Great Sci-Fi Stories, Volume 2

By: Ray Bradbury, Stephen Marlowe, Edmund Hamilton, Pauline Ashwell, Philip K. Dick, James McKimmey, Randall Garrett

Narrated by: Jim Roberts, William Arthur Anderson, Albert Enfield, Cindy Killavey, Sophia Pendergast, Bill Murphy, Beatrice Hartley

Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

This second collection of great sci-fi stories includes the following:

• "A Sense of Wonder" by Stephen Marlowe
• "Seller of the Sky" by Dave Dryfus
• "The Shining Cow" by Alex James
• "The Legion of Lazarus" by Edmund Hamilton
• "An Empty Bottle" by Mari Wolf
• "The Lost Kafoozalum" by Pauline Ashwell
• "Wall of Crystal, "Eye of Night" by Algis Budrys
• "Exhibit Piece" by Philip K. Dick
• "Dream World" by R. Lafferty
• "Rich Living" by Michael Cathal
• "Contagion" by Katherine MacLean
• "Thy Rocks and Rills" by Robert E. Gilbert
• "Mid Pleasures and Palaces" by James McKimmey
• "Beekman's Planet" by Ivor Jorgensen
• "Wedding Day" by Winston Marks
• "Morgue Ship" by Ray Bradbury
• "Prisoner of War" by Randall Garrett
• "Zero Hour" by Ray Bradbury

Public Domain (P)2021 Jimcin Recordings

Sounds like a machine reading.

If I didn't know better, and I don't, I'd think they recorded professional narrators doing other projects then asked a computer to read these in their voices.

Great, imaginative stories, but at less then halfway through, I'm putting it away because I can't stand the narration.

Go buy the book, I think I will.

Great stories, but...

The sci-fi is exemplary. The stories are compelling. Sadly, the narration is abysmal. It is such a shame that these great works are tarnished by such poor reading.

I suspect that some, if not all, of the readers are computer generated. Inflections are wrong, pronunciations are grossly misinterpreted, and much of the timing is just off. The speech reminds me of Google Maps trying to pronounce a story full of difficult streat names.

Computer voices?

Good stories, and some of them are certainly read by actual performers. I can swear that some of these stories are read by computer generated voices though - or else some of these readers have terrible rhythm. Still, all of them are absolutely possible to listen to.

some of the most flat narration ever...

these stories could be excellent but the narrator's are some of the consistently bad I've ever gotten from audible.

thankfully I'm used to listening to readers that volunteer with Library of Congress who read on tape in the 90s... but if you're used to good characterization and the flow of modern audiobooks, this will be painful

Computer narration unlistenable

I was only able to finish the stories that were read by humans and they were all pretty enjoyable.
I had to skip to the end of all the computer narrated ones though. It was like being read a bedtime story by a creepy zombie!

really hard to listen to

this is the first review I've ever posted, and I'm only doing it because this audiobook narration is so awful. really hard to enjoy the story when when a robot voice is floundering through it in the worst way possible. I want my money back. please stop doing this it is atrocious, I would rather not listen than have to try and decode what the hell is going on. bad job audible

Very good selection

Very Good selection of stories. I also liked the fact that so many different narrators were used. Gave the whole volume a certain variety of style. I liked some of the narrators better than others but they were all competent. I also liked the fact that a number of the narrators were female. Sci-Fi narrators are most often male. This was a nice change of pace.