Narrator Ratings

[Paperbackstash]

Teri Schnaubelt did a pretty good job with the prequel Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant. 3/5

[CRussel]

Currently listening to Tales of the City, narrated by Frances McDormand. She does an excellent job. A solid 4 stars for the narration.

[Paperbackstash]

A heads-up for those who use Kindle Unlimited

I used the free narration option finally for a book with this service, and it was actually very good audio quality.
Book link via Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...9p55cEu&rank=1

Here is the link to the Audible on Amazon details
https://www.amazon.com/The-Butterfly...=UTF8&qid=&sr=

The narrators were good.
Lauren Ezzo (Narrator), Mel Foster (Narrator)
Rating 4/5 for Audiobook narration

[Paperbackstash]

Valancourt released an audio at the end of 2020 of Michael McDowell's Katie
https://www.audible.com/pd/Katie-Audiobook/B08GPXXMPR

Kimberly M. Wetherell did an excellent job narrating. 3/5 for the book, 5/5 for the narrator

[JSWolf]

Ralph Cosham narrated Still Life by Louise Penny.

I rate it 0 stars if possible, if not, 1 star.

I found his reading to be very dry and very flat. It was awful. I enjoyed the book, but I did not enjoy the audiobook. I could not listen all that long before I had to give up and go back to the eBook.

[Paperbackstash]

Shaun Taylor-Corbett did a very good job narrating The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones - this was considered one of the top horror novels of 2020 and nominations for book of the year in the same genre in Goodreads awards, among other places. His voice carried the story well and he spoke quickly, at times I had to slow him down a bit just until I got used to him - 4/5 rating

[Paperbackstash]

Another rating for Victor LaVelle The Ballad of Black Tom - 5/5 for the narration, 3/5 for the story (until the ending, which brought it up back up in my estimation)

Matt Godfrey did well for The Devil's Own Work: Valancourt 20th Century Classics where Valancourt has recreated a few classics, including the abovementioned Katie, both released 2020. The story is pretty good, but the narration is excellent and perfectly suite do the ambience of dread for this one. 4/5

[Paperbackstash]

I finished The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley on Scribd.
Multi-audio case, recommended.
Story 3/5
Narration 4/5 Stars - Narrated by Gary Furlong, Elle Newlands and Imogen Church

[hobnail]

Several years ago I bought an audio book that was narrated by the actor Burt Reynolds. It was awful. I'd give the narration a 2 at most.

[issybird]

I recently had to abandon Blood & Ivy narrated by Kevin Kenerly as he was so very awful. Pity, as it was a fun book (if true crime can be fun) - interesting enough that I ended up reading it.

[sun surfer]

Frank Muller was not my cup of tea. I just finished his narration of Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler and while he has a good voice and does character voices well enough, his narration of the text otherwise had the habit of speaking almost every sentence the same by ending each with an unvarying slow and melodramatic inflection. 2/5

[sun surfer]

I had the pleasure of listening to Lee Horsley narrating Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I had a little trepidation going in because some of the top narrator reviews on Audible mentioned heavy breathing that was too distracting. However I had no problem with his breathing and in fact it didn't sound very heavy to me, so to each their own. What's more, this is one of the longest audiobooks I've listened to at almost 37 hours so there was plenty of time to notice anything amiss. It makes me wonder if many who listen to Lonesome Dove haven't listened to many other audiobooks or narrators before because I've definitely heard other narrators who have more distracting breathing and whose breathing wasn't prominently mentioned in their ratings.

Horsley has a great narrating voice and pace, and does a huge variety of character voices really well (well, except for a seldom used questionable Irish accent). I was tempted to give him five stars but for the fact that he gives one of the main characters, Gus, who talks in the book all the time, such an inflection that's on the way towards cartoonish. The character is vivid, loud and outspoken but still he's also powerful, shrewd and intelligent. Who knows, maybe the voice was realistic and it was distinctive, and I did get used to it, but I felt the character would've been suited to a voice slightly more subtle. Overall 4/5.

[Catlady]

I've reconsidered my dislike of Scott Brick as a narrator, at least when it comes to nonfiction, when he's straightforward and not overly dramatic. Or maybe I just got used to him after a 36-hour book.

I've also reconsidered my knee-jerk avoidance of author-narrated books, again at least when it comes to nonfiction. Most of the ones I've listened to this year have been more than adequate.

[JSWolf]

I recently finished listening to Star Trek: Discovery: The Enterprise War by John Jackson Miller narrated by Robert Petkoff. It was excellently narrated. I give it 5-stars. Robert Petkoff does voices and does them very well.