Has anybody else listened to the WoT audiobooks?

[NewJeffCT]

I have a long drive to work each day (45-50 minutes each way... though, that's probably not long for some who live in big cities like NY, Houston or LA.) So, I've found listening to audiobooks a good way to pass the time on the road.  The local libraries here in Connecticut are inter-connected, so if my town library doesn't have a copy of the Lord of Chaos audiobook, they can have one delivered from another town library that does.

 

But, when I found out the series was finally finished early this year and I was looking for something new to "listen" to on my commute, I went back to the Wheel of Time.  I found the two narrators to be excellent - Michael Kramer and Kate Reading.  I've listened to several audiobooks before and this was the first one, other than the huge cast of the World War Z audiobook, that had a woman doing to female points of view.  It was refreshing to hear a woman's voice doing Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Aviendha, etc's points of view.  I think it added to the story.  I thought Kramer was consistently very good as well, and his voice became Rand, Perrin and Mat in my head.

 

The previous series that I listened to that had multiple points of view - A Song of Ice & Fire - only had one narrator, the otherwise excellent Roy Dotrice. (though, I winced a few times when the gravel voiced, and now 90 year old, Dotrice was "reading' the sex scenes.)

 

I'd also rate Jim Dale's reading of the Harry Potter books as excellent as well, as was Simon Vance, the reader of the three Stieg Larsson books (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels.)

 

I just wanted to hear what other people thought of Wheel of Time audiobooks?

 

 

 

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

they're ok.

 

at your average commute you can expect to be listening for over two years.

 

enjoy :)

[NewJeffCT]

they're ok.

 

at your average commute you can expect to be listening for over two years.

 

enjoy :)

Well, it took me maybe 9 months,as I also listened not just on driving to work:  weekends, business trips, errands at lunchtime, etc.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

ah, I only listened on the commute, two hours a day, nine days every two weeks.

 

tgs and amol are the only books I didn't read in print, and I doubt I'd have gotten through either without the audio.

[Abaddon]

I listened to knife of dreams, gathering storm, and towers of midnight on audio.

 

I liked it, but didn't love it.

 

The part that disappointed the most was kramer doing the female voices and kate doing the male voices in the chapters that had their own gender's pov but interacted with characters of the opposite sex. I kept thinking, you have a male and female reader so why cant the male reader do only the male characters and female reader do only the female characters? And for the chapters where the different genders interact, which are plenty, why can't both professional readers go back and forth in the same chapter?

 

Oh well. Despite that somewhat minor shortcoming, it was still good.

[shanetkirk]

I have 2 jobs, 5 kids, a wife, 8 pets, no gardener and no house keeper, so my days of reading are over. Throne reading still happens, but that is short escapism :) So the audiobooks save me. I have had an audiobook in my car consistently since 2001. I've always kept a book in the car, one next to the bed and one in the bathroom, but it's the audio book that gets all the love. What I love about audiobooks is that you can't listen and be distracted, but you can do other things. With a book, it's just you and the book. With the audiobook I can exercise or drive. I am only on book 4 of the WoT and I am really enjoying it. I like the use of two readers. I've listened to several RA salvatore books done by Graphic Audio and while I like the the different characters are represented by different people, the books produced that way tend to be a lot more expensive. I think both Michael and Kate are doing a fantastic job. But after listening to probably 150 audio books, the best two readers for me have both been:

 

Bronson Pinchot (Yes Balky from Perfect Strangers if you remember that show) -- Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon

Craig Wasson -- Stephen King's 11/22/69

 

Totally captivating voices the both of them.

 

The part of WoT audiobooks that have bugged me the most is for some reason between book three and book four, they changed the pronumciation of the Amerlan Seat. It sounded distinctly like Sue Ann with the A being soft and now they are almost calling her Swan. I hate it :) Okay rant off.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

^ this on almost every point

 

the changing pronunciations baffle me

 

I'm listening to roots in the car right now and James earl jones is one of the finest readers I've ever heard. it's painful to stop driving and turn off the cd.

