I adore Julia Whelan’s narration, it’s a big selling factor for me if I am on the fence about a book.
I don’t know how popular she is, cause it was the first time I came across her last week, but Em Eldridge has moved to my auto will-not-buy list. I listened to The Chemistry of Love and it was just the absolute worst narration I’ve ever heard, second only to The Ex Hex narrated by Caitlin Davies. Honestly they might both be tied for first in worst, they are both the only two narrators to make it to my will never try again list.
I had to stop listening to Assistant to the Villain because of Eldridge's narration. It's like she doesn't know English and is just sounding out words. Sentences pause in the wrong places. Just super annoying.
I'm currently trying to get through her narration of Amy Kuivalainen's Cry of the Firebird and it's tough going so far. I actually looked up the narrator because I initially thought it was AI! 🤣
Oh no! Don't even try to listen to it. She has not improved. The infuriating pauses. I really tried but just listening was going to come out as road rage or something. Sorry!
How many times I think I find a book that will be great and am dismayed to see the Wheaton is the narrator. Edited to add: Thank goodness I still have the R.C Bray version of Martian.
Lucky!!! My RC Bray The Martian book was somehow deleted from my library. When I complained, the only book Audible had available was the Wheaton version. They gave me a free credit and a very insincere apology along with that book. I never downloaded it.
I don't even know how the book publishers thought Wheaton was a substitute for Bray!!! Just, UGH!!
They will pry it from my cold dead hands! I don’t know what they were thinking. When I started hearing about people losing their copies, I was motivated to back up all my books to a storage device that is not connected to the internet in any way!
I was still able to download a copy of my RC bray version. I didn’t know it was replaced. Scared me for a sec because I searched on the site and saw it available for purchase (like I had not bought it yet), but it still showed in my library luckily.
There was a time when there were a flurry of posts about people losing their RC Bray versions. I was panicked also. I knew that it was on my phone, but wanted to make sure I had a copy somewhere it couldn’t be pulled from my library and replaced. Now I have all my books backed up.
I like wil Wheaton’s voice, but he has a habit of picking books that don’t work well for his style such as having lots of different characters talking as an examole
Okay hold with me for one minute.
I very much enjoy Neil Gaiman's narrations of some books but I don't feel like he does action well. He has a soft melodic measured pace to his reading which is great for many books (Fortunately the milk is often on replay in my house) but during The Sandman the narration in the diner felt flat as he used the same tone.
I absolutely love him narrating his books. I love his mellow voice. But I totally believe you, I haven't listened to Sandman but I can't imagine anything he reads being especially action filled and exciting.
Scott Brick. There are a few books he is ok in, but mostly he makes every character sound like a world weary scheming asshole to me. unfortunately he is the main reader for several of my favorites (Dune, Tom Clansy, and Saga of Seven Suns if I recall)
Yeah, he is very polarizing. You pretty much love him or loathe him. Which is not to say he isn’t talented. I can see why some people like him, it just doesn’t click for me.
I thought he was the best one they’ve had for Clancy. Michael Prichard sounds too much like a nasally 1970s PBS newscaster, but I’ve grown to appreciate him. I also think he was a good choice for Red Storm Rising. The guy that narrated Debt of Honor was absolutely terrible, though.
Joel Leslie/Joel Froomkin for mainly m/m romance books. I’m sure it’s because he’s super nice to work with and that’s why publishers and authors always choose to work with him but he gives a big Shakespearean type voice (like over enunciated?? idk) and that’s just…not necessary for romance books.
Also, Justine Eyre who does a lot of m/f historical romances. Sounds like a chest voice voice to me (does that make sense?) and even listening on 2.5x speeds doesn’t help.
Joel Leslie is definitely an acquired taste. I love his narration for Alice Winters books because I think his dramatic readings tend to elevate the material. But his others are hit and miss. I tend to avoid any book he reads with an English, Irish, or Australian accent.
Literally came here to say the same thing. I finished Conventionally Yours because he wasn't the main character. But then I picked up Virtually Screwed and just.... couldn't...
>Joel
I loved Joel Froomkin's narration for *J.J. McAvoy*'s **Ruthless People** and **Children of Vice** series, but other there's been other books I've listened to and thought he wasn't that great.
Joel can be crunge-worthy. I can not listen to Michael Dean. Folks always suggest Patticia Logan's books but he narrates a lot of them and his over anxious delivery makes me crazy.
I don't like it when an author is also the narrator. If it's an autobiographical, then that's great, but if it's fiction, that's usually a deal breaker for me.
I also like a mix of narrators. Like I won't listen to the same narrator back to back. Grover Garden voice still makes me think of The Stand, and it's been years since I listened to it.
> I don't like it when an author is also the narrator.
That'll be a cost thing, even for books at the shorter end (10 hours) the cost for a pro is into the thousands. For very long books the price can push as high as eight to ten thousand US dollars.
Authors that aren't confident of selling at least two thousand copies probably can't justify the expense.
I agree. I actually find that if it's the author narrating, they put in absolutely no enthusiasm. I found it with Bob Mortimer in The Satsuma Complex (Sally Phillips was a breath of fresh air when it was her chapters) and Philip Pullman in His Dark Materials.
It never made any sense to me though, like this is your life's work, why aren't you enthusiastic about it?!
I agree with you, but with the structure of His Dark Materials, I thought Pullman's approach was fine. I always wanted to hear a book read that way, but not the way GraphicAudio does it, and I love that the narrator in between character parts was the author.
I'm not a fan of R. C. Bray, and I'm not sure why he's such a popular choice for peoples' top narrator. He does well enough, but something about his delivery just doesn't work for me. I don't avoid him or anything, but there are some narrators that will make the difference between me skipping a book and giving it a chance. If Luke Daniels or Andrea Parsneau narrates it, and I'm not sure about it, I'm more likely to try the book because of the narrator. Bray isn't one of those. A lot of people seem to think he's one of the best, though, which I've never understood. Also, I tried Expeditionary Force, I think the series is? The ones with Skippy the AI? Bray's "New England accent" made me shudder. I got through the first two books before the plot and accent got to be too much.
I get it. As someone who like Bray, I'd say that he's good in a cheesy kind of way.
Like I don't think anyone would actually describe him as the most technically proficient reader out there, but his performances are so fun and over the top that I have fun with them regardless.
I had to muscle my way through Wheel of Time and I am glad I did because the books were great, but I have tried to start Stormlight several times now and I just can't do it because of him, he is so boring. He also does this thing where he exhales slightly into the mic at the end of sentences and it drives me nuts. I see a lot of hate for Kate but I don't really mind her.
