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Narrators you don't like?
I have encountered narrators I didn't like but found they were praised by others. It's just very personal. I do find it disheartening to hear one of my beloved narrators dissed. I think I'll skip this thread in the future.
I've had fun with all the banter, like how I love Scott Brick, but Bobby loves him slightly less. Usually as soon as someone names one of their least favorite narrators someone else will say "Hey! That's one of my favorites", negating any negativity in my opinion.I wonder if forums like these help narrators hone their vocal skills. Supposedly the reason Christian Bale sounded so atrociously over the top in the second Batman movie was because he was surrounded by "yes men" that would never suggest he back it off a little.
I think the thread is harmless, seeing how it's just opinion and none of us are professional critics. In the end I think we'd all agree that every narrator deserves some level of respect for succeeding in their field if nothing else.
Except for Casey Affleck.
I think it's entertaining to discover how passionately many feel about narration. It's helped me understand that audiobooks are not just an "alternate format" but truly a work of art that demands correct execution.
I look at this thread as feedback. I don't think it's for dissing narrators. Hopefully, if he/she read this thread, it would give him/her to hone in his/her skills.
I think narrators add another element to the book itself . . . sometimes it enhances them . . . sometimes not. If I have the option to return it . . . then I'll usually get it as an eBook instead if I really couldn't get past the narration.
Angela Dawe's narration of both the protagonist and the villain in Still Missing is, in my opinion, perfect. Her narration of the protagonist's boyfriend is wrong, though. Sort of like a 13 year old boy whose voice just broke. I'm really, really loving the book though, so I'm happy.
So - to all of you - can awkward narration of one character set you off to the point that you return the audiobook?
So - to all of you - can awkward narration of one character set you off to the point that you return the audiobook?
John wrote: "I know narrators are big girls and boys, but wanted to repeat that I find this thread a bit ... I dunno ... disheartening? But, it seems popular and I'm not into heavy-handed censorship.I will th..."
So far, most of the comments have been reasoned, not rants. So yes, I'd hope that it is helpful to the narrators whose names are being discussed. As a listener, I want to provide useful feedback to a narrator whose work I don't like, and I want to discuss the reasons with other listeners, just as much as I want to praise good narrations and talk about them.
Maria Conchita Alonso is really annoying me as the narrator in "La Malinche". And I am never annoyed by accents or by this actress......It just sounds so damn hammy I can't get into the book!
Jylle wrote: "Maria Conchita Alonso is really annoying me as the narrator in "La Malinche". And I am never annoyed by accents or by this actress......It just sounds so damn hammy I can't get into the book!"She used to be an absolute babe, though. Guess that doesn't help much in an audiobook.
Scott Brick sucks big time. I won't even buy the audio if he is the narrator. It's a shame as there are several he narrates that I really want to listen to, but can't get passed the melodrama.
Now see, Bobby and I just started up a Scott Brick fan club.
This thread is actually encouraging me to listen to Mr. Brick. I haven't yet had the...pleasure?
I really do enjoy his narration. Here is a link that was posted earlier in this thread. I think it's about 10-15 min long.link
Jennifer (E-reads, E-listens, E-breathes) wrote: "This thread is actually encouraging me to listen to Mr. Brick. I haven't yet had the...pleasure?"hahahaha - me too! So many mixed feelings. To be honest there isn't a narrator I dislike so much I would avoid the audiobook if they narrated BUT there have been many instances for me where it was the wrong narrator for the particular book (too old, too young, wrong voice inflections, etc..) Does that make sense?? Like I just got done with I Hunt Killers
on audiobook and while I didn't hate the narrator I defiantly thought he was the wrong choice for that particular book.
I'm having a similar experience, Heidi. Caroline Lee has chosen to narrate The Secret Keeper by using a different voice for each CHAPTER - often for the same character, albeit at various ages. The effect is slightly...schizophrenic...
Jennifer (E-reads, E-listens, E-breathes) wrote: "I'm having a similar experience, Heidi. Caroline Lee has chosen to narrate The Secret Keeper by using a different voice for each CHAPTER - often for the same character, albeit at various ages. Th..."I feel you there Jennifer. I didn't like the narrators voice for Howie in I Hunt Killers and so every time he read his lines it brought me out of the story a little bit. Normally I just quit and read the book in print if the narrator doesn't fit but I stuck with it because all it all he wasn't terrible just not the right choice IMO.
J. wrote: "Now see, Bobby and I just started up a Scott Brick fan club."Ha!
Donna wrote: "Scott Brick sucks big time. I won't even buy the audio if he is the narrator. It's a shame as there are several he narrates that I really want to listen to, but can't get passed the melodrama."You know, I used to think the same about Simon Vance. I know he's very well loved, but I had listened to his narration of The Prestige and Under Heaven was bored silly. Those had to have been the two most boring books/narrations I've ever listened to. Then, because I really, really, really wanted to read The Blinding Knife and the ebook was stupidly expensive, I took a chance on his narration. It was amazing. I suddenly got why he has the reputation he has.
