02-24-2018, 05:18 PM | #1 |
E-reader Enthusiast
Posts: 4,873
Karma: 36507503
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Southwest, USA
Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5
|
Multiple Narrators
I just started listening to Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. It goes back and forth between a female and male narrator depending on the point of view in the story. I find it annoying, and it takes you out of the story every time it switches.
Is this common to have multiple voices? Perhaps I've just never come across it before. Do others like or hate it? Maybe it depends on the story. |
02-24-2018, 05:22 PM | #2 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 75,213
Karma: 132920876
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
I've listened to cast audiobooks, but never multiple narrators.
|
Advert | |
|
02-24-2018, 05:34 PM | #3 |
Non-Techy
Posts: 4,454
Karma: 15499273
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: WV---USA
Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders
|
Books I am listen to have Male & Female ... ALL read by MALE Whose Voice gets HIGH Pitched & Phy Hurts my hearing!
YES As much as they charge for Audibles they Should use both.... |
02-24-2018, 05:39 PM | #4 |
E-reader Enthusiast
Posts: 4,873
Karma: 36507503
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Southwest, USA
Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5
|
|
02-24-2018, 05:40 PM | #5 |
E-reader Enthusiast
Posts: 4,873
Karma: 36507503
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Southwest, USA
Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5
|
|
Advert | |
|
02-24-2018, 06:00 PM | #6 |
Non-Techy
Posts: 4,454
Karma: 15499273
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: WV---USA
Device: Samsung Cell Phone & Amazon Fires & Kobo eReaders
|
Nope. Thankfully I Rarely run into to this.
|
02-24-2018, 06:45 PM | #7 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 75,213
Karma: 132920876
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
The last full cast book I listened to was Ender's Game. It was excellent. It didn't feel like someone reading a book to you. It was engaging and the voices used were very well chosen.
|
02-24-2018, 07:12 PM | #8 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 7,356
Karma: 52612287
Join Date: Oct 2010
Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip
|
Quote:
It can get out of hand, though, after a certain point, but I think the problem is with the way the author has structured the story. Paula Hawkins's Into the Water is a mess, with half a dozen different narrators voicing about twice that many characters who have chapters told from their POV. It was hard to follow as an audiobook, but I believe it would have been even more difficult to read the text. |
|
02-24-2018, 07:23 PM | #9 | |
Wizard
Posts: 1,821
Karma: 4985051
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Maryland
Device: ...lots! ;) mostly reading on a Kindle Voyage
|
Quote:
Um, IMO, Into the Water is just a mess altogether with the number of characters in the book. I read the book; didn't listen to it. It was hard to remember who was who. With so many characters I didn't feel like I got to know any of them beyond a very superficial level. |
|
02-24-2018, 09:59 PM | #10 | |
E-reader Enthusiast
Posts: 4,873
Karma: 36507503
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Southwest, USA
Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5
|
Quote:
Manhattan Beach isn't structured that way so maybe that's why it seems more of a disjointed mess. It will be a long period of one narrator and then switch to another for only a short period and switch then back again all while in the same chapter. |
|
02-24-2018, 11:09 PM | #11 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 7,356
Karma: 52612287
Join Date: Oct 2010
Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip
|
Quote:
There's a version of The Godfather that uses multiple narrators in an odd way--the main narrator for the text does not read the dialog--all lines of dialog, and only the lines of dialog, are read by various other voice actors. It was jarring but I eventually got used to it, though I can't say I liked it. Two classic epistolary novels that I think work great with multiple narrators are Dracula and The Woman in White. |
|
02-25-2018, 07:28 AM | #12 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 6,537
Karma: 14008730
Join Date: May 2008
Location: PA (USA)
Device: Kobo Clara, 2E, Libre 1, PW4, PW5, 2022 Kindle, Kobo Libre Colour
|
I just listened to several Christine Feehan books with a male doing all the male POV narration and dialogue, and the female doing the same with female narration and dialogue. The first one I listened to I found to be a bit jarring, but after that, I loved them. The rest of the series is done the same way, and I look forward to it.
|
02-26-2018, 09:52 PM | #13 |
You kids get off my lawn!
Posts: 4,220
Karma: 73492664
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Device: Oasis 2 and Libra H2O and half a dozen older models I can't let go of
|
Some older Jayne Ann Krentz novels - I think it was the contemporary versions of the Arcane Society series - had two narrators. If I remember correctly, the male read the male parts and the female the female parts, and they alternated chapters reading the non-dialogue. What I remember thinking is that one of the narrators was much better than the other. So it *was* distracting, but I can't say whether it was only because they were unevenly matched.
|
02-26-2018, 10:49 PM | #14 |
E-reader Enthusiast
Posts: 4,873
Karma: 36507503
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Southwest, USA
Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5
|
Interesting observation. I think that could be the case here. I like the narrators independently. Their styles just don't match.
|
02-27-2018, 07:37 AM | #15 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 7,196
Karma: 70314280
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Atlanta, GA
Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2
|
Some of the Tamara Pierce books use the multi-cast reading method. I got the impression that it was kind of a fan/pro thing rather than a group of professional voice actors. It wasn't bad and it suited the books in question (basically young adult with a lot of characters). The Wheel of Time series uses dual readers, male and female. I thought that it worked pretty well, at least in the first two books.
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Trouble adding multiple books from multiple directories to Calibre | LisaAlissa | Library Management | 17 | 09-02-2015 12:00 PM |
Recommend audiobooks with great narrators? | meeera | Reading Recommendations | 14 | 06-27-2013 12:27 AM |
Audiobooks with narrators who are not so good | JSWolf | Reading Recommendations | 8 | 06-16-2013 11:10 AM |
<Command Line> Add multiple books in multiple formats | himitsu | Calibre | 8 | 09-25-2010 11:07 PM |
Bug: entries with multiple formats trigger multiple conversions | flinx1 | Calibre | 12 | 05-21-2010 06:23 AM |