Project Hail Mary is my #1 fav audiobook, hands down. Just don't look up anything about it beforehand, because spoilers would really ruin it. All you need to know its about a scientist on a spaceship who has a very important mission.
This is a tremendous book. Also my favorite.
HOWEVER
I don't know if it fits op's requirements of being able to work to it without focusing on it. I certainly wouldn't want to have my first experience with this story cheapened because I wasn't paying attention.
So entertaining, so enthralling. I love that book with all my heart.
Fair enough. I missed that requirement. Personally, I wouldn't be able to listen to most audiobooks while working, but I guess it depends on what kind of work. If it's mindless work like washing dishes or driving, no problem.
This is also my favorite. If you haven't yet, check out the expeditionary force. First 2 or 3 are free on audible Plus. The first half of the first book is a bit slow but once the AI moves in it gets funny as hell.
Jazz hands! Freaking excellent audio book.
Emergency Skin is also really good, but its a short-story.
Try the Expanse series. It's long and very well done, but you can tune in and out and still get the story.
I set a goal for myself to get through as many of Stephen King's books as I can before the end of the year. To date, I've gone through over half of the Dark Tower series, The Shining, Dr. Sleep, It, Later, Under The Dome, Bag of Bones, Desperation, If It Bleeds, and I'm working on The Stand right now. Most of them are quite long, 15 - 50ish hours.
If you're not into horror, I still highly recommend The Dark Tower series. The recordings for the first 5 books are over 100 hours. They unfortunately had to change narrators in the 5th book, as the original sadly passed away. He did an amazing job at bringing the characters to life.
If It Bleeds is a short story collection, but it contains a sequel to King's The Outsider, followed by Holly, which just came out last month.
I listened to the extended version of the stand.
It was 48 hours long and has a diatribe about people complaining about him being verbose.
Excellent storyteller, but he is long winded.
And it really didn't make the ending any better.. I didn't feel rewarded after that slog. Personal victory maybe?
Yeah... Me neither.
I like audio books because they are slower than I read, which is more peaceful. I read words all day. I'm just done with that in my personal time, aside from the fact that I can listen to books when doing other things.
This one is more niche but it's among my favourite audiobooks for both great writing and a stellar vocal performance.
I highly recommend the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett and performed by Toby Longsworth. Or if you want to dip your toes then try the first one Xenos.
It's set in the Warhammer 40K universe but you don't need to know much lore to get into it. The trilogy is a pretty good primer into 40K.
I just finished the third book last week and really enjoyed them. The narration was superb also.
Pretty much all major books are published as audiobooks as well. Even ones that have computer code written in them, which is not something that you'd ever expect to have read out loud.
It used to be that books would be "narrated for the blind" where not a lot of attention would be put into the audio. Nowadays, there tends to be a lot more effort put into them. I suppose that's because they don't need to be packaged as 12 to 20 cassette tapes or CDs any longer.
There's the added element that a narrator can ruin or improve things. The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a wonderful book, but the narrator displays an unprofessionally slim knowledge of physics.
Then there's World War Z. I'm not sure that there's a better way to tell that story than the audio book. It's the exact interview style that the author intended.
Orson Scott Card really likes audio books, so the Ender's Game series is really good.
Lord of the Rings read by Andy Serkis
Any of Naomi Novik's books, particularly the Deadly Education series
The first two Hyperion books. (I've only read the first one but will read the second soon)
Those will get you started if you haven't read them already.
Second the Hyperion books, though they are a fair slog, but well worth it!!
I see a lot of recommendations for the deadly education series but I did not enjoy it at all. I finished the first book out of pure sunk cost, but I really did not like the book or the narration.
If you're looking for less YA, you could try my favourite book series, The Magicians.
Is the magicians by Lev Grossman? If so, my library has that series on audiobook and I just placed a hold on the first one. Thanks for the recommendation!
That's right! You've made an excellent decision. I sound like a PR person for Lev Grossman at this point but those books are absolutely fantastic.
Another one to check out that is slightly more adult oriented are the Bloodsworn books by John Gwynn. Sadly, his daughter passed away so he hasn't yet spoken of the release date but of the third book yet, though the name was released recently so I believe it is being worked on. It's too be titled 'Fury of the Gods'. From what I can tell, that couldn't have happened to a nicer guy so it's truly heartbreaking, but his literature is fantastic.
I've listened to the series and agree that they were great. I had watched the TV series and they have different enough plots that they're independently enjoyable as well.
LOTR would be pretty good easy listening, it has a very slow pace and it's a long trilogy... Which is why I never finished the books. Unfortunately I've watched the movies so I've spoiled most of the story, but I'll keep in mind the other recommendations. Thanks!
There is enough difference and stuff cut out of the movies to make it worth it to me. I watched the movies first and the books just heightened my enjoyment of both.
To be fair my wife and I met at the third movie in the theater so I may be biased.
The Andy Serkis narration felt like watching the movies again, but with hours of bonus content, which is also the original content
Reckoners Series - Written by Brandon Sanderson - read by MacLeod Andrews
In fact, I'd probably recommend any of his books/audiobooks. His stories are very gripping but also very easy to follow, in my opinion.
Maybe I should try it. I've read Mistborn only, I have mixed feelings about it but now that you mention it I think Sanderson would make a good easy listening type.
