Latest / Mythmakers / Top Five Fantasy Books - Audio Version With Guest Andrew Head

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Top Five Fantasy Books - Audio Version With Guest Andrew Head · Mythmakers

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to MythMakers. MythMakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy
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  creatives brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding. I'm
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  an author by also the director of the Centre. And today I'm joined by a special guest. His
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  name is Andrew Hitt and he's based in Australia. Andrew's joined one of our creative
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  writing courses, but Andrew also is blind and so is the expert among us on audio books.
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  And I thought he'd be brilliant to get Andrew along to have a chat with me about accessing
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  fantasy books in the audio version. So hello Andrew. Hello Julia, nice to be here.
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  So Andrew, tell us a little bit about yourself and your reading habits and your journey
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  to having a go at creative writing. Well, as mentioned I'm blind so I do access a lot
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  of my books and material in general through computer the talks or you know back in the day
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  it was cassettes and CDs. Oh yeah. Yeah and now a lot on audible but you know there's I
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  still enjoy getting a CD. There's a thriller author Matthew Riley who produced like I get his
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  books on CD for Christmas just because it's you know it's nice having physical book still sometimes.
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  My journey to creative writing I guess books have given me so much enjoyment over the years
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  and I've always considered myself a bit of a storyteller you know I had as a child I had a
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  tape recorder and I'd record stories and stuff and cassette as well. That's actually one of those
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  techniques that all writers should try is speaking out your story because you can really hear it
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  you know properly hear it if you do that. I remember doing that on the days of cassette players
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  before we had phones that could record. I would sit there and press play on my clunky tape recorder
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  and read my stories out. It's a really good tip to do that for everybody. So Andrew you've been
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  managing to interact in the online course brilliantly and I presume that's partly to do with
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  the huge advances in software allowing you to sort of hear in real time what's being put up in text.
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  Is that how it works? Yes yes so I have this is a screen reader on the Apple products called voice
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  over and it basically speaks everything or all the text that appears on the screen. And it's been a
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  real joy actually to discover this this possibility for us on the course and you're really enriching
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  it. Right let's get down to business let's talk about your favorite books. So I've suggested that
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  you want to say a little bit about what you look for in an audio book and then we're going to have
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  a look at your top five. So first of all when you're sort of playing the samples what are you looking
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  for when you're testing your next best listen? Well I'm a bit I'm a bit biased I don't particularly
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  there's there's a few American accents I enjoy which I'll get on to in a bit but I mainly you
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  know I mainly look for I think fantasy is better when it's read by a British person
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  that's just that's just me half Australian half British so very proud of both heritage. So yeah
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  British is better and you know someone that has good inflection or expression
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  when they're reading and especially when it comes to what people the characters are saying in
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  the story obviously and someone who can do different voices for the different characters
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  so that you know you always know who's speaking even before it's even before they read out you know
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  this person said. Do you have a preference so say if it's a book with more than one point of view
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  sometimes the producers do it in different readers male for example or sometimes it's just the
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  same person reading all of it do you have a preference when it comes to that? I don't really like
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  I guess if if it isn't there then that's if it's a whole do you mean like if it's a whole chapter
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  from a female and then a chapter from a male? Yeah for example I've had a psychological thriller
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  which had two points of view and the way that the people who produced that audio book
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  decided to do that was to have a male read the male part and a female read the female part which
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  you know that's quite good because absolutely clear who's speaking but sometimes if one of those
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  voices isn't that great you might not bother to listen to it which you know if you don't like one
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  of the voices for example I've had that recently I started listening to something and one of the
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  voices was really great and I thought no no I can't I can't listen to this yes um
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  yes I do think it enhances the experience when you're reading a book if the chapter from a female
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  point of view is done by a female it doesn't in my opinion it doesn't always have to be but if it
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  if it can then all the better um and you might get great too sort of clung into really long
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  listens um in my household I've got a son who loves fans you know loves sort of great big fantasy
