Books What are some great audiobooks?

[johnny]

I’m trying to get more into it since I do more driving nowadays. There are tons of great books, but I’m looking for books where the narrator is awesome and elevates an already great book even further. 

[EternallDarkness]

what genres do you like? 

[Emblazon]

What Darkness said. I have 100+ audiobooks from all fiction genres. If you're into Star Wars, listen to the Thrawn trilogy, as Marc Thompson is, by far, the best audiobook narrator working today. Those three books have a full production, too, with licensed music and sound effects. 

 

The Martian is a great listen, and substantially better than the movie. Same with Ready Player One. 

 

Omega Force series is fantastically narrated, too. 

 

The Mr. Mercedes trilogy is narrated by Will Patton, and he does a pitch perfect job. 

[johnny]

1 hour ago, EternallDarkness said:

what genres do you like? 

Honestly anything. I guess romance novels would be at the bottom unless one is truly exceptional lol. 

[Pikachu]

It by Steven King and narrated by Steven Weber

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

The LibriVox recording of Friedrich Nietzsche's The Twilight of the Idols is fantastic.

[EternallDarkness]

1 hour ago, Emblazon said:

What Darkness said. I have 100+ audiobooks from all fiction genres. If you're into Star Wars, listen to the Thrawn trilogy, as Marc Thompson is, by far, the best audiobook narrator working today. Those three books have a full production, too, with licensed music and sound effects. 

 

The Martian is a great listen, and substantially better than the movie. Same with Ready Player One. 

 

Omega Force series is fantastically narrated, too. 

 

The Mr. Mercedes trilogy is narrated by Will Patton, and he does a pitch perfect job. 

 

 

we'll have to agree to disagree on the best narrator as I still haven't listened to Thompson. Luke Daniels is great, Jeff Hays the crew at Soundbooth theater is freaking amazing. 

just off the top of my head....

 

for some sci-fi I would recommend Marko Kloos' Frontline series (read by Luke Daniels)

if you want humorous adventure I would recommend Shaun Morey's Atticus Fish novels (read by Luke Daniels)

For LitRPG (which is a genre I've come to love) I would recommend Harmon Cooper's Fantasy Online series (seriously fun/funny series, you can help but love the foul mouthed healing potion addict Hiccup the troll) which is performed by Jeff Hays.....and another good LitRPG with a twist as the main character is a 'villain' is Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits and performed by Jeff Hays

Very cool look at a future where there are 'mutants' of sorts (not xmen or anything like that, more down to earth abilities) is Marcus Sakey's Brilliance trilogy. 

[EternallDarkness]

oh and Nick Pohdel does a fantastic job with the Kingkiller Chronicle books. 

[Emblazon]

@EternallDarkness -- I've listened to Daniels with the Off to be the Wizard series, and while he does a fine job, he really doesn't hold a candle to Thompson. Seriously, run, don't walk to listened to the Thrawn Trilogy.

 

 

This will get you started:

 

[Moa]

It may be a little different from some of the other suggestions, but the biography of T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence in Arabia, is one of the most compelling stories I've ever read, and the audiobook is fantastic.

[Remarkableriots]

I was told by a friend that the Stephen King's Dark Tower series audiobooks are good.

[Mercury33]

Ready Player One is narrated by Wil Wheaton and he does a great job. 

 

The Dark Tower Series is phenomonal to listen too. 

 

Good Omens is also very good. 

 

If you want something a little different American Gods uses a whole case to narrate(different actors for every roll) and it almost feels like listening to a radio broadcast. 

[EternallDarkness]

10 hours ago, Emblazon said:

@EternallDarkness -- I've listened to Daniels with the Off to be the Wizard series, and while he does a fine job, he really doesn't hold a candle to Thompson. Seriously, run, don't walk to listened to the Thrawn Trilogy.

 

 

 

 

 

yeah I've heard previews of his stuff before and he sounds good. And it is surprising I haven't listened to him before because I am a huge Star Wars fan. I can still remember going nuts when I walked into Waldenbooks and saw Heir to the Empire.(I've read through the series many times) But I just wish he did more than just Star Wars because these days I really need to be in the right mindset to read a Star Wars book. I have considered snagging Zahn's newer Thrawn series.

 

But if you want to see someone with insane range you really need to check out Jeff Hays, he can take a book with dozens of characters and not only does he give each character their own unique voice he also gives them their own unique cadence. His female voices at times could use some help, but these days he often works with female narrators as well like Annie Ellicott who is excellent.

 

5 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

I was told by a friend that the Stephen King's Dark Tower series audiobooks are good.

 

The Tower books are very good. They've been recorded multiple times. Originally King himself was the narrator for the first couple, but you're not going to find those in digital format. I still have the cassette version of The Drawing of the Three.  Then Frank Muller did the recordings, doing books 1-4 I believe before he got in a horrible motorcycle accident,  and if I remember correctly he had serious brain trauma and remained hospitalized for 5-6 years before dying George Guidall was brought and in and recorded books 5-7 (I think King himself recorded Wind Through the Keyhole.) and later George also re-recorded The Gunslinger. 