Discworld is my go-to these days. Goes well with cross stitching
In contrast I would never want to listen to a Terry Pratchett book while doing something else
Ah well. Sarah J. Maas was also a fun experience. It's so bad it's good. I went with A court of thorns and roses but I hear her other series follow a similar vein. It's hard to miss the important details. Look for the Graphic Audio releases.
Pratchett has the highest rate of "that whole paragraph was great so I'm going to read it again now" and "that's such a clever remark I'm now taking 5 minutes to think about it" out of any other authors I've ever read.
And you can do cross stiching whilst listening to it? I'm jealous. Thanks for the other recommendation, I'll look into it :)
Off to be the wizard. By Scott Meyer. It is hilarious and fantastic. Very similar in style to the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
I really enjoyed Stephen Fry's Greek mythology audiobooks. He wrote three, basically a modern editorial of the mythology cleaned up a little bit and presented as a more linear sequence of events. He did the golden and silver ages, followed by the Trojan war.
I also really enjoyed Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, narrated by himself. They are all easy to follow, and entertaining. Neil Gaiman's book isn't particularly to ribald as far as mythology goes, and my kids loved listening to it in the car.
Edit: also from the young adult section, Abhorsen and Sabriel are on audible narrated by Tim Curry, who makes them a hoot. Don't recommend the other two as much. The books weren't as good and they aren't narrated by Tim Curry.
I can recommend "The Realm of the Elderlings" audiobooks. James Langton has a British accent and it's just wonderful to listen to. He does voices for other characters fairly well too. Great book series too.
IT by Stephen King was read incredibly by Steven Weber.
Stephen King got me into Audiobooks after being a bit hit-and-miss with them but I've been using them when I'm out walking and then read the book when I'm home and have time. It's been a great way to zoom through his back catalogue.
There's a free series you can listen to on Podcast Addict by Nathan Lowell. The first book is called Quarter Share. (Then Half Share, Full Share, Double Share, Captains Share, and lastly, Owners Share).
It's Sci fi set in space about a guy moving up in ranks making money and working on a space ship. It's nothing too fantastic but it was still a good listen, read by the author who does a good job of it, and I did exactly what you're wanting while I listened. Loosely paid attention while doing other things and it was great for that.
Also, you can't beat free.
Woohoo another Nathan Lowell fan. I love that series and all is writing for that matter.
The ice wind dale Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore is a great series set in the forgotten realms of dungeons and dragons. There's even a free podcast audiobook of it on Spotify!
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
This book did this for me. It was funny and totally casual.
I really got into the foundation series by Isaac Asimov.
Jonathan Maberry, Joe Ledger series is a really good action, near future sci-fi, popcorn romp, style of fiction. It's like Saturday morning cartoons (just sit and listen) combined with some good writing.
I recently listened to Daisy Jones and the Six and the audiobook was incredible. The book was written as a series of interviews, which worked great as an audiobook. There were definitely times I got a bit distracted but it didn't impede my understanding too much. It does take a bit to absorb all the characters, so you'd probably want to listen uninterrupted for the first ~hour.
Killers of a Certain Age is another good one. Written about mature women assassins. It's a fun thriller and an easy listen.
Final rec is any of Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series as read by John Lee. They're long as hell, but straightforwardly told. There's something I just love about how John read them, too.
I used to work while listening to audiobooks so I have come across a lot of this.
It's not quite what you asked for but what I found was that in general, nonfiction memoirs were my favorite types of books to listen to as it would be ok if you get distracted and they were usually very interesting to me.
If I remember later I'll check my list of books I've read and try to find some good fiction too.
A Night in the Lonesome October byRoger Zelazny. The version read by the author is better but harder to find these days.
This is also the perfect month to listen to it. It's the diary of Jack the Ripper's dog from October 1-31.
The only Roger Zelazny book I've ever read was Lord of Light.
It's the only book I've ever read that I could not get into at first, or second attempt, but still had a third go and was not only able to go on, but ended up deciding it was one of the most enjoyable books I've read. Not one of the best, but just great fun to read.
Anyone interested can glean some insight from this short Guardian piece.
But I do recommend just diving in, it's well worth it. Eventually.
Please... for all that is good... listen to world war z, and the dark tower series.
I don't know if this is suitable for your needs, but I really enjoyed this reading of the deathworlders:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0TV2mCk83zBbWxnbA7ndfHFlctKzHGIL&si=ksX7uj10qVPSEWZ-
Stephen Fry’s reading of Harry Potter is just the best.
On a JK Rowling note. Her Cormoran Strike series (starting with Cuckoo’s Calling) under a different pen name is actually pretty great. It’s a modern day detective series with great personable characters. Very easy to listen to. Despite her crappy views, Rowling’s way of writing is very clean and simple so might fit your brief.
I’ve been really enjoying re-reading The Hunger Games series, and the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
Expeditionary Force is a fun sci-fi saga with great narration and lots of funny bits. If you're not paying attention and miss half a chapter it doesn't really matter too much. Book 7.5 is a full cast epic production with a few well known sci-fi actors.
If you're looking for something that'd you'd get at the pharmacy for $10 then Jack Reacher is pretty fun for the first 10 or so books. I find the most interesting bit being that they're contemporary and basically released annually with the first being released in 1997. You can see the technology change and the world around Jack change. I tapped out after book 20 or so but it was an enjoyable enough experience.
I always recommend Diskworld
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