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Wingardium Leviosa! Harry Potter Audiobook With Full Cast: Our Verdict · Mythmakers

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  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 Center for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding. I'm
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  primarily an author, but I'm a lover of all things fantasy. So I thought I would jump
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  and do a quick review of the new Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone audiobook
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  that was published at the beginning of November 2025. Now this is a collaboration between
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  J.K. Rowling's production publishing company called Pottermore and Audible and they are bringing
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  out the books I think roughly monthly intervals and these are sort of produced like a radio play.
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  That's the way to think of it, but it is the full text. So it's not a dramatisation in that sense.
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  Okay, so what do I think about it? Let's just go through first of all what you get in this audio
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  production and what it made me think about the story which I haven't read for many years
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  and an overall conclusion out of five stars or whatever. So first of all the big question
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  is obviously I'm an adult listening to this. So I think that take that analytical part
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  in account, into account, because I think a child coming to this would obviously not be doing
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  all this comparative stuff I'm doing and we'll probably just enjoy it straight out with no
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  questions. But first of all I came to it thinking is this distracting? My own family after we'd
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  read the books to them they grew up on listening to Stephen Frye read the story and there seemed
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  to be years when there was always in some bedroom someone listening to the story or already had gone
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  to sleep. So I was already very familiar with that version of it. So the question I had in my mind
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  is is it distracting to have all the sound effects and the foli artist and what have you in this
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  production? Does it take away from the text? It's not a film, it's not a radio play where it's all
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  been cut for that purpose. It is the full text with sound effects. And I would say that I found it
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  distracting at first. But after a while my ear got tuned to it and I began to see what advantages
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  it could offer. So there's nothing like your own imagination to provide the sound effects but
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  what I thought was good here was that because of the use of the sound engineering,
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  like sound a strange place to start but that's what I was thinking, is that you get the sense of
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  volume and space and environment. So it reminds you in a way that perhaps you forget when you're
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  reading of the size of a cavernous room or the claustrophobia of the cupboard under the stairs.
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  And so the sound fills those spaces and if you're listening to it on headphones you get the stereo
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  left right balance as well. So you get that feeling of characters coming at you from different
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  directions. So I did definitely enjoy that. I also thought it was an excellent decision to use
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  a female voice as the narrator. It's an actress called Kush Jumbo who has a very
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  listenable voice like mother reading it I suppose. So that was good otherwise any other actor,
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  if it was a male actor you would also be sort of comparing it to Stephen Fry of course. So that
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  was a good move sideways and I think she was great. I also stayed to listen to the very bitter
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  end. There's a massive long list of people involved in it more about which in a moment but I
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  noticed that they had done some sound recordings in a real school, latent stone school which is the
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  school in East London which is a very sort of multicultural part of London. So there was a sense
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  of a real school atmosphere going on in the background. So all of those things yeah I appreciated
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  that. What about the voice performances? Some were disturbingly like the actors from the films.
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  So Mark Addy who's a fantastic Hagrid but I kept seeing in my head the Hagrid from the film very
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  very similar timbre to his voice. Arabella Stanton plays Hermione and she is playing Hermione in
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  the version which they're doing as a series. She often has exact same intonation as Emma Watson.
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  It may be because that's how it's written on the page and that's what a posh girl from
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  the south of London or the south of England sounds like but it was a bit just concerning at times
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  where I had to sort of check no that's not Emma that's Arabella. I noticed when I was sort of having
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  a hunt around that the young actors doing the three main parts are actually only doing the first
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  three because they're putting them out rapidly. They can't wait for them to grow up so the cast will
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  have a change for older voices I suppose when voices break that kind of thing so that'd be
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  interesting to watch or listen I should say as they do that. So there were some really good choices
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  of casting which I kind of wish they're done in the TV series version of it. What a great choice
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  Hugh Laurie as Albert Stumbledore. Hugh Laurie many people will know from House where he does an
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  American accent so forget that he's doing his normal accent. He does have the blue eyes I believe
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  that I described of Albert Stumbledore but he also has an element of intelligent ruthlessness to him
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  and that is one of the intriguing things of Albert's though he is definitely good he's also like
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  many a leader a good leader in times of trouble he's able to make sacrifices and he has also the
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  whimsicality leans into that very well so in a way I prefer him to Michael Gambon as Dumbledore and
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  I kind of know it's too late but I would love to have seen him do the role on screen but anyway too
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  enjoy him in this and right at the very end you get a hint of Matthew McFadden and his performance
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  as Lord Voldemort hardly enough to sort of get a sense of what he's going to be like but yeah
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  obviously lots of people have seen him in various roles I think he's not challenging Darcy and
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  Kira Knight is I'm prejudiced here more the succession type in fighting person here I'm going
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  to enjoy seeing that I suppose the thing about Matthew McFadden is there is something charismatic
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  and attractive about Voldemort and I think he'll be able to project that in his voice
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  so all in all I'd say a strong voice cast Riz Ahmed is playing Snape so lots lots to look
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  forward to there I noticed that the weasley twins are played by the same actor not sure that's a
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  good choice we'll have to see how they sound engineer that later could have perhaps cast twins
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  no give mind you there are so many people involved maybe they ran out of money that was a joke because
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  this is what the most lavish audio productions you'll ever come across moving on we have the sort
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  of sound as it appears in the music the main person who is mentioned as a composer is a
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  a chap called Dittin Sorney who is a British Indian composer I know nothing about him prior to
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  this though I see his one many awards what I think he has a problem with here is that we all
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  already think we know what the Harry Potter theme music is and so what he's gone for is atmospheric
