Books on Tape/ Audio Books-

[Guest TigerToe]

I have a decent commute to work and have recently started listening to audio books. My local library has a fledgling selection of all sorts..my first was Clive Barkers the thief of nowhere(i think) this is a young adult book but it was great.(the narrator/READER) makes all the difference in the world. This being said I have only heard one WoT Audio book, Crown of swords.....it was terrible, and they have that "guy" reading them all??!!

 

 

 

 

seriously does anybody like these?

[Kadere]

I bought and listened to The Eye of the World with Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. I enjoyed it. The voices weren't as I would have imagined them, but I thought they did a great job.

[Jedimuppet]

I have a decent commute to work and have recently started listening to audio books. My local library has a fledgling selection of all sorts..my first was Clive Barkers the thief of nowhere(i think) this is a young adult book but it was great.(the narrator/READER) makes all the difference in the world. This being said I have only heard one WoT Audio book' date=' Crown of swords.....it was terrible, and they have that "guy" reading them all??!!

 

 

 

 

seriously does anybody like these?[/quote']

 

That Clive Barker book was awesome...I reccomend it to anyone no matter how old they are.

J

[BSDBovine]

I was not too impressed w/ "The Great Hunt" audio book. It is ok for when i am traveling to work or have gone out on a walk, but that is as far as i would take it.

[goldeneys]

:shock: :shock: :shock: My big bro bought all of them (well up to KoD) and I listened to all of them (except TDR, parts of TGH, FoH, and SR which I read). I thought that the narrators did an awsome job. I loved it.

[ila5fw]

I've got the whole series so far on unabridged audio cds, and whilst it's not the same as reading them, it's brilliant for bits you might have missed and suddenly realising why stuff makes sense! It's lovely lying there in bed drifting away listening to it. Don't bother with the abridged versions though. Get the unabridged either on cd or as mp3 (ebay) and burn them yourself.

[Captain Blamo]

I wish they would have put a little more effort in the narration. When somebody laughs, then laugh, somebody cried, then cry.

 

Beyond that it made the daily commute that much easier. I even missed my stop once or trice.

 

 

Captain Blamo

[Kadere]

yeah, that would be nice, but they're reading you the book, not acting it out. When you read the book yourself the page doesn't start laughing or crying, you read that the character is and then imagine that.

[goldeneys]

Yeah, what you're looking for is the dramatized version, which I don't believe there is.

[Paradoxic]

I picked up all of the unabridged (make sure you get the 'unabridged' versions) from www.audible.com for a very good rate (1-2 credit per book and, for about $230/year, you get 24 credits... up to 12 of which will roll over to the next year). The books are some 30-45 hours each and give you a great deal for yor money. You're allowed to burn them to CDs if you want or use them on your player (which you can get for a good discount when you sign up). If you think of doing it this way, let me know so you can set me up as the person who refered you, heh.

 

The quality is top notch. They do change pronounciations for a few things from one book to another (our lady of the silver bow and Moghedian for example)... but the actors themselves do a really good job. I've listed to the complete series three times now and will do it all the way through again before book 12 comes out because I'm weird like that.

[Msnformd]

I second that. I too am a satisfied customer of Audible.com. I just finished listening to the entire series (except for 8 & 9, which are only available in abridged format - abridgements are an abomination in a series as complex as this one). The narration is excellent, enough so that I can forgive the variations in pronunciation of a few things (place names, etc). Kate Reading narrates the female POVs and Michael Kramer narrates all the male POVs, which makes for a good variation and signals the change in POV. I found the audio versions a joy to listen to, easy to concentrate on. I listen to books when working on my hobbies or exercising, so this was a good way to motivate myself to spend more time on both.

[goldeneys]

My bro bought them off Ebay, for like $60, I think that's a very good price for 12 books in audio version.

[Guest TigerToe]

I second that. I too am a satisfied customer of Audible.com. I just finished listening to the entire series (except for 8 & 9' date=' which are only available in abridged format - abridgements are an abomination in a series as complex as this one). The narration is excellent, enough so that I can forgive the variations in pronunciation of a few things (place names, etc). Kate Reading narrates the female POVs and Michael Kramer narrates all the male POVs, which makes for a good variation and signals the change in POV. I found the audio versions a joy to listen to, easy to concentrate on. I listen to books when working on my hobbies or exercising, so this was a good way to motivate myself to spend more time on both.[/quote']

 

 

this does sound better but is it the same guy from the audio book (running time 6 hours maybe) their was no female reader...just the guy doing the whole thing, he would drop into female character..example: Joline errrSedai(?!)-somebody, it sounds like a guy trying to sound feminine doing a crummy southern/new orleans accent.

[Groningen]

Tigertoe, there are as far as i know two versions. The one you heard (wich is terrible) and the Michael Kramer and Kate Reading version. That one is great. Both voices are beautifull and the narrators are able to capture the feel of the books. Why two narrators? The parts written from a male perspective are done by Michael Kramer (Mat, Rhand, Perrin, etc) And the female perspective is done by Kate Reading (Egwene, Nyneve, Avienda, etc). So if you can not read the books, Get this version.

