This post is all about audio.
Maggie Audio
This Kingdom is getting an audio release, and we are being asked about our input. We R Excite!
If you have a favorite narrator who is suitable to voice a 25 year old woman and does great male voices, lay your suggestions on us in the comment section. We are looking for a new to us narrator, so not someone who has voiced a lot of our work.
Inheritance Audio
The Inheritance Audio is in the works. We are right now looking at a split narration for Ada and Elias. This adds additional hoops for us. Because of the scheduling issues, the ebook and print copy of The Inheritance will likely come out a lot earlier than the audio. It’s hard to book narrators on shorty notice. But have no fear, the audio will be released.
AI Audio
On May 13th, The Guardian published an article regarding Audible use of Ai voices.
“We are bringing new audiobooks to life through our own fully integrated, end-to-end AI production technology,” reads the announcement on Audible’s website. There are two options for publishers wishing to make use of the technology: “Audible-managed” production, or “self-service” whereby publishers produce their own audiobooks with the help of Audible’s AI technology.
Both options will allow publishers to choose from more than 100 AI-generated voices across English, Spanish, French and Italian to narrate their books. AI translation of audiobooks is expected to be available later in the year.
We will not be picking up that option. All of our narrators are human. This is why it takes so long for audio to come out sometimes.
Rogan POV audio
We are aware that Rogan POV didn’t make it into GA edition. No worries, we are working on it and hopefully you will be getting the extras with the next couple of releases.
I really like Moira Quirk. She did Gail Carriger Finishing school series.
And first?
Certified 🙂
I came here to recommend Moira Quirk and now I get to be close to the top because I’m agreeing with you 😂😂 She can sound young, old, male, female. She has a lovely British accent. And she nails wit and sarcasm. She makes every book 10x better for me.
another vote for Moira Quirk – she did Gideon the Ninth brilliantly
“The inheritance audio is in the works “
😊😊
Just a comment on AI narration, especially since I have three legally blind sisters.
For books I read for pleasure I want a real person (people) and some readers interpretations add to the value of the story. However, AI generation is perfect for textbooks, reference materials and anything that is not widely sold enough to justify paying a real person a living wage. It would have been invaluable for them in school.
House Andrews are addressing here AI as inadequate replacements for a human narrator as pertains to their books. Unfortunately for my academic career, they have yet to pen any textbooks. Incidentally, Ilona, any insight on An Introduction to International Tax Law, and how it may be improved by dragons? 🙂 Eagerly awaiting your response!
The issue of accessibility is very valid and of course, visually impaired people should be able to enjoy books as well. It is a case by case situation, to be sure. There is also the matter of how things like Virtual Voice were trained and if that process was ethical or stole intellectual property from audio artists etc.
A lot of nuance and very complex points to be made, but this blog post was intended as a mere reassurance that Ilona Andrews books will continue to be performed by a person, the best narrators House Andrews and team can find 🙂
Which I greatly appreciate and enjoy.
How could An Introduction to International Tax Law NOT b improved by adding dragons!? I mean, perhaps there r dragon scholars who could explain the fine points, or u could lounge on the dragons to study while they nap, or tempting on difficult days, they could ‘improve’ (incinerate) the book w their fire breath so it tortures u no more…
So many options! As an engineer in my first life, I’m pretty sure I’d vote option 3. International Tax Law-shudder. You’re a brave woman, Mod. R!
A coherent tax system exists, embodied in both the tax treaty network and in domestic laws, and it forms a significant part of international law. And then, the dragons came.
Yes! See! Made better by dragons!
U could get hands on experience by traveling internationally, adragonback. Or on warm days, study in the shade of a dragon wing. Also, I bet complicated international tax situations could b quickly simplified by bringing your dragon to the negotiations! If u forget to bring your book with u, send your dragon to fetch it for u (assuming u don’t mind a few toothmarks). Get quiet study time by having your dragon entertain the neighborhood kids w dragon rides. Although u might not want to let them feed the dragon-dragons can b messy eaters. Also, I expect the expenses of housing and feeding your dragon may b deductible-but the rules may vary by country.