[NewJeffCT]

I listened to knife of dreams, gathering storm, and towers of midnight on audio.

 

I liked it, but didn't love it.

 

The part that disappointed the most was kramer doing the female voices and kate doing the male voices in the chapters that had their own gender's pov but interacted with characters of the opposite sex. I kept thinking, you have a male and female reader so why cant the male reader do only the male characters and female reader do only the female characters? And for the chapters where the different genders interact, which are plenty, why can't both professional readers go back and forth in the same chapter?

 

Oh well. Despite that somewhat minor shortcoming, it was still good.

I think it's probably too much work to have that much back & forth between the male & female characters, so leaving each narrator to read their male or female POV and also do the opposite sex voices probably works a lot easier and requires less editing.

 

Other than the huge cast of World War, it was really the first audiobook I'd listened to that had both a male and female narrator.  Roy Dotrice is acclaimed for his work on A Song of Ice & Fire, but he does all the characters, male and female.

[NewJeffCT]

I have 2 jobs, 5 kids, a wife, 8 pets, no gardener and no house keeper, so my days of reading are over. Throne reading still happens, but that is short escapism :) So the audiobooks save me. I have had an audiobook in my car consistently since 2001. I've always kept a book in the car, one next to the bed and one in the bathroom, but it's the audio book that gets all the love. What I love about audiobooks is that you can't listen and be distracted, but you can do other things. With a book, it's just you and the book. With the audiobook I can exercise or drive. I am only on book 4 of the WoT and I am really enjoying it. I like the use of two readers. I've listened to several RA salvatore books done by Graphic Audio and while I like the the different characters are represented by different people, the books produced that way tend to be a lot more expensive. I think both Michael and Kate are doing a fantastic job. But after listening to probably 150 audio books, the best two readers for me have both been:

 

Bronson Pinchot (Yes Balky from Perfect Strangers if you remember that show) -- Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon

Craig Wasson -- Stephen King's 11/22/69

 

Totally captivating voices the both of them.

 

The part of WoT audiobooks that have bugged me the most is for some reason between book three and book four, they changed the pronumciation of the Amerlan Seat. It sounded distinctly like Sue Ann with the A being soft and now they are almost calling her Swan. I hate it :) Okay rant off.

My guess is that possibly Jordan started listening to the audiobooks and informed them the original pronunciation was incorrect?  Just a stab in the dark, though.

[Abaddon]

 

I listened to knife of dreams, gathering storm, and towers of midnight on audio.

 

I liked it, but didn't love it.

 

The part that disappointed the most was kramer doing the female voices and kate doing the male voices in the chapters that had their own gender's pov but interacted with characters of the opposite sex. I kept thinking, you have a male and female reader so why cant the male reader do only the male characters and female reader do only the female characters? And for the chapters where the different genders interact, which are plenty, why can't both professional readers go back and forth in the same chapter?

 

Oh well. Despite that somewhat minor shortcoming, it was still good.

I think it's probably too much work to have that much back & forth between the male & female characters, so leaving each narrator to read their male or female POV and also do the opposite sex voices probably works a lot easier and requires less editing.

 

Other than the huge cast of World War, it was really the first audiobook I'd listened to that had both a male and female narrator.  Roy Dotrice is acclaimed for his work on A Song of Ice & Fire, but he does all the characters, male and female.

 

 

Yeah, I'm sure there was a reason it's done that way. It's still good though...