[Remarkableriots]

26 minutes ago, EternallDarkness said:

 

yeah I've heard previews of his stuff before and he sounds good. And it is surprising I haven't listened to him before because I am a huge Star Wars fan. I can still remember going nuts when I walked into Waldenbooks and saw Heir to the Empire.(I've read through the series many times) But I just wish he did more than just Star Wars because these days I really need to be in the right mindset to read a Star Wars book. I have considered snagging Zahn's newer Thrawn series.

 

But if you want to see someone with insane range you really need to check out Jeff Hays, he can take a book with dozens of characters and not only does he give each character their own unique voice he also gives them their own unique cadence. His female voices at times could use some help, but these days he often works with female narrators as well like Annie Ellicott who is excellent.

 

 

The Tower books are very good. They've been recorded multiple times. Originally King himself was the narrator for the first couple, but you're not going to find those in digital format. I still have the cassette version of The Drawing of the Three.  Then Frank Muller did the recordings, doing books 1-4 I believe before he got in a horrible motorcycle accident,  and if I remember correctly he had serious brain trauma and remained hospitalized for 5-6 years before dying George Guidall was brought and in and recorded books 5-7 (I think King himself recorded Wind Through the Keyhole.) and later George also re-recorded The Gunslinger. 

I think he had the cassettes from the library but wow i didn't know all that other stuff! 

[Mercury33]

59 minutes ago, EternallDarkness said:

 

yeah I've heard previews of his stuff before and he sounds good. And it is surprising I haven't listened to him before because I am a huge Star Wars fan. I can still remember going nuts when I walked into Waldenbooks and saw Heir to the Empire.(I've read through the series many times) But I just wish he did more than just Star Wars because these days I really need to be in the right mindset to read a Star Wars book. I have considered snagging Zahn's newer Thrawn series.

 

But if you want to see someone with insane range you really need to check out Jeff Hays, he can take a book with dozens of characters and not only does he give each character their own unique voice he also gives them their own unique cadence. His female voices at times could use some help, but these days he often works with female narrators as well like Annie Ellicott who is excellent.

 

 

The Tower books are very good. They've been recorded multiple times. Originally King himself was the narrator for the first couple, but you're not going to find those in digital format. I still have the cassette version of The Drawing of the Three.  Then Frank Muller did the recordings, doing books 1-4 I believe before he got in a horrible motorcycle accident,  and if I remember correctly he had serious brain trauma and remained hospitalized for 5-6 years before dying George Guidall was brought and in and recorded books 5-7 (I think King himself recorded Wind Through the Keyhole.) and later George also re-recorded The Gunslinger. 

 

Ahh I was wondering by George did book 1 and then doesn’t show up again still book 5. 

[TheLeon]

Jim Dale reading Harry Potter is my favorite way to experience one of my favorite stories. 

 

I’ve been slowly making my way through the Dresden Files, and I greatly prefer listening to those.

[Remarkableriots]

4 hours ago, TheLeon said:

Jim Dale reading Harry Potter is my favorite way to experience one of my favorite stories. 

 

I’ve been slowly making my way through the Dresden Files, and I greatly prefer listening to those.

I liked that Dresden Files tv series that unfortunately was cancelled.

[Emblazon]

5 hours ago, TheLeon said:

Jim Dale reading Harry Potter is my favorite way to experience one of my favorite stories. 

 

I’ve been slowly making my way through the Dresden Files, and I greatly prefer listening to those.

THANK YOU. How people can even slog through the Stephen Fry versions is beyond me. 

 

For Dresden Files, I loved the show, and the books are really fun too. It does help that they're read by James Marsters. 

[EternallDarkness]

Haven't heard Fry's versions, but I've listened to Jim Dale's. They're alright, but I wouldn't consider them masterpieces by any stretch. 

[Wild]

World War Z's audiobook is very entertaining, as the premise of the book is the author interviewing a bunch of survivors from after the war and each character is played by a notable actor (Nathan Fillion, Alan Alda, John Torturro, mark Hamil, etc.).

[DarkStar189]

I'll definitely be checking out some of these suggestions.  I have a job where I'm usually working alone most days which I love.  I can easily fit in a 3 hour podcast a day if I wanted to.  I absolutely love reading but by the end of the night I will pass out after reading 2 pages.  It never dawned on me I could be listening to books all day instead of podcasts lol.

[Emblazon]

12 hours ago, DarkStar189 said:

I'll definitely be checking out some of these suggestions.  I have a job where I'm usually working alone most days which I love.  I can easily fit in a 3 hour podcast a day if I wanted to.  I absolutely love reading but by the end of the night I will pass out after reading 2 pages.  It never dawned on me I could be listening to books all day instead of podcasts lol.

If you like horror, The No Sleep Podcast will take up about a year of your life. 11 seasons, 20+ episodes a season, 2+ hours each episode. And bonus episodes. 

 

Another one I've gotten into recently is Darkest Night, which is a binaural podcast--the audio is placed physically around you, 360 degrees. With good headphones it's quite the effect.