Apparently, I can do this all day…
Laura Burrows for female audio narration. She has a lot of “samples” on her Facebook page. Mostly little behind the scenes of being an audio narrator.
Seconded love her voice’s expression
I would love her for house Daniels!
Alexandra Harris. She was the reader for Anne Bishops Other series. A lot of characters in those books!
Oh I love her voice and style (also loved the stories which helped surely) ! I wished she did more narrations for the books I tend to read! She is really on point with all the characters that are in these books! Would love a cooperation with her and House Andrews for sure !
+1. I so totally agree – the range is so remarkable.
+1000
Great suggestion!
I really enjoyed the narration of that series
Thanks for the info! Looking forward to the audio of The Inheritance very much and don’t mind waiting awhile for it.
Sorry to say I don’t have any recommendations for narrators to offer for Maggie, tho. And thank you for NOT using AI. Never thought is become a Luddite, but AI is my sticking point.
Taylor Meskimen does an amazing job.
Thank you for that decision. I am happy to wait for the audiobook if it means a real book narrator will be voicing it.
I really like Lauren Fortgang – She did the Elemental Assassin series for Jenifer Estep ….. well really a lot for Estep but also she has done for Leigh Bardugo
Gabra Zackman is also a favorite for a lot of books series (a lot of Maria V Snyder) as well as Khristine Hvam (Chronicles of Elentra by Michelle Sagara, Jane Yellowrock by Faith Hunter)
I’m excited about about the audio for Inheritence. I really like Alex Knox if you are looking for a male suggestion for that.
Seconding Lauren Fortgang!
I second the khristine Hvam. she was brilliant with Jane Yellowrock. would also add the lady who does the Mercy Thompson series. can’t remember her name off the top of my head but she also does an amazing job with both male and female voices.
I agree with both – Kristine Hvam is my absolute favorite narrator, hands down. Lorelei King is my second favorite. Both can do multiple voices for both male and female characters.
I almost exclusively listen to audiobooks now, but I used to go back and forth, and when I would re-read the Jane Yellowrock books , I heard all the characters in my head in Khristine Hvam’s character voices because to me, those WERE the characters voices! She can do “Southern” accents in different styles – North Carolina vs. New Orleans accents, and then layer in male vs. female. In the Jane Yellowrock series, she did several different French-accented characters and an English accent and all were unique. She is so very, very talented.
Lorelei King of the Mercedes Thompson series is fantastic as well. She is great with the subversive humor in that series, and does a great job differentiating the characters, which have included German, Russian and Spanish accents as well as aging her voice.
Second Alex Knox – his range is on par with Alexandra Harris. She’s good on speaking the male parts as well as having a range of female voices. Alex Knox is a real pro with voicing all of the characters- even the females in the series I have listened to. Both or ether one has the skills to bring a wide range of characters to life. Imagine having both Alexandra Harris and Alex Knox on the same book – it would be mind/ear boggling.
I love Xe Sands for audiobooks! She’s done the female parts of Kevin Hearne’s Seven Kennings series, plus Deerskin by Robin McKinley and a lot of other things.
I love Travis Baldree as an audio book narrator! He has voiced both male and female characters well.
Julia Whelan!
Andi Arndt, Natalie Duke, Samara MacLaren, Xanthe Elbrick. Yep – I listen to a lot of audiobooks! 😂
Khristine Hvam
Hey all, thank you so much for your suggestions!
Just a reminder that we’re looking for a narrator for a female character who is in her early to mid 20s and the book will be recorded this year 🙂 . Artists who were recording young heroines on the classics of urban fantasy almost two decades ago would not be the best match.
I did some reading for the Blind textbooks in the early 90s. Reel to reel on my dining room table. It shocked me how difficult it was to find a block of time that would be quiet in my house so I could record. Shortly after that I went back to work…
Horowitz? Laura I think might be her first name. she narrates phantasma and does epic growly man voices!
I was going to suggest her – follow her in the ‘gram she is absolutely hilarious and a lovely narrator
+1 for Laura Horowitz
her tone and timbre is right in the correct range for 25. I also suggested her!
