Audio-Bibliophiles discussion
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Favorite Narrators





other favorites:
Holter Graham who reads Patricia Briggs Alpha & Omega Series
Lorelei King who reads Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series
Eileen Stevens who reads Victoria Laurie's Ghost Hunter series
Also, love the Hollows series with Marguarite Gavin
Victoria Laurie
Molly Harper
Patricia Briggs


Jim Frangione who reads J.R.Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood
Jennifer Van Dyck who reads Maria V. Snyder's Glass series
Raymond Todd who reads Lyn Flewelling's Nightrunner series.
And my new favorite narrator Justine Eyre who reads Ultraviolet by R.J.Anderson


Do you know if James Earl Jones has ever done any narrating? I love his voice. It is just so powerful.






I bet James Earl Jones doing the bible is amazing. His voice really lends itself to such a powerful read.


1. Katherine Kellgren is outstanding on LA Meyer's Bloody Jack series.
2. James Marsters on the Dresden Files
3. Nick Podehl on the KingKiller Series
4. Neil Gaiman
5. Davina Porter
6. Susan Bennett on Bite Me by Christopher Moore
7. David Aaron Barker on Odd Thomas
Reliables: John Lee, Scott Brick, Dick Hill, Simon Vance, Kate Reading, Gabra Zackman...

1. Katherine Kellgren is outstanding on LA Meyer's Bloody Jack series.
2. James Marsters on the Dresden Files
3. Nick Podehl on ..."
We have such different tastes!.
I can tolerate John Lee, Simon Vance, and Gabra Zackman, but I'll probably try to avoid audiobooks narrated by Dick Hill and Neil Gaiman in the future ( if possible ).
Kate Reading is a favorite of mine.
Some more recent favorites of mine are:
Lloyd James, who narrated Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion.
Michael Kramer, who narrates a number of fantasy books including Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series.
Michael Page, who narrates a ton of audiobooks including The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Paid Companion, and The Three Musketeers.
Susan Duerden, who's narration of The Rook by Daniel O'Malley was superb.

He is the one who narrates for Sandra Brown books.
I also listened to A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson.
She narrates her own books and honestly at first I was unsure, but ended up very pleased.
I am unsure of who narrated Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand but he was absolutely phenomenal..
It is my all time 5-star read.

I agree that Jim Dale was outstanding in Harry Potter, he is also wonderful in The Night Circus. And I recently enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora which Gavin mentioned above. Some listeners didn't like his style with the many accents, but I thought it was terrific!

1. Katherine Kellgren is outstanding on LA Meyer's Bloody Jack series.
2. James Marsters on the Dresden Files
3. N..."
I LOVE The Curse of Chalion. It's the only book I've listened to more than once.

I've been an Audible member since 2007 and I don't think I have listened to a single audiobook twice.
The Curse of Chalion would most certainly be one of my top picks for a re-listen though. It's a great book and Lloyd James's performance is one of the best I've heard so far.
On the strength of Curse of Chalion I bought the rest of Lois McMaster Bujold's fantasy audiobooks. I figured it would be a safe bet as the narrators for the other books are Bernadette Dunne, Kate Reading, and Marguerite Gavin. All of whom I have enjoyed listening to in the past


Scott Brick is hit/miss for me. Sometimes he's great, sometimes he's my nightmare. I loved him in The Lions Game, I loathed him in The Lion (he went with a "Gumshoe" sound on The Lion, which was awful).
Humphrey Bower (The Power of One) takes a little warming up, but I enjoy him.
Katherine Kellgren (Blackout/All Clear) is a fantastic narrator.
Avery Brooks has a voice like warm butterscotch (Roots).
Narrator for Unbroken was Edward Herrmann. :)
The Ladies who narrated The Help were fantastic: Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer, Cassandra Campbell
Charles Kahlenberg did Made to Stick (non fiction) and was fantastic. He needs to do more.
John Slattery wasn't bad.
Roy Dotrice starts a little rough with Game of Thrones and has a couple hiccups on Arya's (or was it Sansa's) voice, but was otherwise terrific.


