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I fell like you're kidding, since my experience is pretty much the opposite, and precisely for the reason that narrators in English are professionals. Some name
by aasasd 6y ago
I fell like you're kidding, since my experience is pretty much the opposite, and precisely for the reason that narrators in English are professionals. Some names: William Dufris, Wil Wheaton, Nigel Planer (namely his narrations of ‘Discworld’). Scott Brick, mentioned nearby, is good—but his narrations of Asimov have the spirit of 50s' over-the-top actors and TV announcers.
Also narrators in the West are often voice actors by trade, or just actors of theatre and film doing voice work on the side. E.g. Steven Fry's narration of the ‘Harry Potter’ novels is gorgeous, Tim Curry's of ‘A Series Of Unfortunate Events’ is also very good, Jeremy Irons' voice and demeanor is a perfect fit for Nabokov's mood and writerly lyricism in ‘Lolita’.
Generally, I went through quite a bunch of unknown-to-me narrators, and had few qualms—whereas in Russian it's a gamble whether a reading will be tolerable. ‘Grassroots’ narrators sometimes have quirks that they apparently consider charming, but in practice are off-putting. Or narrators break into stereotypical kitschy voices, especially with old-time material like Dostoevsky: e.g. for orthodox priest characters. Or the production is just crappy.
Notably, best narrators in Russian seem to be either professionals hired by proper publishers, or straight up actors. Namely, Mikhail Gorevoy, Alexey Bagdasarov, Evgeny Ternovsky (Михаил Горевой, Алексей Багдасаров, Евгений Терновский). And for example, the magnificent many-voices narration of ‘The Good Soldier Švejk’ by Bagdasarov, Alexey Kortnev and others. Vladimir Samoilov's reading of ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ is incredibly good and touching on a whole different level, and he seems to be an old-time Soviet actor. Klukvin is also a treat to the ear, but again when the production quality is there, like with ‘Master and Margarita’.
- aasasd 6y agoP.S.: I actually do have a problem with “overproduction” of audiobooks in English—in that some non-fiction books, and especially self-help books, sound like caffeinated hyper-energetic breathless advertisements several hours in length. After a while, it's really annoying to hear the same bravado tone again and again. Of course, the source writing contributes to this: I'd like to hear someone attempt to read Nabokov or Vonnegut in this manner. A notable counterexample is Marshall Rosenberg's reading of his own ‘Nonviolent Communication’—regardless of the book's merit, his gentle and melancholy speech is a welcome break from the ‘in your face’ attitude tiring out my ears.
- Sophistifunk 6y ago> but his narrations of Asimov have the spirit of 50s' over-the-top actors and TV announcers This sounds magnificent, and definitely the way I want to listen to Asimov.
- aasasd 6y agoIt seems I was mistaken, rechecked my notes now: it was Larry McKeever's narration of Asimov that I listened to, and which definitely sounds like it was recorded in the 80s (Goodreads says that I guessed the decade right). McKeever apparently was no small name too: “was an actor, narrator, and recording artist. He narrated hundreds of books. For more than 15 years, he contributed monthly to Braille Monitor, the leading publication of the National Federation of the Blind, and became known as the “voice of the blind.”
- ycombinete 6y agoAfter listening to Rob Inglis narrate Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit, everyone else pales in comparison. Aside from Kenneth Brannagh's Heart of Darkness. Fry's reading was good, but he's got nothing on either of them. It was also inconsistent. There's even a passage in book three where he appears to give Hagrid Hermione's voice. On top of that the voices he gave to women in general, were too shrill for my liking.