Best Audiobook Narrators

A narrator’s job is to bring life to a story. The top audiobook narrators can often portray things through tone, inflection, pitch and range that are very hard to create when reading alone.

Below is an audiobook narrators list of some of my favourite narrators, and by general consensus, some of the top audiobook narrators and the most famous audiobook narrators.

It should be no surprise that the best audiobook narrators, narrate the best fantasy audiobooks. Each narrator has their strengths and weaknesses and i believe there are no clear winners/ losers here. Where possible i have also included audio extracts.

BEST FANTASY AND SCI FI AUDIOBOOK NARRATORS

• 1. Michael Kramer
  2. Stephen Fry
  3. Nick Podehl
  4. Steven Pacey
  5. James Marsters
  6. Luke Daniels
  7. Jim Dale
  8. Kate Reading
  9. Wil Wheaton
  10. Tim Gerard Reynoldsn
  11. George Guidall
  12. Robert Inglis
  13. Rupert Degas
  14. Simon Vance
  15. Robin Miles
  16. Roy Dotrice
  17. Simon Prebble
  18. Sean Barrett

Michael Kramer is an award winning American audiobook narrator. Kramer has recorded many fantasy audiobooks. The most notable series Kramer has narrated in the context of the best fantasy was probably considered ‘The Wheel of Time (WoT) Series’ until recently, i now think the Stormlight Archive edges out in front. This series is about as epic as epic fantasy audiobooks can get, and Kramer nails it.

With Kramers dramatization, rich character diversification and smooth crisp voice you will sink into this series like nothing else before. Also on the list is Kate Reading (Michaels wife). They make an awesome team.

Stephen Fry, another English born man on the list. Fry is also comedian, actor, and writer. Fry’s greatest narrations are those of the Harry Potter series, like that of Jim Dale and there is obviously great debate of ‘who did it better’ (Fry did it better). I believe Fry is quite unique on this list in that I believe he adds the greatest amount of humour into the story comparatively – although Pacey does quite well arguably.

Fry shows a great deal of flexibility in his characters voices, for example in the Order of the Phoenix, after the events at the Ministry of Magic when Harry has a hissy fit in Dumbledores office, Fry’s ability to mimic a screaming 15 year old boy is impressive. Also, in the Half Blood Prince, when Ron takes a love potion, Fry adapts Ron’s voice to that of a high pitched, giggly, lovesick teenager- but still a voice that is recognisably Ron’s. It really is marvellous what Fry can do with his voice. Most of you are probably wondering what Fry’s choice of voice is for some of the more significant characters. Harry is of course, great. He doesn’t sound whiny or nasally. He sounds like a normal boy with some issues. Voldemort is 5 stars all round. He. Sounds. Evil. It’s great. From the way Voldemort is described in the books I expected a voice that was high, a little soft (sort of like a hiss) and very creepy. Fry’s impression of Voldemort is (I think) better. It’s cold and commanding, ruthless and cruel all at once.

Simon Vance is a stage, TV and film actor who has narrated hundreds of audiobooks for which he has won multiple AudioFile Earphone Awards and Audie Awards. He has been selected as an AudioFile “Golden Voice.” Recently he narrated Hilary Mantel’s BRING UP THE BODIES, winner of the 2013 Audie Award for Literary Fiction. Formerly a BBC Radio newsreader in London, he now resides in Northern California.

The most notable series in my mind is Dune, albeit he does have an impressive list of works. Check out the best sellers.

Podehl has also narrated one of my favourite series – the King Killer Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. He did very well with this series, this was a very clear narration with high distinction between characters. There was a little dramatisation which was good, while not too much over the top exaggeration – very balanced. Highly recommend Podehl for all the best fantasy audiobooks he narrates!

Steven Pacey is an English born actor and voice artist. For fantasy listening, especially that presented in a historical, yet paralleled time I believe the English accent really adds value.

Pacey is a real voice artist, and has the perfect amount of dramatization injected in to his narration. To further elaborate on this, his range and character diversification is just on point while at the same time he does not go over the top adding inflection where there should be none. Pacey’s diversification also translates well to a woman’s voice, and accents. I find quite often this is a major struggle. The female voices, are little more natural than most, quite often you get the high-pitched voice (I’m thinking of the Roy Dotrice, Feast for Crows – Daenerys disaster).

