I don’t usually do “Top Ten Tuesday”, whether because I don’t love the prompts or because I make lists whenever I want to, which is frequently! That said though I love audiobooks and LOVE the idea of featuring my favorite narrators!
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl.
1. Will Patton
My first and foremost hands down favorite narrator ever is Will Patton. I love his voice. It is equally capable of keeping me engaged or lulling me to sleep in the most sleepless mornings. He narrates everything from The Raven Cycle to Stephen King books, some Bukowski collections, to authors that I’ve discovered now like Charles Frazier. I’ll listen to anything he narrates.
2. Rebecca Soler
I discovered her through every Marissa Meyer book ever, but she does a ton more YA type fantasy like the Stephanie Garber books (Caraval and OUaBH), Seafire, Melissa Albert, and more. She forays into other genres as well and is actually super nice in person too. She was at an event here in Rochester and just seems like a lovely person.
3. Scott Brick
It’s senseless to try to list what Scott Brick narrates – everything from sci-fi to fantasy to thrillers to … The list is just insane. The thing is that I’ve never disliked anything he’s done, whether it’s Michael Crichton or James Patterson or something like Asimov’s I, Robot. The list is just immensely diverse and he’s unflappable
4. Grover Gardner
Gardner is probably the only one I can think of that narrates more books than Scott Brick. He’s also unflappable. I listen to a lot of history books and discovered Gardner while listening to some of Shelby Foote’s Civil War books, but he also narrates some Stephen King and some fantasy books and he’s kind of amazing. I probably like him equally as much as Brick if not more
5. George Guidall
Starting and then picking up the reins again in The Dark Tower series is George Guidall. He also narrates a ton of fantasy and thrillers and again, everything in between. Super versatile narrator who does a lot of great accents.
6. Kathleen Gati
Mostly narrating women’s fiction, she also was an absolute stunner in Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy. I look up books read by Gati when I’m looking for lovely accents and a lot of heart
7. Khristine Hvam
I love her fantasy readings. I don’t honestly know how much I’d like Laini Taylor or Julie Kagawa, among others, if I didn’t love Hvam’s voice so much. She does lovely and dramatic accents that make the characters come right alive
8. Stephen Fry & Jim Dale
Fry or Dale? Dale or Fry? I am team Fry. Besides his absolutely iconic reading of the Harry Potter series, Fry narrates a lot of British children’s lit and Douglas Adams,’ books too. He’s hilarious. It’s a little hard to find his HP audiobooks in the US because we are a Jim Dale nation, but to me it’s worth searching for them. I’m adding Dale here too because even though his female voices tend to grate on me, his HP readings have brought me a lot of soothe when I’ve needed it
9. Simon Vance
Vance is another super heavy hitter in the audiobook industry and I do like him quite a bit, but he’s not one of my go-to without fail narrators. I’ve listened to SO much of his worth though like Brent Weeks, George RR Martin, Frank Herbert, Naomi Novik, Anne Rice, Stieg Larsson. It’s hard to deny that Vance is an icon too
10. Kate Rudd
Oh, oh no, sorry Kate, I totally forgot about her until the end. She is probably up above Stephen Fry honestly. Kate narrates most of the Jeff Wheeler books and I love her deep voice and capacity for emotion. She also reads some Charlie Holmberg, Lisa Gardner, and many other books across multiple genres.
There’s my list! Who are your favorites?
My honorable mentions could go on forever heheh maybe I’ll do a part two
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