Audiobooks
Apr. 20th, 2026 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heleninwalesAs well as listening to audiobooks with G while eating meals, I also listen to them while cooking, ironing, cleaning etc. It's not always easy to find things I like because I'm not buying them, I'm relying on what the library has to offer so the choice is more limited. However, it does mean that as they don't cost anything, I'm willing to try writers I've never heard of. Some work out, some don't.
The latest audiobook I tried by an author hitherto unknown to me was The Smoke and the Sea by Katie Cross. It's a fantasy and had some interesting ideas, including very small dragon-like creatures called "draguls" whose bite makes you invisible. The vital trade in jord (which seems to be their equivalent of guano) which is vital for growing food on a rocky and rather barren island. The main characters are a young woman who is a dragul keeper and Henrik, a loyal soldat of Stenberg. Now Hendrik's current stint of service is over, he is planning a couple of week's leave in order to go in search of his mother who he was separated from very young.
This all sounds fine and glancing at the Read an Extract on Amazon shows that the writing is ok. The narration, unfortunately, was not. The author was reading her own book. The American accent didn't bother me, but her attempt at doing some sort of "island" accent for Henrik and the other soldats was a disaster. It had hints of Oirish[*], so instead of rough, tough, gruff soldiers, the soldats sounded like more like sad leprechauns. Her voice even seemed to rise higher in pitch when doing Henrik's dialogue, which was the opposite to how a man would sound. So I returned that audiobook and I'm now listening toSharpe's Tiger.
Now Rupert Farley, the narrator of the Sharpe novel is doing a really good job. There's one interesting thing though. I'm pretty sure that in an early novel (which I read many years ago) it's clear that Sharpe is from London. He's also a big guy. But I remember that when they made the TV series, Sean Bean made the part so much his own that, in later books, Bernard Cornwell began to made Book Sharpe more like Bean's TV Sharpe. Anyway, the narrator of the audiobook is doing a Yorkshire accent for Sharpe's dialogue. He distinguishes the other character's voices well too.
[*] The terrible stage Irish that some people think is what an Irish accent sounds like. I mean there isn't even one "Irish" accent.
The latest audiobook I tried by an author hitherto unknown to me was The Smoke and the Sea by Katie Cross. It's a fantasy and had some interesting ideas, including very small dragon-like creatures called "draguls" whose bite makes you invisible. The vital trade in jord (which seems to be their equivalent of guano) which is vital for growing food on a rocky and rather barren island. The main characters are a young woman who is a dragul keeper and Henrik, a loyal soldat of Stenberg. Now Hendrik's current stint of service is over, he is planning a couple of week's leave in order to go in search of his mother who he was separated from very young.
This all sounds fine and glancing at the Read an Extract on Amazon shows that the writing is ok. The narration, unfortunately, was not. The author was reading her own book. The American accent didn't bother me, but her attempt at doing some sort of "island" accent for Henrik and the other soldats was a disaster. It had hints of Oirish[*], so instead of rough, tough, gruff soldiers, the soldats sounded like more like sad leprechauns. Her voice even seemed to rise higher in pitch when doing Henrik's dialogue, which was the opposite to how a man would sound. So I returned that audiobook and I'm now listening toSharpe's Tiger.
Now Rupert Farley, the narrator of the Sharpe novel is doing a really good job. There's one interesting thing though. I'm pretty sure that in an early novel (which I read many years ago) it's clear that Sharpe is from London. He's also a big guy. But I remember that when they made the TV series, Sean Bean made the part so much his own that, in later books, Bernard Cornwell began to made Book Sharpe more like Bean's TV Sharpe. Anyway, the narrator of the audiobook is doing a Yorkshire accent for Sharpe's dialogue. He distinguishes the other character's voices well too.
[*] The terrible stage Irish that some people think is what an Irish accent sounds like. I mean there isn't even one "Irish" accent.
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Date: 2026-04-20 04:17 pm (UTC)LOL. Oh, dear...
Yes, a good narrator is so important for an audiobook.