Scott Brick is hit/miss for me. Sometimes he's great, sometimes he's my nightmare. I loved him in The Lions Game, I loathed him in The Lion (he went with..."
I do not mean to pry, but as you enjoy both John Lee and Roy Dotrice. I'm curious as to which version of A Feast for Crows you listened too.
I listened to the John Lee version. To start with I found the change from Dotrice to Lee a bit jarring, but by the end of the book I was hoping they would stick with John Lee for the rest of the series. I love Dotrice but think the Lee deals with female voices much better.
Robin wrote: "I recently enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora which Gavin mentioned above. Some listeners didn't like his style with the many accents, but I thought it was terrific! "
The biggest issue those I have spoken with had with Michael Pages's narration of The Lies of Locke Lamora was not his use of multiple accents but that they believed his voice was too cultured for the story. They believed someone with a more gritty voice would have captured the personality's of Locke and company better.
Not me of course, I love Page as a narrator and have even bought a few audiobooks just because they are narrated by him!.

My favorite audiobook so far has been The Pillars of the Earth. I credit his narration with a considerable part of my love for this book. I have more of Ken Follett's books waiting in the wings so that I can hear John Lee read more! :)

A Feast For Crows was mentioned in an earlier post & I recall that it was also very well read so will look for more by that narrator.

Mia Farrow was of course awesome narrating Rosemary's Baby. I was especially impressed at how she performed the character of Minnie Castevet.
The youthful quality of Anne Heche's voice was an asset to her narration of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

I listened to the first audiobook of Game of Thrones (Dotrice), then, all a glitter with new-fandom, ran out (ok, I logged into Amazon) and bought the box set (IS it a box set when it's an ebook?) and set about reading them! So I have not yet heard John Lee's version, but I bet it was excellent and I agree, he is a master at voices and I wouldn't doubt he outdoes Dotrice there. That said, I did love Dotrice's Tyrion so much I cringed watching the show, because while Peter Dinklage is fantastic, he is not THE Tyrion I came to love in the initial listen.
Sally - I enjoyed Pillars as well, but especially loved Lee's narration of Tai Pan. His rendition of the Tai Pan's voice was fantastic, and his rendition of May-May was hysterical...except I found myself walking around saying "oh that's good joss!" (though, it makes such a great joke since I'm also a big Joss Whedon fan..haha!). Lee is also fantastic with The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Muskateers. It's a happy thing when you find a narrator you love who has also narrated several books you're looking forward to hearing.
I'm now tempted to revisit George R.R. Martin in audiobook!

I liked Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, but have to agree the Dotrice version is even better.
E.B Stevens does a great job on Fablehaven.


My absolute favorite narrators are:
-> Jim Dale -- narrated the Harry Potter series. He is incredible -- I listened to six of the seven Harry Potter books on CD because I was hooked on Jim Dale as the narrator
-> Lynne Thigpen -- narrated The Parable of the Sower. You might remember her as the chief on that old show "Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego" -- love her voice.
-> Stefan Rudnicki -- has narrated a couple of books I've listend to, but I first heard him as the voice of Ender on the audiobook Ender's Game. I love his voice! Ender's Game is also one of my favorite audio books because it was the first one I listened to that had an ensemble cast with different narrators reading different parts -- awesome listening experience.
-> John Lee -- narrated Pillars of the Earth. He never made me hate him when he read for female characters!


lol I love that, and it's such an accurate litmus test for male narrators... and vice versa for female. Some gals trying to do a male voice make my skin crawl.


What I absolutely can't stand is when narrators use far too much pathos, trying to make even a bathroom stop exciting. Well, of course there might be a serial killer waiting there, but even then it can get quite annoying.



You've given me some new ideas here--thanks!


Tim Curry is great in some of the Lemony Snicket books
Books mentioned in this topic
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Spoon River Anthology (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Katherine Kellgren (other topics)
Jenna Lamia (other topics)
Edward Herrmann (other topics)
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Marguarite Gavin from The Hollows series by Kim Harrison.
Davina Porter from the Outlander series.