Something you’ll hear me say again and again. A bad narrator can make a good book bad, but a good narrator can make a bad book good. My journey into audiobooks began with some… hesitancy. My husband insisted I give them a try, but no single narrator seemed to pique my fancy. Until Jim Dale, that is.
Jim Dale is, of course, the narrator of the Harry Potter series for the American market. I was hooked. And so began my obsession with not only audiobooks but their narrators as well.
I went on a deep dive searching books not by the genre but by who read them, and while I still wound up finding books I wouldn’t have cared to read physically, the narrator made them quite enjoyable. And so, I give you a list of my favorite narrators.
Next, I was thankfully introduced to R.C. Bray. If you search Audible with his name, you’ll turn up page after page of books. And it’s no wonder with him being one of the best Sci-fi narrators of all time. My first encounter with Bray was paired with the phenomenal book The Martian. Now read by Will Wheaton, but when read by Bray, there was no greater pairing. Later, I delved into books written by Jeremy Robinson, Nicolas Sansbury Smith, and even highly underrated C.S. Friedman. Bray brings these heroes easily to life.
Aside from Jim Dale and R.C. Bray, my favorite is Peter Kenny. When I say that he makes narration an art, it is no exaggeration. I first found Kenny when I began listening to the Witcher series, and for those who’ve read that review, I’m sure I gushed on Kenny in it as well. Kenny pulled every character from Sapkowski’s series and any series he narrates right off the pages. Aside from Doug Cockle and Henry Cavill, Kenny makes a fabulous Geralt of Rivia and Holt Cook from Michael Miller’s Songs of Chaos series, Annev de Breth from Justin Call’s Silent Gods Series, and so many more. I’ve begun to find, follow, and friend many new authors simply because of Peter Kenny. If you are an avid audiobook listener or even if you’re not, check out these narrators. I promise you won’t regret it!
“Even most of those who really never have time to read a book usually have more than enough time to listen to one.” ―
