09-25-2014, 04:55 PM | #1 |
Wizard
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Worst narrator ever?
I've heard a few bad ones, but Donna Tartt, reading her book The Secret History, has committed a crime against humanity. I plodded through an hour, and I had to give up. Why a woman with a Southern accent would read a first-person narrative of a man from California boggles the mind. One of the other reviewers who managed to plod all the way through claims she even yawns during the performance (the book is 22+ hours).
Thankfully a professional was hired to narrate The Goldfinch, and he was one of the best narrators I've listened to. Who else do we need to avoid? |
09-25-2014, 05:51 PM | #2 |
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I've made it a point to avoid authors narrating their own books. I made an exception for Peter S. Beagle reading The Last Unicorn, and while he was OK, I wish a professional narrator would redo it.
Some of the LibriVox narrators are ... not good, shall we say, but they're volunteers, so I'm not going to dump on them. |
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09-25-2014, 06:04 PM | #3 |
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William Dufris reading Holmes on the Range was painful, I gave up after an hour. Slow with an awful fake cowboy twang, it twanged on my nerves. I've sampled some of his other readings, they were slow too, so he's on my avoid list.
I'm also not fond of Dick Hill. His gravelly monotone voice works for '50 PI stuff, but nothing else. |
09-25-2014, 06:25 PM | #4 |
You kids get off my lawn!
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You know, it may be - for at least some of them - it's going to be pretty subjective. I happen to know that a couple of the narrators that drive me crazy are favorites of at least one of the regular posters over on the Free/Bargain Romance thread.
I actually recently posted a bad narrator review on Audible's page for the book The Hot Zone by Jayne Castle. I listed to at least part of another book (The Nazi Officer's Wife) by the same narrator and for that book she was fine, but she butchered this one! To me, she sounded like she was doing a William Shatner impression. On top of that, she sounds to be an older woman who probably smokes (I can picture her with a rocks glass and a cigarette) - and the main character is in her 20s. It's just too, too distracting. Last edited by FizzyWater; 09-25-2014 at 06:27 PM. |
09-25-2014, 06:30 PM | #5 |
monkey on the fringe
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When I have multiple choices for the same book, I generally avoid females and anyone with pronounced accents. It's not a sexist thing, but I frequently find females to be too soft spoken or the wrong gender to be narrating a male dominated action-adventure. But for some titles, female narrators are preferred.
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09-25-2014, 06:36 PM | #6 | |
You kids get off my lawn!
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09-25-2014, 08:05 PM | #7 |
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I'm not a fan of Scott Brick narrating thrillers. I also didn't much care for David Suchet narrating Mysterious Affair at Styles.
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09-26-2014, 06:58 PM | #8 |
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09-26-2014, 07:22 PM | #9 |
monkey on the fringe
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Totally agree with you on that. But a British accent for Zane Grey or a southern accent for Doctor Who are both out of the question.
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09-26-2014, 07:25 PM | #10 |
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Some of the worst books I've listened to were ones narrated by the author. It's not always the case but often I find them horrible.
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09-27-2014, 01:54 PM | #11 | |
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I agree heartily. The majority of them should just write the book and leave it that |
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09-27-2014, 10:36 PM | #12 | |
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10-02-2014, 06:07 PM | #13 |
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I don't remember the book but the narrator had, for lack of a better term, a very wet mouth. It sounded like he was slurping half his words. I also try and stay away from books narrated by the author.
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10-03-2014, 11:20 PM | #14 |
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Interesting thread, I just listened to True Grit narrated by Donna Tartt, and thought it was a wonderful performance. (I see it has some poor reviews on Audible, but the complaints I read were about intermittent swallowing and non-verbal mouth sounds - I could hear those when I used a good pair of headphones but not with regular earbuds). She did an amazing job of bringing Mattie Ross to life in this story.
I almost couldn't finish an audiobook narrated by William Dufris. I don't think it was just his narration, because I found the protagonist of the book annoying, and didn't like the way the plot was handled, but his reading style didn't make the book easier to follow or more enjoyable. In contrast, I'm listening to the Rho Agenda series narrated by McLeod Andrews, and his reading makes it easier to overlook some of the annoying features of the book. |
10-04-2014, 12:02 AM | #15 | |||
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The worst narrator I've listened to was Kathleen Turner reading Elizabeth Peters' <b><i>Night Train to Memphis</i></b>, 5th in her Vicky Bliss mystery series. I never finished the first cassette (yes, this was a while ago). |
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