I have a longish commute a few days a week (northern suburbs of Philadelphia, PA to Newark, NJ) - and fill the time with podcasts, and audiobooks.
Can any of you recommend some very well done unabridged audiobooks?
Some of my favorites that I have already done are: The Lord of the Rings & Hobbit (read by Rob Inglis) - these are exceptionally good - Harry Potter series, Dune, GRRM's books.
Anyone have any positive experiences with any others of note? (doesn't have to be sci-fi).
Well if you can get hold of them the Red Dwar audio books are great. The first two are read by Chris Barrie and he does all the voices, Craig Charles reads the third and I think Rob Grany reads the forth. I've only got the abridged but I know you can get the full versions.
Also Shatners bio is great in audio form :)
Well you have already listed the ones I listen to over and over LOTR and Harry Potter. But I've really enjoyed Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan also The Wheel of Time series by James Oliver Rigney, Jr
Quote from: Geekyfanboy on December 02, 2009, 12:03:22 PM
Well you have already listed the ones I listen to over and over LOTR and Harry Potter. But I've really enjoyed Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan also The Wheel of Time series by James Oliver Rigney, Jr
Yes I forgot to list The Wheel of Time - I am just about wrapping up the latest - The Gathering Storm - which is why I am casting about for a new candidate
Leonard Nimoy's 'I Am Spock' is a great listen.
I did a podcast on these once, but the "Star Wars" radio dramas are a terrific listen. The ones for the first film especially give you a lot of background and content not seen in the movies. Great music, sound effects and voice acting too.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Star-Wars-Trilogy-Original/dp/1565111656/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259847606&sr=8-2 (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Star-Wars-Trilogy-Original/dp/1565111656/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259847606&sr=8-2)
I'll suggest the Hitchhikers Guide radio shows. Good stuff there.
I'm a BIG fan of Scott Sigler and his FREE audiobooks. He walks a fine line somewhere between Stephen King and Michael Crichton. Horror with a definate strong Sci-fi element.
You can download from iTunes as podcasts or from his site www.scottsigler.com (http://www.scottsigler.com). Definately the best free fiction I've ever heard...hell, I'll even pay for it! My advise is to start with Infected or if you are a fan of American Football, The Rookie
As for audiobooks. I just finished FlashForward and really enjoyed it. Very different to the TV show, though I have a feeling about something that will occur at the end of this series to set up a second series
The audio book version of Stover's Revenge Of The Sith is pretty sweet.
I just bit the bullet and bought the unabridged 'Children of Hurin' by Tolkien - read by Christopher Lee. What a voice he has for this sort of thing - it is like Dooku himself - or Sauruman is reading me a bedtime story! :) I am a Tolkien nut - so even though I have the print book, I had to have this audiobook.
Lee truly has an epic persona.. He could probably read a cookbook & make it riveting! :)
Lee is great. I really loved the Last Unicorn as a kid, he plays King Haggard there. I don't think I'll ever forget his voice.
He walked into the studio with the book under his arm and told them which lines were great and that he wanted to read them! :)
Not to forget, I watched the German language version of the film - where King Haggard is also played by Lee!!!
If you like really good mysteries, and can find them, I would recommend any of the PD James audio books.
Kevin
Quote from: cosmonaut on December 08, 2009, 08:34:04 AM
Lee is great. I really loved the Last Unicorn as a kid, he plays King Haggard there. I don't think I'll ever forget his voice.
He walked into the studio with the book under his arm and told them which lines were great and that he wanted to read them! :)
Not to forget, I watched the German language version of the film - where King Haggard is also played by Lee!!!
Yes, I had heard that he also spoke German. I love that he was actually on friendly terms with Tolkien - and that he re-reads the Lord of the Rings once a year.
Aside from the Dracula movies, I always recall him fondly in the James Bond movie 'Man With The Golden Gun'.
I have listened to Bujold's A Civil Campaign by Blackstone Audio more than once. I would recommend it but it is kind of far into the Vorkosigan series. If the earlier books are also by Blackstone I suppose I could recommend them but not by direct personal experience.
psik
One of my faves is Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno. Way cool.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is usually very well done in AudioBook format. The reader is almost always a baritone with a British accent - so I'd keep away if it's late & your tired while driving. But, in general, I recommend Discworld. It's a fantastic series.
I was just pricing the Vorkosigan series on MP3 CDs.
I got $225 and that is missing 2 books so it should be more like $270.
Librivox has quite a bit of stuff by Andre Norton.
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=&author=andre+norton&status=all&action=Search (http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=&author=andre+norton&status=all&action=Search)
psik