[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Female voices were bad, but male narrators seem almost uniformly bad at female voices.

Originally Posted by ApK

I'm just finishing "The Vor Game" read by my main man Grover Gardner.
I was just last night musing on how impressed I am by the way he handles female characters. He doesn't do 'voices' per se, just slight variations for the various characters in a scene. Very subtle, very effective, and, unless you're one to muse over narration skills, as we here in this forum tend to be, it could be totally transparent.

I listened to a version of "Shards of Honor," the first book in the Vorkosigan saga, which features a male and female protagonist in equal parts, that was narrated by a man and a woman narrator performing the two main roles. It was not bad, they both did a fine job, but I prefer Grover Gardner doing all the parts.

Originally Posted by issybird

I agree with this. Female narrators are better overall at suggesting male voices, IMO. I suspect it's easier to lower your voice a little than verging on the falsetto.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'll third that notion. In fact, I'd wager to say that in my relatively short experience with audiobooks, I've preferred female narrators in general.

I think there are both good and bad narrators of every gender. That being said, I would say there's a slight advantage to the female narrators. But I much prefer the subtle approach of a Grover Gardner rather than those who try to completely change their voice for each character. (And I especially hate really BAD "American" accents from English narrators, who just don't get it right!)

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm not listening to anything right now as I'm out of Audible credits. I'm not used to new credits not showing up by noon of the day they're scheduled to arrive. I'll have to see if I can find something free and relatively short to tide me over. I sincerely hope there's no issue I need to remedy.

It is for times like this that the "buy 3 credits" are my salvation. I used to be on a 2 credits a month subscription, but I've scaled back to 1 credit a month, but allow myself to occasionally grab 3 extra credits which I save for an immediate need. Or, alternatively, perhaps start a re-read of a favourite series? Especially if you know a new book is coming in that series.