narrators too. I remember trying to do The Way of Kings and being thrown off by the matronly female narrator playing a young lady. Or worse, when people do horrible accents.

Bruyere wrote: "Tim Gerard Reynolds is great in everything! I liked his Red Rising and Prince of Thorns and he also does Michael J. Sullivan novels! I also enjoy Jim..."

Kate Reading (I kid you not!) is possibly my least favorite narrator but Michael Kremer is wonderful is wonderful as Kal and the fab writing of Sanderson helped me put up with a lot!

But I agree Bruyere, I would not chose that to recommend due to Reading and also it is 45.5 hours long 😮

Me too! Kate Reading’s narration style really grates on me. It’s too bad since Michael Kramer is so good.

Try The Amulet of Samarkand on audio – so funny. It’s by Simon Jones, who was the Guide’s voice in the BBC mini-series of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

I love Michael Kramer and Kate Reading narration styles. Suck you guys don't like him.

J.J. wrote: “I love Michael Kramer and Kate Reading narration styles. Suck you guys don’t like him.”

We like him, not her.

You've convinced me Audrey - I will listen to The Amulet of Samarkand! It probably won't be this year as I am making serious efforts to cut down on my book buying :-(

J.J. Michael Kramer is such a wonderful Kal that he ALMOST makes up for her :-P

Amulet of Samarkand is one of my favorite series ever.

Bruyere wrote: “Amulet of Samarkand is one of my favorite series ever.”

Me too.

I love Kramer and Reading reading the WOT books <3

I am super picky about narrators for audiobooks and thus don't find myself listening to them much, but I recently listened to the Six of Crows audiobook and thought the book and narration were both excellent! Also, I love how Neil Gaiman narrates his own books. I especially loved listening to him read n
Neverwhere . And of course the Harry Potter audiobooks are fantastic!

I can’t stand Jim Dale’s narrations. I was able to tolerate him for Harry Potter but after The Night Circus, he became intolerable. (His narration is okay, but his dialogue is completely wrong.) I can’t find Stephen Fry’s Harry Potter narration anywhere. I’d really like to try that out.

Audrey, if I remember rightly the Jim Dale narration of Harry Potter is only available the US side of the Atlantic, and Stephen Fry's is the UK side (correct me if I'm wrong anyone)

Freya wrote: “Audrey, if I remember rightly the Jim Dale narration of Harry Potter is only available the US side of the Atlantic, and Stephen Fry’s is the UK side (correct me if I’m wrong anyone)”

That’s what it looks like. It might be time for some international smuggling.

I found this for comparison between Jim Dale and Stephen Fry, though unfortunately the Stephen Fry recording they've used is a little tinny, but it would allow you to see which version you liked. You might be able to sneak around by looking for CDs on e.g. Book Depository, but I think you'd struggle on Audible as it's locked to US/UK.

Here's the YouTube comparison:
https://youtu.be/zbd2mzpYRrE

Neat. I like Fry way better.

Honestly not sure I like either of them ;-) I think I will stick to reading the books.

But an interesting comparison...thanks for the link.

No worries, I thought it would be handy you check and see if you liked it before hunting down some copies!

Haha Sandy, I've realised that audiobooks can be very particular tastes. I'm very picky!

I think I’ve gotten pickier with audiobooks the more I’ve listened to them.

I can't tell who reads the Arcane Society book by Jayne Anne Krentz but I swear it is two separate people, the woman does such a good job.

I listened to one audio book where two people were having a conversation and I had no idea who was saying what. No differentiation in the voice at all. Not a good audio book.

And to agree with Freya, it is truly a personal preference - I really enjoy books read by Scott Brick - I just like the sound of his voice.

I like Scott Brick in some books but not all. It really depends on the book. I thought he did really well on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.

I actually love His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass series) as an audiobook. It has a full cast and the narrator's voice is so deep it shakes my car even on a low volume because it's just bass. No characters have annoying voices, it's chilling when there are tormenting moments because the actors are so GOOD at reading them aloud. The Golden Compass

I'm dithering over what to get next on audible. Most of the recommendations here are for series, but as I'm planning to cancel my subscription for a while I'd really like a decently sized stand-alone fantasy or sci-fi. Has anyone listened to anything good fitting that description lately?

In the last year or so I've enjoyed Circe, a couple of Iain M Banks' Culture novels, The Power, the HG Wells omnibus and the BBC radio adaptations of Pratchett's Discworld books. I'm currently working my way through Peter F Hamilton's Void Trilogy.

Joe Abercrombie has a couple of stand alone books I enjoyed on audible. Red Country was good and I don't think you have to have read the first trilogy to read it. The Sudden Appearance of Hope was really well read and the story does make you think a bit although I did find it dragged and felt a little too long after a while.

I loved the narrator in Age of Assassins too. Its a series but the first book does wrap up the whole story quite nicely.

Stephen Fry's HP can only be bought outside of the US (e.g. ordered from Europe) - it's worth it IMHO, he's just divine and reads it so perfectly! (Dale sounds fine though, from the sample I've listened to.)
Right now I'm adoring the narration of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - the book bored me while I was reading the ebook, but the moment I switched to audio it became magical, moving and gripping. Just a fantastic job by the narrator (and the sound effect crew because the whole book as ambience and sound effects added).

Vinca, I quite liked perdido street station by China Mieville. That’s a stand alone

Thanks all, excellent suggestions! I did a bit of browsing through past botm nominations for ideas and ended up getting Middlegame because it sounds intriguing and is quite expensive to buy in paperback or Kindle version in the UK at the moment so it seemed like a good use of a credit.

Spinning Silver was good on audio.

Audrey wrote: "Spinning Silver was good on audio."

I just bought the paperback of that with some Christmas vouchers 🙂

I bought the paperback after I listened to it.