SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Are there any books that you think work better as audiobooks? Either because of a really terrific narrator/production or because the writing style lends itself particularly well to being read aloud?

One recent example for me is The Song of Achilles which I was eye reading, but then gave audio a try and it really enhanced the experience (and I'm not normally one for audiobooks). One more example I can think of from our shelf is Embassytown where in the text the aliens are said to speaking two sentences simultaneously and it is represented by putting them close together. In the audio they superimpose the two sentences so you hear it as it was meant to be (although admittedly maybe a bit harder to understand, the effect is very cool).

I find the audiobook versions of the Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch way better than the print versions- the narrator (Kobna Holbrook-Smith) really brings Peter Grant to life.

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel is both funnier and more... wrought in its audible format. Idir's silly dentistry jokes illicit a chuckle when spoken in Neil Shah's delightfully accented English in a way that my brain was less receptive to purely visually.

It doesn't work with many books, but as with Songs of Achilles, the prospect of rereading them by eye doesn't appeal at all.

Christopher wrote: "One more example I can think of from our shelf is Embassytown where in the text the aliens are said to speaking two sentences simultaneously and it is represented by putting them close together. In the audio they superimpose the two sentences so you hear it as it was meant to be (although admittedly maybe a bit harder to understand, the effect is very cool). "

My mom said that Andy Weir’s newest book, Project Hail Mary did something similar. There’s a character that communicates via chords and sounds, and reading it (as I did) I thought the concept was cool, but my mom said it was wonderful via audio.

(Anyone who wants to talk about good audiobooks in general, check out Best and Worst Audiobooks and Narrators.)

I will give an enthusiastic second to the Rivers of London series. The narrator is excellent.

I found The Martian better as an audiobook (not the Wil Wheaton version), the Ray Porter version if you can still find it.

The Raven Tower frustrated me when I started it with my eyes, but then the audio added such delicious gravity to it that it went on to become one of my favorite books of the year.

The Bees. Pretty sure I loved it due to the narration.

The Hail Mary Project (by Ray Porter) was also amazing. The producer did a great job with certain aspects, really brought it to life.

I just listened to the Hobbit in audio and it was great because the songs were actually sung v when I eyeball read it a hundred years ago, my mind couldn't put a tune to the songs.
Also, I think things like Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood and Everything's Trash, But It's Okay are better in audio because the author communicate the comedy better. I also really enjoy the ones that have a full cast like The Sandman
I prefer also to listen to longer books like The Way of Kings in audio, the narrators are so good in that one, they even make Wheel of Time palatable 😂
I really like Wil Wheaton's narration on the Martian but I never heard the Ray Porter one. I really like Wheaton's narration in general.

Allison wrote: "The Raven Tower frustrated me when I started it with my eyes, but then the audio added such delicious gravity to it that it went on to become one of my favorite books of the year."

I loved this audiobook too! Adjoa Andoh is such a great narrator.

The Illuminae Files series are excellent books, but the audiobooks are seriously the best ones I've ever listened to. Incredibly well cast - and there is a large cast.

I particularly enjoy listening to Neil Gaiman read his books. I generally prefer reading but once I listened to one, I switched to audio for most of his.

I also really enjoyed The Poet X as an audiobook, which I attributed to it complementing the spoken word poetry and also the Spanish used in the book (a language I am not versed in).

Lastly, most parents on long car rides will agree that the Harry Potter series comes alive as read (in the US) by Jim Dale.

Nicol wrote: "Also, I think things like Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood and Everything's Trash, But It's Okay are better in audio because the author communicate..."

I've listened to several memoirs (The Princess Diarist, Born With Teeth, Up Till Now) and they are wonderful read by the author themselves. Especially the Shatner, because it feels like that's exactly how he wrote the book, just sitting down and telling stories, shootin' the shit and somebody just took dictation.

I haven't really delved into the audiobook thing. I did listen to one this weekend. I will try to do more.

Oh, this is one of my favorite subjects; I'm always looking for these, even though I'm not actually very good at listening to audio. Since I'm not good at it, I only have two I've sussed out myself:

Kenneth Branagh's performance of Heart of Darkness was revelatory. Like, I understood the book well enough before I listened to it, but then I really got the book.

Welcome to Night Vale is not a great novel, but it would be abysmal in anything other than audio.

There are a few where I have heard highly recommended as audio, specifically over the reading experience:

Daisy Jones & The Six is apparently so much better as audio that it's almost a different book entirely because the audio allows interview clips that make up the story to really come alive. (I'm going to try to get to this one sometime soon).

Almost all of Marlon James' works have been recommended to listen due to dialect. (A Clockwork Orange is another that has been recommended for reading for the language.)

I have heard that Jeremy Irons' reading of Lolita is the definitive experience of the text.

Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast too.

And to be perfectly clear I have nothing but love for the podcast! My comments above only apply to the novel, which basically functions as an extra episode of the podcast.

Agree that The Poet X was fantastic as an audio book, especially because of the slam poetry portions are hard to get into when reading at times, but spoken they were so rich.

