Ep. 4: Narrator Hall of Fame: Hear What Makes Them Great

By: The Audible Editors

Length: 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Narration is the life-blood of audiobooks. Hear from our editors on who some of the great voices are, what makes them special, and what tricks they use to keep their reads top notch.

Books in this Episode:

A Long Way Home by Saroo Bierley

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Royally Screwed by Emma Chase

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

You by Caroline Kepnes

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Fiercely Emma by J. Bengtsson

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Year One by Nora Roberts

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

©2018 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2018 Audible Originals, LLC

Great narrators!

Like many Audible fans, I often choose what I purchase and listen to based on who is narrating, so this episode was particularly interesting to me. I loved hearing The Editors discuss some of their favorite narrators including some fun commentary and even some of the narrators' tricks for when they go into the booth to record.

This episode includes clips of the narrators' performances with some of their more recent popular titles. I cannot remember clips being used in the previous three episodes, but I think it is neat for each narrator to be highlighted here. I'm personally familiar with each narrator that is highlighted in this episode but in case listeners are not, these clips could possibly introduce some new favorites.

All of the audiobooks and narrators discussed in this episode can be found at https://www.audible.com/Audicted so there is no need to try to write down everything that is said. I love that.

Also! You know that voice that is at the beginning and end of every audiobook: "This. Is. Audible." -- The Editors discuss who that person is at the end of this episode. I've wondered about this person and now he is no longer a mystery to me. So cool!

Enjoyed this!

I enjoyed listening to the editors discuss their takes on different performers -- and what makes a good performance.

Nice discussion of narrators

It's difficult to argue with any of the selected narrators. All are excellent. Narrators like Julia Whelan, Vikas Adam, Scott Brick, and Santino Fontana.

top narrators

The Audible Editors are excited to talk about the narrators they love and mention a few: A Long Way Home - narrated by Vikas Adam; Children of Blood and Bone - narrated by Bahni Turpin; The Perfect Mother - narrated by Cristin Milioti, You - narrated by Santino Fontana; The Conspiracy of Us trilogy - narrated by Julia Whalen; and more.

Episode 4

I like that they had a ‘Narrator Hall of Fame’ episode. It was really fun to listen to this episode.

Great Subject Matter - I Hope It's Expanded Upon

Story: 2-Stars
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In the early part of this episode, the blueprint for what I would have loved to get from this episode is described. Who are these narrators? How did they get into this business? Are their voices recognized on the street? Unfortunately, we get very little of this type of information, which would have really dialed up the interest factor for me. A future episode diving deeper into narrator 'origin stories' would be fascinating.

A minor gripe, but an episode titled 'Narrator Hall of Fame' with coverage of a narrator not on the hall of fame list seems a curious programming choice. I'm sure they are fantastic (the sample sounded great) and I will take any insight I can get - though the inclusion gives the impression that the hosts are trying to 'fill air.'

A wonderful enhancement is the audio samples of the chosen narrators. Being new to Audible, I am quickly perceiving their importance to my experience with the platform.

Performance: 3-Stars
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The hosts are clearly becoming comfortable with the show delivery.

Couldn't hear a thing after the intro music

I couldn't hear a thing after the intro music which was over loud and caused me to turn my volume down. Then the program started and even after turning the volume all the way up I could just barely hear some women talking but couldn't understand a single word. I don't know if it was worth in even at free since it just aggravated the heck out of me.