[Tristan Jay]

Hey there, I was just wanting to write in to ask if anyone here was going to go for the audiobook? When I read the book, I knew it was one of those books that I would want to have on audio, in order to experience the story and the prose of the story, in an easy to read/experience format again and again. I like to operate this way with audiobooks, some kind of internal rule with myself; I want to at least read a book properly with my own eyes, and afterwards, with some books, I want the audio so I can "re-read" it again in a more easygoing manner (it also fills in hours worth of driving time).

So, I was looking on amazon.com to follow up on it, and I also looked up the amazon.com entry by way of a google search. I ended up landed on two pages for the audiobook that are exactly the same except for the price, one page prices the audio at $30, the other at $10. Obviously if the newer listed price of $10 is the right one, I'm really thrilled. Just feeling hesitant. The other thing that is confusing is that the product is described as MP3 CDs, so I'm wondering if it will play on a regular, plain-jane CD player. Anybody know details on that?

My final question is, has anybody heard it already at this point? What do you think about it if you have? I heard what I thought was a preview of it on a youtube video, but I'm not even sure if it's meant to be the narrator that is actually used for this official audiobook product. Help!

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

I don't know the answers, but I would be curious to find out too. That's one of the few things that irritates me about Amazon. They lump all the reviews together, so trying to find customer comments about audiobooks is the old needle-in-a-haystack situation.

[Tristan Jay]

Going back and fiddling with it a bit, I found some answers. So, the details for the MP3 CD: A CD containing an MP3-encoded audio file. This audiobook format is about $10. Or at least, that's what it looks like. And the regular audio CD seemed to be set at $17.99. There are additional option under a sort of "drop-down" menu, but at least one looks very similar to one of the ones I've described, at a different price. It's a bit confusing.

Editied to add: oh, it looks like the $43 version is a library edition. That seems like an overrated pleasure. A bit disappointing, too, contemplating libraries being price gouged to this degree, at taxpayer expense. Maybe there's something deeper to it that I don't understand. :shrug:

This post has been edited by Tristan Jay: 05 October 2012 - 12:01 AM

[JLV]

I'm not a big fan of the audio book for GotM. Feel free to try it, though.

[worry]

Does the MP3 CD feature just one single book-long MP3?

[Tristan Jay]

 JLV, on 05 October 2012 - 03:17 AM, said:

I'm not a big fan of the audio book for GotM. Feel free to try it, though.

You've already listened to it? What's it like? What is it about the production and/or performance that didn't work for you? Need more data, input!

[HiddenOne]

 Tristan Jay, on 06 October 2012 - 02:59 AM, said:

 JLV, on 05 October 2012 - 03:17 AM, said:

I'm not a big fan of the audio book for GotM. Feel free to try it, though.

You've already listened to it? What's it like? What is it about the production and/or performance that didn't work for you? Need more data, input!

seconded

[Salt-Man Z]

You can sample the first five minutes at Audible.com.

[kcf]

Any idea what the schedule is for releaseing the rest of the series?

[Saken]

It is great that they have in on Audible.com. I have listened to about three hours of it and it is pretty good. I think the narrator could have done a better job on Kalam and Quick Ben. Quick Ben sounds like a girl and Kalam is very nasaly. I got the impression from the books that Kalam had a deep voice with phrases like Kalam rumbled and such. I certainly didn't think Quick sounded like a girl but I could be wrong.

I saw a schedule of release schedules for the audio books that showed a new release every three months or so. The next is supposed to be out on Dec 13, if memory serves me correctly.

[Tristan Jay]

After deliberating for a time, taking into consideration the critique of the performance and the voices the narrator gives to various characters, and also based on the sample of the audio that was linked here, I decided to go for it. This was aided in part by the Barnes and Noble gift cards that I got for christmas, so I decided to take the plunge.

And so far, so good. Some of the other voices that I was not able to gauge for a lack of their representation in the sample clip have been surprising, as have some of the pronounciations for names and terms distinctive to the Malazan world. But the narrator is British, which, crass stereotyping as this may be, is the right choice for narrating epic fantasy novels. I remember a couple of month ago trying out an audio of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, and the American narrator diminished it, but was also a very disappointing narrator in general, accent aside. I didn't want to taint and sully my liking of The Magicians, so I took that one back. The only American narrator I've liked for audiobooks was George Guidall, who did a reading of Frank Herbert's Dune, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

Ralph Lister has a great voice for this first Malazan book. He reminds me a lot of Malcolm McDowell, which I regard as a good thing. The prose lends itself well to listening while driving, and Ralph Lister's delivery of character's dialogue is well measured and very engaging for me. I've only listened through 2 of the 22 disks, and I'm already looking forward to revisiting Deadhouse Gates through this medium. But patience will be a virtue here, there's still hours of enjoyment left, and I'm picking up the subtle details scattered throughout that I've gathered just from reading GotM and DHG.

This will be a great motivator for moving on to reading Memories of Ice, so that I can eventually get that book on audio as well.

[RedGale]

Just finished listening to the audiobook last night and was blown away by the narration quality, Ralph Lister did a great job, especially given the quantity of characters! He gave each a unique voice and kept the pace nice and measured throughout, giving every chapter and scene its due. Kruppe, Rake and Shadowthrone performances were definite highlights. Highly recommended.