Not quite what you asked for, but I hear Collen Delany in my head for Ada. She did Delaney Reed in the Ordinary Magic series for GA. Not sure if GA narrarators do independently from them or not though. I’ve heard her do a few other characters as well and the vibe seems to fit with what I picture for Ada.
Thanks for the update! 🤗
for maggie, maybe January LaVoy? She’s narrated fantasy/scifi, mystery, and romance books and can successfully do a range of voices and accents, including voicing people of varying ages, so might be able to nail a 25 year old?
I think Yenni Ann would be really good for Maggie, but I’m not sure on her male voices as I prefer dual narration. She does that age range and has a really good variety of voices to differentiate the different characters.
https://www.yenniann.com/
I think Julia Whelan does male voices better than any narrator I’ve come across. (:
For a younger sounding voice Phillipa Soo has a wonderfully expressive voice. She is a Broadway actress and you can really tell!
I think either of these women would be amazing choices.
My suggestion is Rachel Dulude. She is older than 20s, but I loved her narration of Becky Chambers Long Way to a Small Angry planet. There were multiple age ranges, genders and species throughout the series, which I think she handled really well. I never got characters confused because they were distinct and had slight nuances for each character.
Good luck on the search!
scott brick was the voice actor for Janet evanovich’s FBI series, beginning with The Heist.
his acting made that series for me.
did an excellent job as a mid twenties female aong with dozens of other characters.
might consider him…
what ever you choose, im sure will be fabulous.
I agree with Andi Arndt and Julia Whelan who are tops at their narration of all characters.
Angela Dawe (narrates Nalini Singh’s psy series so you may have heard her), Emily Woo Zeller and Hillary Huber are all good at doing males.
+1 on Emily Woo Zeller
+++ for Angela Dawe for Inheritance
Bridget Bordeaux
Susan Erickson narrates all of the JD Robb In Death books.
I was going to suggest her too. She narrated Mercedes Lackey’s Obsidian Trilogy. I thought she did a good job of with the male mai characters voice.
Thank you for not going down the ai audio route.
AI has its place, but this feels like a way to out voice actors out of business and they are often undervalued.
Great! Thank you for not using AI option. I heard an AI voiced version of a AC/DC song. They took Bon Scott’s voice and placed it on a Brian Johnson song. Love both singers but it was just so wrong. Real live voices equal real emotion.
Natalie Naudus or Karissa Vacker would be my top votes for this choice. Especially Karissa, I love her voice modulations and ability to get different ages done so well.
absolutely love Saskia Maarleveld – she does a very good range of ages for voices…..
So much Yayness, except for AI ripping off voice artists, but that’s already been thumbs downed, so more yay!
I really liked Bernadette Dunn’s voice for all characters in the “Protector of the Small” quartet. This was several years back, but I just thought I’d share.
Kevin R. Free does Martha Wells’ Murderbot books and I could see him doing a great job with Elias. I know you want new voices, but just wanted to mention I have a soft spot for Steve West though and would happily listen to him reading the phone book.
yaaaaaaay audio!!! I’m so excited, I’m already haunting the Tor page.
I like Johanna Fairview but her natural timbre is on the lower end which tends to excellent male voices. super growly as needed. She can lift it to higher tones without sounding weird. She has a slight south-east inflection which may not work. she did Juliette Cross’ Stay A Spell series and gave each sister her own personality/tone.
Laura Horowitz, Amy Hall, Isabelle Turner, Felicity Munroe, Lucy Rivers, and Sophie Daniels are some others I like, a few have some decent alt accents as well!
Robert Petkoff is an amazing narrator. His work with the Immortals After Dark series is phenomenal. He can did all sorts of different voices.
I’d recommend Khaya Fraites who is the lead character for the Graphic Audio version of Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series! I think she’d do a terrific job as Maggie.
Forgot to add that Kevin R. Free does a phenomenal job on the Audible version of Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, smoothly switching between characters.
Love her too!