[HighLordXanthus]

Does anyone know how to get hands on crown of swords and path of daggers unabridged? those are the only two I don't have. I have read all the books many times, but I love listening on my ipod at work.

[Kadere]

I'm pretty sure that neither A Crown of Swords or Path of Daggers have been released yet. A Crown of Swords, I believe, is to come out later this October. You can check the site Audible.com and they'll tell you which ones are out and the release dates of ones to come.

[Kadere]

Actually, let me rephrase that. Go to audiorenaissance.com, this will show you the unabridged ones read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. A Crown of Swords is to be released on October 17, 2006 so it's not out yet, and Path of Daggers also hasn't been done. There maybe other companies who have done these books, but the more popular version hasn't been released yet.

[Groningen]

Sorry but that is not true. They can already be found on the progrem "Limewire". I tested it and it worked. So They are available. Where you can buy them that is another matter...

[HighLordXanthus]

As far as I can research on the internet, they have been released years back, currently out of print. I even found ISBN numbers for them. For the life of me though I can't find a used copy, or rental.

[Inara]

Groningen,

i have limeire but i cant find wot stuff, what search criteria did u use?

[jwillis7]

i like them, i have listen to all of them, my only real problem is that they dont pronounce the names and words the say between books or between the two of them, but besides that i enjoy them alot

[magnutz]

I wish they would have put a little more effort in the narration. When somebody laughs, then laugh, somebody cried, then cry.

 

Beyond that it made the daily commute that much easier. I even missed my stop once or trice.

 

 

Captain Blamo

 

In my opinion that would really suck. Pardon my French. Imagine the narrator weeping and laughing... that would just ruin all for me. I think that Mr Kramer and Mrs. Reading are doing a beautiful job! They've got Bayle Domon down pat and pretty much all of the rest too. Just lovely. We are talking about audio books not theater. ;)

 

I have come to enjoy the audio books more than the books themselves. A pure pleasure to listen to when you've become used to the voices. ;)

[mellojoe]

I've listened to two of the books on CD. I found it to be very entertaining. Both were done with the male and female narrators, and at the end of each there was a short interview session with Robert Jordan. Very cool.

 

I couldn't imagine listening to every book this way as it took a significantly longer amount of time to get through the books, plus I just like reading. But, my commute was over 30 minutes each way, plus I had an hour lunch, so I could listen to a good solid 2 hours a day. I really enjoyed it. Some pronunciations were different than in my head, but it wasn't bad. With the second audio book (Path of Daggers), I kept the book handy and referenced it in case I missed a name, which helped.

 

But it was a neat experience. I recommend everyone trying them at least once.

[Auld Manriva]

In my opinion that would really suck. Pardon my French. Imagine the narrator weeping and laughing... that would just ruin all for me. I think that Mr Kramer and Mrs. Reading are doing a beautiful job! They've got Bayle Domon down pat and pretty much all of the rest too. Just lovely. We are talking about audio books not theater. ;)

 

I have come to enjoy the audio books more than the books themselves. A pure pleasure to listen to when you've become used to the voices. ;)

 

 

Just So... definitely NOT theater. This is narration and is a different skill than acting. I've listened to audio books for nearly 20 years (literally thousands of hours, I drive for a living) now and to me, the absolute WORST are those labeled with "A Full Cast" such as the LotR version. It blows like a hurricane. Narration is reading the book as written with delineation between characters. The best readers do multiple accents etc. Kramer and Reading have "morphed" over the course of this tale into two of the finest in the business and greatly in demand. They didn't begin all that well in my estimation. EotW was very haphazard to me. The difference between it and even TSR is very noticeable. By TGS... ear candy, an absolute joy to listen to.

 

Some of the Orson Scott Card books (The Ender Books) with multiple narrators (often 4 or more) are a struggle at first, but as they're not "acting" but all doing narration it's not too difficult to get past. Though it may sound contradictory, the best narrators are usually also trained actors. Kramer and Reading are both stage actors and Kate Reading in particular is very skilled with an array of different accents. Michael Kramer has developed some he's pretty good with, but not to his wife's level, which he readily admits.

 

OK... I'm done... ;):D

[Juan Hangslow]

I have tried to listen to WoT on audio book and I have to say, it was a struggle. So much so that I only made it through a couple of chapters before putting it away, never again to see the light of day.

 

I have, however, made it through full audiobooks of The hobbit Lord of the Rings (The unabridged version by Robert Inglis, not the BBC Radio 4 play, that is attrocious, despite featuring the vocal talents of Sir Ian Holm as Frodo. He is the guy who played Bilbo in the movie) and the first Harry Potter audio book narrated by Stephen Fry. The guy is excellent and has a different voice for each character and he puts a LOT of effort into them as he is an avid fan of the series himself. But then, I am a big fan of his anyway.

 

To date these are the only audio books I have attempted and I will be finishing all of the Harry Potter audio books before attempting any others. Which may just spoil future ones for me.