Pacey has narrated many fantasy books, and I believe the best are those he does from Joe Abercrombie’s, First Law, and the First Law World series. Both set in the same universe. These 6 books have a rating range of about 4.3 to 4.8 out of 5 on Audible, and are without a doubt, the best two series I have listened to, to date.

James Marsters is an American actor and musician. Marsters has narrated the whole Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, which are amazing, and very renowned.

James Marsters is something special. he has a huge theatre back ground which means he has the sheer stamina to do unabridged novels. He also had a fabulous voice.   His narrations are clear and clean with great pronunciation. I think his voice is suited to the contemporary audiobook – it may be the accent, but that’s just me

Marsters from what i hear has fantastic memory too, he remembers how he portrayed the characters from the earlier work, and his repetitions of characters flow nicely, it’s never fun as a listener to head to the next in the serise and find the characters have different voices. It’s clear that Marsters nails it,  he hit’s the right emotional mark for each passage.

Luke Daniels was born into a family of actors. Both his father and mother have been performing and teaching for almost five decades. It is because of their influence that, from a very young age, Luke and his two brothers often found themselves in rehearsal halls at repertory theatres all over the country; watching innumerable productions of Much Ado, Julius Caesar, and Midsummer’s.

Luke Daniels has narrated over 250 audiobooks, has been the grateful recipient of thirteen AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has earned three Audie nominations. His background is in classical theater and film. Luke has performed at repertory theaters around the country, but now he resides in the Midwest with his pack.

Luke Daniels voice is extremely clear that has this growly inflection that jumps up at the end of each sentence. In short it’s a voice you can listen to for hours. Luke also manages to slip in humour to his narrations which is great, this is evidence in the Magic 2.0 series. All in all, Daneil’s provides for a fantastic listening experience in almost every occasion that is worth of the best fantasy audiobooks. Luke has narrated many popular audiobooks such as the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer, Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne,  Frontlines series by Marko Kloos to name a few.

In the United States, Jim Dale is known as the “voice” of Harry Potter. He has recorded all seven books in the Harry Potter series as audiobooks, and as a narrator he has won two Grammy Awards (in 2001 and 2008) and received seven Grammy nominations and a record ten Audie Awards including “Audio Book of the Year 2004,” “Best Children’s Narrator 2001/2005/2007/2008,” “Best Children’s Audio Book 2005,” two Benjamin Franklin Awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association (one of these was in 2001 for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)and 23 Audio File Earphone Awards.

He narrates the Harry Potter video games and many of the interactive “extras” on the Harry Potter DVD releases. He also holds three Guinness World Records. One for occupying the first six places in the Top Ten Audio Books of America and Canada 2005.His second for creating 134 different voices for one audiobook, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. and his third for breaking his own record with 146 voices for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2007. Dale opened every episode of the ABC drama Pushing Daisies as the unseen narrator.

Kate Reading is the recipient of three AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has narrated everything from Patricia Cornwell to George Eliot. Her favorite BOT recordings include Like Water for Chocolate, Middlemarch, and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Times series, which she narrated with her husband, Michael Kramer.

Wheaton has worked as a voice actor in animation, video games and audiobooks, beginning with the role of Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH at age 10. His most noteworthy credits include the roles of Aqualad in the cartoons Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, the voice of radio journalist Richard Burns in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Kyle in the Nickelodeon cartoon, Kyle + Rosemary as well as himself and various other characters on both Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. Wheaton also featured as the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Dr. Peter Meechum in Generator Rex, Mike Morningstar / Darkstar in Ben 10: Alien Force, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien & Ben 10: Omniverse. Wheaton also took upon the anime roles of Yakumo in Kurokami: The Animation, Menma in Naruto, Hans in Slayers Evolution-R, Aaron Terzieff in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. He also appeared as himself in a skit on nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot’s 2008 album Final Boss attempting to be a rapper, whose rhymes only involved shellfish. Wheaton later collaborated with Frontalot on “Your Friend Wil”, a track from the 2010 album Zero Day on the subject of Wheaton’s law, which states “don’t be a dick” non-primary source needed] (the phrase was in use before Wheaton’s blog post). Wheaton and Frontalot have both appeared at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).

