Rereading Oathbringer

[bdoble97]

I and trying to reread Oathbringer key word is trying I love the book I'm just over 300 pgs in but I also have been reading it for about 2 months now. With a full time job a wife and 4 daughters I have next to no time to read the book. I read 20-30 pages when i can but then start to fall asleep while reading Haha. Have any of you done the the book on tape. I rewarded/listen to The Song of Ice and Fire on my 2 hr drive home from the police academy but that was a decade ago. So I guess I'm asking how good is the Oathbringer Audio version. Forgive me if this is hard to read I'm over tire ms and I am a bad speller to start off with. Thanks 

[Steel Inquisitive]

Audio is pretty good. Narrators are on point. It can be a little jarring with different voices for the same characters, but once you're used to it, it's a really cool way to "read" the books!

[IllNsickly]

I ‘Read’ most books in Audio format these days. 
 

Thanks to real life necessities, I can’t devote hours to devouring books in print any more. But since I spend a lot of time driving, I can listen for hours.

Michael Kramer and Kate Reading are definitely far from the worst narrators you will listen to.

[Fractalfire]

For me, the audiobook was somewhat jarring. I love the voices of the readers and how they change their voice for each character is extremely talented; however, this often clashed with the voice I imagined for the character. At other times, they added different inflection and emotions than I had envisioned. I think the most egregious were the scenes with Dalinar and Navani, where their "flirting" came across as extremely overdone and annoying, primarily because of the way the reader (I believe Michael Kramer) was interpreting her lines. (Every time Navani said "Oh Dalinar" in that overdone way I wanted to scream.) By necessity, reading by someone will add their own interpretation, emotions, and "acting skills" to that character, which can change the way the book feels and even completely change the meaning of a scene. 

Personally, I think I prefer books that are read without trying to make "voices" for each character. I would prefer a nice, unchanging voice, as when someone who is not a super-talented voice actor reads a book. Then, I can simply tune out the parts that make it "their voice" and substitute my own imagination, as I normally do when reading. 

That being said, I only think this was a problem because I originally read Oathbringer rather than listened to it. Had I listened to audiobooks from the beginning, it would not have been so difficult to stay in the story, because I would have associated those voices with the characters and I wouldn't have had a different interpretation of their emotions. 

Edited December 16, 2019 by Fractalfire

[bdoble97]

Thank you all 

[Calderis]

8 hours ago, Fractalfire said:

By necessity, reading by someone will add their own interpretation, emotions, and "acting skills" to that character, which can change the way the book feels and even completely change the meaning of a scene. 

This is precisely why I personally don't like audiobooks. 

If they're your only real option though... 

[+Bliev]

@Fractalfire @Calderis this is also why I don’t do audio books. I started the audiobooks for my 7yo daughter and I for Harry Potter on a recent car ride and we hated it for this same reason. So now I’m reading the HP books aloud to her (and she reads to herself at school in between) so I can make the voices as I want them to be. I’m a professor so I don’t get to do acting/drama stuff much, so this has been a fun opportunity to be creative. :-)
 

OP, I have friends who swear by audio books, so YMMV! You’ll definitely be able to move through them at a quicker pace.

[Yolenlightweaver]

If there is the choice between reading and audio books, especially Brandon's, I would say reading. That being said I work a lot and have school so reading isn't the most available thing for me right now so I do the audio. I have loved the two readers and a lot of points have been made that they take their own spin on them, I would agree but they are better than most I have listened to. I think it also helps that the first exposure to the Stormlight series was through audio books so I didn't have any preconceptions. I feel like that would make listening painful if I understood a character one way and they read them another. Since it is Oathbringer and not the first one and based on the comments above I would agree and say read at your own risk. I have loved the audiobooks though.

[+robardin]

I don't care for audiobooks myself, as I read text FAR FASTER than a natural speaking pace would be, and always have, and if get confused or excited about a passage I just immediately rescan it, while jumping back the right amount of time on an audio playback seems like it would be tricky. (And Sanderson works get a lot of such "wait, what was that?!" types of moments, especially towards the end!)

One thing I've wondered is how audiobook readers treat the use of font/text size for some indicators in the book text. Like how the Death of Discworld SPEAKS IN ALL SMALLCAPS. Or the Stormfather, for that matter (since we're talking about Oathbringer). Do they use some kind of reverb effect and a James Earl Jones filter in an audiobook for that?

[Steel Inquisitive]

I usually read the books first and then reread them via audio book while trying to fall asleep. It's very relaxing:-)

[Ramiras]

I'm a mom of two young children (1yo and 3 yo), married and working full time. I have no time for reading anymore but I spend 1.5 hrs in traffic every week day. These audiobooks are what keep me sane.