I really think that there is an art to matching the narrator to the book. I also think that a good narrator can seem really terrible if the production is bad or if the book is unsuited to his/her strengths.
Sandi: I agree with this, especially when the tone of the book doesn't match the tone of the narrator's voice. Sometimes I find that switching books causes a disconnect with an author who really matched their book and that comfort level disconnect affects my getting used to a different book and narrator style. Sandi wrote: "I really think that there is an art to matching the narrator to the book. I also think that a good narrator can seem really terrible if the production is bad or if the book is unsuited to his/her strengths. "
Heidi (1%er) wrote: "Jennifer (E-reads, E-listens, E-breathes) wrote: "This thread is actually encouraging me to listen to Mr. Brick. I haven't yet had the...pleasure?"hahahaha - me too! So many mixed feelings. To..."
I have a real pet peeve about narrators who sound like they're the wrong age, especially for a first-person narration. Most recently, in Dracula it bugged me that Simon Vance, while doing a fine job narrating his part of the ensemble cast, just sounded too old to be Jonathan Harker, who I believed to be under 30.
(Hollywood does this for movies, too...not to get off topic, but Ben Affleck in Gone Girl? He's at least 10 years too old for that part.)
Ben is going to be in Gone Girl? I didn't even know it was being made into a movie - he is too old you are correct!
Sandi wrote: "Donna wrote: "Scott Brick sucks big time. I won't even buy the audio if he is the narrator. It's a shame as there are several he narrates that I really want to listen to, but can't get passed the..."Yes we are on the same page! This is why I haven't found a narrator I hate because I think sometimes it is just the wrong book for them. This may change later but so far there aren't narrators I dislike only productions :)
No way. I didn't even know GG was going to be a movie, but I can't see Ben Affleck as Nick. He's too polished and too corporate for Nick. Completely wrong, like Bradley Cooper as Pat in Silver Linings Playbook.
Heidi (1%er) wrote: "Ben is going to be in Gone Girl? I didn't even know it was being made into a movie - he is too old you are correct!"Yes and considering the girl playing Amy (Rosamund Pike) is 7 years younger than him, she is the right age for this disastrous couple but he's not!
BUT from what I can see Gillian Flynn is the only one listed as screenwriter so it may be a good movie!
Ok back to your regularly scheduled programming!
What??? Not Cameron Diaz?
*sigh*
I'm picturing Owen Wilson and Cameron Diaz.
*sigh*
I'm picturing Owen Wilson and Cameron Diaz.
I tried to listen to Carolyn McCormick narrating Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins but could not get into it. She did not sound anything like Jennifer Lawrence! She sounded too old to be a teenager. I will read it instead or wait for the movie.
I've been trying to decide about Scott Brick. I think I like him better when he's narrating fiction. I just finished Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us which he narrated. Took me forever to get into the book, but I found the topic interesting and persevered.
Susan wrote: "I tried to listen to Carolyn McCormick narrating Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins but could not get into it. She did not sound anything like Jennifer Lawrence! She sounded too old to be a teenager. I ..."Is she the same narrator for Hunger Games? If so I completely agree! I quit listening within an hour - wrong narrator! Good thing I had read the book already.
As much as I've heard about the "Wheel of Time" books by Robert Jordan, I thought I'd give them a try on audio. I tried twice, both times not being able to get past Michael Kramer's overly melodramatic narration. After doing a little research, I found that the majority of people loved his narration. In the minority here, but I hated it.
Kate wrote: "As much as I've heard about the "Wheel of Time" books by Robert Jordan, I thought I'd give them a try on audio. I tried twice, both times not being able to get past Michael Kramer's overly melodram..."This is my relationship with the Great Satan, Scott Brick. In a nutshell.
Susan wrote: "I tried to listen to Carolyn McCormick narrating Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins but could not get into it. She did not sound anything like Jennifer Lawrence! She sounded too old to be a teenager. I ..."I totally agree with this. The narrator sounded too old. I listened anyway as it was not horrible. At the time I didn't know Jennifer Lawrence was in the movie. I think she was perfect.
I much prefer reading or listening before I know who playing the part in the movie. That way I can get my own picture of the character.
Ben Affleck is totally wrong for Gone Girl
Donna wrote: "Susan wrote: "I tried to listen to Carolyn McCormick narrating Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins but could not get into it. She did not sound anything like Jennifer Lawrence! She sounded too old to be ..."I vote for Kirby Heybourne to play Nick!!! From narrator to Star!