[shanetkirk]

 

I have 2 jobs, 5 kids, a wife, 8 pets, no gardener and no house keeper, so my days of reading are over. Throne reading still happens, but that is short escapism :) So the audiobooks save me. I have had an audiobook in my car consistently since 2001. I've always kept a book in the car, one next to the bed and one in the bathroom, but it's the audio book that gets all the love. What I love about audiobooks is that you can't listen and be distracted, but you can do other things. With a book, it's just you and the book. With the audiobook I can exercise or drive. I am only on book 4 of the WoT and I am really enjoying it. I like the use of two readers. I've listened to several RA salvatore books done by Graphic Audio and while I like the the different characters are represented by different people, the books produced that way tend to be a lot more expensive. I think both Michael and Kate are doing a fantastic job. But after listening to probably 150 audio books, the best two readers for me have both been:

 

Bronson Pinchot (Yes Balky from Perfect Strangers if you remember that show) -- Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon

Craig Wasson -- Stephen King's 11/22/69

 

Totally captivating voices the both of them.

 

The part of WoT audiobooks that have bugged me the most is for some reason between book three and book four, they changed the pronumciation of the Amerlan Seat. It sounded distinctly like Sue Ann with the A being soft and now they are almost calling her Swan. I hate it :) Okay rant off.

My guess is that possibly Jordan started listening to the audiobooks and informed them the original pronunciation was incorrect?  Just a stab in the dark, though.

 

I think you nailed it. That's exactly what I thought. It's so hard once it's out there. I might have just let it go as the author LOL

[GoldeneyesND]

RJ did seem keen on correct pronunciation (A-EEL not ALE for the Aiel) so that sounds like a reasonable assumption.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

except it's not what the readers said when interviewed about it

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

and it's not what RJ or Harriet said ... and what the Jordan's said doesn't match what Kramer and reading say except they all agree that Rj gave them a little direction in the very very beginning and then stopped.

 

http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kwt=audiobooks'

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

interesting thing in some of those intvws ^ rj said ppl were going to come up with their own pronunciations anyway.

 

having tried to figure out what some of the glossary was saying I came to the conclusion that it wasn't all that specific on a lot of pronunciation points.

 

and having read a bunch of RJs intvws, I came to the further conclusion that he kind of enjoyed teasing fans a little.

[GoldeneyesND]

I actually didn't find their reading voices pleasant. Dotrice, Dale and Fry are all so much better.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

darth vader is the best

[JenniferL]

If I'm ever incapacitated and just laying in a hospital bed, I've asked my husband to play the WoT audiobooks for me. 

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

be sure to ask for the good meds and cable tv as well.

 

ppl always forget the most important parts of advance directives.

[JenniferL]

Oh yeah. Me and Jimmy went over everything after his dad passed away a couple years ago. Neither one of us wants to suffer like he did. 

[Lavaliar]

It has taken me a while to get used to Michael Kramer's unusual cadence but I'm now hooked. I had EOTW on in the car all day. I'm not an audio book fan, I'd rather read a book at home & listen to music in the car. But now that I'm used to the narrator's voice, it's a real treat. There's so much woven into the text, every time you read or hear it, you uncover new layers. I definitely want to listen to the whole series now but only after I've read each book.

[Tud]

Regarding readers for audio books aside from Reading and Kramer, the best match of books and narrator to my ear is The Dresden Files and James Marsters. He's narrated all but one of the entire series and does a great job of catching the attitude and soul of Harry (I put the ick in magic) Dresden.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

spike reads the Dresden files?

 

oh yeah I need those.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

I used the audiobooks for my last full re-read. It was quite nice to experience the books that way, on my walks to/from places and on my various trips. It took about six months.

 

There are a few pronunciation issues that never go away. Like when Kramer tries to say "tel'aran'rhiod." He gets "tel," then garbles the rest in the hope we won't notice. :) And both he and Reading pronounce "shone" "shown," which is weird. The other thing is that they (obviously) read some passages differently from how I'd read them, emphasize different aspects of the sentences. Sometimes, I think they've misinterpreted the emotions/illocutionary content being conveyed. It can be slightly distracting, but it's normal. On the whole, I'm quite favourably inclined towards them.

[proctermma]

I love the audio tapes, on book 3 audio, and on book 13 reading!