What are we listening to? (audiobooks)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Geralt

Attachment 138970

Listening to Dune. Probably the best audiobook I ever listened to. Simon Vance and the rest of the cast are brilliant.

Interesting, that one keeps getting pushed down in my to be listened to queue. I guess I need to move it back up to the top.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished Dragon in Exile, #18 in the Liaden Universe from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. An excellent book, where many different story lines progress as Clan Korval settles into its new home on Surebleak. The reading is from Kevin T. Collins and while it's better than his reading of Trade Secret, it's still not his best, IMO. His sense of pace has improved, but his sense of narrative "story telling" and dramatic volume is still lacking. Of course, I listened to this in the middle of listening to Patrick Tull's reading of Sharpe's Prey, and there are few better readers ever than Mr. Tull, so that might be influencing my take on this.

And finished Sharpe's Prey. Rather more brutal than some of the other books in this series, though it is, frankly, hard to talk about soldiering in this time period and NOT have it be pretty brutal.

Sharpe's Prey covers the English shelling of Copenhagen in 1807, a brutal shelling of a neutral civilian population for the sole purpose of preventing the French from capturing the Danish naval fleet. This was not England's finest hour, and Cornwell pulls no punches while he positions the intrepid Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, of His Majesty's 95th Riflemen in and out of Copenhagen during the bombardment. We also find out a bit more about Sharpe's childhood in the early part of the book.

This book, along with the previous one, Sharpe's Trafalgar, is read by Patrick Tull, one of my all time favourite readers. Mr. Tull has a superb sense of the story he's telling and his readings always add to the enjoyment and understanding of the book.

Next up, something rather different -- the final book of the Last Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, Magic's Price. This book is read by Gregory St. John, and the narration is OK, but not outstanding. However, it's a good series. easily the best of the Valdemar series IMO, and I'm looking forward to finishing it off.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Interesting, that one keeps getting pushed down in my to be listened to queue. I guess I need to move it back up to the top.

It's a good book, and an excellent reading. I made no attempt to go beyond this first book in the series, for a variety of reasons, but very much enjoyed this one.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by melmac

<snip>

Then on to something much much better Broken Homes (Peter Grant, #4) by Ben Aaronovitch WOW I'm just a few minutes away from the end and this morning on the way to work

Spoiler:

I got to he bit with Lesley OMG I did not see that coming, my mouth dropped open and wouldn't close I was seriously driving along with my mouth open like a goldfish. I'm in shock and sad I did not realise how much I had invested in these characters

Can't wait to finish off the last few minutes and start the next one.
I love t: this series

I'm currently listening to #3 in this series and I snagged 4 and 5 free from an audiobooks.com trial so I'll probably do a listening marathon. This series is my find for the year and the narrator is a great match for the main character.

[Tarana]

I'm currently listening to the new recording of Ghost Story by Jim Butcher and read by James Marsters. I had the John Glover version, but hey, James Marsters IS Harry Dresden. I am also listening to Outlander while doing housework.

[moyogi2]

Currently half way through Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - I really enjoy his books.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by CRussel

And finished Sharpe's Prey. Rather more brutal than some of the other books in this series, though it is, frankly, hard to talk about soldiering in this time period and NOT have it be pretty brutal.

Sharpe's Prey covers the English shelling of Copenhagen in 1807, a brutal shelling of a neutral civilian population for the sole purpose of preventing the French from capturing the Danish naval fleet. This was not England's finest hour, and Cornwell pulls no punches while he positions the intrepid Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, of His Majesty's 95th Riflemen in and out of Copenhagen during the bombardment. We also find out a bit more about Sharpe's childhood in the early part of the book.

I have got to get to these. Wonderful series with Sean Bean, I expect that books will be that much better.

I'm listening to Outlander before I watch any of the episodes. Using the new feature on my Echo to do so!

[melmac]

Originally Posted by Synamon

I'm currently listening to #3 in this series and I snagged 4 and 5 free from an audiobooks.com trial so I'll probably do a listening marathon. This series is my find for the year and the narrator is a great match for the main character.

Totally agree I have one left and am saving it for just a little while savouring the anticipation

Just finished the last of the Wayward Pines Trilogy on a whole it was pretty good fast moving which I liked.

I have just started The Fold by Peter Clines, high hopes for this one.

[pwalker8]

One thing about audio books verse regular books (i.e. ebooks or paper) is that they tend to bring out the slower sections of a book. I'm listening to The Naming, by Alison Croggon, the first of a series of four books that I bought as ebooks, then bought the audiobook at the special prices of $3 per book since I already had the ebook. The ebooks are pretty good. They are youth books that seem to borrow some scenes/locations from LOTR (Lothlorien? check, Minas Tirth? check, Old Forest? check, Barrowdowns? check. You get the idea).

But with that, there is a totally different flavor and writing style to the books than LOTR and follows the classic young adult script (teenager saves the world with minimum amount of training, skills just naturally pop up when needed). I didn't really notices any sections like that when I read them as ebooks, however listening to the first book, I've found myself wanting to skip forward in various sections. I'll probably move the other three down my to be listened to list a bit. It isn't bad and I haven't skipped to the next book yet (The King's Justice by Katherine Kurtz), but I'm ready to get to the end.

For what it's worth, I've run across a number of books that I feel that way about (audio book has scenes I want to skip through). The best known of these is the second Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Some of the early scenes with Dobie and later with Lockhart just seem to get on my nerves.

[orlok]

Just started Finders Keepers by Stephen King, read by Will Patton. It's the second in the Bill Hodges trilogy and the follow up to Mr. Mercedes. I like the narration - reminiscent of King himself.

[Catlady]

I got bogged down with David Copperfield--there was only so much of Dumb Dora I could stand!--but I finally finished listening. Rarely have I been so annoyed with a character as I was with Dora; I just wanted to smack that cretin. And everyone around her who indulged and coddled her. I'm wondering if I read only an abridged version of Copperfield back in the day, since I didn't remember finding her quite this revolting. Maybe I just blocked it out.

I'm not sure if my Dickens binge is quite over yet. I may try one more.

[issybird]

^Heh. Couldn't agree with you more about Dora. Recently I was asked at Goodreads why I gave only three stars to David Copperfield and my answer was, "Dora."

[Autonomous]

I'm listening to The Secret Lovers by Charles McCarry, which is narrated by Stefan Rudnicki. This is part of a spy thriller series. I had read the first two books in print several years ago and when I noticed they were available in audio decided to resume where I left off.

[Geralt]

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Next up, something rather different -- the final book of the Last Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, Magic's Price. This book is read by Gregory St. John, and the narration is OK, but not outstanding. However, it's a good series. easily the best of the Valdemar series IMO, and I'm looking forward to finishing it off.

Finished and enjoyed. This was a good series, reasonably well narrated. I'm now back to the Richard Sharpe series from Bernard Cornwell. The next one is "Sharpe's Rifles". The narrator has switched back to Frederick Davidson (David Case), who is always one of my favourite narrators.

The time is 1809, and Sharpe finds himself in command of the 95th Rifles in the Iberian Peninsula while the French are at the peak of their sweep of the Spanish army.