Can we talk about comparing audiobook narrators before you commit?

Last month my book club picked two versions of the same novel, one narrated by a guy who sounded like he was reading a grocery list and another by a full cast. I wasted 8 hours on the boring one before my friend begged me to try the other, and it was night and day. The second one had different voices for each character and actual emotion, made the whole book click for me. Has anyone else had a bad narrator ruin a good book and then found a better version?

3 comments

3 Comments

foster.charles14d ago

@price.tara gets at something interesting but I think it still counts. The full cast version I tried had like 5 different actors and it felt like watching a movie in my ears, way different from the one guy monotone version. Actually just read an article saying that the best audiobook narrators treat it like a performance, not just reading, and that lined up with my experience. The boring narrator probably thought he was being professional or whatever but it sucked the life out of the story. My book club now makes everyone listen to a sample before we pick a version, saves so much time and regret. That full cast version made me actually like a book I had previously hated in print.

the_nina10d ago

Avoid the ones that sound like a robot reading a manual, sample first always saves the day.

price.tara14d ago

Wait isn't a "full cast" production technically an audiobook but also kind of a different format thing, not just a different narrator version of the same book?