Audiobooks are a big thing in our family: Domenica ( http://www.domenicamoregordon.com ) is an artist/illustrator/übermaker and always has one going in the studio as she works. You can’t write while listening to a book, but I listen to them on the ipod when walking the dog, and sometimes even when swimming. Getting the right voice is crucial, and we both have experience of listening to books that were great on the page but then got mangled by a duff performance, or simply the wrong kind of voice (I know, I know…it’s subjective. But there’s a kind of plummy and self-important– often American, weirdly – delivery that screams “I am now READING a BOOK” that makes me want to rip my ears off).
I read abridged versions of Stoneheart and Ironhand for the UK audiobooks, and so have a little first hand experience of how tough it is to keep up your energy page-on-page, and to inject meaning and dynamism AND remain consistent in your voice-acting through a long day’s recording. Which is a long way of saying I’ve got nothing but respect for readers who not only do a good interpretative job, but who add substantial narrative value to the books they read. And so, I’m REALLY happy and lucky that Orbit got Simon Prebble (http://www.simonprebble.com) to do the audio of THE OVERSIGHT. He is one of those guys, in spades, and his voice has accompanied me reading other people’s work (Neal Stephenson in the main) up and down a lot of hills and along many miles of shoreline. I think he’s done a really bang-up job on this one too and I'm really grateful for it.
You can sample his excellent work on the first two chapters (for free. FREE!) here: