The first audiobook is pretty rubbish

[Steve Stark]

Maybe he did good stuff when he was younger, I don't know. But being old is not an excuse to shovel out garbage.

If an 85-yr-old surgeon kills your daughter are you going to give him a break?

Point taken. On the same note, I think he did it because people were begging for it. They wanted the complete set with Dotrice's voice. He actually did a great job with the reading other than switching a few of the voices. When you're about to turn 90, I guess you don't care or don't remember what Dany's voice sounded like 10+ years ago.

And I don't think I'd let an 88 year old work on my daughter. haha. But your point is well made.

Edit: But don't get me wrong, I was mad at the editors of the audio version for letting this mistake slip by. But I think the OP of this thread didn't like the first three books either, which I thought were exceptional.

[Kienn]

Personally I don't like any of his ASOIAF work, I suffered through his book 2 and 5 and found other readers for 1, 3, and 4 when i did a listen-through of the audiobooks after having delayed said listen-though specifically because I didn't like some Dotrice samples.

I can appreciate fans wanting a consistent reader for all the books. Personally I hope someone else does all 7 when they're all done. I thought Roy Avers did well, but if he sounds different 10-15 years later then just find someone new for all 7.

Also I really don't give 2 farts whether all 200 characters have "unique" voices or not (half of Dotrice's all sounded identical to me anyways) as long as they have appropriate voices. Why does Tyrion sound like a leprechaun if no one else does, how exactly did he pick up THAT accent (unless it was an old man dubbing "the imp" as what first came to mind...). Why does a 14 year old girl sound like an 80 year old man?

As long as characters are distinguishable when speaking to each other... they can sound similar to some third person not there. When the series is complete it's a simple matter to determine which characters need unique voices

[Allison of Tarth]

I love Dotrice's regular narration voice but yeah ... all the character voices are either pirates or leparacahns. Though I will admit that his Tyrion grew on me to the point that I almost prefer it to Dinklage's frequently dubious accent.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

Yeah I don't really like them. I have nothing against Dotrice, but I don't think he's very good at reading them. He's a bit boring and his pronunciation of Brienne is all kinds of horrible.

[maiden of tarth]

I love the audiobooks. In fact I always made sure it was narrated by Roy before I bought it.

Each to their own though. I can see where people are coming from on regards to his pronunciation of names and places.

[Lady Arya's Song]

My husband and I have listened daily for at least the last year all five books over and over.

We have all five of the Roy Dotrice versions.

I liked the reader who did book AFFC Mr. Lee as well

I have listened to his reading of other series and I think he did a fine job.

I prefer the reader to have a British accent.

Mr. Dotrice has done a wonderful job in the first 3 books in my honest opinion except for a few glitches.

One area that has been difficult for me is the fact that many or most of the characters are in their early twenties but they sound old in the stories.

If audio is the only way to enjoy this series, then I say buy them.

[Jash Kayk]

I might have been nitpicking somewhat with my complaints, for the most part he's not bad, but his occasional odd pacing just pulls me out of the story. I don't blame him too much for the pronunciations though, "pe-tire" is pretty annoying to hear but it's a book, it's open to interpretation. Don't get me wrong though, on the whole he did an alright job, I just think a series like ASOIAF deserved a better narrator.

[Arthur Dayne's Honor]

If Morgan Freeman does it I will just hand him a blank check and tell him to write "whatever"

[Ser Greg of House House]

btw... I don't think it's the narrators fault at all. Even the female/child voices. You can get a good narrator or an imitator. It's probably very hard to find someone who can excel in both.

A mistake like Brian/Bran is the editors/company fault. I mean, I understand that the books weren't so famous at that time, but they were already bestsellers. How hard is it to get someone who's actually interested in the books to review stuff?

I even suppose it wouldn't be that hard to get a male and a female to record different chapters etc. How expensive can it be?

[Veltigar]

If Morgan Freeman does it I will just hand him a blank check and tell him to write "whatever"

He'll probably write "Your firstborn child" down :p

Has anyone listened to these audiobooks:

RON DONACHIE (Ser Rodrik Cassel) will be reading my historical horror novel, FEVRE DREAM.

MICHELLE FAIRLEY (Lady Catelyn Stark) will read WINDHAVEN, the SF adventure I wrote with my dear friend and collaborator Lisa Tuttle.