I check my audiobooks out from the library so I just kind of walk in there and pick up whatever's clever. Go there, pick up The Firm, perfect audiobook/drive to work and back material I'm thinking, and I put it in aaaaaaaannnndd it's Scott freakin' Brick. Usually, I just put the book back when that happens but heck, I was already in the car. So, I'm listening to it, and for whatever reason I immediately got interested in the characters in spite of Brick. Granted, he wasn't as bad as he usually is though he did have a bunch of spots where I was like, "...and that's why I can't stand the guy." It's like, he tries to tell you what to think and his range of choices is really limited. He goes to sarcasm over and over and over again and I'm like, "that's not what I want to hear in my head, right now. I don't think that's the right choice for this character or this scene." I will say, it seems like people who like him, that's what they like. What feels to me like gross over-acting and fake earnestness feels to them like "nailing the character". I don't think Grisham's such a great writer. But he crafted a plot to where I at least wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters and that's how I made it through the entire book.
Have you listened to A Time to Kill? I think it's Grisham's best work (of those I've read), its very publication is a story all its own, and it's NOT narrated by Mr. Wrong (LOL...I've never heard him but to each his / her own).
When Mr. Wrong is laid to rest at the ripe old age of 102 (having continued to work as a narrator all this time, just to annoy Bobby) we'll be shocked to discover that Bobby delivered the eulogy.
There were some mentions upthread of Ilyana Kadushin's narration of the Twilight series. Overall, I thought she did a decent job (with not-great material), but there was one thing that made me crazy in her narration: her pronunciation of "Jacob." For some reason, she pronounces it "J-Cup." I kept thinking, "That's not a NAME! That's a BRA!" That sort of thing in an audiobook can often irritate me and leave me wondering why no one coached the narrator on pronunciation. This often comes up when a narrator has to pronounce foreign words/names. Poorly pronounced French makes me cringe!
For me personally it all comes to each individual pieceof work. There is no narrator who I would enjoy in every book. Ad every book is different so does the narration need to be. I generally avoid women narrators and I've heard some that have been excellent but for myself I think after years of being around farm equipment and loud noise has damaged my hearing to the generally higher voices of women and I have trouble hearing them at times. I certainly wouldn't bash women narrators as a whole I just have trouble tuning them in even in real life I just can't understand them because I can't always hear them.
Oh, and another topic from upthread I meant to touch on is when authors narrate their own audiobooks. I agree that in most cases, it turns out to be a bad idea and better left to a professional narrator or voice actor. One example that comes to mind is the "audio" version of What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception. McClellan uses a tortured "reading" pronunciation where he pronounces the article "a" just like the letter "A" and also does the same for the first syllable of just about every word that starts with "a" as its first syllable (example "about" --> "ay-bout"). Very distracting.
Mirkat wrote: "There were some mentions upthread of Ilyana Kadushin's narration of the Twilight series. Overall, I thought she did a decent job (with not-great material), but there was one thing that made me cra..."Haha! I didn't notice that! :) I thought she did a fine job, too.
But speaking of pronouncing things incorrectly, I listened to Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption which is narrated by Edward Herrmann. He did an AWESOME job (both as narrator and on Gilmore Girls!!), and I would DEFINITELY recommend the audio version of this fabulous book... but at one point, the main character is spending some time training in Ephrata, Washington... OYE! I know 999 of 1000 people who listen to that audiobook have never heard of Ephrata, but my extended family lives all over Eastern WA. It's ee-FRAY-tuh, not EF-freh-tuh. Gaaaaaaaahhhhh! And it was like 25 or more times! Drove me crazy!
You HAVE to look place names up, narrators! You CANNOT assume things are pronounced like they look!
Sara, this isn't an "audiobook" example, but the same kind of thing happened on the sitcom Just Shoot Me several years ago. The character played by David Spade was supposed to be from Albany, NY, which is where I live. There was an episode where he mispronounced it, saying the first syllable like the name "Al." The first syllable is actually pronounced like the word "all." How many years did David Spade live in NYC as a cast member of Saturday Night Live without picking up on the pronunciation of the state capital?
No one on the production staff noticed (or cared)?
Seriously, John--you'd think somebody would have caught that and corrected it!
Ha! David Spade was probably on such a cocktail of drugs during those years that he barely knew how to pronounce his own name! There's something about that man that is just creepy.
Ha, I know what you mean Jennifer. I think he's even worse on his current show, which I believe is called The Rules of Engagement.
Mirkat wrote: "There were some mentions upthread of Ilyana Kadushin's narration of the Twilight series. Overall, I thought she did a decent job (with not-great material), but there was one thing that made me cra...""J-CUP" is a bra??? I mean, we're talking about some freakish breasts here, am I right?
J. wrote: "Admit it, Bobby. You love him!"J., he's one of those happenings in life that makes me realize how out of touch with the world I am. The DaVinci Code, Austin Powers movies, Meg Ryan, Justin Bieber, R.E.M.... There are these events, people, phenomena, whatever that happen and everybody loves and I'm sitting there shaking my head wondering if I didn't somehow wind up on the wrong planet by mistake.
Bobby wrote: ""J-CUP" is a bra??? I mean, we're talking about some freakish breasts here, am I right? "Yes, indeed. :)
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Just joking, John! I like where your heart is at.