Your Favorite Audiobook?
I am a fan of Richard Armitage's narration, performance more accurately, of audiobooks. I believe he is an amazing voice actor. And in many ways being a good voice actor is more difficult than other forms of acting. Especially if you are creating an entire cast of characters with just your voice. I truly think that it's not as valued by the industry and by audiences as it should be.
If you have ever listened to a bad audiobook narration, or even a bad documentary narration, think about the skill of the good actor that can transport you with their voice alone to another world.
With the exception of maybe one audiobook that is not currently available in the US or through another source, I have listened to every audiobook Richard Armitage has narrated since I discovered his first audiobooks around 2006 inspired by the Robin Hood series and his unforgettable character of Guy of Gisborne.
From 2006 to today my favorite Richard Armitage audiobook is still The Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell.
Richard and a microphone (ADR for The Hobbit)
I've listened to the book countless times throughout all these years. The characters really come alive as distinct human beings and it's difficult to remember that it is only Richard in a studio with his voice creating these vivid characters and scenes.
Below is an excerpt of one of my favorite reviews of Richard's narration of Lords of the North. I love the review because it reflects so well and much more eloquently than I could exactly how I feel:
"One of the reasons why this reading succeeds so brilliantly is that it is a first person narrative. This actor takes on completely the character of the narrator hero; he manages to sound as though he’s wearing the clothes, carrying the swords, sporting the trophy arm rings of this Anglo-Saxon warrior. By his commitment to the hero and his voice, Richard Armitage has connected with the story-telling tradition of the age of Beowulf and earlier, and has shown himself to be a true ‘Skald’ – a bearer of tales of heroes."
Click link below for the entire review:
Looking at my 10 CD set, it was produced by BBC Audio in 2007.
I consider my 10 CD Lords of the North narrated by Richard Armitage set to be a treasure since the audiobook is no longer in the market available for purchase.
It is sad to me that Richard only narrated this one book from Cornwell's Saxon Stories and even more sad that no one seems to know who owns the rights to Armitage's narration of the book.
I know Armitage fans, including me, have contacted Audible to see if there's a way for them to find who owns the rights to this audiobook and to purchase it. Armitage narrations have been very successful for Audible and you would think Amazon with all their money would have an interest in purchasing this wonderful version of Cornwell's book.
I'm dusting off one of my old videos below for a small taste of Richard Armitage narrating Lords of the North:
"Fate is Inexorable"
No comments:
Post a Comment