Another nice audio book is The Library of the Dead, the Scottish accent really transported me and communicated the spunk of the MC.

Not an answer to your question, but I really disliked the narration of A Darker Shade of Magic - some narrators are good at voicing the opposite sex and this was not one of them. Classic high pitch, winey portrayal of a younger girl.

I agree with Liane that any book read by Neil Gaiman is better than the page version. His voice is a dream.

Rachel wrote: "The Bees. Pretty sure I loved it due to the narration."

Could be. I heard it first, but as I was a novice ear reader I wasn't sure I was catching everything. Then I read it digitally as an experienced e-book reader. Now I've got the paper and finally can read it my preferred format.

But no, I cannot figure out why it's so important to me to read it all three ways. It's a wonderful book and I do recommend it to fans of speculative fiction, but I don't know why I think it warrants rereading.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as narrrated by Patrick Fraley is amazing. All the different dialects are there, but they're fully intelligible. It's my go-to recommendation for all threads audiobook. :)

I don't know if Graphic Audio's productions count as traditional audio books, but I found their version of Salvatore's Demon Wars Saga to be even better than the original books. The narration, acting, music, and sound effects were top notch. I was blessed to get the whole series for fairly cheap through Humble Bundle years back, before their license to it ended.

Looking forward to going through their version of the Mistborn Trilogy at some point. I really enjoyed their take on Alloy of Law.

I'm also really enjoying re-reading Raymond Feist's Midkemia books through Audible release. It's about the only way I read these days, and it's a joy going back through the epic fantasy series and universe that started me on this road!

Thank you Anna :). Apparently searching only "audio" in topics wasn't enough to bring this thread up.

The only one I have to add to this list is: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. The full cast and format of the book worked hand in hand to make it something worth experiencing on audio.

I didn't find it with search either, no idea why, but I knew where it was so I found it anyway :)

Wanna copy the rest of your post over so I can delete the other thread?

Anna wrote: "I didn't find it with search either, no idea why, but I knew where it was so I found it anyway :)

Wanna copy the rest of your post over so I can delete the other thread?"

Go ahead and delete- Christopher covered what I was looking for. Thank you!

But you talked about why the books (maybe) work so well on audio, and I think that was a good point!

The two books I was thinking of that are better on audio were:

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - which had an outstanding cast.

(not SFF) but also, Daisy Jones & The Six - again, cast did an amazing job.

Aside from the casting- I think both these books have a format that translated especially well to an audio format. World War Z literally says, An Oral History and Daisy Jones & the Six were transcripted interviews with a fictional band.

I'm wondering what others I'm missing that maybe have a non traditional novel format that is enhanced by listening to an audiobook version versus eye-reading.

Last year i read the first Novel in Joel Shepherds Spiral Wars series Renegade and nearly gave up on it, then i noticed that John Lee did the Audio version and what a difference, I highly enjoyed the remaining 6 novels in his masterful narration.

Cloud Atlas was another book i nearly gave up upon, due to all the dialect, but as an audiobook it's amazing.

The Time Traveller's Wife worked brilliant with 2 narrators interchanging

Especially Perdido Street Station but more or less all Mieville's novels just works better on audio

I only read the In Death series by J.D. Robb narrated by Susan Ericksen on audio because the performance is so incredible. Also, some books are done as full cast performances and those are incredible. Examples are Dracula, Frankenstein, Dune.

Lars, I also listen to Cloud Atlas but nearly gave up on it because of the horrible narrator of the first and last sections. It’s a real pity too because I love that era. But yes, the rest of the book especially the S Pacific dialect was absolutely amazing!

This is driving me crazy! There is one I should know the name of. Wil Wheaton made this novel really good for me, and I'd have never liked it much in print. There was a sequel recently (not as good) and it was made into a movie.

It's about gaming with lots of 1980s references and the 4 winners take over this big company.

The main character lives in a trailer that's in a stack but does his gaming in an abandoned car. His home trailer stack gets blown up by the antagonists.

Ready Player One? I haven’t even read the book, but that much info made me think it must be RP1.

DivaDiane wrote: "Ready Player One? I haven’t even read the book, but that much info made me think it must be RP1."

Yep definitely Ready Player One.

Yes, thanks, Ready Player One! I knew that it was an easy one and that I should know the name of it.

DivaDiane wrote: "The Hail Mary Project (by Ray Porter) was also amazing. The producer did a great job with certain aspects, really brought it to life."

This absolutely.


The Expanse series - excellently narrated by Jefferson Mays, whose distinctive character readings bring such geniality to the ensemble.

Currently listening to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone read by Stephen Fry. Robbie Coltrane must have listened to it because he's pretty much copied the voice that Stephen Fry does for Hagrid. Brilliant. The audiobook was done a while before the movies were even thought of. I've eye read it heaps and I have the audiobook in the car at the moment to get a different perspective. I hear/see new things every time I read HP. The audiobook isn't better per se but it is different and just as magical.

not SFF but Daisy Jones and the Six seems meant for audiobook, honestly. Enjoying the audiobook a ton. Couldn't imagine it any other way. It's an oral history of a fictional band, interview/documentary type style.