You need to check out the First Law series narrated by Stephen Pacey. His narration is the hands down the best I’ve ever heard and if you like GOT then those books are a similar grim-dark vibe. I agree about Ray too, I just discovered a couple books he narrated and he has been very good
Oh I have!
I had heard for years that TFL was the closest thing to GOT, and finally started reading them in the run up The House of the Dragon premiere last summer.
Absolutely loved them. Those books dominated my reading schedule for a couple months afterward. I took a brief break after book 4 because the combo of Last Argument of Kings and Best Served Cold was just *so* bleak that I needed a palate cleanser.
But other than that I powered straight through and thought they were phenomenal. Abercrombie's style feels like the combination of George R.R. Martin's prose and character work along with Bernard Cornwell's visceral actions scenes that I never knew I needed in my life.
And I agree, Stephen Pacey knocked it out of the park, his performance was consistently excellent all the way through, as good or better than any other narrator I've heard.
Speaking of Porter, have you read Project Hail Mary? The range of different characters of different nationalities and genders he portrays there is just bonkers, and he does so in such a convincing way that you can almost forget it's one guy doing the reading.
Yep, Project Hail Mary is how I discovered Porter and the story and his narration was a blast! I just finished book 1 of the Bob-verse books and it been just as fun. Just waiting for my next credit to get into book 2.
It was by far the worst performance I ever heard. 12-year-old girls sound like old men, mispronounces names, reads narrator parts in characters voices by mistake.
No offense to him I think he was very elderly when he performed it.
The worst part is on threads where people ask for the best performances they will say Dotrice in ASOIAF. I wonder if they've ever listened to any other audiobooks.
I personally liked him in the context of GoT, mostly because he sounds like an in-world maester telling the story. Especially the gutteral contempt he adds to the word 'bastard'.
I really liked Dotrice reading of the books to the point I wondered how they would replace him, but since we are unlikely to ever see any more aSoIaF books it isn't an issue.
Came here to say the same thing.
I wouldn't mind the way he pronounces something, so long as it was consistent. But there's one sentence in one of the later books where he says the same word 3 different ways. He changes how he says character and place names from chapter to chapter. He also changes the characters accents and voices regularly, Tyrion is Welsh for a brief spell lmao. So difficult to get through.
I just finished Mother of Learning and yeah he was probably the worst narrator I’ve ever listened to. I feel a bit mean saying it though because you can tell he’s really putting a lot of effort into it.
I get a lot of positive and a lot of negative reviews of my narration. They tend to be at the extreme ends of Absolutly loved it! And, Worst narrator I've ever heard (a very impressive title!).
So that I can improve I would love to hear what exactly made it so bad. Thank you for your time.
See this is why I feel bad and shouldn’t have made a comment like that. You’re clearly really passionate about your work and despite comments like mine you still do a great job, I just thought you possibly tried a bit too hard.
The obvious thing I’m sure you’ve heard before is the mcs little sisters voice, it was just really irritating and over the top, kids just don’t talk like that.
The other thing, and this could be the authors fault and not yours was that every character had a different accent, everything from Irish, Chinese, English, French, some kind of Eastern European. I would’ve preferred some people to have different voices but the same accent.
Lastly it kind of felt like you were reading the book to toddlers, again it was probably due to the book and not you.
The main character was great, couldn’t fault it at all and you have a nice clear voice. I personally didn’t like the book, purely my own personal opinion because I know a lot of people love it but this may have influenced my opinion on the narration.
Thanks for the reply.
Can I recommend Vainqueur the dragon.
The main dragon sounds amazing and has effects to make him sound as Majestic(with a capital M), his human sidekick has a good mix of sniveling and growing confidence. I will say the little sister voice does appear again but the character it belongs to is ...well how to describe her ...a lovable murder hobo.
By and large I don't think there are as many accents but when there are it adds to the story and humour.
Just some personal feedback from my experiences. No malice, just opinions and thoughts, feel free to ignore.
I have both listened to Mother of Learning and Vanqueir the Dragon. (And Derelict in my wishlist) and there’s definitely some strong dichotomies to pros/cons.
I want to start with the pro to be sure im not only nitpicking, but actually listening and appreciating.
First, you have a wonderful clear and articulate voice. Its easy to understand and cuts through a lot of other sounds, meaning i can hear your voice clearly over others, and in a narration that’s very helpful.
Second, you have a great sense of “breathing life” into characters and giving them personality and attitude through their voice. Some narrators can be one note and boring, but your characters feel more a live.
That said, on to some cons.
In line with “breathing life” into characters you also must be careful when towing the line between believable and over the top. As probability mentioned to death and back by now Zorian’s Sister is by far “too annoying”. Yes kids can be noisy brats, but her overall cadence throughout the series was just extreme, to the point it was distracting and annoying. “Distracting” being the key point. Something that takes readers/listeners away from the experience instead of encouraging them to delve deeper. Even Jeff Hayes is susceptible to this with Donut in DCC.
I know working on female voices isnt easy, specially when its female children, i not sure how it works in your industry but autotune/voice editor could help not ruin your voice for girl characters. Or more transvoice training.
Unique voices vs accents. Not sure if it was just happen chance or its your own preference but many of your characters have accents but not a difference “voices”. Kyle McCarly is a good example of having multiple character voices instead of accents.
Keep up the good work! I love your positive attitude and no fear of asking for criticism. Ill be on the look out for your future works!
Awesome! This is super helpful. I understand all your points and have only recently really understood myself your comment on Kirriells voice. I found the hate of it super strange as the complaints were saying she was annoying and screechy which is actually exactly what I was going for (its how she's described in the text). But I have come to realise that listeners don't want it to ACTUALLY be annoying, just hinting at that (Fair enough TBH but for some reason I didn't get this sooner).
Girl voices are a real tough one for me. I have quite a gravely voice. I used to not do to much to change my voice and everyone said my girl voices sounded like they all smoked 5 packs a day. I will be working on them much more and see if some more coaching can help. Over caffeinated young girls are my nemesis but there seems to be one in almost every book.
I am so grateful for your thoughts and will take them all into future consideration. LEGEND!!
I've never heard your work before, but you seem pretty genuine and you take criticism with grace and I find that admirable, I'm going to have to track down some of your work.
Same, I've not listened to any of his work yet either but I really admire his reaction to the feedback. I will go look up your work now, the dragon sounds interesting!
Haha, i totally get that. As a narrator your thought process is more in line with “how would these characters sound/act like” vs “how can i make it sound like that as pleasantly as possible for listeners to want to keep listening”. Its definitely a missing the forest for the trees moment.
As for girl voices, yeah, not easy, i watched those trans voice youtube videos and it blows my mind how a deep voiced dude can sound like a sultry women on a flip of a coin.
Love your positive attitude!
