Male or Female voice?

I prefer the same voice as the writer.

I actually prefer many voices so each character gets his or her own voice, but for the narration, I want the same voice as whoever wrote the book.

I like when it switches off, depending on the character.

I once heard one where a woman read, and she did different voices for all the characters. She did a pretty good job, except for the men. Yikes. It just came across as silly and it was rather jarring.

I listen to a lot of audio stories, and I have no preference for male over female. I don't like narrators with heavy accents or odd pronunciation quirks that pull me out of the story, or narrators that don't fit the story.

I listened to what would have been a very good story a few weeks ago, had it not been a 1st person male character being voiced by a woman. I found it very distracting and kept having to ask myself if the character were actually male or female.

When I listened to Codex Alera, the narrator was a woman despite all the male POVs. Didn't bother me at all. I think the more distant/omniscient the POV the easier this would be to do.

I think it would be different if it were first person POVs. When I listened to Shiver, the voice switched off between the male and female POVs and everything was written in first person. If it had been the same narrator all the way through that probably would have been confusing.

I don't think I have a preference. I mean, in a single POV story, the gender of the reader should match the gender of the character, but for multi-POV? I don't think I care.

men
ken = sexist ?
:-(

My Dutch books have been brought out as audio books for library customers with a hearing impairment.
The voice was female. She sounded like a children's book narrator, and that was my only problem.
Males and females can produce a rousing tale, that's all I care for. Besides, my books have both MMCs and FMCs.

There's no difference.

My preference is clearly spoken and be restrained on drama. If a voice swoops and dips a lot I find it distracting. Another vote against a strong accent, a touch is fine.

I think I would find a first person book distracting in the "wrong" gender but can't think of one I could name that I've heard.

Other than that, how about a mid range voice - so not obviously one or the other?

I'd love to hear a fantasy novel read by someone who DOESN'T have some sort of British accent, for a change. How did we decide that everyone in fantasy land is British?

The only audio book I've done was a full-cast audio version of a Clive Cussler. There was a male narrator, who had a different voice than the Dirk Pitt actor. It was much more reminiscient of a radio drama, and I used to love Mystery Theater on CBS radio.

Further thought - if there is an accent, matching it to the character. Sounds obvious, but what I am thinking of is an audio book of one of the Falco novels, which had a slightly rough/robust accent/voice is the best I can describe it from memory. Falco being an ex-centurion private investigator. If he'd been given an upper class, or very precise voice, that would have jarred.

Sage said:

No.

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cool

And yeah. In general, just give me a good reader and I'm happy. There are so very many mediocre ones. Reading aloud is an art, just like acting. Few can really do it well and do justice to the stories and characters. I wish more talent was invested into the recordings, in general, though maybe there's just not enough profit to recruit the best.

Sort of prefer a voice whose sex corresponds to the main character (at least if running with Third Person limited). Had one of my novels narrated by a fellow who did a really good job, but the MC was female.

I have one short story available as an audiobook (also as an ebook) and the reader is male, despite the story being first-person female. I had nothing to do with the audio version and to be fair he did read the story well.

Having said that, I'd find it odd to have a first-person story read by someone of the opposite sex to the narrator, but a third-person story could be read by either a man or a woman. I have read my own stories from time to time at convention, so in those cases you're stuck with me both when the story is female-POV and when it's male-POV.

Thewitt said:

My favorite audition for the book so far is a woman who is an actor. She seems to grasp the story well and did the things I expected in the right places in the audition script.

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Actors do seem to be good bets, though I have got some duds even with actors. Stage actors may even be better. On average they do a great job with audio recordings, in my experience. Inspiring thread. Makes me want to get another audio. Haven't in awhile.

Thewitt said:

For those of you who regularly listen to audio books, do you prefer a male or female voice?

I'm currently listening to auditions for my first book in audio format, and I have both to choose from.

It's an epic fantasy, with strong male and female characters, told storyteller fashion with mostly third person omnipotent voice.

Any preferences? Though I know this will be very personal, I'm curious what you guys prefer in a narrator.

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Either or. I have no preference.

However, if I find the voice annoying then I can't listen. There are a couple of folks who I can't listen to read. Sometimes it's because they put the emphasis on the wrong words in a sentance, sometimes it's accent, sometimes some people just have a really annoying voice and it grates on me. And sometimes the voice is wrong for the genre or story.

I slightly prefer female-voiced audio books for the sole reason that I find many male narrators' attempts to imitate female voices in dialogue really grating. A lot of times it just sounds like a generic 'this is what girls sound like' impression rather than the specific character. I hear the same thing happen with female narrators imitating male voices sometimes too, but less often. Which could be my personal bias as a human with a female voice.

Emmet Cameron said:

I slightly prefer female-voiced audio books for the sole reason that I find many male narrators' attempts to imitate female voices in dialogue really grating. A lot of times it just sounds like a generic 'this is what girls sound like' impression rather than the specific character. I hear the same thing happen with female narrators imitating male voices sometimes too, but less often. Which could be my personal bias as a human with a female voice.

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I've noticed this too - there are some male narrators who do a great job with female voices (Will Patton is probably my favourite - he's got a bit more subtlety about it than many others), but a lot of the time women come off sounding like total caricatures.

I generally prefer the gender of the MC, especially in first person POV, but a good narrator with tone variation is priority.

Emmet Cameron said:

I slightly prefer female-voiced audio books for the sole reason that I find many male narrators' attempts to imitate female voices in dialogue really grating. A lot of times it just sounds like a generic 'this is what girls sound like' impression rather than the specific character. I hear the same thing happen with female narrators imitating male voices sometimes too, but less often. Which could be my personal bias as a human with a female voice.

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No good narrator tries to imitate anyone's voice. He of she reads all dialogue in his or her own natural voice.

If you want narration where male characters talk like men, and female characters talk like women, then you use a cast of narrators, which is what I greatly prefer.

But I sure as hell don't want a female trying to narrate and action novel that has a male as the protagonist, just as I don't want a male narrating a story that has a female protagonist. This is so bad, so unrealistic, that I won't listen to it at all.