Wheaton has also narrated a number of bestselling audiobooks, mostly in the science-fiction and fantasy category, including Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Wheaton also exists in the novel’s universe, described as being joint President, along with Cory Doctorow, of the virtual world Oasis, which is the setting for much of the book), “Armada” also by Cline, Redshirts by John Scalzi, “Fuzzy Nation” also by Scalzi, and books 6–10 of the Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny.

Roy Dotrice, Born in 1923, is a British Actor who fought in the second World War and spent four years in a German prisoner of war camp. Dotrice’s career is made up of 1,782 performances spanning several decades, subsequently earning him a place in the Guinness Book of Records for greatest number of solo performances in a play. His narration of the Game of Thrones series earned him a second place in the Guinness Book of Records for creating the largest number of characters voiced in an audiobook. He managed to voice 224 different characters. Dotrice’s favourite character to voice is Tyrion and claimed that he managed to keep up with all the different voices he created by keeping a cheat sheet as well as listening to his previous interpretations of the characters. Dotrice’s range of voices and accents is impressive. Each character is easily distinguishable and perfectly represented. Although Dotrice does fall a little into the love/hate category, Game of Thrones has been the only fantasy audiobook series he has narrated to date.

Sean Barrett is an English actor, well known for his excellent narration of crime novels. Although Barrett mainly narrates crime fiction, he does dabble in the realm of fantasy. Barrett’s low, gritty tones are perfect for the bloodthirsty and rugged universes of fantasy novels. He also does a fabulous Scottish accent. Barrett becomes deeply involved in the story he tells, racing along with the action and emphasising the excitement of a scene.

Barrett is highly regarded amongst voice actors and the majority of the books he reads are rated very highly, particularly the fantasy novels. The best sellers below are all part of an amazing epic fantasy series, which are highly rated, and a must listen!

Robert Inglis is an actor, writer, journalist, critic and producer. In the 1970/80s, Rob wrote, produced and acted in the one-man dramatisation of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, which were award winning. This flowed into the very successful audiobook narrations of the same titles in the early 90s.

Rob strikes the perfect note in his narrations; again, his voice is suited towards the old fashioned narration. Robs versions of the Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit are a little more read than dramatised, but the character range is definitely amazing in the Lord of the Rings.

Some people can find Rob a little dry, but I find this was mainly due to the books rather than the narrator. I think if you are looking for a narrator to read you the Tolkien classics, you have no better choice than Rob.

Simon Prebble is an actor and narrator, born in the UK. Prebble brings a distinct classy touch to every audiobook. Simon is very articulate and clear narrator, but definitely falls in ‘reader’ category, with lack of dramatization. Not to say this is a negative point, but definitely a point of difference – this often is a preference thing.

From the outset of a Prebble narration you know it’s going to be good, his wit, superior narrative and crisp distinction of characters take full control. His distinction is often portrayed through tone, rather than through all aspects of characterisation.

Rupert Joel Degas  is an English actor. You can see a bit of a trend here with the sheer amount of UK born narrators. Degas has narrated many great sci-fi and fantasy series including; the Time Keeper Trilogy, and the Name of the Wind Series, which are in my mind, instant classics in this space.

Degas, like many in this list have great range, his characters voices are well developed are very clear – you definitely know the perspective. Further to this he does a great female voice, which is a positive, it isn’t extremely forced, so you don’t tend to focus on it – you can just enjoy the story.

His skills subtly extend into dramatisation, however for the most part Degas is of the reader type. Degas has quite an impressive narrators voice, out of character dialogue. His tone, inflection and pronunciation are so crisp.

George Guidall has narrated over 900 audiobooks in his time; he would have to be the most accomplished narrator on this list, although not the most famous. Guidall has narrated many Stephen King novels, such as the Gunslinger, and the Dark Tower series, which should speak additional volume – great narrators, read great books.

His versatility, range, and his ability to carry the listener off are tremendous. His character diversification is just as fantastic, and often has many accents in each book. Guidall’s pace between characters is often specialised, which adds additional value, there is no trouble differentiating between characters.