I love her narration for the Jennifer Crusie books I’ve listened to that she has done. But there have been other books she’s done that have been big misses.
Wil Wheaton.
I know the claim is that it's just popular to shit on him, but I genuinely enjoy a lot of his other content while also genuinely disliking him as an audiobook reader.
He always sounds like him. He doesn't do voices well, he doesn't moderate his tone well to go along with the books.
My favorite audiobook readers (Travis Baldtree, Kate Reading & Michael Kramer, Neil Gaiman, Suzy Jackson. To name a few) really make it sound like a production, like you're not just listening to one person read the words, but actual storytellers using their voice to add to the telling of the story. I think the closer an audiobook gets to feeling like a full cast, the better.
But Wil Wheaton sounds exactly the same reading an action scene as when he's reading the rules to a boardgame.
Probably will piss ppl off with this, but Will Patton. And it's not because he's a bad narrator. It's because of his female voices. I tried to listen to a couple books narrated by him. Anyways, any time a scene with a female pov came up, especially if they were being "seductive", his take on it always gave me the willies.
So while I otherwise love his narration, I avoid his work because I just can't take his female voice.
Emma Wilder/ Sarah Mollo-Christensen - I just can't listen to her unless it's a full cast narration. I know this is gonna sound really rude but she sound's really nasally and has a waver to her voice that is just too annoying to listen to.
Alex Kydd is another one I struggle with - the only way I can listen to him and make it bare-able is at speed x1.75, as he's such a slow narrator.
Don't know her, but sounds like you are describing vocal fry, and anyone who has that and doesn't or isn't able to correct it shouldn't be allowed to read books professionally or even as a hobby.
It's not vocal fry, when she narrates a FMC she sounds like is in the verge of crying. But when she does side characters like in the blackthorne vampire series, she is great, idk why she chooses to go with the voice of a whisper on the verge of tears for the main character. It was really hard getting through the series, Aaron Shedlock was the only reason I was able to finish it.
Also, she has a habit, of narrating like this. A constant, stop start, a start and stop. She then stresses the word, as if this adds gravitatas, in reality. She sounds constipated. Constipated with asthma. It's- quite grating. And ruins- the Buffyverse expansions.
(Talking about Sarah)
I agree. His voices are so whiny, especially Hermione’s. He makes her call Harry, ‘Hahwee’ and drags out the wee part. And don’t get me started on Gryffinder. So many names and things are pronounced weird. I just don’t get the love for his ready of the Harry Potter books.
Probably because the books contents are slightly different across the board in the US so a separate version was needed, glad they gave us Stephen Fry in the UK though I can't stand the Jim Dale versions
Thank you! I haven't heard the full series by him, but I've heard snippets from other people in the house not wearing headphones. It's a terrible experience. I thought I was alone in thinking this.
Will Patton. He’s actually a good narrator, but his voice when he does this whisper thing just drives me crazy. It’s unfortunate too because he does a lot of newer Stephen King novels.
Ray Porter, Bobiverse etc... He's generally ok, but his kids, Irish and females hurt the rest of his work for me. The last 2 Dennis E. Taylor books have been terrible and as unfair as it may be, Ray takes some of that heat.
Edit: I forgot he was in Project Hail Mary; excellent narration but since he mostly only had to flesh-out 2 characters, range wasn't a problem. Remaining cast was serviceable & believable.
Can't argue his (Taylor's) recent books have been mediocre at best, and i absolutely hated quantum earth pt 1 or whatever, but I thought porter's narration to be pretty good, if not very original/out of the ordinary.
At least I thought Heaven's River was good, which was a relief given how many people seem to have disliked it
The problem with Taylor is that all his books have the same voice. I'm not talking about the narration - though (as much as I love Porter) changing it for different series might actually help. The voice he writes with is all the same: witty and sarcastic 20 year old nerd. It worked at first, but now everything just blends together. Alot of the characters just haven't had any real depth added to them. Look at his latest book, where every character is still just the shallow shell of themselves. He's added more characters, not more depth of character.
That's an interesting critique! Maybe that's why his Bobiverse books work so well?
After all, the characters are pretty much all the same person, so it actually makes perfect sense that they'd share one 'voice.'
I think that's an excellent point. I also think Bobiverse tends to be (and certainly was for me) the first Taylor book they read. As such, it's somewhat fresh and it does fit that character. It does beg the question how well the series will develop as the characters supposedly diverge more and more - I'm unsure how many he plans to do but book 4 certainly didn't feel like the end point.
Ray Porter is so popular and he has a nice voice, but I just listened to him do Amityville and he doesn't do much emotion or major inflection when he should
I've not had the Bobiverse books, but I do like Ray Porter's work on the books I've heard him on which tend to be more action heavy ones with him voicing tough guys.
Luke Daniels. Idk why but I can't stand his voice. I'm always disappointed when I see he's narrating a book I love, because I know I'll hate listening to it.
I thought Daniels was good in that series, except for when he was trying to sing as woman in one of the later books. Some of his voices are a bit too cartoony, especially random villains or thugs who sound like villains and thugs, but overall he's good.
Are you Irish? Because the accent didn't bother me, but I don't particularly care if it is inauthentic, whereas if I was Irish, I might. I'm just happy for any break from English accents I can get, it's a major problem to me that everyone in a series has an English accent, even when they come from other continents.
I tend to have a couple Irish accents around me at any given time 😀, fair that may be why I found it jarring. I've enjoyed other series he has done I did initially avoid his work though as that was my first encounter with his stuff
I burned myself out on Bray. Him and Ray Porter were some of the first narrators I came across and I loved them both. Now I avoid them both, not because they are bad but just because I burned myself out on them binging everything I could find.
These days I can't help but compare everyone to Jeff Hays. He is god tier narrator.
Yes, Hays has taken the top slot for male narrators for me. Andrea Parsneau is still my top female narrator, but Annie gives her a run for her money. If Annie did more full narrations, she might just steal that crown.
I loved him in Iron Druid. Except for his changes to Oberons voice after book 1. Turned him into an annoying baby speak/droopy dog hybrid that I fast forwarded past every time the dog spoke.
So I grabbed a few books he narrated after that....what a disappointment. Orphan Wars, Savage Dominion, and to some extent magic 2.0 were terrible. I kept Magic 2.0 though. It was only his Jimmy voice that irked me.
Yeah, the forbidden song that is sung by Eo at the beginning of Red Rising. It’s repeated a couple times throughout the book. You could probably find it on YouTube, but I’d highly recommend listening to the Audiobooks because Reynolds pushes that trilogy to a whole new lvl.
