change in narrators

Daryl wrote:Bit unfair to put up the most competent speaker of English ever. Slam dunk, or game over.

Annachie wrote:Personally, I find it hard to go past Stephen Fry as a narrator.

Stephen Fry is a wonderful narrator. My current favourite audio listen right now however, is Ian Glen (Jorah Mormont from Game of Thrones.) His voice is pure honey.

eldrwyrm wrote:The book narrated by Charles Keating very nearly killed me with fits of apoplexy over his myriad mis-pronunciations.

I've been scared to pick up the audio books b/c I've heard anecdotes like this. Are there any of the other narrators for the series besides Keating that you recommend avoiding?

ErrantVenture wrote:
I've been scared to pick up the audio books b/c I've heard anecdotes like this. Are there any of the other narrators for the series besides Keating that you recommend avoiding?

Keating was by far the worst. I don't remember mispronunciations as much as the fact that every earl and baron got promoted to Duke and he could make the most exciting scenes like Duncan and Hektor's narrow escape from shipwreck and Irys and Daivyn's escape from Delfarak sleep inducing (Literally, I sometimes put this audiobook on to help me drop off to sleep when I have insomnia.) Kevin Collins was good except for his inability to pronounce Charis or Chisholm which set my teeth on edge.

Personally, I don't listen to audiobooks. The printed page has always been more interesting. I suppose if I were going to listen - rather than observe the scenery - on some long driving trip maybe; but for the series I tend to follow; I prefer "hardcopy".

What's interesting, outside of whatever motivation or accident may have "infected" this particular audiobook; is that NO ONE caught it. One would *think* that the audiobook producer would have someone OTHER than the narrator listen to the "finished product" while simultaneously reading it. While I'm sure small errors might still creep through, something that major shouldn't have.

I guess "quality assurance" isn't the norm these days.

Of course, I've seen glaring editing errors even in hardcopy (and I'm not talking about the (e)ARC's either); so I guess it's not all that odd that something might show up in an audiobook as well.

OrlandoNative wrote:Personally, I don't listen to audiobooks. The printed page has always been more interesting. I suppose if I were going to listen - rather than observe the scenery - on some long driving trip maybe; but for the series I tend to follow; I prefer "hardcopy".

What's interesting, outside of whatever motivation or accident may have "infected" this particular audiobook; is that NO ONE caught it. One would *think* that the audiobook producer would have someone OTHER than the narrator listen to the "finished product" while simultaneously reading it. While I'm sure small errors might still creep through, something that major shouldn't have.

I guess "quality assurance" isn't the norm these days.

Of course, I've seen glaring editing errors even in hardcopy (and I'm not talking about the (e)ARC's either); so I guess it's not all that odd that something might show up in an audiobook as well.

I do both but I can't read at work, I can however listen to the audiobook. I also found when I got the audiobooks I noticed details in the books I'd read several times that I'd missed previously. I understand why RFC is upset, but as a listener I'd rather the difficulty with Wyman than the one with someone like Keating. What Wyman did was readily fixed with a little editing. Audible let's you update your downloads so if I listen to it now it is fine. A problem like Keating can't be resolved without completely re-recording the book. I'd love to see that happen some day with Safehold if they can get a good reader in. Consistency in pronunciation and accents would improve my enjoyment of the series a great deal.

OrlandoNative wrote:Personally, I don't listen to audiobooks. The printed page has always been more interesting. I suppose if I were going to listen - rather than observe the scenery - on some long driving trip maybe; but for the series I tend to follow; I prefer "hardcopy".

While I prefer hardcopy as well, I've become very fond of audiobooks in grad school. A lot of bench science is really monotonous, mindless, and repetitive work. Audiobooks are great for when i have to do hours of cell culture or organic chem when i'd otherwise be bored out of my mind.

I don't know why, but I've never gotten into audiobooks. I have a ridiculous amount of downloaded old time radio shows (I'm rather fond of the original Green Hornet), so you'd think I'd be a good target for audiobooks. Maybe it's just because I've always been a fast reader, so audiobooks are "slower" to get through.

That said, I'm sorry RFC and Tor had to deal with that level of stupidity in a supposedly professional narrator.

The new narrator Jonathan Davis is horrible. All the names and places are pronounced different. The new character voice are almost comical. Harchong voices were nice though. I even had the copy were he reads "and they kissed." Didn't take away from the book or Oliver Wyman's great narration.

IBRAM wrote:The new narrator Jonathan Davis is horrible. All the names and places are pronounced different. The new character voice are almost comical. Harchong voices were nice though. I even had the copy were he reads "and they kissed." Didn't take away from the book or Oliver Wyman's great narration.

I don't have a huge problem with pronunciation and while they are very different from the previous narrator(s), his voices are OK in my opinion.

What drives me absolutely NUTS though, is how he pronounces "Terran".

runsforcelery wrote:While I'm thinking about it, at my request, Oliver Wyman will not be narrating any more of my titles from Macmillan Audio. The new narrator for TFT will be Jonathan Davis. I've told Macmillan that I'll be happy to discuss pronunciations and stuff with Mr. Davis if he decides that would be a good thing for him to do.

I'm guessing this didn't happen? I know some people think its a small thing but it can really get on your nerves as it happens over and over. Like some constantly calling you the wrong name but you cant tell them to stop.

All hail the TURON federation!