Help me pick out my next audiobook
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Commander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
Commander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
I love audiobooks. I have an ongoing subscription with Audible so that I can pick out 2 books a month to listen to. I've also been casting around for a new sci fi, historical fiction, or fantasy series to start listening to.
What I like: I really enjoy a certain type of character - the devilishly clever type. Whether it's a neurotic but noble military genius like Horatio Hornblower and Ender Wiggen, or the unprincipled but highly intelligent rogue, such as Ciaphas Cain, I can't get enough of this kind of character. The plot doesn't matter as much as the writer's ability to sketch out interesting characters, but I do seem to prefer a military and sci-fi setting for that type of character.
I tried:
- On Basilisk station (Honor Harrington series). Maybe I need to give him more of a chance, but I thought David Weber was terrible at sketching interesting characters. He overuses phrases like "She/he grinned wryly." Everyone was grinning wryly in this book. And more than once he uses the phrase "She folder her arms under her breasts", because when someone is folding their arms we have to know what their breasts are doing, amirite? However, If someone can assure me this author improves with time and experience, I might try other novels in the series.
- Sharpe's Tigers (Sharpe series). Sharpe fits the bill of the devilishly clever military man, but he might be a bit too unprincipled for me. Though I think to be honest my real problem is that regular soldiers don't interest me as much as shipboard life, especially space-faring ships. Nevertheless Bernard Cornwell certainly does know how to write characters, and I probably will read other books in this series.
Novels I have read in the past and enjoyed: Horatio Hornblower series, Ender series, Ciaphas Cain series, Dragonriders of Pern series, Dune series
What I like: I really enjoy a certain type of character - the devilishly clever type. Whether it's a neurotic but noble military genius like Horatio Hornblower and Ender Wiggen, or the unprincipled but highly intelligent rogue, such as Ciaphas Cain, I can't get enough of this kind of character. The plot doesn't matter as much as the writer's ability to sketch out interesting characters, but I do seem to prefer a military and sci-fi setting for that type of character.
I tried:
- On Basilisk station (Honor Harrington series). Maybe I need to give him more of a chance, but I thought David Weber was terrible at sketching interesting characters. He overuses phrases like "She/he grinned wryly." Everyone was grinning wryly in this book. And more than once he uses the phrase "She folder her arms under her breasts", because when someone is folding their arms we have to know what their breasts are doing, amirite? However, If someone can assure me this author improves with time and experience, I might try other novels in the series.
- Sharpe's Tigers (Sharpe series). Sharpe fits the bill of the devilishly clever military man, but he might be a bit too unprincipled for me. Though I think to be honest my real problem is that regular soldiers don't interest me as much as shipboard life, especially space-faring ships. Nevertheless Bernard Cornwell certainly does know how to write characters, and I probably will read other books in this series.
Novels I have read in the past and enjoyed: Horatio Hornblower series, Ender series, Ciaphas Cain series, Dragonriders of Pern series, Dune series
"excuse my French
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
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You might also like the Tremaire series.
World War Z (the extended version) is just such a well done audio book I find it hard not to recommend, even if you aren't a huge zombie fan. The book is much more about how humans would handle the situation instead of the zombies themselves. It is also read by a full cast including Alan Alda, Mark Hamil, and Nathan Fillion.
Also I forgot to mention in my first post, I tried Master and Commander at someone's recommendation, and thought it was awful. Not that the author wasn't good at creating characters, he did a good job with that* - but just that I despised Jack Aubrey.
*I also got kind of annoyed at the author's obvious delight in using unecessary jargon at all opportunities.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
People are kind of split on them but Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel is a book about a couple guys who rediscover magic during the Napoleonic wars which sees one of them putting his abilities to really good use for England.
I liked Pratchett's Dodger and The Long Earth as well. The first is historical fiction set in late 1800s London with a very clever protagonist. The latter is science fiction about traveling between what appear to be infinite Earths but all empty. There's a lot of intelligence between the main character and the sentient AI that hires him to explore it all with him.
I really enjoyed the book Catch Me If You Can, so this could work well for me.
Those sound interesting as well.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Also, the Miles Vorkosigan novels by Lois McMaster Bujold. A SF series that you might try as well.
Also, I agree with Lord Pallington, the WWZ audio book is incredible
Blood Song, is a new author and series but is quite good, only the one book published so far....military settingish
Kingkiller Chronicals....I felt the sequel wasn't near as good as the original but it wasn't bad. Main character definitely fits the mold of what you're looking for.
Farseer Trilogy, Assasin's quest is the first...completed trilogy. The main character doesn't quite fit your mold but is close.
Riyria Revelations - pretty solid...light reading/listening...duo rather than a single protagonist but as a pair they match up with what your'e looking for. Also a completed trilogy
Seconding World War Z, and Neil Gaiman. I'll extend Gaiman to anything he's narrated though, because my god his voice is hypnotic
Also Zombies, ugh, but if you guys recommend it I will try to get over my ennui over zombies to listen to world war z.