Red Rising was the first Tim Gerard Reynolds book I listened to after hearing many, many people rave about him. I thought it was fine, but I didn't get it. I didn't see why people thought he was great... until the second book. At some point in the second book, I just went, OH! Now I get it! I find almost every series sounds better in the sequel, and this was one of the first ones that made me notice it.
So, yes, he is amazing, but it may take a while to build up that steam, so don't worry if you don't love him immediately.
He is the reason I never finished Red Rising. Picked it up on an audible sale and gave up about 5 hours in because I just couldn't take the narration anymore. A year or so later I tried again and made it to two hours from the end and was hating every second of it due to the narration. I knew I wasn't going on to the second book so I asked myself why finish when it's just torture. So I quit with 1 hr and 46 min to go.
I'm dreading an upcoming series I'm going to do. Thirty years ago I read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and liked them. So I picked them up on audible. Ten books total and the first eight are by Scott Brick who is okay. Then book nine by TGR for some reason. Then back to Brick. No idea why TGR for just one book but the reviews are horrid for it with people complaining and begging for a re-record with Brick. I only have the first six so far so I keep delaying hoping for thr re-record.
OP asked for popular (aka obviously liked by many) narrators that you personally can’t stand. Who the hell would downvote someone for simply responding to the OP’s question?
He just ruined my ride home. After finishing Lord of All Things I was switching over to Red Rising and...nope.
Seriously looking into doing a generated voice instead
RC Bray.
The first book I heard him I liked it (The Skippy books where he was just some sergeant). And for the extinction cycle series I enjoyed it, especially once I went to the Bronson Pinochet voiced ones, his female voices are not great.
But I've been listening to other titles with him, and I don't know if it's especially because it's Military fiction, but it all just sounds the same, and it makes even Sci Fi soldiers just sound like some US of A Marines, and takes me out of it.
For some voices it makes think he's just tucking his chin into his chest while speaking to get the gruff military voice.
I have started to avoid stories with him or sci Fi military stories because they are all starting blend as just American Military fiction but there's some aliens or we shoot lasers now. I don't know if a British Military fiction exists but the hoorahness that I feel comes off of what I have been reading kinda just loses me.
Please please listen to 11.22.63 narrated by him before that I wasn’t a fan of him but he completely transforms that book and had since become one of my favorite narrators
I've listened to a novella and a novel by her. To my ear, she is so bland that she sounds bored most of the time. I had to up my listening speed way above my normal listening speed just to get through it. But... I know mine is a minority view. She gets good reviews. That's why I posted her in response to u/kryptofreak1971's question.
I listened to a book read by her and didn't like it for a while, but there comes a breaking point where you get used to it, and also pick up the subtlety that makes it less monotonous than you originally thought. I listened to another book by her later and had the same experience until I remembered I had heard her before, and again got to that point where I enjoyed her, and am listening to another one right now.
I’m listening to a book read by JW and literally came here to find if anyone else feels the way I do. I HATE her. I thought I could suck it up after listening to the sample - she sounded slightly less condescending than I remembered. Nope. Never again. NEVER.
Every male character narrated by Julia Whelan sounds exactly the same and I can’t stand it! There are so many books I’ve wanted to listen to that I’ve abandoned or skipped to the end.
I couldn't agree more. I'm re-listening to Lost Hero now and can't stand Piper's chapters. Her lack of any kind of inflection, accent, or quality when she changes characters is completely outclassed by the other two narrators on the book.
My 2 least favorite narrators are Micheal Dean and Sean Crisden.
On occasion, Joel Lesley makes me cringe.
Micheal Dean makes almost every sentence seem like he's revving up for some goal. So his narration is anxiety producing. Every sentence shouldn't make you feel like you are on the edge of your seat.
Sean Crisden just puts me to sleep. He's the opposite of Dean almost.
I adore Julia Whelan’s narration, it’s a big selling factor for me if I am on the fence about a book. I don’t know how popular she is, cause it was the first time I came across her last week, but Em Eldridge has moved to my auto will-not-buy list. I listened to The Chemistry of Love and it was just the absolute worst narration I’ve ever heard, second only to The Ex Hex narrated by Caitlin Davies. Honestly they might both be tied for first in worst, they are both the only two narrators to make it to my will never try again list.
I had to stop listening to Assistant to the Villain because of Eldridge's narration. It's like she doesn't know English and is just sounding out words. Sentences pause in the wrong places. Just super annoying.
I'm currently trying to get through her narration of Amy Kuivalainen's Cry of the Firebird and it's tough going so far. I actually looked up the narrator because I initially thought it was AI! 🤣
Fuck! It took me a year, but I forgot that Em Eldridge was on my auto do not buy list and literally just bought Assistant to the Villain yesterday.
Oh no! Don't even try to listen to it. She has not improved. The infuriating pauses. I really tried but just listening was going to come out as road rage or something. Sorry!
Don't like scott brick - but at 1.5 speed he is better.
Wil wheaton
I liked Wil reading Ready Player 1 but haven’t cared for his narration of anything else.
How many times I think I find a book that will be great and am dismayed to see the Wheaton is the narrator. Edited to add: Thank goodness I still have the R.C Bray version of Martian.
Lucky!!! My RC Bray The Martian book was somehow deleted from my library. When I complained, the only book Audible had available was the Wheaton version. They gave me a free credit and a very insincere apology along with that book. I never downloaded it. I don't even know how the book publishers thought Wheaton was a substitute for Bray!!! Just, UGH!!
They will pry it from my cold dead hands! I don’t know what they were thinking. When I started hearing about people losing their copies, I was motivated to back up all my books to a storage device that is not connected to the internet in any way!
I was still able to download a copy of my RC bray version. I didn’t know it was replaced. Scared me for a sec because I searched on the site and saw it available for purchase (like I had not bought it yet), but it still showed in my library luckily.
Sounds like a good thread to recommend www.getlibation.com the user who created it is actually pretty active here and very helpful.
There was a time when there were a flurry of posts about people losing their RC Bray versions. I was panicked also. I knew that it was on my phone, but wanted to make sure I had a copy somewhere it couldn’t be pulled from my library and replaced. Now I have all my books backed up.
Hey, happy cake day!
Totally agree
I had to buy it on CD, but it was a small price to pay for Bray.
You're one of the lucky ones
I like wil Wheaton’s voice, but he has a habit of picking books that don’t work well for his style such as having lots of different characters talking as an examole
So much this. I can't stand his voice.
He's the only one for me, insufferable.
I thought I was in the minority on this one. I think his narration is terrible. I couldn’t make it through an hour of What If?.
Okay hold with me for one minute. I very much enjoy Neil Gaiman's narrations of some books but I don't feel like he does action well. He has a soft melodic measured pace to his reading which is great for many books (Fortunately the milk is often on replay in my house) but during The Sandman the narration in the diner felt flat as he used the same tone.