I really like Thérèse Plummer, who does the Haven’s Rock books Kelley Armstrong.
Cassandra Campbell, she does all of the miss Fortune mysteries. She’s awesome!
Jennifer Ikeda is a very good narrator. She did the All Souls Trilogy and spoke with French, British, Italian, German and American accents to name a few. Her male voices were excellent.
oh, I agree! those audiobooks are amazing!
I like Vivienne Leheny, who records a lot of audiobooks for Lindsey Buroker. She does any number of voices, from teenager to middle-aged, women, men, talking dragons and tigers, free-thinking androids etc etc. She has a pleasant narrator voice, too.
Seconding Moria Quirk and I also really love Elizabeth Evans, though both may be difficult to book due to their popularity.
Lorelei King is wonderful!
From what I’ve listened to on Facebook, the AI voicing screws up pronunciation, emphasis, and language regularly. Very off-putting. Gods only know what kind of screwed up models they’re using to “train” the text to speech AI…
Thank you for sticking with real people and giving voice actors work!
No recommendations from me.
I finished listening Graphic Audio’s Burn for Me. It was great. I just need to get use to Rogan’s voice. When I hear Cornelius’ voice, I the actor who does him would be Rogan, and the actor who voices Rogan would be Cornelius. No upset about any of it. Just need to adjust.
Woo-hoo to Rogan’s POV later. They’re so funny. 😁🐉
Andrea Parsneau has an amazing range and ability to manage multiple voices. I often forget that it is one person narrating and voicing the story. I’m not sure of her availability but would love to hear her voice Inheritance.
+1
Absolutely amazing range!
yay! I hope these books make it to Graphic Audio one day
First, I appreciate that you guys are giving us audio. I know it’s a lot and I for one am forever grateful.
Second, thank all the everythings, both holy and not, that y’all aren’t going to use AI narration. I’ve listened to books narrated by AI: 0/10 would not recommend. This is coming from someone who’s been listening to sythesized voices practically all my life. While I can listen to JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver speak (all text-to-speech software in case anyone isn’t aware), I absolutely cannot do AI narration. It is an affront to my mortal soul.
Narrator: Luke Daniels (He is a superb narrator!) Does amazing accents.
Nicole Poole is a great narrator who hasn’t been mentioned, as is Amanda Ronconi. Both do male voices well, too.
Eva Kaminsky who narrates Charlaine Harris’s Gunnie Rose series.
Rebecca Soler is great!!! She has voiced several books I really enjoyed.
yay!
I am so excited that you support human narrators, even if it takes longer. 🙂
Ao much happy book news in this post has me giddy.
thanks for all you do.
BDH member for life!
Thank you for the info.. very exciting stuff coming. I just finished BFM on GA and it was chef’s kiss!
I recommend Nichole Poole she has really good range!
I absolutely love Veronica Guigere. First heard her narrate Secret World Chronicles and then found Terry Mixon’s Empire of Bones by looking for her work. Both are humongous worlds with lots of male and female characters and she has this uncanny ability to make every person different.
https://www.voicesbyveronica.com/
Nikki Massoud is amazing. She narrated M.A. Carrick’s Rook & Rose trilogy.
Laura Horowitz or Marguerite Shannon both do a great job.
I really enjoy listening to Elizabeth Evan’s from the Throne of Glass series by Sarah Maas
Gabrielle Baker, Suzy Jackson, and Julia Whalen are all awesome!
XE Sands was amazing in Bookburners podcast. So many accents, genders, and voices.
https://www.xesands.com/
Amber Benson narrated the YA series Zeros by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti.
Amazing vocal range and likely booked out because she’s awesome.
Samantha Desz or Christina Delaine would be my top two! Patricia Santomasso, Amara Jasper, Sophie Eastlake, and Justine Eyre are also pretty good.
if possible, for the Inheritance, try to get the guy who voices Jim for GA. he has a great voice.
To bad you can’t go straight to Graphic Audio
for Maggie, please consider Charlotte Kane. she is a great reader. she read a bunch of the Hot N Badger series by Shelley Laurenston.
she does male and female voices very well.
she brought the books to life for me
Adding Nneka Okoye to the recommendations. Though her accent may not be what you want.