However for a starter, when my next credit is available I'm going to try the The Lies of Locke Lamora, because it's been recommended to me before.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
I didn't make it past 50 pages of Lies but have a couple of friends who like it so...ok.
There are a ton of shows from the 40s through the 60s that are all in the public domain now. Genre-wise you've got everything from classic sci-fi to hardboiled detective stuff to drama to comedy to novel adaptations and more. For the most part they're in episodic format, so they're a lot shorter than an audiobook would be, but there are serials.
If you're looking for more things to listen to that aren't music or the godawful mess that is talk radio you might like it.
Start with American Gods though. It's not necessary but it makes Anansi Boys a more enjoyable book. Also Good Omens written by Pratchet and Gaiman is just a delight. It's a funny and just overall fun book, it is kind of like Hitchhikers Guide to the Apocalypse.
The true magic though, is in the problem solving and super witty humor of the main character. There were moments in the book where I was howling with laughter.
I cannot recommend this book enough. I'm sure it'll get made into a movie one day.
Xbox Gamertag: GAMB1NO325Xi
OH NO YOU DID NOT!
I'll jump on the bandwagon to recommend WWZ. It is not an audio book only for zombie movie fans - I'm not a zombie movie person at all, and that is far and away my favorite audio book ever. I've listened to it repeatedly.
Aside from that, if you enjoy any non-fiction stuff, I would have to recommend any works by Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris. They're simply my favorite narrators (even if their politics do sometimes turn perpendicular to mine).
Are you sure your not remembering The wheel of time books about this?
Try David Webbers Safehold series. The first book is mostly laying the groundwork for the series but after that there are quite a few battles and military history references, along with a lot of tactical information, especially with the navel battles.
And a lot less breasts. (I consider this a negative but its a good series).
Well this is the problem: Weber is no doubt excellent with the tactical information, even in On Basilisk Station. But I don't care about that information if I don't care about the characters. The same with the historical and military references. They only interest me in how they harm or help the protagonist that I am interested in, and if, like Honor Harrington, Weber is not able to write a character without referencing their wry grin 20,000 times, then I doubt it will work for me.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Personally I think you are being hung up on an authors favorite turn of phrase. Sure it might be overused but to let it distract you from the story seems odd. I dont even recall that phrase being overly used in the Honor series and I've read the entire series multiple times. Most authors will have some kind of similar phrase so your going to have problems finding someone whos always being fresh and unique with his terms. The 'arms beneth her breasts' lines never bothered or distracted me from the stories.
But as another suggestion...hum. Well I love Brandon Sanderson but his stuff isnt really heavy on the strategic army kind of discussion. How bout Ramond E Feist's Riftwar saga.
Oh god, no. I read the first book, it was fuck awful.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Well sure, authors have their favorite turns of phrase. The real problem here is that "a wry grin" tends to be the beginning and the end of his characterization (in that book, anyway). How do we know what Honor is feeling right now? Let's have her suppress a wry grin! Oh here is a situation where she's happy, so she'll openly show the wry grin this time!
As an alternate example of an author's pet phrase, Orson Scott Card likes the phrase "Red in tooth and claw." But the only reason I recognize that he likes that phrase is because he's used it maybe 3 or 4 times over 15 novels. If he'd used it 4 times in one novel, it would be noticable and annoying and perhaps more importantly, in need of a good editor.
If characterization wasn't the most important thing to my enjoyment, then I might ignore the wry grin stuff, because I'd just be waiting for the characterization to be over so that I could get to more delicious space strategy. But for me, the characterization is central dish I've been waiting for, while the space combat is a nice garnish to that meal. If the only good parts are the space strategy, then I just can't get hooked in. Opinions!
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Aside from Honor, her treecat and her first officer, almost none of the crew of the Fearless is distinct. Honor's crewmen die, and I don't care because they're practically interchangable. That's not to say that there are no character moments at all, but for the kind of writing that I like, there are not nearly enough character moments. Above, when I was talking about characters in Sharpe, I did need to google the names of characters because I didn't have them memorized, but as soon as I saw the name I remembered the distinctive things about their personalities. I'm sitting here googling Honor Harrington characters and I can't remember anything associated with those names.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
And I'm gonna have to hop on the bandwagon for the World War Z audiobook.
Well all i can say is that I'm reasonably sure Baslisk station was one of his first novels. Give one of this more recent series a try and see if hes improved for you.
Also, Glen Cook's The Black Company is one long clever series about clever people clevering in sort of a Vietnam-memoir style series of fantasy wars, and does apparently have audiobooks. It's well-written, with deft characterization and a great setting, and I think the OP would appreciate all the planning and attention to detail that goes into the shennanigans therein.
My first thought was Dread Empire's Fall by Walter Jon Williams, a military space opera also mainly about two clever people being clever, but no audiobook, alas.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
Xbox Gamertag: GAMB1NO325Xi
11 chapters in and I already love it.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
The Lies of Locke Lamora: Eh. I know I'm being a picky bitch, but I just never could get to like the character of Locke Lamora. It was a pretty good story though.
Now to consider what to get next month based on the recommendations.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"