So we’re walking out of the bank, after giving the title company all of our money, and the dude from the title company, who had come to pick the check up, says, “The two days of Texas winter are coming.”
He is right.
Speaking of dark and broody, folks on Facebook fan page are discussing options for a narrator for Hugh’s audio book. If you want to join in the recommendation fun, post link to narrators here, in the comments. Hugh’s reader needs to have range, because Hugh goes from polite and charming to cold killer in half a second. He needs to sound like an adult man in his thirties or forties. Don’t laugh. Some narrators sound too young or too old. Being able to do a female voice would be a big plus.
Since the book is split between male and female point of view, do you like when there are two narrators, a man and a woman, doing separate parts, or would you prefer a single narrator throughout? Inquiring public wants to know.
Update: Guys, Richard Armitage would be prohibitively expensive. We’re looking for audio narrator.
Both!
No suggestions but I love books with multiple narrators (and sometimes sound effects :-)) It feels like I am listening to a radio play.
I prefer a male and female. A male doing a female voice is always weird to me (and vice versa)
For the male Holter Graham is amazing. But I also love Renee Raudman. Would it be possible to have both of them? I like the two voices for audible but they have to both be really good at. I’d rather settle for one really good narrator instead of two crappy ones. Can’t wait for more book! And congrats on the house!
Seconded. I personally like a narrator for each part – Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic series was narrated that way – but I think for these books a narrator for Hugh and a narrator for female parts would be better, but only if they are both good. Otherwise one amazing narrator would be just right
Tamora Pierce is friends with Bruce Coville who owns Full Cast Audio. FCA does audio share every character is read by an voice artist. Sadly they only do young adult and children’s books.
I prefer a male if it’s a male/female split POV.
And as always when audio comes up, I’m going to throw out Graphic Audio as yet another way I’d love to consume your work.
I’m afan of both a male and a female narrator providing they’re of equal strength.
I think our winter is probably other people’s fall but we’ve been here long enough that 55 feels cold now and we don’t even raise an eye at people dressed up like Ralfie’s little brother Randy when it gets down to the low 40s.
I’m near Omaha (just outside city limits, so I hope my local area was spared in your universe!) and it’s 35 degrees right now. =)
lol
I’m Canadian. 🙂
LOL
It’s the same in New Orleans. I hate going in buildings, or department stores sometimes because they crank the heat for anything under 60…May be slightly off…but it’s within 10…
P.S. I’ve watched that movie at least 2-3 times a year, every year, since it came out in 1983! 🙂
If it can be done, dual narrators sounds amazing! I don’t know if he does narration work, but Erik Todd Dellums voiced Arcann in swtor, a galaxy-conquering, patricidal/fratricidal emperor who was redeemed (if you didn’t kill him) so he could be worth checking! He has an amazing baritone voice, very rich.
Oh, I forgot to mention, Erik is on Twitter! @eriktodddellums
He *does* have a nice voice. Found some narration clips on you tube.
michael kramer and kate reading they are amazing. know for brandonsanderson and robert jordan books
I love dual narrators with a male and female. As far as narrators go, Macleod Andrews, Keith Szarabajka, and Paul Michael come to mind. I love Holter Graham, but I’m thinking he may sound too young.
James Marsters has an amazing range and each character gets their due. I never minded when listening to him about male or female you got the character every time.
I love James Marsters!
Came here to say this. Not only is he an amazing actor, his voiceover work for the Dresden Files series is fantastic.
He’s my favorite and I like the male narrator for Gabaldon’s Lord John series
I agree with James Marsters. I’d also like to hear Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs).
Oh my god yes – Mike Rowe has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard (doesn’t hurt that he was an opera singer, if I remember correctly).
I love the idea of dual narrators, but in all honesty I don’t have much issue with a man or woman doing both. I’ll buy book and audiobook anyway!
James Marsters! He’s brilliant as Dresden and would be great as Hugh too.
I like it when there are a male and female narrator instead of one person doing all the POVs.
