For me, it’s Julia Whalen. She’s the GOAT.
100% agree.
Love Julia Whelan!!
100%
What’s your favorites of hers?
Title, im tired of so many lines losing emotion because of shit like -he cried out in absolute anguish- "Noo..." its just so bland. I get it, some people want soft whispering the whole time but if be more than happy to listen to books exclusively from narrators who put their all into it
For me, it’s Julia Whalen. She’s the GOAT.
100% agree.
Love Julia Whelan!!
100%
What’s your favorites of hers?
January Lavoy!
Have you listened to the calamity club? I’m wondering if she’s Birdie. If so, she’s amazing!
I was going to comment the exact same person!!! I find myself wishing every narrator was like her 100%
Shes phenomenal!
Currently listening to The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi and her narration is spot on as usual. Also, 100% agree that Cat moms rock!
Steven Pacey and Jeff Hayes
Steven pacey is so good, I’d listen to a book just because he’s reading it
Frank Muller is good at this.
KILL IF YOU WILL, BUT COMMAND ME NOTHING
I’m listening to David Copperfield narrated by Joel Froomkin and his characters have very distinct voices and his acting is wonderful.
Jeff Hays for Dungeon Crawler Carl is the only acceptable answer here ...
Jeff Hayes is an entire cast and sound effects artist all at the same time!
Jeff Hays is amazing
The thing I really like about DCCs is that Jeff sounds like he’s yelling. But the volume doesn’t spike to 3x what it was. It gets a little louder but not enough that I’m driving and going “shit I need to turn this down”.
I just listened to Cage of Souls by David Thorpe, and the thing that struck me is that I didn’t love his narration (though by the end I think I was OK with it), but boy was he invested in every character in the book. Every single voice he was just all in on, and believably so.
James Marsters narrating The Dresden Files
Has he never narrated anything else? Though I think if I did hear him do any other book all I would be able to think of is Dresden.
Jim Dale - Harry Potter
While I'm happy so many people enjoy him, I find Jim Dale so irritating. His female voices always sound so whiny to me.
Brendan Frazier - narrated Inkheart and also Dragon Rider. Both by Cornelia Funke
Ray Porter & Jeff Hays come to mind
Julia Whelan Jeff Hays Wil Wheaton Ray Porter
Oh, and Bahni Turpin
Dion Graham. His range is amazing. He narrated all 3 volumes of Colton Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy—I just finished the latest— & 300+ wide ranging books, both fiction & nonfiction.
Love love love Dion Graham. He narrates Marlon James’s fantasy trilogy, and it is phenomenal
Gary Furlong :) excellent performance every time and the Irish accent is the cherry on top!
Yes, I agree! He is an excellent narrator.
Humphrey Bower - he is phenomenal with the subtleties of accents and gives every character a distinctive voice. Shantaram, The Power of One, and Brother Fish are great demonstrations of his range.
Kristin Atherton. I know her from The Invisible Library series (which I adore), but she’s won awards for other books. She brings books alive, emotes where appropriate, yet refrains from screaming in my ear, because that is quite annoying for a narrator to do.
Moira Quirk You could check out the Audie Awards for narration. She's won four.
"We did it right, didn't we?"
Jeff Hayes. His best work is dungeon crawler Carl.
Michael Lesley is amazing
Davina Porter and Dion Graham are my favorites. The way they do accents, each character has their own voice and cadence, the emotion coming through. And Abraham Varghese reading his own books - I was IMPRESSED.
Scott Brick leaps to mind if you want OTT emoting.
Mira Sorvino - The View From Lake Como. At the beginning, it felt a little bland and then there's a scene with the main character breaks down and Mira just went for it.
Steven Pacey
Daniel Wisniewski
Jefferson Mays from The Expanse and The Captive's War series. Who is a different narrator from Jeff Hays, who is also great
Jonathan Davis
Patrick Tull performing the Aubrey / Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian.
Laurence Fishburne reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Thandie Newton reading Jane Eyre both have all-in performances like that.
Thandie was fantastic for Jane Eyre!
I’m listening to The Brothers Karamazov right now ow and Ben Miles is knocking it out of the park.
Jacob Morgan / Zachary Webber. I’m currently listening to Lights Out and he had me cracking up
Kathleen early
Cornell Collins (AKA Matthew Lloyd Davies!)