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  door stock books and I know that um he listens to lots and we had a conversation and I was
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  recommending something and he said oh no that's only 10 hours I only get ones which over 20 hours
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  I think good is getting his money worse but does that matter to you at all um well obviously um if I
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  really enjoy the book or the series the longer the better then um you know shorter if it's a good
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  story a shorter book won't stop it won't stop me getting it okay right let's go down to your top
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  five then so I don't know if you rank these or if they're all like a flat you know they're all
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  equally good um so I'll let you decide how you're going to place your books
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  well I think some of them I'm going to do I'm going to talk about because there's a few different
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  versions uh so if if you like I can go into the book and then what I like about different versions
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  yeah far away um all right well uh obviously well it's obvious to us uh gonna start with
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  Lord of the Rings and I guess uh you know you're going to put all all three of them into one
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  um so I quite like um the Andy the recent Andy circus recordings of both the Lord of the Rings
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  and the Hobbit yeah I think he does I think he does a very good job with different voices and he's
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  got a lot of uh expression and enthusiasm in his voice uh just even when he's reading
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  the the text when someone's not speaking though if he's describing a scene or something um
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  yeah and um in in contrast that um I know I know you have a different opinion but I'm not
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  all that fast about the robbing rules uh recording of the Lord of the Rings I did hear it and I
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  do enjoy it but I do think he didn't do as good a job on the voices um so for me it wasn't as engaging um
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  but yeah that's just me um I do really like uh Martin Shaw's reading of the Hobbit as well
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  I never knew why they abridged it I uh you know if if I could either boil a short abridged books um
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  I really think uh Martin Shaw should have just done it unabridged because having now heard it
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  unabridged I'm like oh well you know there's so many little bits were just chopped out here and there
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  and I don't see why and in terms of the Hobbit Martin Shaw would be my favorite narrator because
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  he was the first one I heard and I'm just going up with him reading the Hobbit and I think he's
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  done a very good job with different characters voices and he's got a nice voice to listen to in general
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  um
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  and then of course he does a good job of the uh so i'm really in as well and that was of course
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  unabridged so a fantastic job because that's such that's much harder material to put across
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  yes you know you need to ask that with the voice to do that one I think yeah
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  hmm if that's unabridged why didn't they do that with it anyway uh and then of course there's the
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  or the radio plays um of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit um and uh
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  funny story actually I got the Lord of the Rings radio play as an 11 year old
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  and uh for a few years I thought that that radio play was the whole the the BBC 13 episode one
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  I thought that was the whole story and then someone or like a friend of mine were like no that's
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  different like this heaps more and you know at first I was disappointed because I thought oh
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  like I've been you know missing out on stuff but then I was like oh wow there's like heaps more
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  yes and then I went and found the robbinggles uh narration and read it all the way through um
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  yeah I think the thing about the BBC um radio plays they did a really good job on the music
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  oh yeah and and then of course you know the radio plays the ultimate well you know you got
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  different actors for each part so it really uh things it to life uh and of course for me as a
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  blind person it uh in you know in a lot of ways the radio plays a lot better than a movie because
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  you're only listening to it so you always know what's going on all the time
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  I think it's I think it's a really well chosen well edited um production that
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  I just it's really stood the test of time that one hasn't it oh yeah um so and I know there's
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  so you you rate of the of the Lord of the Rings if I said you know I'm putting you on a desert
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  island with your cassette tape and you could only take either the BBC version or the Andy Circus
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  version which you're going to choose Andrew
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  uh horrible question I know it is it is uh oh I would have to be uh the radio play
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  I think that's the right answer because you get a whole you get a whole sort of um
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  collection of people there and I'll allow you to have a version you know a braille version of
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  Lord of the Rings to fill in the bits they miss out thank you yeah that's your
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  desert island book for you it would be my desert island book as well yeah braille versions huge by
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  the way each book is each of the three books is about ten volumes of braille that sounds wonderful
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  you got thirty volume it's big you could build a shelter with it at the same time
