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The Audio Version
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| The beardy Mr. D. |
This weekend I've been listening to the audio version of The Cold Cold Ground. Normally I can't read anything I've written after it's completed but with the audio, somehow, it's different. Gerard Doyle is the narrator of Cold Cold and he's really done an amazing job differentiating the characters and coming up with voices. (His Gerry Adams impression roughly in the middle of the book is to die for.) I am not the only one to have noticed this. In the reviews of Cold Cold on Audible I've gotten a few three stars and four stars but so far Doyle has a perfect five star record for his narration. Doyle not only reads the books beautifully but he does a tremendous amount of research. I skyped with Doyle several times as a consult on Cold Cold and last time he even went as far as calling up a Professor of philology at Queens University Belfast to get the right pronunciation of words in Shelta, the language of the Tinkers. I do listen to a lot of audiobooks when I'm riding my bike around town or going to the dreaded gym (currently I'm listening to a Y/A steampunk novel called Leviathan which is narrated by Alan Cumming) but if you haven't yet got hooked on Audible I can thoroughly recommend audio listening as a benign vice.
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You can get Cold Cold Ground on Audible, here and if you do like it I'd love it if you left me a rating or even better a review. Cheers.
26 comments:
I haven't heard Cold Cold Ground yet (still saving for my holiday) but have to agree that Mr. Doyle has done some fine work on your earlier novels. I thought the woman who narrated Fifty Grand also did a good job.
It seems to me that your writing is well suited to the format. Do you speak the words when you write to develop a "rhythm"?
Stevie
I sometimes read passages out loud yes, especially dialogue. If it sounds false I cut it or change it.
I dont think I could ever dictate my books though like Winston Churchill and, er, Barbara Cartland.
Adrian, I agree with your comments about Audible. And, I'd bet that G. Doyle appreciates your kind comments.
Listening to audiobooks is actually an important part of my daily routine. I also listen at the gym, and having a good book (e.g., The Cold Cold Ground) makes me look forward to going to the gym. I've been an Audible subscriber for over nine years and am a very satisfied customer.
Unlike you, I don't listen while I'm riding my bike. I need to focus on my riding and would miss large portions of the book if I attempted to listen while riding.
Gerard Doyle is among my favorite readers. In addition to narrating several of your books, he's also the narrator of Christopher Paolini's books.
Audible is actually how I stumbled onto your work. I was looking for Irish authors and there was a sale on Dead Yard. I was really annoyed to find it was the second book (I like to start at the beginning of a series), but I was hooked by the time Michael made the comment about evil people drinking light beer. I laughed so hard, I might have scared my dogs.
I like to listen to books while at the gym or walking my dog.
I've only just started CCG in audio and haven't been able to listen real well (stuff keeps happening while I'm listening.) Gerard Doyle is a really good reader. But I'm having trouble with different characters, so far. This is likely because of random shite that keeps happening.
Do you hear the characters' voices? And, if so, is Doyle's version close to how you hear it?
Speedskater
My problem with working out is that you get sick of music quickly, podcasts too become tedious and the TV channel at my gym shows Australian pop music vidoes and if you know Australian pop music you can appreciate what a special hell that is. (In my experience only Israeli and French pop is worse).
So audiobooks can be an ideal solution.
Monica
Doyle's voices are pretty much how I imagined them in my head. There aren't that many characters in CCG so the problem might be one of distraction.
The Crime Always Pays verdict on Cold Cold Ground here:
Dec Burke's CAP
I must be one of your few "readers" who has listened to all of your books so far and I think they work very well in that format. Mr. Doyle is first rate, and I found the narration of "Fifty Grand" excellent as well. There is a hallucinatory quality to your work that goes straight in the head when it comes in through the ears. No filters there at all.
Adrian
Not sure where to put this, so thus seems as good a place as any. TCCG got a great review in today's Sunday Herald ( Newspaper in Scotland based in Glasgow), by Doug Johnstone. not sure if online yet but worth reading if you can.
John
That happened to me when I was listening to the audio version of The Golden Compass. I felt like I was in the book somehow, it was a strange and not unpleasant feeling.
Remy
Brilliant! I had no idea. I'll go check it out. Of course I'd read the Herald when I was Glasgow...
Thanks to Remy here's the verdict of the good old Glasgow Herald (Scotland's highest circulation broadsheet):
The Cold Cold Ground
I know it seems like an obvious thing, but I didn't think about how essential a great narrator is to audiobooks until I ran into Lawrence Block audiobooks. I listened to (and loved) the audiobook of Hit Man narrated by actor Robert Forster. Years later it's still my favorite audiobook. Then I listened to Hit List, narrated by Block himself. I only made it an hour in before I had to turn it off. Makes me wonder if his ego led him to think he'd actually do a good job and no one at the publisher steered him differently. Stephen King shouldn't read his own audiobooks either. Thank goodness he doesn't do it that often.
Craig
Its almost always a disaster when an author reads his own books. (Curiously though Donna Tartt's reading of Charles Portis's True Grit is amazing). Le Carre is the biggest offender in my books. Someone has convinced him that he can do an American accent.
Congratulations on another favorable review, this time in the Glasgow Herald.
I thought M. Ondaatje reading of The Cat's Table clearly detracted from my enjoyment of his book.
On the other hand, S. Winchester is a wonderful narrator of his books, and N. Gaiman's reading of his book, The Graveyard Book, is as good as it gets.
The hearld reviewer is crazy! THe ending was the best part (although not up there with Falling Glass (but what could be?!!))
I look forward to hearing Mr. Doyle's renditions some day.
The picture reminds me that we have not heard a lot from the beard lately, although I suspect the last post may have been channeled from it.
Speedskater
Neil Gaiman is a good reader is he? I'd expect nothing less. In person he's charming and articulate which are important qualities in a reader.
Ted
I liked the ending too. But you can't please everybody can you?
Seana
The beard's taking a hiatus, but it may be on its way back.
Adrian,
Clearly we have similar tastes because in my Audible review of Cold Cold Ground I credited GD's impersonation of Adams as being his best character performance. It had me in stitches.
GD's style - his accents, intinations, pauses and so on - are matched to your writing style to perfection.
By the way, after listening to CCG, I replayed DIWMB and was startled to hear that GD's voice has changed significantly over the years. It seems deeper, darker and more gravelly now.
PS I found this interview with GD on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGswnEUdXHM and was shocked to discover that he has an English accent, which I'd locate around London/Essex.
Not even a hint of 'doing a Van Dyke' when he does the Irish accents. Amazing.
Alan
Thanks for the review mate I appreciate it.
I just checked on what you said and yeah you're right. His voice is deeper. I wonder if he's a smoker?
He is English but his parents are Irish and he spent his childhood in the Old Country, so I guess that makes him as Irish as Shane McGowan!
This is any version.
FYI: I keep seeing positive comments about The Cold, Cold Ground all over the blogosphere, a review, a reader's comment about reading a wonderful book -- a lot is being said, and even better, all good.
Congrats!
Mission Accomplished. Glowing review delivered to audible. Thanks for Cold Cold Ground! It was easily my favorite mystery of the last year, handily beating Michael Connolly's The Drop, his first decent book in years. I wish you had his sale numbers! I really like Doyle's narration of your books--you and he have made my long work commutes so much better. -Chris
Aiken
Thanks mate, I really appreciate it. I'm glad you liked it. Its my opinion that Doyle could narrate the phone book and make it compelling but thats just me.
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