I love when there are two narrators!
Big fat congrats on the new house! I hope it becomes a very special place for you and your family. Winter came to Dallas for a few minutes yesterday. It’s going to be 90 tomorrow. O.o
I like dual narrators, but if you can only have one, Davina Porter is amazing!
Congrats on the house!
My all-time favorite narrator is James Marsters (he read the Dresden files and I adore him).
If the narrator can do a good female voice that doesn’t sound too … forced? … I prefer one narrator. If the male can’t do the female voice well enough, it’s better to have two narrators.
I’m going to have to jump on the Marsters’ bandwagon and his voice fits the age range you want. He does a number of male/female voices seamlessly. Also as I’m sure you know, Harry can be both a goofball and Serious Badass Wizard.
I do enjoy multiple narrators but generally prefer that route when distinct POVs are separated by chapter.
Only one narrator please, and there is no one better than Jim Dale, who did all the Harry Potter books.
I love Tristan James. But I do think two narrators would work best…
Stephen Hoye. Listen to Carl Hiiasen’s “Skinny Dip.” He is amazing at conveying all types of humor and narrating the most out there action sequences. He’s also narrated Orson Scott Card books. Basically my favorite voice actor of all time.
I like MIchael Kramer and Kate Reading, they do the wheel of time and the stormlight archives. I also personally prefer 2 narrators although Renee is just awesome
Two narrators I think. I typically like that better when there are two points of view.
Two narrators, please! It drives me nuts when an otherwise excellent narrator fakes the vocal range of the opposite sex. It’s one thing for a narrator’s voice to sound different then the one you imagined. It’s another thing entirely to hear a man struggle with a falsetto for hours, or a woman struggle to sound deep and macho. It completely ruins the immersive experience.
Thanks for asking, and best wishes on the new house!
Robert Petkoff (who does Kresley Cole’s ‘Immortals after Dark’ series) is awesome. I also like Hilary Huber, Holter Graham and James Marsters (Renee Raudman goes without saying!)
I like two narrators, but all of the above do male/female voices well.
Ohh I second Robert Petkoff! He is amazing!!
I love a male and female narrator but it’s more expensive to produce. I would just say if it’s a male that he doesn’t try to do an overly fake woman and vice versa. To me it’s better if they just sound real. I think of Susan Erickson. She portrays Roarke perfectly in the In Death series.
Susan Erickson is superb, but I think if the majority of the book is from a male POV, it should be a male narrator.
Two narrators would be great.
Does the Hugh book have a release date yet? I must have missed it if it does.
I’d love to have two narrators. But I’m also aware that’s not always possible. So my suggestion would be the actor Jonathon McClain who does narration under the name Tad Branson. He’s narrated a few JA Huss books. He has the full scope to nail Hugh’s character down.
I have no suggestions, but I prefer both as a rule.
Split narrators! Unfortunately, I don’t think male narrators ever can capture a female voice well, and it jars me out of the story.. 🙁
I don’t know a whole lot of voice actors by name, but I think Crispin Freeman would do Hugh justice. He did the voice for Alucard in Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate. Though he might end up voicing Jim in an animated production…
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0293342/
The dude was wrong. It was only 1 day of winter
I like separate narrators if possible, but when a talented narrator can do both effectively ( Renee Raudman, Amy McFadden, Saskia Maarleveld) I’m good on one. I haven’t heard a male narrator do a great job with a female voice – they always end up sounding falsetto to me. But there are many male narrators I haven’t heard, so there may be a ton of great ones out there.
I really liked the guy who narrated Magic Stars. I thought he was great and his Julie was very good, not corny at all.
Yes, he and Rene Raudman.
Scott Brick does fabulous work, and he can do a female voice just fine. http://scottbrick.net/
The guy who narrates the Iron Druid series is probably my favorite male narrator. He does a good job with the female characters too.
Which one? The series has two narrators, one for the US version (Luke Daniels) and one for the Europe version (I can’t stand the Europe version).
