Audiobook Reviews

Audiobook reviews

What's better than reading a book? Listening to it read out loud by a talented voice actor.

The art of
the listen

Listening to an audiobook is a more difficult way to experience a book, even though it takes less physical effort. You need to pay attention. When reading a book your eyes and mind registers more than one word at a time – sometimes even whole paragraphs. Making it a lot easier to comprehend a written story. When listening to an audiobook you need to pay attention to each word, with no visual fix point like a talking mouth. A bad narrator can thoroughly ruin that experience – but a great voice actor can make it many times more rewarding.

A robot in space (a man in space)

A robot in space (a man in space)

Audiobook review: Bobiverse Book 1-3 by Dennis E. Taylor

Dennis E. Taylor has written a great series about The Bobiverse, and created a compelling little universe of Bobs. The audiobooks are a pleasure to hear narrated by Ray Porter – who, by the way, sounds like a hybrid of James Spader and Seth MacFarlane.

A 70 hour prologue

Audiobook review: Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss

"The Kingkiller Chronicle" (book 1+2) by Patrick Rothfuss is a great fantasy story unfolding in wonderful universe with a lot of interesting characters and concepts to explore, told in a mesmerizing narrative by the lead character of the books and expertly acted by Rubert Degas.

The Thrawn Trilogy

The Thrawn Trilogy

Audiobook Review: Star Wars - Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn

Star Wars legends at its best. The three audiobooks are a pleasure to experience; Timothy Zahn reignites the Star Wars lifespark and Marc Thompson fuels it. And although Grand-Admiral Thrawn can get a bit too conveniently clever, he is a worthy Star Wars villain (or hero).

Four types of audiobooks

In my experience there are four types of audiobooks – and depending on ones temperament and liking, only one of those four you'd really enjoy – it's not the forth one btw, that's noones favorite.

Audiobook type 1: A book read out loud

This is the obvious one – and likely the type a lot of people, who haven't tried audiobooks yet, thinks is the only one. You likely remember back in elementary school when the teacher would read aloud from some mandatory book? She didn't make voices, she read with as little drama as she possibly could – I assume. She probably did a good job of the art of reading aloud – but she's no voice actor.

Often the narrator-who-is-not-a-voice-actor of an audiobook is a person of interest to the listener or the book, it might be the author, it might just be a respected actor who doesn't do voices. The book itself is likely not a book that would naturally be read by a dramatic voice actor – maybe it's a biography, maybe some type of self-help book.

Audiobook type 2: A book acted out loud

The second type, and my personal favorite, is the book narrated by a good voice actor. An actor who can give each character a distinct voice and really convey the personality of the characters. Dramatic sequences is read dramatically and funny bits are narrated lightheartedly – add to that a bit of background sounds, sound effects and theme music. Listening to a really good audiobook production is like watching a tv-series or movie, you get all the sensory inputs needed to really experience the book.

This type of audiobook is best suited for classic fiction, in all it's genres. Both audiobooks for grown ups, and books for children.

Audiobook type 3: The podcast-audiobook

This one is a little weird, in my opinion. It's like documentary TV without the visuals. It's likely a production straight to audio – without a written book. Well then it's not an audiobook? Well it's on the audiobook digital shelf, so someone must think that it is. It's not a podcast though – definitely not. It likely has more relevans in 5 years than any podcast made in the same time. It's just not a "book".

The podcast is like a radioshow that never made it to the radio, the podcast-audiobook is like a book that never made it to the bookshelf. This type of audiobook is great for long roadtrips – it gives the experience of being in someones company, like the radio do, but the content is way more interesting. Where podcasts are a dime a dusin, these types of "podcast-audiobooks" is more of an evergreen type content. This type of audiobook is like the hobby-book section of the library – you'll probably find one about your interests or hobbies. You'll just not find it on the physical shelf as well.

Audiobook type 4: The badly acted audiobook

You should just steer clear of this one. A book that would have made a great experience narrated by a good voice actor, falls flat on the floor if narrated by an actor who doesn't do a good job. "Wait, who said that?" should never run through your head when listening to an audiobook. This narrator should probably have stuck with the "type 1 audiobook" mentioned above – in any case, stop listening, audiobooks are often long, and spending 30 hours not really following a story is pointless. Maybe the book is narrated by another voice actor – maybe the book is better suited for being read. Not all books are great for audio – like I said at the beginning; listening to an audiobook is a more difficult way to read a book. The narrator should be a help in that endeavor, and if not, scrap it.