What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[davtay]

Just finished John Irving's The Cider House Rules. Another fantastic listen. Great novel with Grover Gardner narrating.

[neil_swann80]

The complete works of Sherlock Homes narrated by Stephen Fry. Perfection.

[issybird]

I’m listening to two audiobooks: The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope read by Nigel Paterson and Sharpe’s Command by Bernard Cornwell read by Rupert Farley.

The Trollope so far is one of his better stand-alone novels, a welcome relief after the last two I read which were stinkers and Paterson does an excellent job with the voices.. The Sharpe is rather Sharpe-lite but he’s still back on form, also a welcome relief after two clunkers. Farley isn’t entirely successful at delineating separate voices and his women sound like men, but he’s still fine. I miss Frederick Davidson, but there’s no denying that his Patrick Harper sounded like the Lucky Charms leprechaun.

This is my 27th Trollope and my 23rd Sharpe. Nothing like sticking to one’s comfort zone!

[CRussel]

I'll pass on the Trollope, I fear. But it's past time I returned to Sharpe.

[issybird]

I've been bingeing on the Nero Wolfe books read by Michael Prichard while swimming and since the pool will be open another month (brr!) I should squeeze in a few more. His women's voices could use more differentiation, but they don't jar. And his Wolfe is fabulous, which is what matters, and his Archie excellent, conveying the dry humor underlying the story. Just for funsies, I listened to some Nero Wolfe radio programs with Sidney Greenstreet as Wolfe and as good as he is, he's inferior to Prichard.

[ApK]

I'm listening to the third of John Lescroart's Wyatt Hunt series, "The Hunter." I've enjoyed all the previous Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitsky/Wyatt Hunt shared-universe audiobooks. I noted the Audible reviews for this one were pretty much unanimously hostile toward the narrator. I figured it was probably a small vocal group who missed the previous narrators and just didn't like change.
Nope, they were right. This guy ranges from mediocre to absolutely awful. He mispronounces a main character name that has been consistently established in half a dozen previous audiobooks, he mispronouces some relative common words, half his characters sound like voices a gradeschooler would use when playing with cartoon action figures, and the rest of the dialog is delivered in an odd labored monotone, that reminds of when the barely-literate football jock in my high school English class had to read aloud a passage from whatever book he was supposed to have done a book report on but obviously had never cracked open. I don't know how this got through the system. I expect better of Audible.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

I've been bingeing on the Nero Wolfe books read by Michael Prichard while swimming and since the pool will be open another month (brr!) I should squeeze in a few more. His women's voices could use more differentiation, but they don't jar. And his Wolfe is fabulous, which is what matters, and his Archie excellent, conveying the dry humor underlying the story. Just for funsies, I listened to some Nero Wolfe radio programs with Sidney Greenstreet as Wolfe and as good as he is, he's inferior to Prichard.

Prichard's Wolfe is superb. I've had to skip a few of them, just because they're just a bit _too_ much of the era. And while one can put up with Wolfe's misogyny since it's really only referred to, but rarely actually expressed, Archie's casual racism is sometimes a bit more than I can handle these days. None the less, a fabulous oeuvre, and I just skip over the more obnoxious of the books. It's not like there aren't a lot of them!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Prichard's Wolfe is superb. I've had to skip a few of them, just because they're just a bit _too_ much of the era. And while one can put up with Wolfe's misogyny since it's really only referred to, but rarely actually expressed, Archie's casual racism is sometimes a bit more than I can handle these days. None the less, a fabulous oeuvre, and I just skip over the more obnoxious of the books. It's not like there aren't a lot of them!

I can still let the era offenses mostly roll off me, with the occasional wince. In part, it's because I can absolve Stout of many earlier sins because of his masterful takedown of the FBI in The Doorbell Rang. And addressing your "a lot of them" comment, the book is a case in point. Twenty years after the first Wolfe and it was one of the best. I'd nominate it as the series which best maintained consistent quality over the decades. Love them.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by issybird

I can still let the era offenses mostly roll off me, with the occasional wince. In part, it's because I can absolve Stout of many earlier sins because of his masterful takedown of the FBI in The Doorbell Rang. And addressing your "a lot of them" comment, the book is a case in point. Twenty years after the first Wolfe and it was one of the best. I'd nominate it as the series which best maintained consistent quality over the decades. Love them.

I agree, I have read them all and still do. I never felt like Rex Stout had to rely on formulaic plots and never felt like the series was going downhill like so many others. I am going to start listening to them next after I finish the current Recluce book I am listening too.
Apache

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Apache

I agree, I have read them all and still do. I never felt like Rex Stout had to rely on formulaic plots and never felt like the series was going downhill like so many others. I am going to start listening to them next after I finish the current Recluce book I am listening too.
Apache

If you've never listened to them before, you're in for a treat. Michael Prichard is fantastic.

[CRussel]

OK, I can see it's time for a group listen/re-listen. They really are fantastic. And I agree about The Doorbell Rang. Though I admit to a bit of fondness for the one where they get chased by a bull.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

OK, I can see it's time for a group listen/re-listen. They really are fantastic. And I agree about The Doorbell Rang. Though I admit to a bit of fondness for the one where they get chased by a bull.

Heh. I’m in the middle of that very one in the pool right now! (Not a first listen). It’s also the one where Lily Rowan is introduced. I’d be all over picking one and having a chat.

[Tarana]

Just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Suzanna Clarke and narrated by Simon Prebble. Highly recommended book by others but the first 2/3 was a slog for me. It's written in the style of a memoir. However, the last 1/3 was excellent. Since I own the book, I'll listen to it again in a few years. I think I will enjoy it more now that I understand the style used. BTW, I kept going due to how much I paid for it! If it had been a library book, I would have abandoned and missed out on that final 1/3.

Now listening to another Murder She Wrote called Killer In The Kitchen - by Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by issybird

Heh. I’m in the middle of that very one in the pool right now! (Not a first listen). It’s also the one where Lily Rowan is introduced. I’d be all over picking one and having a chat.

Yes, the first we see of Lily Rowan. I thought I remembered that to be the case. This is "Some Buried Caesar" right?

I'll dig my copy out and start listening, just as soon as I find out what happens to this demon that some paladins are trying to kill.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Yes, the first we see of Lily Rowan. I thought I remembered that to be the case. This is "Some Buried Caesar" right?

I'll dig my copy out and start listening,

If you'd rather start at the beginning with Fer-de-Lance, I recently relistened to that one so it's fresh in my mind. Bingeing, as I said, contingent on what I can get from the library.

just as soon as I find out what happens to this demon that some paladins are trying to kill.

A road down which I can't follow!