I love when Luke Daniels does Oberon – it always makes me giggle madly 😀
2 narrators please
Luke Daniels- he is awesome. He can do a wide range of voices. He does the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne.
I like two narrators more but if you got somebody really good with voices one can be even beter.
On the other hand try listen to something from http://www.graphicaudiointernational.net It is more like moovie
A single narrator that can perform POVs from both genders well is rare. One of the reasons Renee is so effective. I prefer two narrators if they are skilled. If not, it is just distracting. I concur that James Masters would be a great pick to narrate Hugh’s POV. As for the female POVs, if they are known characters, Renee is the logical choice. She is Awesome! If you have new female POVs to the Kateverse, I’d recommend Khristine Hvam or Nicole Poole. Both have good range and character. Congratulations on the new house! I hope you both enjoy turning it into a home.
I’m in upstate NY. I find it interesting that your winter is depicted by a gloomy sky and yet, here, you can have a perfectly sunny day and still get frostbite. It looks pretty, but as soon as you go outside, you realize your error!
Texas is weird.
As I mentioned to you before. I really liked Jay Britton who did Grace Draven”s Master Of Crows. He’s got a lot of range. As far as using male and female. It totally depends on how it is edited. I find it difficult to have to tract all the characters twice if they read the POV parts exactly. If they actually take all the female spoken parts and all the male spoken parts it works well but that’s a lot of edits unless they read together.
Congrats on the new house. When is the move?
Brian Hutchinson. Hands down. He does a excellent job reading the Linesman series. He’s great for men’s voice as well as women’s voice and has an excellent emotional range. If you haven’t heard the Linesman series read by Brian Hutchinson, you’re missing out!
I prefer 2 narrators for dual pov, and I also suggest Holter Graham for one. The other? So many good choices!
James Marsders does an amazing job on the Harry Dresden series, assuming he’s affordable and at all available.
I prefer a single narrator. I don’t mind two for two different perspectives (a la Kramer and Reading in Wheel of Time), but not if they interact.
I like LUKE DANIELS, if he would be available. I was first introduced to him because he read Nora Roberts’ Whisky Beach. Then I followed him to Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Series.
First, I am going to bookmark this thread to seek out books just for the sake of the recommended voice work.
Second, I just recently read a series of books from both a male and female point of view which had both a male and female narrator for the first time. I liked it much more than I thought I would.
Third, I would rather have the male read the entire male POV using female tone and inflection for the female speaking parts and vice versa, instead of some dramatized readings from the public domain with multiple characters voiced by multiple people like reading a script. It feels to me like it is the male’s recollection of events running through his head, and even though he is remembering another person’s voice, it is his thought.
Lastly, mostly I get lost in a good narrator and it helps me to keep characters straight when they have different voices. Sometimes, on my second or greater listening, I realize that the person is so talented with their different characters that I begin to focus on how they are doing it instead of following the story. Tavia Gilbert does this to me.
The only thing that ever jars me totally out of the suspension of disbelief is when a narrator is is using their speech training enunciation skills so exactingly that they sound like a robot. Everyone in the world has an accent- it just depends on where you are from as to whether or not you hear it. Narrators with deep tonal registries can struggle with falsetto female voices but I’ve heard at least one just throw a different accent and a lighter tone as a female voice and it was great- I find differentiating between characters with slightly different accents is so much easier than differentiating between tones. I also find that the accents really bring them to life.
I prefer a single voice. Two voices distract me. A single voice draws the action in my head- literally becomes a narrator of events unseen that allows the mind’s eye to focus on the picture and pick out details in it. Two voice actors usually have me focusing on the interaction between the two which is usually frustrating without video to determine how each reacts to the other.
I’m also going to say Luke Daniels – I know a couple others have brought him up. He’s fantastic – has done a great job with Kevin Hearne’s books. With his range and abilities I think he’d be a perfect fit for this book too!
James Marsters does a wonderful job with the Harry Dresden series. He does women’s voices, different accents, etc. He’d be a faboo choice. 😀