The first audiobook is pretty rubbish

[muffinpoodle]

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

There is no "correct"... That said, I loathe how he says "Brienne" "Bry-een", lol.

[KingofSothoryos]

I have all 5 books by Roy Dotrice and it took a little getting used to, but it grew on me. But he messes up plenty of times, using Brandon instead of Brynden, changing names of lesser holdfasts, etc. Also the change in voices for Dany and Arya in the last boos was a bit jarring. He does only have a few voices, but I take it more as someone telling a story rather than someone acting out the story. So I don't expect complete difference, just the ability to differentiate between characters, which he succeeds at. All in all, Roy Dotrice is what I think the world of ASOIAF sounds like!

[The_Quiet_Wolf]

I've been listening to the books when I can't read them, and I am very disappointed in the narrator's choice of voices for some of the main characters. I feel that since the series has given us a new notion of the voice and demeanor of the characters of ASOIAF, the audiobooks should in some way reflect that demeanor. ADwD

Hearing Dany holding court in Mereen, she sounds like some baseborn whimpering child, whereas the books depict her as being far more mature than her years, especially while presiding over her Mereneese constituents.

. Hopefully a new series of audiobooks will be released with the characters from the show. Just an optimistic hope.

[K26dp]

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.

Ron Donachie's reading of Fevre Dream was absolutely fantastic, one of the best narrations I've listened to.

I have not listened to Windhaven yet.

Iain Glen has a great voice, but I don't think he really had a feel for the novel he was reading. It probably doesn't help that Dying Of The Light is kind of a goofy book.

IMO, of course.

As for Dotrice, I think he's fine other than his Dany and Arya voices for the last couple of books. Hopefully someday there will be an ensemble performace of the books.

[Veltigar]

Iain Glen has a great voice, but I don't think he really had a feel for the novel he was reading. It probably doesn't help that Dying Of The Light is kind of a goofy book.

IMO, of course.

Sadly, I have to agree. I was so siked when I bought Dying of the Light, but it turned out to be rubbish.

An ensemble reading of the books would be great though :D

[Iona]

I never had a grandfather to read me stories, so I've adopted Roy Dotrice to fill that void.

Yes, there are things that annoy me too, and it took a little while in the beginning to get used to Dotrice, but I accept that even my imaginary family members can be flawed.

[toffeejay]

I thought Dotrice did a stellar job on the first 3.

I downloaded the new guy for Feast and it was awful, complete monotone.

The problem with the last two Dotrice works wasn't so much the quality but virtually every character sounded different to its previous. Dany went into Osha voice which is basically like an Irish Witch, cringeworthy.

Random House should have done a better job in editing and I would have perfered female to have at least some of the women/children voices.

I must say I liked how he regionalised the voices, Lannisters with a Welsh accent, Martell with Scottish, Baratheon with Yorkshire. Although I never saw those places being represented by them it made it good to listen to the conistancy amoung relatives.

You're never going to please everyone and some characters I don't like how they sound but he gets some perfect... Petyr, Euron, Aeron, Qyburn, Mopatis, Dolerous Edd, Varys.

[Dilecta]

I got AGoT and ACoK on audio with Mr. Dotrice. I thought AGoT was pretty good but somewhere in the middle of ACoK, his Theon started to grate on me. Big time. So much so that I sped through the final chapters and ended up getting the last three as ebooks. I just couldn't bear the thought of hearing his Theon again. This wasn't about Theon's story arc (though I hated what he'd become and what he did) but about the voicing.

I don't know why that particular characterization got to me, but I stone-cold HATED it. I think it is because Theon is supposed to be nobility, but Dotrice had him sounding like some guttersnipe. It soured me completely though. I also came to dislike his Brienne (despite loving her as a character).

Still, he had a monumental task and I think he did an above average job overall. But if I never hear his Theon again, it would be too soon.

Now I have all 5 on ebook and don't have to worry about *that* anymore.

[toffeejay]

His Victarion in Dance is amazing, he's got that old time cockney accent of Harry H Corbett and Roy Hodgson but as if he would have moved to Australia at a young age. Words can't describe how great it is. Hearing him say "Sail the Dothraki Sea" and getting pissed off by monkeys is brilliant.

Worst is Missandei, horrific Oriental sterotype that makes the Trade Federation seem almost PC.

[BitsOfBrains]

Are you kidding me?

I have listened to all the audio books and I thought they were all excellent.

Roy Dotrice is the man.

He was Wessley Windam Prices father in the Angel series and the Pyromancer in the TV series.

His "Reek" and "Strong Belwas" voices are priceless.

He also holds the Guinness Book of World Records for "most voices in an audiobook".

I think it was over a 1000!

If you listen to the audio books then watch the series you can see that a lot of the actors try and match the voice from their shared characters.

He does mess up and and call "Joffrey" "Jeffrey" and stuff like that but whatever, its a HUGE series and you know what he means.

As previously mentioned some of the voices did change by the end of the series.

Roy Dotrice got cancer (I think it was cancer or some equally heinous disease) so there was a big gap between his earlier recordings and the later.

They actually had some other guy record AFFC and it was really bad, so after he did ADwD they had Roy Dotrice go back and record AFfC.

As previously stated his Vicky is really good, but his Melisandre went from really sexy (I know its weird a dude can do a sexy female voice, but he does) to this semi obnoxious thickly accented (almost like a jewish accent?) but whatever.

All in all its an amazing accomplishment and I thought he did an excellent job.

[BitsOfBrains]

Oh and his LC Mormont, Davos, Sandor Clegane, Oberyn Martell, Sweet Robin, Blackfish, Roose Bolton, Strongboar, Jojen Reed, Dolorous Ed, Ghost of High Heart, and Lord Walder, are all excellent too.

[RoamingRonin]

Oh and his LC Mormont, Davos, Sandor Clegane, Oberyn Martell, Sweet Robin, Blackfish, Roose Bolton, Strongboar, Jojen Reed, Dolorous Ed, Ghost of High Heart, and Lord Walder, are all excellent too.

I love his Varys and Melisandre (book 3). Oh, and his Tommen is great too. His Stannis sounds just like the actor that plays Stannis on the show.

[themengsk176]

I have all five books voiced by Dotrice and I absolutely love them. Either you love or hate his readings, but I don't think there is any doubt of their quality.

[Juli]

I just like to listen, while I am at work. I try not to think too much. I heard hey had somone else did them one season and alot of folks were upset about that. I just like that someone recorded them them so I could listen, even when I could not read them.

[Petite Psycophant]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has trouble with Roy Dotrice's work. It seems to me that most people love his voicework of the books and I can't imagine why. First of all he has a weird tempo. He doesn't pause at the right places yet take awkwardly long pauses mid-sentence at times or reads a sentence that should have a pause without one. You would think that GRRM has written the books without any punctuation at all! (I had the digital version in front of me while he was blundering in my ear) The problem is that this will cause you to interpret some of the sentences differently and I had to pause many a time and simply read what he was trying to say for the stuff to make any sense at all.

He's so intent on "acting" out the characters that he gets incredibly sloppy most a lot of the time. He mispronounces words, completely skip others etc. Act less and read more accurate, damn it! He's so in love with his own performance that it becomes distracting. It doesn't serve the books at all. I had to stop listening when he would voice certain people because he kept on throwing in stuff they didn't say. I believe it was Dolorous Edd which he threw in an "eh" every other word they guy spoke. It was driving me crazy!

He also insists on "acting out" the women which his voice obviously isn't suited for. Dany sounded like a 90 year-old by the end and so does Arya. Actually his voice-acting aged the men in the books as well. Sometimes I had to remind myself that Gendry is a young lad and not a 50 year old. I'm thinking to myself, it's ok to simply read the text Dotrice! FFS!

As for the pronunciation of the words, Dotrice isn't the only one and I blame whomever produces and publishes the audiobook. Shouldn't they check to see if everything was read accurately? I don't think the others are as sloppy as Dotrice but they still make mistakes when reading. I also don't understand why none of the people involved thought to consult the author on how to pronounce some of the words. It's like they don't care about the product at all. Not only Dotrice does this but at one point he pronounce the same name 3 different ways in the same book!

Another Dotrice-specific-annoyance it's the way he emphasises his "Ps". It was so horrible that I started t dread words beginning with the letter "P" because it annoyed me to no end how he would say them. Needless to say it was the first time I'll never get audiobooks again. It was the first time I used them because I figured they would help me devour the books but instead they ruined the experience for me.

[BitsOfBrains]

Also Roy Dotrice was killing Nazis at age 16.

With a machine gun.

From a freaking airplane.

That then crashed.

He is the real life blackfish.

[Petite Psycophant]

Also Roy Dotrice was killing Nazis at age 16.

With a machine gun.

From a freaking airplane.

That then crashed.

He is the real life blackfish.

Not sure what that has to do with his skills as a voice-actor/reader etc. We're not attacking his person he's criticizing his work. Know the difference. He may be all that and a terrible cook. In which case we'd be criticizing his cooking not his person.

[Lord Grumkin]

Roy Dotrice is quite terrible.

How dare you! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JU53dfWE8w

[Ruby Chevrolet]

Overall, Dotrice was pretty good. I could have done without his depiction of Shae in some of the explicit scenes with Tyrion. The moaning was a bit much.

[Lady of Long Lake]

I tried listening to Roy but couldn't do it. I found his voice too jarring for my ears? I loved John Lee's version of AFFC because his voice was so easy to listen to. Maybe I have super sensitive ears!