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  oh just take one and break out each each time you progress in the story oh absolutely
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  okay so that's your best of your reviews what's your number two on your fantasy hit list
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  oh well the second in my opinion the second greatest of the in things you can see what this is
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  going is good old CS Lewis and again the the Chronicles of Narnia Radio plays and there's two
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  versions that I quite like there's the the BBC version and I'm not sure if you've heard them
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  but the focus on the family versions no I don't know those that's new to me that's really
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  interesting so focus on the family is that an American production or I think I think it is
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  that they use all British actors as is appropriate and at the beginning of them they have his
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  or what you call it it's foster son or stepson uh double question
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  yeah he does sort of a introductory commentary to all of the books before they get into it
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  and yeah the I've got both and the really nice thing about the focus on the family ones is
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  I think it's more of the story they've got a narrator whereas with the BBC ones they you know
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  they don't so I think yeah you're you're really able to get almost the whole story with you know
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  the narrator and then all the actors coming in at the various parts and I did listen to an interview
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  with the creators and they said that you know they did have to add in like they added in other scenes
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  for a bit more dramatic or explaining things a bit more as as they do with any adaptation but I
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  I think it yeah the focus on the family ones are more special because they're more of the more of
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  the book as CS Lewis intended it I think which is just lovely um that's because famously the battle
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  in line the Witch and the Wardrobe is largely told in retrospect and is about half a page
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  so if you need to put in a bit of you know live action moments I think yeah it's pretty much
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  from what I remember it's pretty much as long gets to the battlefield another Witch is mine
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  and in order to like no that's it yeah yeah in both in both versions um and some of the actors are
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  better in focus on the family you know but then some actors are better in uh the BBC one so
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  but again if I had to choose I'd take the focus on the family radio ones over
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  uh yeah thank you for thank you for mentioning those because I was not on now of course going to
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  go and look those up so okay now three on your list Andrew. Number three would have to be uh
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  the Wheel of Time series um and there's actually this one and another one that have recently
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  been making TV shows um but yeah they're really like uh the Wheel of Time because it
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  does what we were talking about before where if there's a chapter from a male's point of view as a male
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  narrator and a female narrator for the chapters from female's point of view um so that's always
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  exciting I um I always I prefer the the male narrator uh Michael Kramer he's American uh and the
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  female is Kate Redding and fun fact they're actually married ah so it was very easy for them to do
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  to do the Wheel of Time uh yeah I didn't know that when I was reading it and then I I got a
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  audible gave us a Christmas present you could you could download of different narrators
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  have memories of Christmas and they both featured in it and Michael Kramer said yeah for those who
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  don't know Kate no I'm Eric oh yeah so that was special because it's like oh okay that you know
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  that makes it more and when I reread the Wheel of Time it yeah make it more special
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  um many many many many many many hours of listening in that you could probably
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  hear listening to that oh no it took me uh a year and three months and for two and a half of those
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  months I was overseas if I hadn't gone overseas it would have you know probably taken me a year but
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  yeah either way and that was pretty like I wasn't uh I'd left study and I was looking for work at
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  the time and I was uh nearly single so I had a lot you know I just read it read it and read it and
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  read it and read it and it still took me that long with some pretty heavy here we go you know
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  so going back to the desert island scenario it might actually be quite a good pick for that
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  hmm oh yeah you know a year to be rescued from your desert island that was number three so where
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  are we going on for number four uh
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  well it would have to be the witch up which is another uh show that books have been made into a tv series
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  and the the narrator it's just one narrator for that he's British and he
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  he's got a very nice voice to listen to when he's reading but he also does a very good job of the
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  different uh voices and it's very clear who's speaking um yeah and again that's a uh series
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  uh series of books they're more you ten hour versions yeah and they they're very much they've
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  got the sort of storyteller within it as well haven't they in those ones yeah because it's sort
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  of more of an episodic than some of the larger huge story arc you know fantasy epics
