Hey folks, I am curious how the community feels about the Penguin re-production of the Discworld audio books. I’d imagine people become attached to whatever they listen to first. I read Guards, Guards on my own, Men At Arms with Nigel Planer, and now am trying the new release of Feet of Clay.
The original versions are old favorites, despite the audio problems in some of them. I’ve listened to most of the Penguin versions. Some are outstanding, like Pyramids, read by Andy Serkis. Most of them are pretty good.
But a few are so terrible I can’t bear to listen to them. Like Hogfather, read by Sian Clifford. She read the wizard voices in a falsetto to scratch glass. And Katherine Parkinson absolutely laid waste to Monstrous Regiment with her appalling rendition of Jackrum. So clear she Just Didn’t Get It.
Parkinson can’t do accents or voices. She should have just read the book in her normal voice.
She should have read the book before recording it. It really felt like someone just handed her the first Discworld book she’d ever seen, and shoved her into the recording booth.