Nicholas Condon
asked
Mary Robinette Kowal:
I'm listening to the audiobook of "Seveneves," and I'm really enjoying both the book and your performance. I kind of regret reading rather than listening to your (quite excellent) Glamorist books now! My question is this: Do you ever decline to read an audiobook because you just didn't enjoy or respect the book in question? Or because you don't feel like you can do justice to one or more of the characters?
Mary Robinette Kowal
I haven't yet. My feeling is that I am a professional and that I shouldn't let my personal taste in reading material get between me and my job. *I* might not choose to read the book in question, but someone -- more than one person -- loves it. I should do that book justice.
Now, with OF NOBLE FAMILY, I asked Audible for two additional narrators because the majority of the characters in the novel were Caribbeans of African descent. If I hadn't written the book, it would have been *wildly* inappropriate to have me narrate it. If it weren't the fifth book in the series, we would have just swapped narrators altogether.
Fortunately, the people casting audiobooks under normal circumstances make that sort of decision before the book ever gets to me.
Now, with OF NOBLE FAMILY, I asked Audible for two additional narrators because the majority of the characters in the novel were Caribbeans of African descent. If I hadn't written the book, it would have been *wildly* inappropriate to have me narrate it. If it weren't the fifth book in the series, we would have just swapped narrators altogether.
Fortunately, the people casting audiobooks under normal circumstances make that sort of decision before the book ever gets to me.
More Answered Questions
Jessica Jernigan
asked
Mary Robinette Kowal:
Not a question. Just a compliment. Night Guest was one of the best experiences I've ever had of reading a novel in translation. The language was so natural. There wasn't a single moment when I felt lifted out of the story because the English felt off. I guess my "question" needs a question mark for me to post?
David H.
asked
Mary Robinette Kowal:
In an episode of Writing Excuses recently, you were praising Neal Stephenson's SEVENEVES (which you narrated). Especially with a book as long as that, do you ever find yourself imitating their style when writing your own stories, or are you pretty good at mentally separating your writing and narrating?
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