#FavFiveFriday: Audiobook Edition
#FavFiveFriday is a personal challenge that I’ll be doing just for the month of June in celebration of Audiobook Month. I’ll be using it as a way to highlight my favorite audiobook listens so far in 2016, and I’ve listened to quite a few of them this year. To find out a little more about Audiobook Month and to see some past posts we’ve made during the month in the past, please refer to this post: It’s Audiobook Month!
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, narrated by Robin Miles
I know this is an early call, but I think this book will probably be one of my top ten reads for 2016. There were so many things that I loved about this book. I enjoyed Jemisin’s Hundred Thousand Kingdom trilogy, but she’s outdone herself with this latest series. Coupled with a great story is narrator Robin Miles. This was my introduction to her narration, and she was simply amazing. She brought this already lush story to life with a breathtaking narration.
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan, narrated by Jesse Bernstein
This is the series that my children and I devoured together. My son has been in love with mythology for years, and this series really plays up to his fascination. It’s spawned many great discussions between us. This book is one of my personal favorites in the series. Jesse Bernstein’s narration is phenomenal. He manages to give every character a personality all their own. Listening to Jesse Bernstein’s narration is like a creature comfort, which includes freshly brewed tea and music.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Will Patton
I was a little late to the game reading this series, but I did manage to get caught up with it in time for the release of the latest book, The Raven King. This is a fascinating series about the search for the mythical Glendower, but it excels with its characters. Will Patton’s narration had to grow on me a bit for this series. He’s not a bad narrator, but he seemed an odd choice to voice this YA series. Now, I can’t imagine the series without his narration. I love his quiet narration and his authentic sounding southern accents.
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, narrated by Lorelei King
This was a reread for me, but this my first time listening to it. I love Moon Called. Yes, I realize that many Urban Fantasy stories are the same. Usually, it’s the characters and their interactions in this sense that gets me invested in a series. It was a treat to reread this after reading Alpha and Omega and Cry Wolf because these stories added so much context to one another. Lorelei wowed me. Her narration made this story so much more thrilling. Also, I’m rarely impressed with narrator’s voicing of the opposite sex, but I was beyond impressed with her male voices in this story.
The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells, narrated by Christopher Kipiniak
Last year, The Cloud Roads was one of my favorite reads, and Wells continues to impress me in this sequel. Wells has introduced a unique universe in a sea of sameness with her Raksura. I loved the narration for this from the moment I heard. Chris Kipiniak brings such a wealth of emotion to this series. I’ve laughed, cheered, and cried along with the Raksura thanks in part to the amazing job he does with the narration.
The BiblioSanctum 
K just got into audiobooks within the last year. Her eyesight is starting to get terrible. I mean more than it has been. She’ll be glad to have a trusted source for audiobooks in this site.
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I’m sorry to hear that her eyesight is worsening. D: Thank God for audiobooks to keep her up on her reading. What type of stuff does she like? Maybe I can get a running list going for her for you *cough* to buy her.
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She’s big into Paranormal Romance. She’s not so much into sprawling epics like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings, but she’ll read a long fantasy or science fiction series. She loves her chick lit. She loves biographies and memoirs. Romance always. Comics. She’s opening up to different things as she’s becoming more reliant on audiobooks though.
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Welp, that last comment was supposed to be to you, but I posted it as a new comment. LOL.
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I want a shirt that says, “Romance Always.”
Check out GraphicAudio for comics. They don’t have all the latest and the greatest, but they have adapted quite a few comics to audio format. And they’re so good. Full production, sound effects, the whole nine. I recently listened to their adaptation of Ms. Marvel Vol. 1. They have some of the iconic books adapted like Civil War, No Man’s Land, etc. Check it out. There are tons of books out there with superhero themes that are just like reading a comic. I recently listened to Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. She’d probably like that.
If she hasn’t tried the Mercy Thompson series, tell her to get on it for her PNR fix. *points at post* If she wants something more romantic, the Alpha & Omega series is set in the same universe and deals heavily with the romance. The narrator may take a while to grow on her. There’s the Black Dagger Brotherhood books which revolves around vampires. They’re like your mom’s books. 😉 Me Before You was pretty good, and she’ll probably be dragging you to see the movie based on it.
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Thanks. I knew I should’ve talked to you first. I didn’t realize you’d hit God Tier in your audiobook level. She bought Steelheart and You Before Me last night. She’s going to watch Me Before You before watching the movie.
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Mercy for the win!
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I just listened to the entire Percy Jackson series and I mostly really liked Jesse Bernstein’s narration but the way he read a couple of the characters bugged me a bit (Annabeth, and really all of the Gods), but he was completely perfect for Percy sooo…. I really enjoyed listening to the series. I also have pretty much the exact same feelings about Will Patton – an interesting but kind of brilliant choice for the series!
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I was okay with all of Jesse Bernstein characters. The only real complaints I had was the way Annabeth whined “Perrrrrcyyyy” all the time. LOL. I didn’t like the voice he used for Persephone either, but all the others were cool. Will Patton is definitely one of those choices that seems questionable, but it seems it work… after to getting used to it.
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