Josie Paolini might be an interesting choice. She narrated “Rihasi” by Rachel Neumeier, and has a pace and sound that is distinctly different to previous voice actors you have used.
I love Julia Whelan. She does great male voices and a lot of different accents!
Vanessa Moyen, Keira Grace, Renee Dorian, Yenni Anne, Brooke Daniel’s, imo have that early- mid 20s female voice.
Jesse Vilinsky, she did Swordheart by T Kingfisher, and was excellent. Great male voices, great timing for comedic dialogue.
As someone who has been involved in live theater work for 50+ years, I would like to say thank you for supporting voice actors!! 📚🎭
May your search for the perfect narrators be fruitful!!
I loved Anisha Dadia’s reading (schoolomance trilogy, mature YA). she’s British, but does American accents (and many others) for the book as well. there is no muscle bound hunk character in that series to report upon, but male voices are distinct.
what i really love is her wit, timing, and heart. there’s sass, tenderness, anger, righteousness, nonchalance, grief, joy, determination, or resignation just depending on where you are in the story or who is saying the line. the books are well-written and she enhances instead of distracting with her narration.
Andrea Parsneau- she just stopped doing wandering inn so she might be free
January lavoie
I accidentally bought an audiobook that has an AI reader. I would not have bought it if I’d remembered to check for that.
I have many reasons that I dislike the concept, but it was bought so I thought I’d listen and see how bad it is. (I do recognize that it can be a good accessibility feature when an author can’t afford to hire a narrator; and that is a mark in favor. I want improved accessibility, but I still have qualms about the technology)
The voice is pleasant. I am picky about narrator voices, so that is a real compliment to the AI. But then it. … Randomly ends a sentence mid-sentence, pauses for like 3 seconds, and then starts the middle of the sentence like it’s beginning of a new sentence. It reminds me of when I was a kid and we had to read aloud in class and some students would read each line of text like it was a sentence instead of following the punctuation. Also there are two names in the book (pets of the narrator and major players in the story) that it can’t decide how it wants to pronounce them. And then there are the heteronyms. Like, they put their pets on a lead (the metal) and when they are emotional, their eyes tear (as in rip).
So overall, I don’t plan to revisit listening to an AI narrator anytime soon.
Susan Erickson, Tavia Gilbert, Bernadette Quigley, January LaVoy
I won’t be buying AI voiced audiobooks. Books need emotion in the voice during the reading. They need to be ACTED. Thanks for using people.
So very glad Gordon is okay. So very happy to see the new series. I have been out of the electronic loop, due to taking care of my parents. They don’t believe in the internet. (the horror). I have worn out my physical copies of your books, reading them over and over again. You rank at the very top of my favorite author’s list. I love seeing the development of new series; just a quick question regarding Julie and Derek, Arabella and Leo, Hugh and his story. The possibilities are spinning in my mind and I am dying to see which way you go. Will Arabella end up with Michael or Misha, will Leo find love? ( It is gold mine of ideas). Julie and Derek need to have a reconing and save Kate. What about the new Pack, the black Volvo and a potential love interest. Maude and her special daughter and her Vampire?
I’m on pins and needles here. Forgive my ham handed typing. and spelling. Love, love, love you guys!!!!!!
I have the perfect candidate! I absolutely LOVE Elizabeth Evans’ narration in the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas. She sounds like she’s in her early 20’s, but also has a broad range of character voices- males and females of different ages and accents. Of course, Renee Raudman will forever be my #1 pick for all things Ilona Andrews, Elizabeth definitely has a talent and again, would be a PERFECT narrator for this project.
I recommend Katherine Littrell at that age range if you want variations in the accents between Maggie and the world she’s in (she does lots of different accents and male voice well).
https://www.katherinelittrell.com/actor-and-voice-artist
Joy Nash is one of my favorite young female narrators who also does good guy voices. I *really* like her. She’s done several books for Penny Reid and I went “wow” the first book by her I listened to!