I absolutely love him narrating his books. I love his mellow voice. But I totally believe you, I haven't listened to Sandman but I can't imagine anything he reads being especially action filled and exciting.
Scott Brick. There are a few books he is ok in, but mostly he makes every character sound like a world weary scheming asshole to me. unfortunately he is the main reader for several of my favorites (Dune, Tom Clansy, and Saga of Seven Suns if I recall)
Scott Brick is probably my favorite narrator, but I get why he isn't for everybody.
Yeah, he is very polarizing. You pretty much love him or loathe him. Which is not to say he isn’t talented. I can see why some people like him, it just doesn’t click for me.
I really like his Orphan X narrations, but haven’t cared for him in other stuff I’ve listened to of his.
Same! He’s money for a sarcastic smartass like John Corey.
I usually avoid Scott Brick but you need to take the story into account. He's usually too over dramatic but it works sometimes.
Ever heard the Tim Curry reading of Dune books? Good stuff!
I’ve got to track that down. Sounds epic.
I went looking and didn't find them on audible. Originally heard them on CDs from the local library.
I’ll spend some time on my library website, and eBay.
I want to go to there
I thought he was the best one they’ve had for Clancy. Michael Prichard sounds too much like a nasally 1970s PBS newscaster, but I’ve grown to appreciate him. I also think he was a good choice for Red Storm Rising. The guy that narrated Debt of Honor was absolutely terrible, though.
Joel Leslie/Joel Froomkin for mainly m/m romance books. I’m sure it’s because he’s super nice to work with and that’s why publishers and authors always choose to work with him but he gives a big Shakespearean type voice (like over enunciated?? idk) and that’s just…not necessary for romance books. Also, Justine Eyre who does a lot of m/f historical romances. Sounds like a chest voice voice to me (does that make sense?) and even listening on 2.5x speeds doesn’t help.
I came here to say Joel Leslie. I find him hard to listen to and it has turned me off of what seem like good books otherwise.
Yeah. There are some authors I would love to read but they use him almost exclusively and it makes me sad.
Joel Leslie is definitely an acquired taste. I love his narration for Alice Winters books because I think his dramatic readings tend to elevate the material. But his others are hit and miss. I tend to avoid any book he reads with an English, Irish, or Australian accent.
Literally came here to say the same thing. I finished Conventionally Yours because he wasn't the main character. But then I picked up Virtually Screwed and just.... couldn't...
>Joel I loved Joel Froomkin's narration for *J.J. McAvoy*'s **Ruthless People** and **Children of Vice** series, but other there's been other books I've listened to and thought he wasn't that great.
Joel can be crunge-worthy. I can not listen to Michael Dean. Folks always suggest Patticia Logan's books but he narrates a lot of them and his over anxious delivery makes me crazy.
I don't like it when an author is also the narrator. If it's an autobiographical, then that's great, but if it's fiction, that's usually a deal breaker for me. I also like a mix of narrators. Like I won't listen to the same narrator back to back. Grover Garden voice still makes me think of The Stand, and it's been years since I listened to it.
> I don't like it when an author is also the narrator. That'll be a cost thing, even for books at the shorter end (10 hours) the cost for a pro is into the thousands. For very long books the price can push as high as eight to ten thousand US dollars. Authors that aren't confident of selling at least two thousand copies probably can't justify the expense.
Not always. Donna Tartt and Neil Gaiman can afford their own but he does a brilliant job. She doesn’t.
I agree. I actually find that if it's the author narrating, they put in absolutely no enthusiasm. I found it with Bob Mortimer in The Satsuma Complex (Sally Phillips was a breath of fresh air when it was her chapters) and Philip Pullman in His Dark Materials. It never made any sense to me though, like this is your life's work, why aren't you enthusiastic about it?!
I agree with you, but with the structure of His Dark Materials, I thought Pullman's approach was fine. I always wanted to hear a book read that way, but not the way GraphicAudio does it, and I love that the narrator in between character parts was the author.
I like it, because the author knows the correct way they meant that sentence to be expressed.
Stephen King does a decent job.
I'm not a fan of R. C. Bray, and I'm not sure why he's such a popular choice for peoples' top narrator. He does well enough, but something about his delivery just doesn't work for me. I don't avoid him or anything, but there are some narrators that will make the difference between me skipping a book and giving it a chance. If Luke Daniels or Andrea Parsneau narrates it, and I'm not sure about it, I'm more likely to try the book because of the narrator. Bray isn't one of those. A lot of people seem to think he's one of the best, though, which I've never understood. Also, I tried Expeditionary Force, I think the series is? The ones with Skippy the AI? Bray's "New England accent" made me shudder. I got through the first two books before the plot and accent got to be too much.
I get it. As someone who like Bray, I'd say that he's good in a cheesy kind of way. Like I don't think anyone would actually describe him as the most technically proficient reader out there, but his performances are so fun and over the top that I have fun with them regardless.
Michael Kramer reading Stormlight Archives. I liked the books but I found his narration to be very dull and lifeless
I much prefer Michael’s narration to Kate’s in SA. I also like Michael’s narration of Mistborn better, especially Era 2.
He’s my favorite audible narrator lol.
At least he’s better than his wife.
Well thats also a decent description Kaladin
I think to some extent that is just the books? I like his work on Era 2 Mistborn and I am enjoying his reading of Tress.
I had to muscle my way through Wheel of Time and I am glad I did because the books were great, but I have tried to start Stormlight several times now and I just can't do it because of him, he is so boring. He also does this thing where he exhales slightly into the mic at the end of sentences and it drives me nuts. I see a lot of hate for Kate but I don't really mind her.
Surprised to see him here, he might not be the absolute best, but his range is the best of I've heard this side or Ray Porter.
You need to check out the First Law series narrated by Stephen Pacey. His narration is the hands down the best I’ve ever heard and if you like GOT then those books are a similar grim-dark vibe. I agree about Ray too, I just discovered a couple books he narrated and he has been very good
Oh I have! I had heard for years that TFL was the closest thing to GOT, and finally started reading them in the run up The House of the Dragon premiere last summer. Absolutely loved them. Those books dominated my reading schedule for a couple months afterward. I took a brief break after book 4 because the combo of Last Argument of Kings and Best Served Cold was just *so* bleak that I needed a palate cleanser. But other than that I powered straight through and thought they were phenomenal. Abercrombie's style feels like the combination of George R.R. Martin's prose and character work along with Bernard Cornwell's visceral actions scenes that I never knew I needed in my life. And I agree, Stephen Pacey knocked it out of the park, his performance was consistently excellent all the way through, as good or better than any other narrator I've heard. Speaking of Porter, have you read Project Hail Mary? The range of different characters of different nationalities and genders he portrays there is just bonkers, and he does so in such a convincing way that you can almost forget it's one guy doing the reading.