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  music possibly that I didn't really pick out a theme I could hum from it but maybe that's on
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  purpose and I think the music was fine it didn't get in the way so perhaps that has succeeded
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  but also I wasn't blown away by it maybe if it had been too good it would have been too distracting
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  so I think there's a sort of a probably debates like this where had you know in the production
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  company about how to do this okay what about the story itself well it's almost too well known to
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  need to be commented on but it did remind me listening to it of the fullness of the book the
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  funny little quirky bits I don't make it into the film versions but also the structure of the book
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  because the first few books of the Harry Potter series have a very clear structure because it's
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  set by the school year very similar to the sort of any blighten style in the sick that Mallory
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  Tower type stories but once you're in a school year you're immediately given a structure
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  in this case though we have a long prologue before we get to the school we've got the Harry Potter
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  being left with the dursleys like pre prologue and then we've got the Harry living with the
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  dursleys which is actually a much longer section than I remembered which includes the visit to the
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  zoo the attempt to escape the letters and so on very much enjoyed listening to all that because it
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  reminded me how the story does take a while to get to Hogwarts so that when you get to Hogwarts
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  it's this explosion of colour and friendliness and people makes it all the better than once you
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  get there then the rest of it is you've got like an autumn term a winter going into spring and then
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  a summer term and it does actually fulfill the classic when you look in the how to write books
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  this fulfills that classic structure for I looked out for the moment of all is lost which is
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  what happens at the end of like the second act in in a classic film for example or a classic novel
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  and yeah sure enough it comes at that point when Harry and Hermione trying to help Hagrid get rid of
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  Norbert get caught out of bed and lose all the points of Gryffindor so it's interesting that
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  even though there's a much bigger stake story of the fear that Voldemort's going to come back
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  actually the most sort of awful moment is one that children would relate to which is when you lose
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  all the points and all your classmates and lots of other people hate you because you've ruined
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  the chance of winning the house cup which of course ties in with the turnaround the big high point
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  isn't really defeating Voldemort Harry is actually unconscious when that happens it's the moment when
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  the extra house points are awarded so it just reminds you of the schoolness of this story
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  away from the magic I mean J.K. Rowney has got a lot of books to write so she is thinking carefully
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  I hear about what is going to be the big beat at the end of this story and that's what she went for
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  and probably part of his success is that it's incredibly relatable even though it's full of
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  the you know the magical world that doesn't exist in our daily lives sadly that's a very good
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  twist plotted throughout so when you know what happens you can see how she has put in those
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  plot points along the way so you that the clues are there but you tend to read rapidly pass them
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  and it does wrap up nicely like the good sort of murdered mystery it has that feel that
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  when Quirrell says ah-ha I did all of this because you can see ah yes that's what the unicorn
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  was about that's what the critics match was about so it's very satisfyingly tied up
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  the other thing that made me think about characterization in Harry Potter particularly in this
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  first book is how there is really got a very deep satirical bite everybody is really a sort of
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  I was thinking of role dial that kind of excessive version of themselves
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  so you can see that in the case of the dursle is they are sort of suburban awfulness and very much
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  a role dial-esque aunt and uncle they're in that category so unbelievably cruel and unbelievably
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  ignorant and unbelievably overreact you know the fern and dursle taking them all off to an island
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  as if that's going to solve anything I think that there is a move away from that as the books develop
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  I've been interesting to watch I mean obviously a lot of the
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  wizards remain in this category the sort of digels and Mrs. Figgs at this world but I think there
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  there is a more gross and understanding of even the satirical characters like the dursle is
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  as we go along what's driving their behavior but at this first book on its own merit
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  does feel a bit role dial as in the setup and I expect that's deliberate as well that's the
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  tradition she's writing in so what's the overall verdict on this I did enjoy it very much it was
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  very easy to listen to I was thinking though that I wouldn't want to miss out the experience of
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  reading the book on my own to my own child or grandchild because you then get the interaction with
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  the reader the discussion and what's going on which you don't get when you just put on an audio
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  version for a child so I would suggest that it's got a place really as well children have a
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  one for appetite for repetition they will watch frozen ten times and not blink I would still say
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  it's worth reading the book for the first time with your younger member of the family whoever that
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  is or for yourself but then it's perfectly good as a repetition because it will give you an
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  opportunity to notice other things that you didn't hear the first time through so as a audiobook I would
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  give it well five star production clearly it's an amazing production a kind of 4.5 for the story
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  because one thing that niggles me is some of the clumsiness of the language at times the repetition
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  of Harry Ron and Hermione and I think there's actually you can see her changing as a writer as
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  as she goes on so I think this isn't the best of the Harry Potter books but it's pretty good
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  and pretty entertaining and I know that my own family will love it when we read it together
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  back in the day and I just want to stop at this point to say if you are listening to it do just
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  listen on to the list of people involved it's give them their due but also just aren't names
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  amazing there is the beginning you get a list of names matched to characters and after a while it
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  was hard to work out who were the character names and who were the real people's names there are
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  some wonderful names amongst the huge huge cast so just do listen out to that because it's almost
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  like a name poem at the end it goes on for about 10 minutes anyway so I would highly recommend it
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  and I'm going to look forward to listening to the rest of this as it comes out it does do something
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  that you don't get from reading the book and you don't get from watching the film so there is
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  definitely a space for this in the Harry Potter market so if that's your thing I think you will
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  enjoy it thank you very much for listening
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