Audible credit burning a hole in my digital pocket...suggestions?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm suprised no one's yet recommended the He Who Fights Monsters series, nor Rivers of London, so I'll add them here... in our group HWFM & Dungeon Crawler Carl are much debated as to which is best....

I've listened to most of the Rivers of London series on Audible and I like them. The narrator does a great job of making the character come alive. Unfortunately, I'm reaching the point in the series where the author clearly feels like he wants to wrap up the storyline, and it's getting less engaging as a result. Fantastic worldbuilding, though.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I've put the Johannes Cabel series and Spinning Silver on my list. Did you read Spinning Silver or listen to a narration? If that later, is the narration good?

I'd personally strongly rate Novik's Uprooted over Spinning Silver. It's got a lot of similar ideas but it executes insanely better on every single one, and is also more unique, and also doesn't have a distractingly insane attempt at apologia for landlords kicking out destitute peasants (one of the most hilariously "Why did you put this in? It doesn't play the way you think it does" bits of insanity I've ever seen in a fantasy novels, it's not even thematic like the out-of-nowhere bondage stuff in Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana).

I'm suprised no one's yet recommended the He Who Fights Monsters series, nor Rivers of London

Yeah Rivers of London is some of the best Audible there is, because after book 2, they're basically all written with Audible in mind, and the specific reader (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) in mind. I was incredibly skeptical of it based on reading about the plot, but eventually so many people recommended it that I pulled the trigger, and they were right to recommend it, even if ACAB does include Peter Grant.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Unfortunately, I'm reaching the point in the series where the author clearly feels like he wants to wrap up the storyline, and it's getting less engaging as a result. Fantastic worldbuilding, though.

Yeah it does seem like we're there, but it was a lot of books to get to that point!

Personally I think they just need to do a time-skip, (huge spoilers)

Spoiler

which could have the added benefit of leaping over the pandemic (unless Aaronovitch has something particularly interesting to say about that). There's also the issue that most of the good guys are getting kind of overpowered and there being no real plausible opposition for them. I was expecting that opposition to be the titular Rivers themselves and the first few books seemed to be foreshadowing this pretty hard but it seems like at some point Aaronovitch decided that they were too fan-favourite or something, and has instead just backpedalled on all the elements which appeared to be foreshadowing of this.

 

[MNblockhead]

Wheel of Time if you haven’t already. Unless it’s not your cup of tea.

My wife and I watched the TV series, but I've never read the books. I'd consider it, but I already know the plot, unless the TV series departs greatly from books' plot.

The Witcher Books are excellent.

Ah, that's a good idea. I'm a fan of the video games and TV series. I know that that the TV series and game departs from the books quite a bit. But even if there is a lot of rehashing the same story, if the narration is good, I think I would enjoy it. I know that contradicts what I said about Wheel of Time, above...

It’s not fantasy fiction but I really enjoyed listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s books on audible. Very thought provoking and reveal a bit about the human condition.

I like his Revisionist History podcast. For his books, I think I would rather read them than listen to them.

 

[MNblockhead]

My top recommendations:

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. It's suoer fun with great characters, and not to deep. Often feels like a RPG campaign, imho.

Spoiler: Light spoiler

A group of monsters are forced to escort an unlikely Empress to troy, in a faux history setting.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, spoken by James Marsters. Marsters just fits so perfectly, I can't imagine reading the books tbh. Harry Dresden is a wizard that works as a detective. It's heavily inspired by Noir, an is heavy on the tropes. The detective bit gets less important to the story in the latter books, as his power grows.

Love the Dresden Files books, but have already read them all. I do agree, however, that if I've not read them already, they would be ideal for the audio-book format. I've only gotten into audio books recently.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm suprised no one's yet recommended the He Who Fights Monsters series, nor Rivers of London, so I'll add them here... in our group HWFM & Dungeon Crawler Carl are much debated as to which is best....

Huh. I checked out He Who Fights Monsters and wasn't charged a credit. Perhaps they are giving the first one away free, hoping you'll get hooked on the series? Anyway, I've put it in my library.

 

[MNblockhead]

Well, I'm add the point where I have a good number of books in queue and many more in the wish lists. Thanks for the continued recommendations.

 

[TheSword]

My wife and I watched the TV series, but I've never read the books. I'd consider it, but I already know the plot, unless the TV series departs greatly from books' plot.

Ah, that's a good idea. I'm a fan of the video games and TV series. I know that that the TV series and game departs from the books quite a bit. But even if there is a lot of rehashing the same story, if the narration is good, I think I would enjoy it. I know that contradicts what I said about Wheel of Time, above...

I like his Revisionist History podcast. For his books, I think I would rather read them than listen to them.

I didn’t know about the podcast - I will check that out. Two way street.

What I would say is that the TV series for both Wheel of Time roughly maps to the story of the books there are so many differences and the TV captures only such a small slice of that is actually there that it doesn’t do it justice.

It would be like not needing to visit Greece because you’ve seen someone’s holiday photos. Sure you know where the acropolis is and roughly what it looks like. You’ve seen a picture of sunset in Santorini with lots of white buildings with blue domes. You probably have a good idea of what a fresh Greek salad is. But experiencing it is different to functionally knowing what it is.

From a purely personal point, I’ve read both series multiple times and I’ve definitely found I’ve enjoyed the retelling as much if not more. If nothing else the books are far less ham fisted and they are generally more plausible.