IAIN GLEN (Ser Jorah Mormont) will be doing the honors and reading my first novel, DYING OF THE LIGHT, a romantic SF tale set in my "Thousand Worlds" history.

I think it would be awesome to have someone who played a part in the HBO series to read them in (if Roy Dotrice isn't available anymore). I think Charles Dance, Iain Glen, Stephen Dillane and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau could do a wonderful job.

[muffinpoodle]

"The women all sound like men"

"Why does a young girl sound like an old man"

BECAUSE ROY DOTRICE IS AN OLD MAN WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT

(sorry, pet peeve, I have no problem people not liking Dotrice's work, but seriously?! I don't know whether to laugh in disbelief or hit my head against the nearest wall when I hear such a criticism...)

[Silent Ghost]

I watched the shows first, liked them and quickly decided to buy the books. I'm glad I got them in English cause I'm sure a lot of things are just less awesome in Dutch

[Silent Ghost]

He'll probably write "Your firstborn child" down :P

Has anyone listened to these audiobooks:

RON DONACHIE (Ser Rodrik Cassel) will be reading my historical horror novel, FEVRE DREAM.

MICHELLE FAIRLEY (Lady Catelyn Stark) will read WINDHAVEN, the SF adventure I wrote with my dear friend and collaborator Lisa Tuttle.

IAIN GLEN (Ser Jorah Mormont) will be doing the honors and reading my first novel, DYING OF THE LIGHT, a romantic SF tale set in my "Thousand Worlds" history.

I think it would be awesome to have someone who played a part in the HBO series to read them in (if Roy Dotrice isn't available anymore). I think Charles Dance, Iain Glen, Stephen Dillane and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau could do a wonderful job.

That would be pretty awesome indeed, I would also add Peter Dinklage to that list

[Whitering]

The french version of the books are pathetics as well. I hate it when they translate town's names. Or take a word GRRM created... and translate it.. HOW THE F**?

The orginal are always the best.

That happened in real life as well, I mean, look at everything that was invented in an English speaking country, then see what they call it in french. How the fuck do you get ordinateur from computer? Lol

The audio books for the Wheel of Time were top notch.

However, there are multiple readings of the audio books for this series, there is Roy and an American one, separate I guess? My brother likes Roy, but hasn't read the books as many times as I have.

[Phonzadellika]

I hated Roy Dotrice's narration until maybe halfway through Book 1 GOT. Then I got used to it, and now I love it.

I have a much bigger complaint with the physical copy of the Audio CD's themselves, there were at least 3 CDs in my ACOK set that skipped much too frequently on their own volition than what should be acceptable for such an expensive CD set.

Dotrice's best voices:

Euron

Jaime

Samwell

[WinterWarrior]

I absolutely love Roy Dotrice's audiobooks. I don't know where the rest of you are coming from. I have listened to all 5 many times commuting back and forth long distances (in addition to reading the books when I am not driving). I own two of the audiobooks and will get the whole collection eventually. The others I check out from the library and download onto my iPod.

He does change Dany and Arya's voices in the last two books and that is jarring, but since I love what he does with everyone else I will give him a pass on those. I think he does Dolorous Ed the best and I love Selmy too. And I really like Tyrion and Jamie's welsh accents. He does Tywin Lannister very well too. Actually I think he does it all well (with the exception of what I noted above).

I am glad they fit him into the HBO series as the old pyromancer.

My fear is that they will not find a better reader for the 6th book and the lack of continuity will be a problem.

[Allison of Tarth]

Ahh yeah I forgot about how good Dotrice's Dolorous Edd is. Really adds a lot to Edd's already hilarious lines.

His Theon voice sounds like Ron Weasley, to the point that I picture him as Ron now. :D

[RoamingRonin]

I just don't understand why some of his pronunciations weren't corrected? He calls Petyr PIT-TIRE.

[Dany Girl]

If Morgan Freeman does it I will just hand him a blank check and tell him to write "whatever"

if I ever become disgustingly rich I want to hire him to read me bedtime stories... If he ever did asoiaf I'd buy it in 3 seconds flat!

[Winter's Knight]

I just don't understand why some of his pronunciations weren't corrected? He calls Petyr PIT-TIRE.

It's spelt "Petyr", I guess he wasn't sure if the 'y' had an "eye" sound or an "ee" one.