AAR

[AngieMB]

I was just wondering why some audio books have a male and female narrator, but they trade off chapters, each doing the male and female voices. This doesn't make any sense to me. Why don't they use the female to do all female voices and the male for all male voices throughout the book? I keep running across books that use the narrators this way, and it really bugs me. I don't like it at all. This doesn't seem to bother some people, but I don't get the reasoning behind this.

[chiricahuagal]

I know some of the Brockmann Troubleshooter series use this - the man reads the parts that are written from any of the male characters' POVs and the woman reads the parts that are written from any of the female characters' POVs. I think it's very effective, especially since Brockmann writes even the narrative part really from the character's brain, as though we were inside that character's head. Another book that uses this to great effect is The Time Traveler's Wife, where the woman reads the chapters in Clare's POV and the man reads the chapters in Henry's POV.

Personally, I think the ones I've heard where a woman reads everything except the actual dialog spoken by a man, and then the man pipes up for those, are bizarre. For me, the books are being read to me, not acted out by a company like a radio show. But that's just me.
_________________
Melinda

[AngieMB]

Yes, I had wanted to listen to some of Suzanne Brockmann's books, but I don't really like when they are read like that. Are all of hers that way when there are 2 narrators used? I've only listened to one book read that way (well started it anyway), one of the Raintree series by Linda Winstead Jones. Maybe one of these days I'll get the appeal, but right now that way seems strange to me, getting used to the same characters with 2 different voices in a book.

[chiricahuagal]

No, not all the Brockmann's are, but all of the most recent ones in the Troubleshooter series are. If you haven't finished the only book where that is done, I recommend you give it a little more time to see if you get used to it. I'm not the one who decides how it's done, just a long-time listener who likes it.
_________________
Melinda