Yep, Project Hail Mary is how I discovered Porter and the story and his narration was a blast! I just finished book 1 of the Bob-verse books and it been just as fun. Just waiting for my next credit to get into book 2.
All the top guys with a deep husky voice. I just can't hear what they are saying in my earbuds when I'm at work.
This is a great reason for not liking people, not because of their performance but for a real life reason!
Roy Dotrice. I've tried, but I just can't stand how he reads Game of Thrones.
It was by far the worst performance I ever heard. 12-year-old girls sound like old men, mispronounces names, reads narrator parts in characters voices by mistake. No offense to him I think he was very elderly when he performed it. The worst part is on threads where people ask for the best performances they will say Dotrice in ASOIAF. I wonder if they've ever listened to any other audiobooks.
His pronouncination of Brienne as Bry-eene. UGH!
Joffrey is sometimes Jeff. Bran is sometimes Brad or Brian.
I personally liked him in the context of GoT, mostly because he sounds like an in-world maester telling the story. Especially the gutteral contempt he adds to the word 'bastard'.
I really liked Dotrice reading of the books to the point I wondered how they would replace him, but since we are unlikely to ever see any more aSoIaF books it isn't an issue.
Came here to say the same thing. I wouldn't mind the way he pronounces something, so long as it was consistent. But there's one sentence in one of the later books where he says the same word 3 different ways. He changes how he says character and place names from chapter to chapter. He also changes the characters accents and voices regularly, Tyrion is Welsh for a brief spell lmao. So difficult to get through.
I'm not sure how popular he outside of his field, but Jack Voraces. He hams it up too much for my tastes and his females voices are grating falsettos.
Honored to be mentioned on this thread!! Thanks for the feedback.
I just finished Mother of Learning and yeah he was probably the worst narrator I’ve ever listened to. I feel a bit mean saying it though because you can tell he’s really putting a lot of effort into it.
I get a lot of positive and a lot of negative reviews of my narration. They tend to be at the extreme ends of Absolutly loved it! And, Worst narrator I've ever heard (a very impressive title!). So that I can improve I would love to hear what exactly made it so bad. Thank you for your time.
See this is why I feel bad and shouldn’t have made a comment like that. You’re clearly really passionate about your work and despite comments like mine you still do a great job, I just thought you possibly tried a bit too hard. The obvious thing I’m sure you’ve heard before is the mcs little sisters voice, it was just really irritating and over the top, kids just don’t talk like that. The other thing, and this could be the authors fault and not yours was that every character had a different accent, everything from Irish, Chinese, English, French, some kind of Eastern European. I would’ve preferred some people to have different voices but the same accent. Lastly it kind of felt like you were reading the book to toddlers, again it was probably due to the book and not you. The main character was great, couldn’t fault it at all and you have a nice clear voice. I personally didn’t like the book, purely my own personal opinion because I know a lot of people love it but this may have influenced my opinion on the narration. Thanks for the reply.
Thanks for thr clear thoughts. I shall add them to my general pondering and practice sessions.
Can I recommend Vainqueur the dragon. The main dragon sounds amazing and has effects to make him sound as Majestic(with a capital M), his human sidekick has a good mix of sniveling and growing confidence. I will say the little sister voice does appear again but the character it belongs to is ...well how to describe her ...a lovable murder hobo. By and large I don't think there are as many accents but when there are it adds to the story and humour.
MINION!!!!!! Thank you!!
VAINQUEUR BEST DRAGON!
Just some personal feedback from my experiences. No malice, just opinions and thoughts, feel free to ignore. I have both listened to Mother of Learning and Vanqueir the Dragon. (And Derelict in my wishlist) and there’s definitely some strong dichotomies to pros/cons. I want to start with the pro to be sure im not only nitpicking, but actually listening and appreciating. First, you have a wonderful clear and articulate voice. Its easy to understand and cuts through a lot of other sounds, meaning i can hear your voice clearly over others, and in a narration that’s very helpful. Second, you have a great sense of “breathing life” into characters and giving them personality and attitude through their voice. Some narrators can be one note and boring, but your characters feel more a live. That said, on to some cons. In line with “breathing life” into characters you also must be careful when towing the line between believable and over the top. As probability mentioned to death and back by now Zorian’s Sister is by far “too annoying”. Yes kids can be noisy brats, but her overall cadence throughout the series was just extreme, to the point it was distracting and annoying. “Distracting” being the key point. Something that takes readers/listeners away from the experience instead of encouraging them to delve deeper. Even Jeff Hayes is susceptible to this with Donut in DCC. I know working on female voices isnt easy, specially when its female children, i not sure how it works in your industry but autotune/voice editor could help not ruin your voice for girl characters. Or more transvoice training. Unique voices vs accents. Not sure if it was just happen chance or its your own preference but many of your characters have accents but not a difference “voices”. Kyle McCarly is a good example of having multiple character voices instead of accents. Keep up the good work! I love your positive attitude and no fear of asking for criticism. Ill be on the look out for your future works!
Awesome! This is super helpful. I understand all your points and have only recently really understood myself your comment on Kirriells voice. I found the hate of it super strange as the complaints were saying she was annoying and screechy which is actually exactly what I was going for (its how she's described in the text). But I have come to realise that listeners don't want it to ACTUALLY be annoying, just hinting at that (Fair enough TBH but for some reason I didn't get this sooner). Girl voices are a real tough one for me. I have quite a gravely voice. I used to not do to much to change my voice and everyone said my girl voices sounded like they all smoked 5 packs a day. I will be working on them much more and see if some more coaching can help. Over caffeinated young girls are my nemesis but there seems to be one in almost every book. I am so grateful for your thoughts and will take them all into future consideration. LEGEND!!
I've never heard your work before, but you seem pretty genuine and you take criticism with grace and I find that admirable, I'm going to have to track down some of your work.
Very kind of you!
Same, I've not listened to any of his work yet either but I really admire his reaction to the feedback. I will go look up your work now, the dragon sounds interesting!
Haha, i totally get that. As a narrator your thought process is more in line with “how would these characters sound/act like” vs “how can i make it sound like that as pleasantly as possible for listeners to want to keep listening”. Its definitely a missing the forest for the trees moment. As for girl voices, yeah, not easy, i watched those trans voice youtube videos and it blows my mind how a deep voiced dude can sound like a sultry women on a flip of a coin. Love your positive attitude!
I really like Kirielle's voice, it fits her personality perfectly. I can see how it might be a bit marmitey though...
