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taosaur · 08-13-2013, 01:44 PM

Amazon really has their hooks in me with the Whispersync pricing. It's frequently cheaper or equal to an Audible credit to just buy the Kindle version and add narration. Audible sent me a $10 coupon, and at Whispersync rates that's 3-5 audiobooks included free with the Kindle editions. So far I haven't actually used the sync feature and have only read a page here or there in one Kindle edition (The Emperor's New Soul by Brandon Sanderson), but I've bought about five ebooks from Amazon, bringing my lifetime total to about six

Prior to that spree, I listened to and occasionally read half of C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series (volumes 8 through 13) via Play Books text-to-speech, and it was not bad at all. If anyone else wants to use the feature at some point, just remember to go into the app settings and enable "high quality voice," which will require an internet connection. I picked up the actual audiobook for #14, and it's a little jarring. The reader on the first 7 books was great, but the guy on book 14, Daniel Thomas May, is pretty weak. He might do better with different subject matter, but in this work he puts an overly-exoticizing emphasis on all the 'alien' words and names, and his character voicing for all but the human protagonist is more caricature than characterization.

I'll be sad when I finish this one, the last in the series so far. I'm thinking I'll start on Hugh Howey's Wool next, which I got as a Whispersync package, or possibly The Sisters Brothers which has been highly recommended in my circle of writer friends--I have that one in Play Books.

08-13-2013, 01:44 PM	#618
taosaur intelligent posterior Posts: 1,562 Karma: 21295618 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohiopolis Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro	Amazon really has their hooks in me with the Whispersync pricing. It's frequently cheaper or equal to an Audible credit to just buy the Kindle version and add narration. Audible sent me a $10 coupon, and at Whispersync rates that's 3-5 audiobooks included free with the Kindle editions. So far I haven't actually used the sync feature and have only read a page here or there in one Kindle edition (The Emperor's New Soul by Brandon Sanderson), but I've bought about five ebooks from Amazon, bringing my lifetime total to about six Prior to that spree, I listened to and occasionally read half of C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series (volumes 8 through 13) via Play Books text-to-speech, and it was not bad at all. If anyone else wants to use the feature at some point, just remember to go into the app settings and enable "high quality voice," which will require an internet connection. I picked up the actual audiobook for #14, and it's a little jarring. The reader on the first 7 books was great, but the guy on book 14, Daniel Thomas May, is pretty weak. He might do better with different subject matter, but in this work he puts an overly-exoticizing emphasis on all the 'alien' words and names, and his character voicing for all but the human protagonist is more caricature than characterization. I'll be sad when I finish this one, the last in the series so far. I'm thinking I'll start on Hugh Howey's Wool next, which I got as a Whispersync package, or possibly The Sisters Brothers which has been highly recommended in my circle of writer friends--I have that one in Play Books. Last edited by taosaur; 08-13-2013 at 01:46 PM.