RotE Audio Books

[Farseer]

Actually I found it quite difficult even listening to Robin do readings, as she reads with her American accent.

As for the audio books, yes, I did have to push through the LST accent, and wondered if I'd be able to manage a whole thirteen or so hours of it and then the other two books on top of that BUT, as ever, the story sucked me in and I found I could overcome not only the accent but the voices for each character (Kennit's very nearly did my head in, I must admit, but a person has only so many 'voices' in their repertoire unless they are gifted with a *Farseer/Tawny Man spoiler*

Spoiler

Rooster Crown)

EDIT: Sorry...I initially put quote tags, not spoiler tags! Hopeless, I tell you! END EDIT

and the pronunciation of some of the names eg Chalced and Chalcedians grates like serrated knives against my knuckles. The story pales these other little things into the 'it matters not' category.

I have to be doing something to listen to these though eg driving otherwise I'd go mental sitting and listening for so long. I can't even sit down for a cup of tea...if I make it, it gets carted around with me and, sometimes, I even get to drink it while it's hot.

I do believe that audio books hold an important place though, as KekPafrany has pointed out with her use of them. How wonderful to be able to immerse yourself in another's language, in both text and audio format, while learning it? It is also a fantastic tool for learning our own language and encouraging a love of reading in young ones.

[fool-ish]

Yes, I think I could only listen to them while driving (if and when I ever get another car, that is!) I have to have music on when I'm 'doing' at home, makes it all less tedious. I can't jig about to an audio book, either!

Anyhoo, I quite agree that they're an excellent tool for learning and an absolute godsend for those who can't physically read, of course. I will try one, one of these days and I may find that I can get past the voice/accent and just enjoy it for what it is.

[londonlassie]

Actually I found it quite difficult even listening to Robin do readings, as she reads with her American accent.

Unusually, I always read the LST characters as English, and the Six Duchies characters as Scottish (when I read Clef's lines aloud with his dialect, I sounded Scottish and it stuck). Normally I give absolutely everyone in books an American accent (despite being British myself), but in these books, despite being by an American writer, it just couldn't fit. The Bingtown Traders for me were very traditional English. The Pirate Isles citizens were all Cockneys, except Kennit who had a posh accent which went Londony when he talked about his childhood because I'm pretty sure Igrot and his etiquette lessons weren't around when Kennit was learning to talk, and Sorcor who has always been and will always be Irish, in my head.

(Kennit's very nearly did my head in, I must admit, but a person has only so many 'voices' in their repertoire unless they are gifted with a *Farseer/Tawny Man spoiler*

I imagine Serilla doing this for me. The woman has the most annoying voice in the world in my head. Maybe it's more the way she speaks and the words she uses, but I imagine her as being irritating no matter what accent she's got. The sort of person I just want to smack.

I do believe that audio books hold an important place though, as KekPafrany has pointed out with her use of them. How wonderful to be able to immerse yourself in another's language, in both text and audio format, while learning it? It is also a fantastic tool for learning our own language and encouraging a love of reading in young ones.

I should do this with the Spanish LST's, if there are any. Does anyone know which languages LST was translated into?

['thul]

these beings usually do not assign any regionalities to the characters. No single region is exact for a character, though many traits tend to favor certain regions...

[londonlassie]

No single region is exact for a character, though many traits tend to favor certain regions...

I never even considered this, it's an interesting concept.

['thul]

its really fairly simple... the specifics of a region, say the language, behavior and culture of the Scottish, is built on countless years of interaction both with each other and with externals. Unless the story is set on Tellus and does not twist many key traits, the characters in a world cannot have the same background for behavior. The traits that pop up most often are the ones that the authors are most familiar with. Or the ones that are easy to learn about.

The finer nuances would require significant study to learn of, like the difference between western highlands Scottish and eastern highlands Scottish (or something like that). To the inexperienced, it is all Scottish, but to the more learned, it is clearly not the same.

[londonlassie]

*bows to the wisdom of the 'thul beings*

Maybe I'll stick to just randomly assigning cultures and accents, it's easier

['thul]

whatever suits you.

[Farseer]

I'm not sure if I've posted this previously or not but there are some English audio samples of Robin's books in the link below. As far as I am aware, there are still no audio versions of the Tawny Man series as yet, but there are some of the RWC books (though the RWC books aren't included in the link samples): https://soundcloud.com/harperaudio/sets/robin-hobb/

I also don't think that any Hobb audio books have been made available in any other language yet (?) but will ask Robin to confirm.

In the end, I purchased all of the available books as audio books, though have not yet had a chance to listen to any other than Ship of Magic.

['thul]

These beings do not believe you have posted those samples before. But of course, they could be wrong.