Books on Tape

[6hounds]

Hey Folks

 

Just finished listening to the entire series (working on New Spring now) in audio and wanted to make some quick observations.

 

-First off, if you haven’t tried listening to the audio version of WOT, I highly recommend it. I found it to be a wonderful experience. It gave old familiar stories and characters a shiny new coat. :D I didn’t know if I would like listening to the stories at first but hearing names read aloud (pronounced correctly), accents, speech patterns, emotions expressed, were very thrilling (on top of the story of course). The readers Kate Reading and Michael Kramer are fine voice actors. They read the male and female POVs respectively.

 

-Does anyone else notice that 9 out of 10 WOT women we meet are pretty, plumply pretty, stunningly pretty? I mean really that must be a hard place for all the rough and tumble men to live. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind. I’d like to visit Arad Domain myself. :shock:

 

-I’ve always thought that RJ was a fantastic author. His stories and characters have become old friends over time. Always wonderful to sit down and revisit. I particularly like what seems to be throw away lines in one chapter or book that come back later as important plot points. (Foreshadowing!) In and around book 3 Siuan thought about the subject of Amrylins during a POV. She said that the Tower liked to put ill minded, bad, deposed Amrylins to scut work, kitchen duty, etc., . as it was difficult to forment dissension while seen to be scrubbing pots and emptying chamber pots. (Sorry can’t remember exact passage but I believe it was the one where she was thinking about that one Amrylin that tried to regain her spot 4 times after being exiled ….then they killed her with a pillow.) Skip ahead 8 or so books and Egwene is doing just that. Go Egwene! Now that’s waiting along time to pick up a line. There are others but I never remember, one of these days I’ll read the whole thing again but keep notes.

 

-Where does Perrin get his axe and hammer skills from? I know that Matt was trained by his Da, and Rand gets schooled in blades by Lan almost immediately. I believe early on Lan tried to show them all how to handle their weapons. But Perrin never gets the same level of training that Rand gets. I know all Emond’s Fielder’s can shot the big bow and handle the staff. Matt’s Da being the best makes Matt pretty darn good. But outside of Perrin sneaking a little swinging in at the forge when did he get so good with axe and hammer. I mean like the other 2 he is darn good when he needs to kick ass. Rescuing Gaul, facing Aram, Dumai Wells, he’s not just swinging away. He’s good. I’m guessing its Ta’vereen!! Ya. Anyways, just a thought. Nice to know that if you need to protect yourself you can just pick it up and be really good at it already.

 

-Dashiva, Flinn, healing. Now why would a forsaken hint to an Ashaman that learning healing would be a good thing? Remember when Rand was hurt by Fain. Flinn came on the scene and said that he would have never thought of trying it except that he was talking with Dashiva and Osangar was not light on the wink wink nudge nudges to give it a try. How did that help escalate the chaos and dissention that the DO wanted amongst the people? It looks to me like Ashaman learning to heal has already proved more of bonus than a detriment.

 

Oh well, just some thoughts, I have tons more but have to run and get lunch now. Cya all later.

[Zardi]

A while back on the news page, they had a sample of one of the audio books. I can't stand Kate Reading's voice. It was hard enough to sit through that one passage, let alone the entire series.

 

I just don't like audio books in general, either. I love being able to linger over certain parts of the book and go at my own pace, as I can when reading a printed book. You can't do that with audio.

[Iceman]

I have a long a$$ commute to work and I own all the CD's on tape. (Except PoD... still waiting for that to be put on CD unabridged.)

 

I love them. I've read all the books once, but I've listened to them all twice through now. Both orators do a fantastic job of changing their voices and accents to match the different characters (Especially the Seanchan accents, Very distinct.)

 

Definitely a big recommendation for those who spend a lot of solo time riding in traffic and don't have a lot of extra time to read the books. :D

 

Perrin learned to swing his hammer from hours in the forge... and snuck in a few practice swings now and then after Master Luan made the axe and gave it to him. I believe Lan gave him some lessons on how to use it in EotW... but that's all the formal training I remember him ever getting anywhere. Having Feral wolf instincts help, ya know?

[Beckon]

Yeah Lan gave all three boys lessons while they were traveling in TEOTW.

