Romance Audiobooks discussion

I've been slowly working my way through the Tess Gerritsen Rizzoli and Isles series on audio and have come to notice that there are a variety of different narrators that were used during the series.

According to audible, book 1 is not available, but from book 2 through 9, the following narrators were used:
Anna Fields (2, 3)
Kathe Mazur (4, 6)
Susan Denaker (5)
Diedre Lovejoy (7)
Tanya Eby (8, 9)

so what are your thoughts on this - do you prefer different narrators, or would like to see the same throughout?

I like to see the same throughout, though the change in the Fever series was excellent. The original narrator was wonderful as well.

I generally prefer a series to have a constant narrator. I don't like getting used to one voice and then mid series or every other book the narrator changes to someone else. It throws me out of the story ESPECIALLY if the new narrator doesn't pronounce words the way the original narrator did. This happened in the Anita blake series by Laurell Hamilton and the Dark Carpathian books by Christine Feehan. I loved the change in the fever books only because I have a HUGE audio crush on Phil Gigante.

If lead characters are the same in each book, I definitely prefer the same narrator. But if each book contains a new hero and heroine, I strongly prefer different narrators. I can't help but compare one hero (or heroine) to the next wondering if they sound too much alike. And since I visualize the lead characters, the hero of Book A better sound completely different from the new hero in Book B because if he doesn't, I'll be visualizing the Book A hero.

Lea - that is a good point - I hadn't thought about that ;) maybe that is why the different narrators for the 2 Arcane society books i've listened to haven't bugged me as much as the Rizzoli and Isles series

Lea's Audiobooks wrote: "If lead characters are the same in each book, I definitely prefer the same narrator. But if each book contains a new hero and heroine, I strongly prefer different narrators."

Totally agree with you on this, Lea.

I'm sort of bummed out that a series I just started has different narrators for the following books. The narrator for book one is Japanese (like the main character) so obviously the parts in Japanese are done very authentically and the names are pronounced the right way. I cannot imagine how anybody else can do this audio justice so I'm switching to print for the books this narrator is not doing.

I have a habit of listening to a series after I've collected all available books at the time. When I listened to the Acorna series by Anne McCaffery I was really shocked by the change of narrators so late in the series. Not only was the narration bad I almost didn't continue I was so disappointed. The characters had changed personalities!
I finished a series last month and praise be the same narrator did it all. I'm into book four (including Prequel and 3.5) of the Lords of the Underworld series. So far same narrator. I'll probably through a hissy if I find different than Max Bellmore as the narrator.

I prefer the same narrator. I listened to Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses series. There were five different books, and three different narrators.
Jennifer Van Dyck for books 1 and 2.
Joe Barrett for books 3 and 4.
Lindsay Ellison for book 5.
I liked Jennifer Van Dyck the best, but thought everyone did a good job.
What I did find was a problem was the multiple personality disorder the characters suffered with each change of narrator.

I generally prefer the same narrator except for on 2 conditions. If the new narrator is better then I am on board with the change. If the books have different main characters (as Lea mentioned), I'm sometimes OK with the change.

How many people would riot if the narrator (Susan Ericksen) was changed in In Death series. I know I was emotionally scarred when we got a Dresden book not read by James Marsters. When Blackstone changed the narrator on Kim Harrison's The Hollows series - it was a disaster. As was stated, names were not pronounced the same and it disrupted the whole flow. I tend to grab the ebook for audios that change the narrator.

someone mentioned that there are versions of the in death series out there that aren't done by Erickson - I think they re-released them by her at a later date

I'm not aware of different narrators for In Death series. There are like 2 books where the narration is TOTALLY different in the series because they started with book 12 or something. (I have it referenced in the NR/JD thread) The first 2 audiobooks didn't have as distinct voices for individual characters (Eve vs. Peabody) and none of the voices and characters were as vocally fleshed out. They went back and later produced the earlier books. So what we get is fully fleshed out narration for first 10 or so books in series, then first 2 audios produced with light distinction between character voices, and then rest of audios with better voice acting. So, it is always jarring to me when I'm on a re-listen jag to hit those first couple of books on audio. :)

Generally, I prefer having the same narrator for a series. I think the series that annoyed me most (or at least, most recently) changing up narrators was "The Vampire Academy" series by Richelle Mead. One narrator for Book 1, different narrator for Book 2 and 3, and then they finally settled on someone for the rest of the series. Voices changed (of course), but also accents and pronunciations. I was so aggravated, since I loved the series and thought that the changes detracted from it.

i wasn't either until someone mentioned it in a review - i'll have to find the review and see who it was

Dee wrote: "someone mentioned that there are versions of the in death series out there that aren't done by Erickson - I think they re-released them by her at a later date"

The first three books in the In Death series were originally released with Cristine McMurdo-Wallis as the narrator and then were re-recorded by Ericksen much later. I started my listen to the audios with those. I liked them but they are very different from Ericksen's performance.

Gavin wrote: "I prefer the same narrator. I listened to Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses series. ...What I did find was a problem was the multiple personality disorder the characters suffered with each change of narrator."

I had the same problem with that series, Gavin, and multiple personality disorder is the perfect way to describe it. I preferred Jennifer Van Dyck's narrations and the change was too jarring so I ended up switching to text for the last three.

Kelli wrote: "I preferred Jennifer Van Dyck's narrations and the change was too jarring so I ended up switching to text for the last three. "

I wish that was still an option for me!.
Kirra's change of personality was by far the most difficult to deal with. I liked Jennifer Van Dyck's Kirra but found Joe Barrett's Kirra very irritating.

On a positive note at least I have not run into this problem very often in my years of listening to audio books.

The book I am listening to now is, Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson. It's read by two different narrators who seem to be taking turns reading different chapters of the book. This is a first for me. I've listened to full cast audios but never alternating narrators.

Alternating narrators are more popular in YA if the book is told from the perspective of two different characters (his and hers sort of thing.)

D.G. ~Shameless Hussy~ wrote: "Alternating narrators are more popular in YA if the book is told from the perspective of two different characters (his and hers sort of thing.)"

That's exactly how the narration went for The Way of Kings. I liked it, but don't know how much I would enjoy it for the average book. There was little overlap between the characters in Way of Kings.