The Audiobook Enthusiast's Handbook | by Craig Brown

There is something about listening to a story, maybe it harks back to when we used to huddle around the campfire and storytelling was the method of entertainment but I love listening to or being told a story.

I remember being in my early teens and saving up to buy a small FM radio, listening to it in bed while falling asleep, listening to BBC Radio Lancashire.  That memory has always stuck with me, the comfort of listening to someone talking to me.

Fast forward to 2010 and my job at the time required plenty of driving around Lancashire and that is when I discovered audiobooks, I had a free trial with Audible and I was away.  This is where my love affair with the narrated stories started.  Now, I listen when taking the dog for a walk, undertaking housework or on a car or train journey.

While Audible is the most popular service, owned and operated by Amazon, they have been at the centre of some controversy when it was revealed that some authors get paid very little in the way of royalties by Audible.  So you may wish to explore other platforms that offer audiobooks such as Apple Books, Google Books, Kobo and Xigxag.

Another way to listen is to access books that cost nothing.  Your local library may offer free loans for audiobooks.  I’m signed up with Lancashire Library Service and you can loan up to 8 books at a time for free, you might just have to wait for them to come back off loan but that is a very small price to pay.

So, I’ve listed below, what is the most important to me when looking for an audiobook in the order of importance.  These are my requirements so you may look for different things.

Narrator

This for me, is the most important choice when it comes to picking something to listen to.  A bad narrator can make a good book a hardship to listen to but a good narrator, a good narrator can make a bad book outstanding to listen to.  This comes to personal choice, what style of narrator resonates with you?  Do you prefer male or female?  British or American?  Do you like your narrator to use different voices for different characters, more akin to an old-fashioned radio play or do you just want them to read the book normally?

For me, Steven Pacey is the gold standard of audiobook narration.  Steven is a British actor who used to star in Blake 7 (this is way before my time) and has narrated over 200 audiobooks.  His vocal range is phenomenal, he makes you believe multiple people are narrating the book, and he is that good.  I would listen to him narrate the menu of my local takeaway.

Length

I used to focus on value, if I got a 20/25+ hour audiobook for 1 credit, I’d be over the moon.  But I found that as I was listening, I would start to get fatigued as the book dragged on and more often than not, would lead to me not finishing it.

The sweet spot for me is around 12/14 hours.  I can normally finish a book of this length in a week or so with plenty of dog walks.  Now, that is not to say that I won’t listen to longer books, it just has to be the right book.  More of this in my recommendations.

Genre

Again, personal choice, What do you like to read?  What is your favourite?  Crime drama? Autobiography? Romantic comedy? Scandi noir?  You will find something you enjoy.

I have always had a love of fantasy and science fiction, this stems from my Dad introducing me to Star Trek and Star Wars as a young child.  This is where my interests and passions lie, I’m trying to branch out into other genres and trying to expand what I listen to but this is where my heart is and always comes back to this.

Recommendations

I wanted to give a few recommendations of my favourites, these are books that I return to time and time again.

Series: The First Law
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Narrator: Steven Pacey
Link:The First Law Trilogy Series Audiobooks | Audible.co.uk

Joe Abercrombie has crafted a fantastic fantasy series which defines the grimdark genre with rich world-building and characters you love to hate. From Logen Ninefingers' constant near scrapes with death to Sand Dan Glokter’s internal monologues, you will grow to love these characters and the world of the First Law.  There are 10 books in total.  3 which form the original First Law Trilogy, 3 stand-alone books (a revenge thriller, a war story and a fantasy western), a book of short stories and finishing off with the Age of Madness trilogy. 

Steven Pacey brings such depth to these characters with his skill as a narrator and he will make you believe more than one person is voicing these characters.  Now, these are long books, ranging between 19 to 27 hours in length each but believe me, they are worth your time.

🔞These books are graphic and contain a great deal of swearing, violence and death.

Series: War for the Rose Throne
Author: Peter McLean
Narrator: David Morley Hale
Link: Arisen Series Audiobooks | Audible.co.uk

Peaky Blinders meets Game of Thrones, If that doesn’t get you hooked, nothing will.  This 4 book series follows Tomas Piety, a soldier, priest, and gangster as he returns home to Ellinburg after the war has ended.  We follow Tomas as he tries to take back his criminal empire and establish the Pious Men as the number one gang in the city.  Long with his friends and allies, Bloody Anne, fat Luca and Billy the Boy, Tomas has to navigate the criminal underworld, the city watch and the sinister web spun by the Queen’s Men.  The books range from 10 to 16 hours in length but are just excellent.  The series also handles PTSD, called battleshock and this is handled very well and allows for some fantastic scenes.

David Morley Hale does a sterling job bringing the characters and locations to life with tremendous range.

🔞These books are graphic and contain a great deal of swearing, violence and death.  They also cover PTSD.

Series: Arisen
Author: Micheal Stephen Fuchs & Glynn James
Narrator: R.C. Bray
Link: Arisen Series Audiobooks | Audible.co.uk

My last recommendation is the Arisen series.  Set in the world of the ZA or Zula Alpha this globe-trotting adventure follows humanity's last hope for survival, a team of special forces soldiers as they take on the endless hordes of the undead…. Yes, you heard that right, Special Forces vs. Zombies.

This is the audiobook equivalent of a popcorn action movie, this is what I listen to when I just want to suspend belief and be entertained.  It’s silly, it’s fun and very moreish.  You grow to love the characters and find yourself rooting for them in one over-the-top set piece to the next.

R.C. Bray is great as the narrator for this series and his bombastic tone is the perfect fit especially when voicing Master Gunnery Sgt. Fick who steals every scene he is in.  The way he paraphrases something in the early books is a little off; part of the series is set in England, and he says the M-Two-Five motorway instead of the M25 might just be the difference between English and American, but he corrects this in later books.

There are 14 books in total and a few spin-offs as well.  The books range from 7 to 18 hours in length.

🔞These books are graphic and contain a great deal of swearing, violence and death.

Honourable mentions go to The Harry Potter books narrated by Stephen Fry, The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings/Silmarillion narrated by Andy Serkis and the Audible version of Dracula, narrated by a full cast and has made me look over my shoulder before now.

So those are some of my favourite audiobooks but I would love to hear what you enjoy listening to, drop your favs or recommendations in the comments below we might just discover something new.

Craig Brown is a Data Literacy/ Data & Insights for Business Decisions apprentice based in the UK and is writing for the Apprentice Lens as part of the Blogging Team. Here's more about him:

"Craig is an Education Partnership Officer for Lancashire County Council and leads on Team around the School and Settings for one of the 5 localities. Craig hopes to develop his writing skills and talk about his apprentice journey as someone who did not enjoy school."