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I've been reading and/or listening to the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters as they become available from my library.
I’m going to be the dissenting voice on favored audio narrator for the series. I listened to O’Malley narrate Deeds of the Disturber and found it quite enjoyable. I picked up the Rosenblat narration for The Last Camel Died at Noon and – so far – prefer O’Malley’s more subtle narration. I know some listeners can’t abide listening to Amelia with anything other than the pronounced English accent of Rosenblat, but I find Rosenblat’s performance much more bombastic and full of smug condescension to the point that it drowns out the more temperate qualities of the characters and wry bits of humor. Rosenblat’s performance reminds me of a stage actor chewing up the scenery to engage the audience, whereas O’Malley’s reading style is less theatrical. Some listeners complained that O’Malley’s delivery is monotone. I didn’t find it that way at all. In fact, I felt the affection between Emerson and Amelia more easily shines through because it isn’t overacted. Rosenblat’s narration is also paced much slower due to all the dramatic posturing and pauses (e.g., TLCDaN is nearly 2.5 hours longer than the O'Malley recording).
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