Narrator Ratings

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I decided to find what I'd listened to George Guidall on before and just realised it's the oddest thing that Audible does not list the narrators in one's library of bought books. I figured out that I listened to him on Zorba the Greek and he did a good job so I'll give him a 4.

Actually, they let you search on narrator in your library. Go to the main Library view, and type in the narrator's name in the search box. This returns all books in your library with that narrator. (Note it will also include any books for which they are the author.)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Actually, they let you search on narrator in your library. Go to the main Library view, and type in the narrator's name in the search box. This returns all books in your library with that narrator. (Note it will also include any books for which they are the author.)

One of the reasons that I use OpenAudible is that it pulls back all the meta data, including narrator, from Audible and presents it in a reasonable format. I'm using it to update my audio calibre list with the narrator.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Aaaaand I'm caught up with all the posts so far.

Well, except for the questions I have for CRussel just above, and this one:




Jon, I have you as unrated for this in the list since the list ratings are 1-5, but I could put you down for a 4.5; just let me know if you'd like that.

Sure, go for it.

[sun surfer]

I just listened to two narrators for two different Saki short story collections.

I'll give Ian Richardson a 4 for his narration of Saki's The Chronicles of Clovis. He's an actor known for various things including the original UK House of Cards. He had a very florid and dramatic style, and while it contrasted a bit with Saki's simpler language I still really enjoyed it and he really helped to bring the biting wit at times to sparkling life.

Cathy Dobson will get a 3 for Saki's Beasts and Super-Beasts. It would either be a 2 or 3; she has a little bit of a sing-song voice and didn't do much with different voices, but I'll settle on 3 because she was adequate.

Originally Posted by CRussel

Actually, they let you search on narrator in your library. Go to the main Library view, and type in the narrator's name in the search box. This returns all books in your library with that narrator. (Note it will also include any books for which they are the author.)

I meant to reply before, but thank you! It's still strange they don't list them out but this will help.

[sun surfer]

I listened to Nadia May on the first two Mapp and Lucia books, the first titled Queen Lucia and the second Miss Mapp. She did a really good job. I'll give her 4 stars; that might bump up to a 5 once I listen to her again, and that gives me another reason to get back to that enjoyable series.

[Paperbackstash]

I'm not knowledgeable about narrators and audiobooks in general, but some thoughts of those I've heard this year.

Jim Dale 5/5 for Harry Potter series (other than the first book, I didn't listen to it - the most enjoyable audiobook experiences I've had).

Kate Mulgrew is very good with NOS4A2, 4/5

Trevor Noah's Born a Crime really does seem like a long conversation, well done, 4/5

Edoardo Ballerini is well-cast for the Matthew Corbett series from R. McCammon - he's slower paced but well seasoned, something about his quiet tones draws you in. 4/5

Tom Sellwood is doing brilliantly with The Terror by Dan Simmons - he has a knack for switching voices with viewpoints convincingly well, he's not too slow or rushed, enjoying this narration very much. 4.5/5

Matt Godfrey does a good job with the Blackwater Series by Michael McDowell - not always perfect but his pauses in voices and conversation make picturing the characters and their mannerisms easy. He fits the stories - I do wish he'd pause more or change his tone a bit when it's supposed to be a "creepy moment". 3/5

The Chestnut Man with Peter Noble - Didn't care for at all. He has the bad habit of pausing in several places in each sentence, and not always where he should. His voice impersonations aren't bad, but he keeps it slower and pausing, it's easy to get out of the story, and some odd dialect. 2/5

If you ever get a chance to hear the old Perry Mason's, they have most of them on Scribd, I highly recommend one of the most used narrators - I love listening to this guys voice, fits the noir vibe with some of these, and sometimes the voices are a hoot. 5/5 on the Perry Mason series, not sure what my rating would be with other genres. Alexander Cendese. I haven't heard him do any other work besides Perry Mason, but looking at his page he seems to do a lot of romance.

Steven Webber does excellent with IT - I would go all the way to 5 stars, but he gets a bit understated and odd when it comes to the voice of the clown. 4.5/5

[Paperbackstash]

I will say I didn't find Frank Muller's work of The Silence of the Lambs impressive. He subdues several voices and keeps a mainly level pace that doesn't always befit the story. 2.5/5

[SeaBookGuy]

Eduardo Ballerini has a lot of talent, IMHO. Frank Muller and Anna Fields both suffered tragic accidents relatively young.

[sun surfer]

Thanks for all the ratings Paperbackstash, and the list is up to date with all the posts so far!

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

Eduardo Ballerini has a lot of talent, IMHO. Frank Muller and Anna Fields both suffered tragic accidents relatively young.

