so how many are getting the audiobooks only now that they’ve cranked up the audio? Are you using a download service like audible or old school CD’s?
The last audiobook I got was the 2009 movie one and it was on CD. Personally I prefer CD as I can play it in high quality audio, or if I really need to, I can create my own MP3 to take on the go.
I bought a bunch on audible but with decent audio headphones I can hear digital artifacting I’m pretty Sensitive to it with voice, so I’m thinking of getting the cd’s
I’ve discovered Hoopla has a lot of the older S&S audiobooks I’ve downloaded Lost years narrated by Nimoy and Doohan, these are abridged but there’s something cool about listening with the original actors and limited effects. The new narrator Robert Petkoff does a fine job on the newer books thou. I wish Trek would get some Big Finnish type productions that would be cool
I have all the abridged audios, and love them - plus the full-length "Sarek", "Star Trek (2009)" and "Into Darkness". As much as people tend to sneer at abridged audios, I loved the bonus of hearing narration by Trek celebrities, and several of the earlier titles I have heard multiple times. Unabridged audios take more commitment. If I did more long train or car journeys these days, maybe I could get through them, but sitting stationary at the computer for long periods to listen to them doesn't work. I tend not to like headphones (although they make the three "Captain Sulu" 3D-audio effect work extraordinarily well). I downloaded the first "Legacies" audio, but the downloads seemingly weren't available at the same time as ordering the second and third books. I do want to hear all the new ones eventually and recently looked into getting the hardcopy disk sets - they are so expensive to import to Australia! So although I used to be a very keen Trek audio fan, I have now fallen way behind. I do need to update my page to include the newer unabridged audios... http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-hear-star-trek.html
Sorry, I mixed up two trains of thought. "Captain's Glory" by William Shatner (with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, read by Shatner, 2006, 180 min.) was an abridged audio, the ninth Shatnerverse novel, but because the book was somewhat delayed, it only came out on CD, not audiocassette (like all my other Simon & Schuster Audioworks, so it sits with my unabridged CDs). There are also some other (by comparison, very expensive) unabridged titles, but not from Simon & Schuster Audioworks: * "The Physics of Star Trek" by Lawrence M. Krauss, read by Larry McKeever, Books on Tape, 1996, approx 390 min. (Non-fiction hardcover.) * A longer version of "Sarek" by AC Crispin, read by Nick Sullivan, Chivers Sound Library/BBC Audiobooks America, 2001 (Re-released: Audible Frontiers download, 2012), approx. 879 min. (Hardcover.) * "Star Trek Nemesis" by J.M. Dillard, read by Grover Gardner, Chivers Sound Library/BBC Audiobooks America, 2002, 347 min. (Hardcover novelization.) * "Vulcan's Soul, Book 1: Exodus" by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, read by Richard Poe, Recorded Books, 2004, 510 min. (Hardcover.) * "Vulcan's Soul, Book 2: Exiles" by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, read by Richard Poe, Recorded Books, 2006, 630 min. (Hardcover.) * "Vulcan's Soul, Book 3: Epiphany" by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, read by Richard Poe, Recorded Books, 2007, 694 min. (Hardcover.)
That’s a great page I never realized there was that many older audiobook adaptions. I agree the unabridged books take a greater commitment, I’m still trying to get thru Face of the enemy
Apparently Chivers/BBC also did unabridged readings of "Vendetta" and "Q-Squared" in the early '90's. But I don't even have an ISBN for either of those.
I stayed away from ST audiobooks because of the tendency to abridge them. I'm glad that they are starting to make them again, and in unabridged format. I downloaded the audiobook for Face of the Enemy because it was inexpensive at the time I found it; but was disappointed it wasn't available on CD. I usually prefer listening to audiobooks of novels I've read and want to experience again easily; audiobooks are a way to re-experience a story without running my eyes over the text, I can just listen to it while driving or doing some other automatic repetitious task. I ordered The Captain's Oath in the hopes that I will like reading the book and want to have the audio available afterwards, and also to support the unabridged format. I'm hopeful that down the road they might do some of the old classics, like The Final Reflection, The Wounded Sky, and The Entropy Effect (though I know it's a bit of a long shot); I'll leap on unabridged audio versions of those.
Because of issues with my eyesight, I do buy some of the audiobooks when I feel like it. I do read on my ipad, but after awhle the screen hurts my eyes, and I do use the voiceover, but the voice gets very annoying and doesn't always pronounce things correctly even after I go in and put in the pronounciation. I get the audios from audible just because I can't find the cd's anywhere. So far I've listened to all of the Discovery novels, Headlong Flight, and both the Legaices and Prey trilogies. I'll be finishing a Tom Clancy book in the next week or two, and then I plan on listening to The Captain's Oath.
I got a few of the older abridged audiobooks narrated by the cast members, but I once they stopped using the cast members I kinda lost interest.
Still waiting on A Stitch in Time or the Kirk Autobiography read by their respective actors. God damn it.
Mmmmmm. I remember seeing the Chivers/BBC "Nemesis" advertised when first released, but it was so expensive! Years later, after finding the unabridged "Sarek" second hand, I went looking online again and found unabridged "Nemesis"... but it was the wrongly described abridged version that arrived, which I already owned. I think these unabridged versions may have been done in conjunction with the Royal Blind Society, but they were certainly not commercially viable. My Australian bookshop confirmed they could order in the new unabridged CD sets - but the retail price spooked the hell out of me. And I used to be such a completist... Sigh.
William Shatner did read some excerpts from the Kirk Autobiography at Comic-Con the year, I had thought maybe after that they'd get him to do an audiobook of the whole things, but they never have. Part of this video does have Shatner's reading.
I've spoken with cast members of various shows who've said they tried narration work but found it too demanding — just too many hours in the studio at a stretch. And now we're talking about unabridged novels and listener expectations that each character should have a different expressive voice. It's a craft all its own. Robert Petkoff has, I think, done an amazing job — over the course of the 40+ hours of the Prey trilogy he did something like 100 unique character voices, including multiple female Klingons. That's range!
No kidding. I've just finished listening to the Dresden Files on audio, and James Marsters is *incredible*. Makes me realize how hard it is to do this job; most narrators don't come close. Petkoff is very good.
My wife and I have an audible subscription. We've got the first three DIS books. Really enjoyed them.
In the old abridged days, James Doohan had the prior reputation for accents - but George Takei's efforts for Simon & Schuster Audioworks were astounding! His southern belle, Melody Sawyer ("Strangers from the Sky"), was so good.