Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

I need some audiobook recommendations. Sci-fi of course, great narrator preferably (NOT Scott Brick, ew), preferably a good book but not literature, not something where I'd rather read it, you know because it's just that good. It also can't be too complex cuz I'll be driving or cleaning my apartment or something. Any ideas? 😁

I've been enjoying a lot of the Librivox SF stories. The narrators vary, but Gregg Margarite is a pretty good narrator. You can find the books he narrated here:
https://librivox.org/reader/3490?prim...
They're mostly old school SF.

Mark Nelson is another good Librivox narrator:
https://librivox.org/reader/251?prima...

You also might try looking on my SF shelf here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Besides the Librivox recordings, you'll find others that I liked from my library.

Muchas gracias! Will start there!

If you're looking for freebies and are interesting in short stories, these publishers offer regularly updated RSS feed of audio stories via podcast. Lightspeed has professional narration, usually by Stefan Rudnicki..

Lightspeed Magazine
Audio version selected SF&F stories from on-line text editions. Podcast available.

Clarkesworld Magazine
Audio version selected SF&F stories from on-line text editions. Podcast available.

Escape Pod
Weekly SciFi story, podcast subscription available.

Hey! I didn't even know about this librivox thing!

I hadn't heard of Librivox either, I like their tagline:

"Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain"

Yes, they're the audio side of Gutenberg.org. Archive.org has some links to it, too. That's another place to look for audio books, too. Glad to be able to turn others on to them. Great stuff, but the narrators vary a lot. Some have thick accents, but you can listen online to test them out. Also, be careful of their short story collections. A lot of duplication of the stories.

I love Neil Gaiman in audio. He reads his own books, and there's usually also a version with a good celebrity voice actor. The graveyard book in his own voice is magical.

Gregory Maguire is also quite good reading his stories.

Both Harry Potter readers are excellent.

Michael York reading brave new world isn't bad.

Actually, anyone reading those $20 classics you see at the bookstore is usually very listenable and the books familiar enough to carry on with simple tasks while you listen.

Kramer and reading are pretty good with wheel of time, and while they're very long reads, they're decent listens if you have that kind of time. Excuse their changing pronunciations, pretty sure that was the author's and directors fault.

If you don't mind silly, funny kids stuff, the how to Train your dragon series is read by David tenant in his natural Scottish accent and are hilarious.

And I wish I could edit in this app but I can't and I have shame.

Oh, yeah, the Dresden files read by James Marsters in his original American accent is a fun, light listen.

Cindy wrote: "Oh, yeah, the Dresden files read by James Marsters in his original American accent is a fun, light listen."

Spike reading Dresden? That should be fun.

I'll have to try out an audiobook one day. Though I already know from training courses I have to take at work that just listening to a voice drone on when staring at a PPT slide (which is still something to look at), my mind will start drifting. But might be a good option for something I've read before, or for something short.

Andrea wrote: "I'll have to try out an audiob..."

It takes a little training & learning to assimilate audio books properly. I started out with rereads of favorite books & listened at 1:1 ratio at first. Learning when to listen, how to quickly pause, rewind a bit, & such didn't take too long, though. Still, it is a skill that should be well learned before going on to unfamiliar books & faster speeds.

I highly recommend the full version of "Smart Audiobook Player". I think it's $2 on Google Play. One of the options is to set your speed from .5x to 2.5x speed with no distortion to the narrator's voice. I've never wanted to listen slower & generally listen at 1.5x speed, although some slow narrators or simple books benefit by bumping up to 1.7 or 1.8 speed.

I put on ear protection over my ear buds so I can mow, weedeat, or work with power tools in the shop. I've been told that my reviews of books are thorough enough that some of my friends here on GR can't believe I'm doing all those activities while listening at the same time.

I listen to audio books constantly now. I get most free from the library, Librivox, or Archive.org & get through about 150 each year. It's a great way to revisit classics. Some narrators can really add to the story, others detract, though. Still, I have little time to just sit & read, so they're perfect for me.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy read by Stephen Fry is really good. Martin Freeman takes over as reader for the rest of the series, and also does a good job, but IMO Fry is the better reader between the two of them.

Stephen Fry did one of the Harry Potter series audio book versions, too. Some think he was too over the top, but I liked it & I usually don't go for that sort of thing.

Lots of sci-fi & fantasy is great on audio. For something simple, anything by John Scalzi read by Wil Wheaton is delightful. Also Tim Gerard Reynolds is a great narrator of, for example, fantasy by Michael J. Sullivan. The time travel books by Connie Willis are also excellent. Of course there's Harry Potter where you may have a choice of Jim Dale or Stephen Fry. Even if you've read the books, you might enjoy the audio and since you know the story, it won't be hard to follow.