Kevin's Watch

My vote would be Frank Muller. He has a wonderful voice, and he dosen't exactly "do" character voices, but he gives each character their own very distinct inflection. He even does women very well. Nothing goofy about it.


Also, Barnes and noble currently has the complete unabridged LOTR on sale. Read by Rob Inglis (also very good, and very English.) This is on 46 cd's, for $103.98. (usually $129.99)

Here is the link, if anyone's interested.


search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?FMT=AU&WRD=lord+of+the+rings&userid=53Z0IB4SRG

Or, if that doesn't work, you could just search barnesandnoble.com, audiobooks, Lord of the Rings.

Note: there are several versions in stock, but the only unabridged one is the $103.00 one.

I know where part of MY paycheck is going.

I'd like to just see if the deep-voiced guy who does those "High Life" beer commercials could maintain his baritone throughout a whole reading... I wonder if that's really how he talks!

I suppose this answers my question in another part of the forum, assuming that the speculation over a reader means that a spoken word version is not available

and...

i'll stick up for all the audio version of lord of the rings, i have the BBC radio series on 13 cd's it's excellent a 10/10

rob inglis spoken word is a bit dry but a 8/10

martin shaw's silmarrilion is fantastic a 9/10

oh! for thomas covenant on audio , please SRD

Lord Foul wrote:I'd like to just see if the deep-voiced guy who does those "High Life" beer commercials could maintain his baritone throughout a whole reading... I wonder if that's really how he talks!

How about James Earl Jones? Darth Vader / Thulsa Doom doing TCOTC. Wow.

I'd like to just see if the deep-voiced guy who does those "High Life" beer commercials could maintain his baritone throughout a whole reading... I wonder if that's really how he talks!

Bilbo relaxes at home in the beginning of the Hobbit: Ahh, yes, Bilbo Baggins, this is the Highlife.

Talking books can be a great way to just sit back and mellow out.
Or put them on in the car.
A recorded version of the chronicles is way overdue.

Sure reading it yourself is great but hey it would be nice to have a choice and I am sure they would sell.
But is would obviously be a massive undertaking.

someone here could just buy a cheap microphone for the computer and read aloud his copy of the chronicles...convert it to MP3 format and send it off to everyone to burn it on CDs...so, does anyone here have an interesting voice?

I just thought there was a small chance that some here might be interested. The entire unabridged First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever have been posted to the Usenet Newsgroup Alt.Binaries.Mp3.Audiobooks.Highspeed in MP3 format. The posts were made between 09/04/06 and 09/14/06 by two users using the 'nyms cmdr_adama@bellsouth.net and fury161@whoopee.com.

I'm not sure of the source, but I believe it is a co-operative venture for the sightless between Books-on-tape and the US Library of Congress.

For those who understand Usenet, go for it.

For those who don't: Get yourselves a decent news provider for a month like W*W.EASYNEWS.C*M , and a Usenet client like Xnews or Freeagent.

Better yet, Easynews has a simple searchable web interface you can use to download the 700 or so files.

If all else fails, google "Usenet FAQ" and "Downloading Binaries from Usenet". For those who find this later, most premium newsproviders will hold binaries from 30-90 days. Forget the one that comes with your ISP service, unless you are incredibly fortunate.

Enjoy. I certainly will as it's a lovely way to pass the hours on the PC at work.

Edit- The voices are of mixed quality. No dramatization or sound effects, just a direct recitation of the text.

cool! way cool!

Adept, are these the same ones that are read by a woman? I've heard parts of those. After having listened to Scott Brick reading Runes, these earlier ones were to my ears not nearly as good, though of course as a project for the blind, I commend them highly. Brick does each character w/ a different voice

Spoiler

I especially like his interpretations of Stave and Anele

whereas the woman just reads them in a somwhat annoying tone.

They can be found from time to time on torrent sites too.

I would choose Ed Harris as Covanent. He has the gravely voice, and would be believable as the character. Also, he is a great character actor. I think Ed Norton, while a great actor, is a bit to young for Covenant's life experience.

I wrote:... are these the same ones that are read by a woman?

Update: apparently only the 1st Chron are read by the woman in question... 2nd Chron are read by at least two different men. Though they apparently just read through without differentiating characters too.

How about Christian Bale? Or do I have Bats in my brain

Sorry it took me a bit to respond. Yes, these are just straight readings of the text, with little dramatic interpretation.

I also believe "The One Tree" is read by the gentleman who nararated many of the film strips I sat through back in my early school days. I keep expecting to hear the "beep" to advance to the next slide.

For the younger set- Before Powerpoint, there were these transparent little film images that could be projected onto a screen using a light bulb contained in something called a "slide" or "Film strip" projecter.

Adept Havelock wrote:I'm not sure of the source, but I believe it is a co-operative venture for the sightless between Books-on-tape and the US Library of Congress.

From what I understand, these are special readings, among many others, aimed at visually-impaired persons -- blind or semi-blind people.
So it's not a high-budget thing, was done in the 90's, and possibly aren't supposed to be available to the larger public.
Sometimes these books on tapes are played at higher speed by experienced listeners with special machines, so neutral reading (emotionless/dramaless) might be better suited.

These aren't too bad, the quality is a tad dodgy ...

www.demonoid.com/files/?category=0&subc ... id=0&sort=

The guy reading, John Chancer, adopts various voices for the characters with varying success.
His voice for Thomas Covenant is way to pussy for the first half of LFB, but by TIW it's good enough (it's as if someone had a word in Mr. Chancer's ear that the voice was all wrong)
The voice he adopts for Saltheart Foamfollwer also grates.
But overall it's not too bad, and the reading seems to get better as it goes; I'm quite enjoying listening to the Illearth War at the moment ..

SleeplessOne wrote:These aren't too bad, the quality is a tad dodgy ...

www.demonoid.com/files/?category=0&subc ... id=0&sort=

The guy reading, John Chancer, adopts various voices for the characters with varying success.
His voice for Thomas Covenant is way to pussy for the first half of LFB, but by TIW it's good enough (it's as if someone had a word in Mr. Chancer's ear that the voice was all wrong)
The voice he adopts for Saltheart Foamfollwer also grates.
But overall it's not too bad, and the reading seems to get better as it goes; I'm quite enjoying listening to the Illearth War at the moment ..

That name sounds familiar... Know anything else he's read?

Also, the guy who read my copy of Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune needs to be shot.