[6hounds]

Perrin learned to swing his hammer from hours in the forge... and snuck in a few practice swings now and then after Master Luan made the axe and gave it to him. I believe Lan gave him some lessons on how to use it in EotW... but that's all the formal training I remember him ever getting anywhere. Having Feral wolf instincts help, ya know?

 

Ya that's about what I thought. But still taking on Aram and such. Whew. RJ makes it clear that the kid is good. Trained by warders and Tam!! Not that Perrin took him with ease but he is still standing. Not bad for some practice swings and some training from Lan. Which probably amounted to not cutting of his own foot and knowing which way to point the thing. They didn't have that much time on that trip. :lol:

[6hounds]

A while back on the news page' date=' they had a sample of one of the audio books. I can't stand Kate Reading's voice. It was hard enough to sit through that one passage, let alone the entire series.

 

I just don't like audio books in general, either. I love being able to linger over certain parts of the book and go at my own pace, as I can when reading a printed book. You can't do that with audio.[/quote']

 

Yes I agree. I found the reader's voices to be odd at first. I really didn't like Michael Kramer's voice to begin with. But it grew on me. I suppose because I like the story so much. :) But I did find their voice acting getting better as the books went on. The subtleties in accents and characters really shown for me. And I did find that the main difference between audio and reading was that if you missed a part, which happened alot, it wasn't all that easy to go back and re read it. So I missed bits all over the place. :cry:

[6hounds]

I have a long a$$ commute to work and I own all the CD's on tape. (Except PoD... still waiting for that to be put on CD unabridged.)

 

I love them. I've read all the books once' date=' but I've listened to them all twice through now. Both orators do a fantastic job of changing their voices and accents to match the different characters (Especially the Seanchan accents, Very distinct.)

 

Definitely a big recommendation for those who spend a lot of solo time riding in traffic and don't have a lot of extra time to read the books. :D[/quote']

 

Same here. I commute alot and this really came in handy. I recently had to go to Europe and let me tell you the delays, long train rides, and hotel down time were made all that much better because I could listen these books. :D The only problem was, as I mentioned in an earlier response, if something distracted you like someone speaking to you or making a loud noise like another train, you could miss whole passages. And it wasn't all that easy to go back and such.

 

But I mean come on how can you not get pysched about listening to Nyneave's passage from the Golden Crane in KoS? Sent shivers down my back. :shock:

[Elwinn Taron]

Actually, Perrin was losing to Aram, and knew it. Two Shaido arrows took him out.

[6hounds]

Actually' date=' Perrin was losing to Aram, and knew it. Two Shaido arrows took him out.[/quote']

 

My bad. See what happens when you stop to order some fries during a cool scene. You end up thinking that all went as you hoped it would.

 

thanks for the correction elwinn :)

[torrente]

A while back on the news page' date=' they had a sample of one of the audio books. I can't stand Kate Reading's voice. It was hard enough to sit through that one passage, let alone the entire series.

 

I just don't like audio books in general, either. I love being able to linger over certain parts of the book and go at my own pace, as I can when reading a printed book. You can't do that with audio.[/quote']

 

lol yeah kate reading always sounds concerned when she reads . . . and kramer always sounds like he's asking a question . . ."The eye of the world . . . by Robert Jordan?" . . . lol

[padan]

just wondering where I can get a hold of these audio cd's. Can I order them online? Live in europe . Thanx for the help.

[Graendal probably did it]

I bought mine in the uk from the audible website. They are fairly cheap with a subscription. I love the wheel of time audiobooks. I have listened to them all at least twice over the years. I think 1 of them is unavailable though.

 

Concerning missing sections of the book, when you get distracted by someone talking to you/having to do a bit of work :x . Remote controls are wonderful for rewinding 30 seconds or so. At least with my zen vision:m. Until I killed the remote that is. The connection on is a straight plug which is bad if your player is in your pocket all the time. Mine only lasted 5 weeks. I'm gonna have to get another 1 and look after it.

 

I really recomend the audiobooks. They are very nice to listen to and it makes the series very enjoyable, especially if you have little spare time and/or a boring job. I have also listened to the song of ice and series too on audio, and they are very good too although the chap reading them takes a bit of getting used to, he has quite a nice voice once you get used to it.