Audio Book Discussion

I don't think that I've ever seen this discussed at all here: Audio books.

Who has them, and what do you think of them?


I've gotten several, the first eight or so of the New Jedi Order, Revenge of the Sith and The Phantom Menace. I've enjoyed all of them, although I don't listen too much.

 

I used to like them alot. When they're good they're almost like radio plays of the novels, with the music and sound effects and all, but I just don't think they are worth the money usually.

 

I got my copy of Revenge of the Sith from the DelRey people for helping out.

That's a good listen, although having thebook, I don't think that I would have bought it otherwise.

 

I like the full cast dramatizations, but not the plain narrated audio books.

 

I have DE and DEII. They both have great sound effects and voice acting. I have been trying to find EE but have had no luck.

 

I love the audio dramas, but am not a huge fan of audio books. The NPR movie dramatizations were top notch, and I also enjoyed Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi.

 

Do you need software to play them, or are they actual cassettes, CDs? I might consider Game of Thrones' audio some day.

 

I like the Thrawn trilogy audio books cause they're read by actual star wars actors (Denis Lawson and Anthony Daniels). I liked the Dark Empire audio drama sine they cast people as the characters, but I wasn't a big fan of the storyline.


I like the idea of a cast of characters reading - much better than having a male reader trying to do a female voice. *rolls eyes*

 

Excellence, they come in cassette and CD form. No special software required (for the ones I've got, anyway.)

 

Ah. I must have been thinking of the online smaples. I didn't want to load unknown software.

 

We have discussed them here numerous times in the years I've been on this forum, though that is not to say you may have been involved in said discussions, JediTrilobite.

Often, within the first two years of my time here, when the subject was broached there would be people yelling about folks being too lazy to read the book in question because they listened to the audiobook. Indeed, there probably were some folks who were so lazy and they could be caught up do to the fact that the audiobooks are abridged. But at the same time there are those of us who enjoy the audiobooks, but only after we have read the book first so that we can see just how badly abridged the whole thing is.

Several years ago I got the audiobook of Vision of the Future from one of my sisters either for Chirstmas or my birthday, I can't remember which now due to the fact that it has been some time ago and the fact that my birthday is almost two weeks before Christmas so that after a long enough period of time it becomes a little harder for me to remember which it was for unless the recieving of the gift is something so memorable that when I got it sticks with me for pratically ever. Anyway I had already read the book and was extremely shocked to find like half or better of the thing missing from the audiobook. So it is one of those things that really you should read the book before you listen to the audiobook so you can determine what is missing and how good a job the folks who made the audiobook did of telling the story.

And remember folks that are times and places where the audiobook has an adavantage over being able to read the book before you say no one should bother with the audiobook. The biggest of these is when you are driving, not exactly something folks are going to appreciate if they see you behind the wheel with a book in your face rather than paying attention to the road ahead of you.

Then there are audio dramas, which are totally different from the audiobooks. For one the audiobooks are read by a single person, whereas the audio dramas are actually cast oriented. There are some audiobook readers I've heard in non-SW audiobooks who do a very good job with the opposite gender, with distinguishing different characters, and with doing different accents. In fact one or two may be so good with all of these that you may wonder if it is indeed just one person doing the reading. But a cast helps to cut down on the chances that an individual reader can not preform any or all of these very well. And the larger the cast, the more you only have to worry about accents over gender and different characters.

Another reason the audio dramas are totally different from the audiobooks is because the audiobooks, despite being abridged, are just an audio rehash of the book whereas the audio dramas, at least the SW audio dramas, are more than an audio rehash. They not only tell the story of the book or comic for which they are linked, they also have elements that are not featured in that story. These changes add EU alements to the story that you don't get if you strictly stick to the written story.

 

?????

Why would people yell that audio books are for those lazy to read books. Are you serious, Knight? What dewback did they eat that morning?

 

I actually have collected them all, and they're pretty much like the books, some are good, some are bad. Particularly, I enjoy full cast dramas, especially the Jedi Knight series, about Kyle Katarn.

Also the OT radio dramas are very good, and expand on the movies pretty well.

 

I have DE and DEII. They both have great sound effects and voice acting. I have been trying to find EE but have had no luck.

Empire's End was only available as part of the Collector's Edition boxed set released almost a decade ago. Impossible to find, even on ePay.

 

Why would people yell that audio books are for those lazy to read books. Are you serious, Knight? What dewback did they eat that morning?

One hundred percent serious, Excellence. The arguement was that it was akin to reading CliffsNotes or listening to an audiobook when you have to do a book report for school instead of doing the reading itself. It's a sound arguement as it is better to read the book than strictly use the others so that you know what's going on in greater detail. But I've never had a problem with audiobooks as long as I've actually read the book itself. And as I've already said, there are times when you can't afford to read the book but you still want to be able to enjoy it, and the audiobook lets you do just that.

 

And suppose peole were blind or illerate to read. Those naysayers must've been telepathic.

 

illerate peole? hmmm.... exullense has a pseling problum.


answering the initial question: i have the Dark Empire Collector's Edition (CD) and the TOTJ audio drama (tape), and a nice copy of the "Story of Star Wars" 8-Track burned onto CD, and somewhere the ANH and ROTJ radio dramas (not audiobooks, but audio)

on audio books in general: not necessarily the lazy way out. -- no where near Cliff's Notes, as that gives you more than just an abridged story, you usually get character analyses, themes, context, and generally hit over the head with stuff to make you understand it without any work. abridged audio books might save you time, but generally i find that i might fall asleep listening to them if i get too comfy without enough visual stimulation.

 

Illiterate, I mant to say.

 

I'm pretty sure I have all of the full-cast audio dramas. Nightlily and We Don't Do Weddings are actually more like audio dramas than audio books. It's got a cast, it's just cut in sometimes by a narrator.

 

I remember the very first thing I got in the EU was the audio book version of The Last Command for Christmas when I was about ten. Opened my eyes to a whole new world And since my reading comprehension wasn't at the level to where I could read the novels yet, they were perfect. Mostly I'd listen to them before I'd go to bed. After that I got as many as I could get my hands on. But like it's been said before, some are good, some bad and most of them are highly abridged. I also really liked the ones with the full cast dramas.

 

I got a copy of the DE CD set last year via Amazon MarketPlace.

So...

"...it's not impossible!"

JB

 

But it's impossible now. As in, I've been looking repeatedly over the last few days there and other places I can think of. Nada.

 

And suppose peole were blind or illerate to read.

People being blind was one of the arguements for the exsistence of audiobooks. Though illiteracy, if it had ever been brought up, would have probably been countered with arguemets such as there is no reason for a person to be illiterate (kind of funny when there are still the occasional commercials in this country about helping to overcome your illiteracy problem which helps remind us that there are people who are so), or illiteracy is just an excuse to listen to the audiobook over reading the book, or by learning to read the book a person could be working to overcome their illiteracy problem. Of course they might also try argueing about the possibility of the book in question being in braille format so as to elliminate the need even there to listen to the audiobook. But I think the question would be if the books are in braille format. If not, then it would be easier for a blind person who enjoys Star Wars and would like to enjoy the books to get a hold of the audiobooks than to waste their time searching for a book that may not be in braille.

 

There's also the fact that some people do a lot of travelling, and thus don't have much time to read.