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  yeah quite often the witcher goes off and fights the monster and that's that's what you're doing
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  in that particular episode yeah so that for the first two books it that is a lot like that and then
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  it gets more coherent uh when you get to book three um yeah okay so um just recap because we're
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  going to go to find out what your last pick is we've done Lord of the Rings where Martin Shaw
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  and the BBC version were fighting it out um run the Chronicles of Narnia where um it was the
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  uh sort of the family sorry tell me the name of that again focus on the family
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  regularly focus on the family focus on the family win out yeah number three was Wheel of Time
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  and number four was witcher so number five in the last place I had a I guess they're not in any
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  real particular order I should have put this one at number three um and I feel silly for making
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  last but uh oh well the order changed in my head I guess but uh it had to be of course the Harry
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  Potter series read by Stephen Fry yes and and Stephen Fry does a fantastic job with all the
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  different voices um and he's yeah the the way he reads a lot of inflection and enthusiasm
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  uh if that makes sense not sure if that's the right word but yeah um and there's
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  oh this is a good chance to talk about it um put it out there a lot of blind people they
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  prefer the neurotic Jim Dale who does the American audiobook of Harry Potter while they
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  needs to be a separate one for Americans I don't know but anyway um you know a lot of the complaint
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  is Stephen Fry reads to slow compared to Jim uh Jim Dale and I've heard bits and pieces of
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  Jim Dale reading them and oh it is void that the way he does voices are just
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  nothing compared to Stephen Fry one example was Uncle Vernon sounded really
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  Jim Dale gave Uncle Vernon uh from whatever remember a real nasally voice
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  whereas you know clearly says he's got a booing voice and Stephen Fry just you know just
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  knows it that's such a good job I did feel at one state when I had small children that the sound
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  track to our parenting was Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter because it puts
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  all the children go to sleep um yes they'll be listening to it someone somewhere in the house
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  to be listening to it so I can I've got his Harry Ron and Hermione in his tone just ingrained in my
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  head as soon as he does that he must say it thousands of times during the course of reading
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  yeah yeah so that I that is um again another very pleasurable um read listening experience
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  so we've we've got Lord has read let's put them in the order you were thinking also we've got
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  Lord of the Rings the Chronicles of Nania Harry Potter the Wheel of Time and Witcher is there any
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  other sort of sneaky little gem that doesn't fit in the sort of the the big players that you've come
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  across that you'd like to mention some honorable mention for anything yes um there's a fantasy series
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  by Raymond Feist and there's a few different it's a few different series but the one I've read is the
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  the Rift Wars saga and it's narrated by an American name Sean Mangon um or I think he's or
• 24:36
  he's Canadian I'm not sure um but he sounds very American um but he again it's it's a very nice smooth
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  voice and he uh he also he's very good with different accents in particular uh which I know it's
• 24:53
  not fantasy but he he reads uh if you want a good idea of how he does accents you should read the
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  Matthew Riley's uh books where he's a thriller writer and you know dealing with lots of different
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  countries so he does really good you know accents for the different countries of our world um but
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  I first encountered him in the Raymond Feist Rift Wars saga fantasy series and thought he did a
• 25:19
  fantastic job he gives I don't know if you've read it but he gives the invaders in that series
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  Japanese accents so he's really he's really sort of stretching into other areas to find a way
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  of differentiating voices which uh yeah you know it must be really hard that must be so hard as a
• 25:39
  a voice artist to think how am I going to make these different aliens sound different from um
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  yeah for each other I noticed that in the Marvel series in uh Captain Marvel they gave one
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  set of who you thought bad guys um australian accents and I said oh that's a bit that's a bit out
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  there and then of course the twist was the twist was they weren't actually bad they turned out
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  to be allies and you should have guessed because they don't ever think of Australians as being bad
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  guys whereas if they had a a toffee nose British accent what of course they're going to be a bad
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  guy you know I'd like to sort of throw in here for something I listened to a lot when I was growing
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  up which you might know um which started as a radio play as a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
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  which is a fan of reaction um you know in sci-fi but we still allow that as fantasy um and that's
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  extremely entertaining and different from the others you've mentioned um it's got quite a lot of
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  parody and jokes uh in it um connected to the world we're real world.