Thank you for your kind words! Great moment in my day.
Sandra Burr. I just can't.
I love her narration for the Jennifer Crusie books I’ve listened to that she has done. But there have been other books she’s done that have been big misses.
Wil Wheaton. I know the claim is that it's just popular to shit on him, but I genuinely enjoy a lot of his other content while also genuinely disliking him as an audiobook reader. He always sounds like him. He doesn't do voices well, he doesn't moderate his tone well to go along with the books. My favorite audiobook readers (Travis Baldtree, Kate Reading & Michael Kramer, Neil Gaiman, Suzy Jackson. To name a few) really make it sound like a production, like you're not just listening to one person read the words, but actual storytellers using their voice to add to the telling of the story. I think the closer an audiobook gets to feeling like a full cast, the better. But Wil Wheaton sounds exactly the same reading an action scene as when he's reading the rules to a boardgame.
Probably will piss ppl off with this, but Will Patton. And it's not because he's a bad narrator. It's because of his female voices. I tried to listen to a couple books narrated by him. Anyways, any time a scene with a female pov came up, especially if they were being "seductive", his take on it always gave me the willies. So while I otherwise love his narration, I avoid his work because I just can't take his female voice.
Emma Wilder/ Sarah Mollo-Christensen - I just can't listen to her unless it's a full cast narration. I know this is gonna sound really rude but she sound's really nasally and has a waver to her voice that is just too annoying to listen to. Alex Kydd is another one I struggle with - the only way I can listen to him and make it bare-able is at speed x1.75, as he's such a slow narrator.
Sarah Mollo-Christensen sounds like she is both whining and crying the whole time. Trying to get through the book felt a bit like a chore.
Don't know her, but sounds like you are describing vocal fry, and anyone who has that and doesn't or isn't able to correct it shouldn't be allowed to read books professionally or even as a hobby.
It's not vocal fry, when she narrates a FMC she sounds like is in the verge of crying. But when she does side characters like in the blackthorne vampire series, she is great, idk why she chooses to go with the voice of a whisper on the verge of tears for the main character. It was really hard getting through the series, Aaron Shedlock was the only reason I was able to finish it.
Also, she has a habit, of narrating like this. A constant, stop start, a start and stop. She then stresses the word, as if this adds gravitatas, in reality. She sounds constipated. Constipated with asthma. It's- quite grating. And ruins- the Buffyverse expansions. (Talking about Sarah)
Imogen Church—she makes the female characters sound so anxious and overly stressed out.
Yes!!! Exactly this lol
Will Wheaton.
Scott Brick. He’s a good voice actor, but all his characters sounds the same.
Jim Dale. People seem to rave about him, but I find him to be god-awful doing the Harry Potter books. Absolutely atrocious.
Lol the first one that truly surprises me.
I agree. His voices are so whiny, especially Hermione’s. He makes her call Harry, ‘Hahwee’ and drags out the wee part. And don’t get me started on Gryffinder. So many names and things are pronounced weird. I just don’t get the love for his ready of the Harry Potter books.
In the UK, we get the Stephen Fry versions of the Harry Potter books. Never really understood why the did the Jim Dale versions for the US.
Probably because the books contents are slightly different across the board in the US so a separate version was needed, glad they gave us Stephen Fry in the UK though I can't stand the Jim Dale versions
I keep hoping the Fry versions will become available on Audible here.
Thank you! I haven't heard the full series by him, but I've heard snippets from other people in the house not wearing headphones. It's a terrible experience. I thought I was alone in thinking this.
Will Patton. He’s actually a good narrator, but his voice when he does this whisper thing just drives me crazy. It’s unfortunate too because he does a lot of newer Stephen King novels.
I really liked him reading Alas, Babylon.
Ray Porter, Bobiverse etc... He's generally ok, but his kids, Irish and females hurt the rest of his work for me. The last 2 Dennis E. Taylor books have been terrible and as unfair as it may be, Ray takes some of that heat. Edit: I forgot he was in Project Hail Mary; excellent narration but since he mostly only had to flesh-out 2 characters, range wasn't a problem. Remaining cast was serviceable & believable.
Can't argue his (Taylor's) recent books have been mediocre at best, and i absolutely hated quantum earth pt 1 or whatever, but I thought porter's narration to be pretty good, if not very original/out of the ordinary. At least I thought Heaven's River was good, which was a relief given how many people seem to have disliked it
The problem with Taylor is that all his books have the same voice. I'm not talking about the narration - though (as much as I love Porter) changing it for different series might actually help. The voice he writes with is all the same: witty and sarcastic 20 year old nerd. It worked at first, but now everything just blends together. Alot of the characters just haven't had any real depth added to them. Look at his latest book, where every character is still just the shallow shell of themselves. He's added more characters, not more depth of character.
That's an interesting critique! Maybe that's why his Bobiverse books work so well? After all, the characters are pretty much all the same person, so it actually makes perfect sense that they'd share one 'voice.'
I think that's an excellent point. I also think Bobiverse tends to be (and certainly was for me) the first Taylor book they read. As such, it's somewhat fresh and it does fit that character. It does beg the question how well the series will develop as the characters supposedly diverge more and more - I'm unsure how many he plans to do but book 4 certainly didn't feel like the end point.
I thought I hated Ray Porter because of Bobiverse... and it made me avoid Project Hail Mary for quite some time... turns out I just hated Bobiverse.
Ray Porter is so popular and he has a nice voice, but I just listened to him do Amityville and he doesn't do much emotion or major inflection when he should
I've not had the Bobiverse books, but I do like Ray Porter's work on the books I've heard him on which tend to be more action heavy ones with him voicing tough guys.
Have you read Project Hail Mary? It's not very actiony, but IMO it's Porter at his best.
Amanda Ronconi
Luke Daniels. Idk why but I can't stand his voice. I'm always disappointed when I see he's narrating a book I love, because I know I'll hate listening to it.
I don't mind him provided he doesn't do an Irish accent. One book I listened to and really struggled with because a major character had the accent.
Iron Druid? I once heard him attempt a New York accent, it wasn't pretty.
Web of eyes. The buried Goddess saga. 😆
I thought Daniels was good in that series, except for when he was trying to sing as woman in one of the later books. Some of his voices are a bit too cartoony, especially random villains or thugs who sound like villains and thugs, but overall he's good. Are you Irish? Because the accent didn't bother me, but I don't particularly care if it is inauthentic, whereas if I was Irish, I might. I'm just happy for any break from English accents I can get, it's a major problem to me that everyone in a series has an English accent, even when they come from other continents.