[jb1000000]

 Saken, on 28 October 2012 - 03:50 PM, said:

It is great that they have in on Audible.com. I have listened to about three hours of it and it is pretty good. I think the narrator could have done a better job on Kalam and Quick Ben. Quick Ben sounds like a girl and Kalam is very nasaly. I got the impression from the books that Kalam had a deep voice with phrases like Kalam rumbled and such. I certainly didn't think Quick sounded like a girl but I could be wrong.

I saw a schedule of release schedules for the audio books that showed a new release every three months or so. The next is supposed to be out on Dec 13, if memory serves me correctly.

I found this post then searched for ages and eventually found a link (below) with the full schedule. I registered here just to post it so hopefully it'll save others the hassle


http://www.brillianc...nLyN2dnZ1dXQ%3D

Gardens of the Moon--------------OUT ALREADY
Deadhouse Gates------------------OUT ALREADY
Memories of Ice---------------------OUT ALREADY
House of Chains--------------------2013 December 3rd
Midnight Tides----------------------2014 April 22nd
The Bonehunters-------------------2014 March 4th
Reaper's Gale-----------------------2014 August 5th
Toll the Hounds---------------------2015 April 2nd
Dust of Dreams---------------------2015 March 10th
The Crippled God------------------2015 August 4th

On the face of it I can kind of get why they switched the order of MT & tBH (although I'm sure there must be some continuity guff) but I can't understand why TtH (my current book) precedes the DoD release. I guess they have either made an error or 2 or my (admittedly British) internal translator for U.S date formats has gone haywire : )

If anyone knows more please feel free to update : )

[HiddenOne]

i want to buy this, any regulars have business dealings with this AudiobookStand company before?

[opiate taylor]

 HiddenOne, on 13 June 2013 - 12:10 PM, said:

i want to buy this, any regulars have business dealings with this AudiobookStand company before?

I got mine from Audible, but I prefer the 2005 version with a guy named Geoffrey Centlivre narrating. The newest one is a higher quality recording, but the reader, someone named Ralph Lister, tries too hard. I don't require a unique voice for each character and there is nothing worse than a gruff, deep-voiced man trying to sound like a little girl or, even worse, an old lady . Ruins the whole thing for me. The older version is plainer, but as I said, to be preferred IMO.

[HiddenOne]

 opiate taylor, on 14 June 2013 - 04:32 AM, said:

 HiddenOne, on 13 June 2013 - 12:10 PM, said:

i want to buy this, any regulars have business dealings with this AudiobookStand company before?

I got mine from Audible, but I prefer the 2005 version with a guy named Geoffrey Centlivre narrating. The newest one is a higher quality recording, but the reader, someone named Ralph Lister, tries too hard. I don't require a unique voice for each character and there is nothing worse than a gruff, deep-voiced man trying to sound like a little girl or, even worse, an old lady . Ruins the whole thing for me. The older version is plainer, but as I said, to be preferred IMO.

where can this older version be found?

[sting01]

 opiate taylor, on 14 June 2013 - 04:32 AM, said:

 HiddenOne, on 13 June 2013 - 12:10 PM, said:

i want to buy this, any regulars have business dealings with this AudiobookStand company before?

I got mine from Audible, but I prefer the 2005 version with a guy named Geoffrey Centlivre narrating. The newest one is a higher quality recording, but the reader, someone named Ralph Lister, tries too hard. I don't require a unique voice for each character and there is nothing worse than a gruff, deep-voiced man trying to sound like a little girl or, even worse, an old lady . Ruins the whole thing for me. The older version is plainer, but as I said, to be preferred IMO.

I just bought mine, and I do agree, from a non native point of view it is both silly and harder to understand with the same person trying to impersonate Tattersail, Tayshrenn, Wishkeyjack ... I would have prefer a more simple narration.
For the record, when I was young, let say in the early 60', it was common to have book put on LP 78 turn per mn (the very old format), but it was or a regular narration, or several actors ( I had several Tintin, almost all Bob Morane, some Doc Savage, and it was quite good).

I am disapointed, but to be honest, I infact bought it from audible with for a singular purpose, improve my understanding of english and my pronunciation.

[worry]

That's the same reason I bought the Lewis Carroll audiobook. Now my English is totally mimsy and my flubjoob is snarked to hell and back. Probably should have gimbled it for a refund.

[Stormcat]

I have read everything up to The Bonehunters which I am reading now. I got the audible copy of GoTM to listen to while I am working and can' t actually read. I am about halfway through and I have really enjoyed it. I love how he does Kruppe's voice. I also love how much more information I am picking up now that I have read more of the books. LIttle things that didn't mean much before suddenly have huge meaning. I am a big fan of audio books in general and always have one book I am reading and one book I am listening to at the same time.

[Bridgeburner Perdido]

Ralph Lister, the narrator, is great. I felt a little awkward listening to him at first, mainly b/c I had a hard time trying to keep up with his narrative AND keep up with where things were happening and who characters were. Hard to pull up a map of the area or get a character list when reading and driving.
But by 1/3 of the way through I realized Ralpha was a goddamned genius. If he ends up narrating the entire run, I'd have no frugal compunction with audio booking the whole damn thing.