• 26:55
  Hmm I've I've listened to both the radio play and um the proper books where uh Douglas Adams
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  actually reads the uh and and he does a fantastic job um you know sometimes authors read their own books
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  and they're just you know not they're not a a voice actor by profession so they're not quite as
• 27:23
  good but he's done a superb job um yeah excellent um so uh Andrew we always finish the podcast
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  as I think you might be aware of picking where in all the fantasy world is the best place for
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  something and as we've been talking about audio versions I thought we'd choose where in all the fantasy
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  world is the best place to be a speaker or an orator you know the emphasizing here voices
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  have you got a favorite fantasy world for appreciation of voice?
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  Yes yes I I thought long and hard about this because I wanted to choose I had in mind to choose um
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  you know that everyone expects that you're gonna go for one of the in things uh and and I I tried
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  to think of a different one uh but I couldn't uh I was gonna mention two one from Tolkien and one
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  from something else just to I don't know balance things out of it but uh I couldn't you know the
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  only place I could think of um all right now I'll just go with this um well it'd have to be
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  Rivendell wouldn't it and the the uh the Hall of Fire I think where they had a art of the feast they
• 28:48
  had the all the tales being told and that sort of thing yes I've always wanted to I've always
• 28:55
  that's one of those areas where I don't think any version any red version is as good as the one
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  you imagine because the description is so beautiful about how it sort of melds into dreams um
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  then you ask your imagination has to fill in what that most beautiful elven voice would sound like
• 29:14
  hmm you know they tell a lot of tales there I think you know you had a had an image of you know
• 29:22
  myself as a hobbit there with my hobbit wife having some meat after a feast hosted by Elrond himself
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  so yeah it's a nice nice image I it's definitely a great place to go I came up with a different um
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  um think different emphasis really uh I wanted to mention there's a book called The Spoken
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  Mage series by Melanie Celier um and we have to mention this is because the great magic works
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  in her world you know magic is off the budget of magic how do you do magic in a fantasy world is
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  often one of the key world building questions um and in her world it's normally a world where people
• 30:07
  write down the magic the spell and when they rip the parchment that's when the spell is released it's
• 30:12
  like a stored stored power and into this world comes um her main character who of course is the first
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  spoken mage the person who can say the spell without writing it down first but it's not quite as
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  simple as that she has to formulate it in a certain way but the way the way that Melanie makes
• 30:37
  the spoken word so powerful uh in this series it's really it's a very enjoyable series it's a
• 30:45
  coming of age story really she then goes to a a college and has to learn how to fit in with the
• 30:51
  the ordinary um mages and then of course there's a wider political situation where she's then
• 30:59
  upset into the front line because she's able to do a quick rapid responses to other people's
• 31:05
  attacks by magic because she doesn't have to write things down anyway it's an excellent series
• 31:09
  very enjoyable if you like sort of tomorrow appears and that kind of writing of um magic where people
• 31:17
  come of age Ursula Le Guin was a verse C series if you like that you might well like
• 31:24
  these books so have a look them up i think there is yeah yes i'm yes there are audio versions as
• 31:31
  well i've got them so you can uh access them you don't have to find another braille doorstock you
• 31:37
  can listen to these um anyway and you thank you so much for joining me and um i think we should
• 31:44
  probably make this a regular feature to help promote accessing fantasy books through the spoken
• 31:53
  versions of them so um if you don't mind we'll invite you back in uh in a few months time to see
• 31:59
  what you've listened to since then so thank you very much no problem yeah absolutely i'd love to
• 32:05
  thank you and goodbye goodbye
• 32:09
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