Annoying narrators

[Ann]

Scott Brick has narrated some favorite series books, then he gets "typecast" in my head as that series main character and I have a hard time letting go when a different book comes along that he has narrated. He doesn't "fade into the story" quite as well as some long time narrators, especially if I read some of those series books in close proximity or when I have read many books he narrated by the same author. Distance from a Scott Brick narrated book often makes the next more enjoyable. My library catalog lists him as reading 190 different authors, several of those are collaborations, so multi authors per book.
For me, he is the voice of Dune, of DeMille's John Corey, of Stephen J Cannell's Shane Scully, of Brett Battles' Jonathan Quinn, for many characters in books by Nelson DeMille and Harlan Coben, etc.
And here I find myself tempted as I peruse the catalog and have requested yet another Scott Brick narrated book!

[Contrarius]

Scott Brick -- I think he did a wonderful job with the Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston.

I personally can't stand Frank Muller, even though he's very popular. He just seems to make Everything So Significant....

[Ann]

My library must not have those because I would have likely listened - I really like the Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston, though Every Last Drop was a bit over the top for my mood when I read it.
As for Frank Muller, I loved his reading of many of Stephen King's books.
Contrarius wrote: "Scott Brick -- I think he did a wonderful job with the Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston."

[Alice]

Cheryl wrote: "John wrote: "I think we've pretty much agreed here that authors are usually not the best at reading their own work.

One recent read where the author did the narration that I found perfetly wonder..."

Jeff Lindsay does a great job reading his Dexter books.

[Lori]

I have been listening to the Skulduggery Pleasant series. The first four books were narrated by Rupert Degas which was fabulous. The fifth book was narrated by Brian Bowles which I did not like, but I managed to finally get through it. By the end, I could finally accept his voice. Now, for the sixth book, Stephan Hogan is narrating and I hate it, hate it, hate it. He has the main character sounding like an Irish 80's valley girl. Blech! Not to mention that his Irish accent fades in and out. The sound on this recording is truly awful as well. Too loud in spots, and then I have to crank it up to hear in others.

[Scott]

Serena_v wrote: "Scott wrote: "I can't listen to Scott Brick anymore. I liked him initially but grew tired of him. Now I find him annoying and impossible to listen. If he is narrating, I just download to my eReade..."

Scott Brick is tough to avoid as he narrates so many great books. I did listen to Moneyball, and I certainly found him less annoying as I made it through it. I also just completed 41 hours of Scott Brick in Ron Chernow's Washington: A Life. I must concede he did a great job with it. Consequently, I have concluded that Scott Brick is better with non-fiction. It must be dialogue between characters where I find him so annoying. He gives such an arrogant tone to his dialogue. I definitely recommend the Chernow book if you enjoy history.

[John, Moderator]

Rupert Degas does a smashing job reading Murakami's work!

[Carolyn F.]

Celia wrote: "I got the first two books from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich from the library. The narrarator was CJ Critt. I really liked her voice. Good inflection and good timing..."

Now for some reason I liked Lori Petty's voice. Then when it changed to a different narrator, I put it down for later. I thought Lori Petty did a great job, although it is the abridged version. Usually when they are "movie stars" it's abridged.

[Carolyn F.]

Michael wrote: "I am not crazy about ensemble narration. Even just two voices bugs me. Thoughts?"

I've been listening to audio plays of Agatha Christie books and I actually enjoy it. They even have the door creaking, steps in snow, etc. I went to the Hollywood Museum years ago and they showed how a plastic bottle sounds like broken bones. I found myself wondering what was making the sounds effects.

[John, Moderator]

One collaborative book that I found worked very well was Jane Austen's Lady Susan - a series of letters written between various characters (it probably should be "among", but that would imply they all shared the correspondence).

[Faith]

Leon wrote: "This post is meant to be part of the annoying narrators begun some time back. Nadia Mae and Flo Gibson are one and the same narrator, I think. They sound similar. I think both ladies are wonderful ..."

With respect to your missing books, you should see/post in this thread:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[John, Moderator]

Leon wrote: "This post is meant to be part of the annoying narrators begun some time back. Nadia Mae and Flo Gibson are one and the same narrator, I think. They sound similar. I think both ladies are wonderful ..."

No, they are not. Nadia May is also Wanda McCaddon.

[Hazel]

Tried listening to "The Gone World" narrated by Brittany Pressley. Her unfortunate tendency to vocal fry made my skin crawl. That's just the most recent one. I can't tell if narrators use vocal fry because the book they're reading is so bad that it embarrasses them, or if they are pretending to be humble, having been selected as the one in front of a microphone (oh, it's just lil ole me, nothing to be concerned about, is the underlying message). It's almost like they are subliminally expressing their discomfort at having someone's attention directed at them. Talking with vocal fry is literally talking under your breath. If I'm going to spend hours listening to a book, I want the reader to not sound like an annoyed pre-teen asked to clean the garage.

[Mara]

Because of annoying narrators reading books of my many favorite authors, I've had to avoid those books or bite the bullet and listen to it.

I love Eloisa James, but I stopped listening to books because Susan Duerdan’s voice annoys me. There are Nora Roberts’ earlier books I loved to listen to, but since Sandra Barr narrates them I will not listen to them.

Since Ron McClarty retired, Kyf Brewer took over narrating David Baldacci’s books. I do not like him.

I know there are others, by I can't think of them all.

I wish publishers would realize that narrating is an art just like acting and painting. I wish they would pick accomplished and talented narrators over ones that either sound good, they can pay them at a lower wage, or they are hired because they have a nice voice.

[AlegnaB †]

Michelle wrote: "I have just started "Pride and Prejudice" read by Nadia May. I believe the CD quality is extremely bad as it sounds like it was recorded in a credit card customer service call center . I swear I can hear voices in the background..."

It's not just a problem with the CD. I checked out the eaudio from OneClickdigital in 2014. Here's what I wrote about it then: "...There was an echo/duplicate recording in the background throughout it, but it may have been due to some glitch with the download, since OneClickdigital employees checked their recording and didn't hear it..." So, now I don't believe that anyone actually checked it. Thanks for the info.

John wrote: "... If you want a reader who's really a challenge to get used to, try Flo Gibson!..."

I immensely dislike her voice.