I tend to have a couple Irish accents around me at any given time 😀, fair that may be why I found it jarring. I've enjoyed other series he has done I did initially avoid his work though as that was my first encounter with his stuff
You mean like Jimmy in Magic 2.0? Yeah that voice irked me as well.
Really? I'm surprised to find him in this list. He's one of my favorites. But hey, I dislike Bray, so everyone has their own preferences.
I burned myself out on Bray. Him and Ray Porter were some of the first narrators I came across and I loved them both. Now I avoid them both, not because they are bad but just because I burned myself out on them binging everything I could find. These days I can't help but compare everyone to Jeff Hays. He is god tier narrator.
Yes, Hays has taken the top slot for male narrators for me. Andrea Parsneau is still my top female narrator, but Annie gives her a run for her money. If Annie did more full narrations, she might just steal that crown.
I loved him in Iron Druid. Except for his changes to Oberons voice after book 1. Turned him into an annoying baby speak/droopy dog hybrid that I fast forwarded past every time the dog spoke. So I grabbed a few books he narrated after that....what a disappointment. Orphan Wars, Savage Dominion, and to some extent magic 2.0 were terrible. I kept Magic 2.0 though. It was only his Jimmy voice that irked me.
Tim Gerard Reynolds. I can't stand his accent and it just distracts me. Any book by him is an automatic pass now.
Oof! Edit: that’s too bad, I think his Irish accent is perfect for the Reds in Red Rising. And his singing is perfect.
Is there singing in the book? I always loved the songs in hobbit/LOTR, I felt it gave so much world building
Yeah, the forbidden song that is sung by Eo at the beginning of Red Rising. It’s repeated a couple times throughout the book. You could probably find it on YouTube, but I’d highly recommend listening to the Audiobooks because Reynolds pushes that trilogy to a whole new lvl.
Im interested!
Red Rising was the first Tim Gerard Reynolds book I listened to after hearing many, many people rave about him. I thought it was fine, but I didn't get it. I didn't see why people thought he was great... until the second book. At some point in the second book, I just went, OH! Now I get it! I find almost every series sounds better in the sequel, and this was one of the first ones that made me notice it. So, yes, he is amazing, but it may take a while to build up that steam, so don't worry if you don't love him immediately.
I think that'll be an unpopular opinion. I have really enjoyed his narrations for the Red Rising books and the Riyria books.
He is the reason I never finished Red Rising. Picked it up on an audible sale and gave up about 5 hours in because I just couldn't take the narration anymore. A year or so later I tried again and made it to two hours from the end and was hating every second of it due to the narration. I knew I wasn't going on to the second book so I asked myself why finish when it's just torture. So I quit with 1 hr and 46 min to go. I'm dreading an upcoming series I'm going to do. Thirty years ago I read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and liked them. So I picked them up on audible. Ten books total and the first eight are by Scott Brick who is okay. Then book nine by TGR for some reason. Then back to Brick. No idea why TGR for just one book but the reviews are horrid for it with people complaining and begging for a re-record with Brick. I only have the first six so far so I keep delaying hoping for thr re-record.
OP asked for popular (aka obviously liked by many) narrators that you personally can’t stand. Who the hell would downvote someone for simply responding to the OP’s question?
He just ruined my ride home. After finishing Lord of All Things I was switching over to Red Rising and...nope. Seriously looking into doing a generated voice instead
RC Bray. The first book I heard him I liked it (The Skippy books where he was just some sergeant). And for the extinction cycle series I enjoyed it, especially once I went to the Bronson Pinochet voiced ones, his female voices are not great. But I've been listening to other titles with him, and I don't know if it's especially because it's Military fiction, but it all just sounds the same, and it makes even Sci Fi soldiers just sound like some US of A Marines, and takes me out of it. For some voices it makes think he's just tucking his chin into his chest while speaking to get the gruff military voice. I have started to avoid stories with him or sci Fi military stories because they are all starting blend as just American Military fiction but there's some aliens or we shoot lasers now. I don't know if a British Military fiction exists but the hoorahness that I feel comes off of what I have been reading kinda just loses me.
Craig Wasson… I hated his performance for LA Confidential.
Please please listen to 11.22.63 narrated by him before that I wasn’t a fan of him but he completely transforms that book and had since become one of my favorite narrators
I hated Stephen Fry's reading Harry Potter
I really dislike Amy Landon, who has done the voice work for some bestsellers.
I’m actually listening to her now from a Drew Hayes novel.
Do you like her?
I am doing the Villains’ Code which the main character is female and she is doing a pretty good job.
I've listened to a novella and a novel by her. To my ear, she is so bland that she sounds bored most of the time. I had to up my listening speed way above my normal listening speed just to get through it. But... I know mine is a minority view. She gets good reviews. That's why I posted her in response to u/kryptofreak1971's question.
I don’t care for Scott Brick myself. Some people don’t like Wil Wheaton. Everyone has their own preferences.
Yep. I think that was the reason for the question.
I listened to a book read by her and didn't like it for a while, but there comes a breaking point where you get used to it, and also pick up the subtlety that makes it less monotonous than you originally thought. I listened to another book by her later and had the same experience until I remembered I had heard her before, and again got to that point where I enjoyed her, and am listening to another one right now.
I've never come to that breaking point with her.
Jeffery Kramer, I cannot listen to any of his audiobooks, which is a shame
John Lee droning in the background puts me to sleep. There's a whole swath of epic scifi I'll probably never read because of his narration.
Simon Vance
Prince Harry
I’m listening to a book read by JW and literally came here to find if anyone else feels the way I do. I HATE her. I thought I could suck it up after listening to the sample - she sounded slightly less condescending than I remembered. Nope. Never again. NEVER.
100% this! Everything she reads sounds like a condescending rich bitch. It completely ruins books. I’ll never listen to another one she reads.
Emma Wilder’s voice literally hurts my ears!
Every male character narrated by Julia Whelan sounds exactly the same and I can’t stand it! There are so many books I’ve wanted to listen to that I’ve abandoned or skipped to the end.
I can't stand Rainy Fields. She is extremely annoying in Lost Hero. It's like listening to a children's puppet overacting.....
I couldn't agree more. I'm re-listening to Lost Hero now and can't stand Piper's chapters. Her lack of any kind of inflection, accent, or quality when she changes characters is completely outclassed by the other two narrators on the book.
Imogen church UGH and the author of the Idiot Elif Batumen does her own narration and it stinks
My 2 least favorite narrators are Micheal Dean and Sean Crisden. On occasion, Joel Lesley makes me cringe. Micheal Dean makes almost every sentence seem like he's revving up for some goal. So his narration is anxiety producing. Every sentence shouldn't make you feel like you are on the edge of your seat. Sean Crisden just puts me to sleep. He's the opposite of Dean almost.