Would you like to rate any of these?

[FizzyWater]

This kind of thing seems so subjective. And depends on the book. Seems like everyone on Mobilereads loves Barbara Rosenblat. I loved what she did with a book written about an older woman looking back on her years during the Nazi regime (can't remember if she was a survivor, resister, or secret participant - might have been the Nazi Officer's Wife). But she absolutely ruined a SF romance with a snarky 20-something female lead and I refused to continue the rest of the series because I could see she continued on as the narrator on the next book.

Susan Ericksen has long been a favorite of mine in how she reads the JD Robb novels. Lately, though, she's really mellowed out her tone and made the books seem to drag on (last book was better IMO). And she read some historical romances in a fake English accent which was just weird.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Edoardo Ballerini is well-cast for the Matthew Corbett series from R. McCammon - he's slower paced but well seasoned, something about his quiet tones draws you in. 4/5

I thought Ballerini did an excellent job with The Charterhouse of Parma and I would give him four stars based on that.

[sun surfer]

The list is up to date!

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

This kind of thing seems so subjective. And depends on the book. Seems like everyone on Mobilereads loves Barbara Rosenblat. I loved what she did with a book written about an older woman looking back on her years during the Nazi regime (can't remember if she was a survivor, resister, or secret participant - might have been the Nazi Officer's Wife). But she absolutely ruined a SF romance with a snarky 20-something female lead and I refused to continue the rest of the series because I could see she continued on as the narrator on the next book.

Susan Ericksen has long been a favorite of mine in how she reads the JD Robb novels. Lately, though, she's really mellowed out her tone and made the books seem to drag on (last book was better IMO). And she read some historical romances in a fake English accent which was just weird.

Very subjective, I agree. It's like a book recommendation- there are books that everyone else hates that someone will love, books that everyone else loves that someone will hate, and everything else in between. Or maybe more like an author recommendation with multiple books under their belt of possibly varying quality. I still think it can be useful to see what others think though.

And by the way, if you'd like to give a rating to any of those you mentioned, just let me know and I'll add them to the list.

[CRussel]

Eileen Stevens -- solid 3 stars. She does some of the Liaden Universe narrations, and is quite acceptable. Better with younger voices than older ones, and I wasn't thrilled with her choice of voices for Uncle, but that's a minor quibble.

[pwalker8]

One of the downsides to star ratings is that different stars mean different things to various people. I'm old enough that I tend to put things on a bell curve. The vast majority of narrators are a three because I think they are good, but they don't necessarily stand out as extraordinary from either a good or bad point of view. I would rate most of the ones I mentioned in my first post in this thread as 4's because they stood out, but weren't perfect. Jim Dale and Tim Curry are two that I would rate as 5 for the Harry Potter and Abhorsen series respectively. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to both of those series.

People now days seem to think that rating someone a 3 star is a complete failure (I call this a 1 star), 4 stars is something to brood about(I call this 2 star) and 5 stars as expected(I call this 3 star). I can't imagine actually listening to a complete book where I rated the narrator as a 1 or 2 star.

I would also say that sometimes the choice of one voice can really grate on my nerves. Cameron Beierle is the narrator for the Brian Daley series Doomfarers of Coramonde (one of my favorite series of all time). I flat out could not stand his choice of a high falsetto voice for one of the female characters. Couldn't finish the book. I was shocked when I noticed that he also did the Belgarion by David Eddings, also one of my favorite series and a series where I really enjoyed the audio books a lot. He would have been rated a 2 for Doomfarers and 4 for the Belgarion by me.

[CRussel]

I like to think of the 5 stars in terms of the Michelin Food Guide stars, but bumped up by two places. The Michelin Guide lists:
One star signifies "a very good restaurant", two stars are "excellent cooking that is worth a detour", and three stars mean "exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey"

My take on that, relative to narrators: 3 stars signifies a very good narrator, 4 stars as excellent, and 5 stars as exceptional. With 2 stars being one that's OK but worth looking to see if you can find an alternate, but if not, and you really want to listen to the book, probably acceptable. And 1 star? Buy the eBook, cause the narrator is so bad as to destroy even a quite good book.

(FWIW, I have a very good appreciation of exactly what the Michelin stars mean in real terms, having spent three weeks in France 20 years ago, and managing to eat at starred restaurants for an average of more than one meal a day. And yet, the two best meals we had there were at a one star restaurant and a two star restaurant. One of the three stars was worth the effort for the view, another for the location, and the third lost it's stars the next year, but none of the three were up to that very first one star meal. But that was because of the wine!)