I haven’t been insomniac enough to listen to a lot of audiobooks lately, but I’ve been making an effort with Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy and enjoying it. The books hold up well to being read out loud. Sanderson’s excellent pacing struck me even as I read The Final Empire to myself, and Michael Kramer reads smoothly and clearly. Some voices come more naturally to him than others, but none of them is distracting. The detail in the books isn’t overbearing, like, say, The Valley of Horses on tape, but if you drop a stitch or crunch an apple while you’re reading, you’re not going to get hopelessly lost. I even took the near-unprecedented step of starting to listen to The Well of Ascension without reading it first, and it was still easy to follow.
I would have liked to see Kramer share the stage with a female reader, though. He does the Wheel of Time with Kate Reading, switching off sections approximately according to the gender of the viewpoint character, and that technique would have worked well for these books. Vin is just about the only woman, but she’s also the main character. The gender imbalance bothered me while I was reading it, but it bothers me more to hear Vin speak in that slightly feathery men-doing-women voice. Kramer doesn’t take it overboard, and unlike Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter, he doesn’t have the luxury of caricature, but a woman reading Vin might have made me feel less like she was the lone intruder in a boys’ club. Right now, it definitely feels like it was more important to get their voices right than hers by sheer dint of numbers.
But, damn it, they’re right. Too many voices done by a reader of the other gender can be hard to distinguish from one another or can just get on my nerves, and there are ten male main characters and just one Vin. Even as far as minor characters go, Vin meets a few vicious, conniving noblewomen, but that’s about it. On page 34 of the first book, Sanderson writes of(f)the fair sex by saying, “There were relatively few women on thieving crews; generally, those women who got involved with the underworld ended up as whores.” That seems the easy way out, the easy way to isolate Vin, and why can’t prostitution be an opportunity for petty larceny, espionage and confidence schemes? I don’t know. It’s the first thing I thought of, so Sanderson was probably right not to do it, but Vin being a girl actually provides some excellent opportunities for the rebellious band of rogues. Is that the only reason Sanderson made her a girl? If not, why aren’t other women being useful to the thieves’ cause, not because of their femininity, but as smart people who happen to be women?
The process of going from book to audiobook unfortunately highlighted my biggest issue, but I am going to keep listening. And there’s a whole lot of Mistborn audiobook to love—more than three solid days, according to iTunes. Anyone else have thoughts on these audiobooks or on gender in audiobooks more generally? I tend to like the full cast approach.
EDIT: The audiobooks are available from iTunes and directly from Audible.com, at the following links:
Mistborn: The Final Empire: iTunes, Audible
I thought the strategy Kramer and Reading used in The Wheel of Time was a bit flawed – I enjoy a single reader doing voices, but since WoT used both a male and female reader, I thought it would have been better if Kate Reading did all the female characters and Michael Kramer did the male ones. It was strange to hear Kramer read female voices and Reading read male ones.
For the “full cast” concept, check out this audiobook of The Scarecrow of Oz on Librivox (free). I think it worked out very nicely and made the book come alive.
I don’t know. I think it’s how well the narrator reads that’s more important to me than whether it’s a man or woman reading for matching gender. Multicast audiobooks can be jarring when they flip between voices. But a single narrator can be just as jarring when he or she tries to change voices and fails miserably. A good narrator lures me in with their voice so much so that I get lost in the story and forget the sex of said narrator. And that’s what I love best. :)
Personally I enjoyed the Kramer/Reading version of WOT, but I also enjoy single-narrator audio books as well. I think greybon@2 has it right – it really depends on the quality of the narrator. If you have a good one(s), the audio book can be fantastic.
For example … PEOPLE OF THE BOOK is a very well done audio book but THE SECRET OF LOST THINGS is currently driving me nuts … and both are due solely to the narrator’s abilities.
The first only only audiobook I listened to was The Hero Of Ages, and I loved it. It was a pain in the ass to try to read at night with a flashlight or something, and I certainly couldn’t read while driving, but an audiobook solved themes problems. It was easy to follow along, I could easily switch between listening and reading, depending on the situation. Sure, I’d miss a couple of turns, or I’d have to rewind (I usually have to reread pages over anyways, due to a wandering mind), but it was really great.
Then I thought “AUDIO BOOKS ARE GREAT”, and tried one for a Star Wars book I have (The New Rebellion). About 20-30 minutes into listening, I had a chance to sit down and read it. And then I realized, it was abridged, and that just ruined that for me. I found one for Rhapsody, of which I’ve got 3 of 4 books (I think there’s 4?), but I couldn’t get into it that much. I’m not sure if it was the narrator, or just the book itself, but since then I haven’t really hunted down audiobooks. Instead I’m picking books I like and then checking if they have an audiobook.
But that was pointless, The Mistborn Audiobooks are great (and I want to listen to the Elantris radio play-like one, once it’s out).
I’ve been a fan of audio books for over a decade. The narrator makes a huge impact oh how much I enjoy an audio book. I’ve enjoyed the WOT books – in fact I couldn’t ever get into reading the actual books, but listening to them got me thoroughly hooked. Having the two narrators helped keep it interesting with such long books. However, having a male and female narrator for The Dragon’s Son by Margaret Weis was a huge distraction. The switch back and forth was awkward and annoying.
I listen to most books and don’t read the actual book. The narrator can make or break my opinion of the story. I listened to The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, and the narrator, Lloyd James, gave the protagonist so much character that I’m almost afraid to read the book, as it might be missing that voice.
I’ve read the first two Mistborn books, and plan to listen to them on audio as well. I also listened to Elantris and was very caught up in the narrative, staying up way too late a few nights.
I tried listening too Curse of Chalion after reading it. Caz’s voice comes through even better in the original.
I tried to listen, I really did. I read the first 2 books and was keen on listening to them plus the third one. When I saw them as featured in the Sci Fantasy Section I tried to get them but not sold to my geographic region. I sent audible an email a couple of days ago asking about the Mistborn Series They told me the publisher hasnt authorised them to sell them in India. I dont understand the reasoning behind this, its not as if there is another way to get audiobooks in India.
I’m extremely annoyed at Tor for deciding to geotard the audiobook.
I just finished listening to the Graphic Audio version of Elantris, and going to Mistborn was a real letdown.
Going to a single voice narration from the 20+ actor way Elantris was ‘read’ was such a contrast, and honestly, I almost stopped listening after the first chapter.
I’m a fan of multicast over single reader. But what I really get annoyed by is the “he said” she said. I had grabbed a few books from full cast productions, but the inclusion of the aforementioned put me off them. I love Graphic audios stuff though.
I was a HUGE fan of Michael Kramer reading this series. I never once thought that he detracted from the storyline, it never even crossed my mind that he was male. He just brought so much to the story – each character had personality and destinction. His narration enhanced the book IMO
Am I the only who couldnt stand Michael Kramer’s voice then ? I think I didnt like the final empire 50% because of the voice, which I know is lame …
I loved Nick Podelh’s reading style so much on Patrick Rothfuss books I cannot not relisten to them everynight to fall asleep. His voice is magical.