I caved at the price it was. I really enjoyed his Hobbit though I could never gel with his Rings reading. But I've decided to give him a chance with this. He'll at least get the pronunciations correct 😁

Has anyone already heard the audiobook? What are your impressions?

Morinehtar wrote:

Has anyone already heard the audiobook? What are your impressions?

I'll start by saying I loved his Hobbit, but dislike his Rings. Namely because of the character voices.

I'm trying so hard to like his Silmarillion but being entirely truthful I believe he was the wrong choice of narrator. His reading is fine, and those who really like his voice will I'm sure have fun with it, but for me he's too, well, him. That is not intended to be a criticism, he's a wonderful speaker, but when I hear Silmarillion I don't want to feel like I'm slipping into a warm bath with a glass of red wine in hand. He soothes one into a relaxed state which for this book feels wrong to me. Others will and should feel very different and what is putting me off will be what they enjoy. For me, it should have been a West reading this but then it might have been too close to Shaw.

So oddly even though its not hooked me as I hoped, it is a worthy reading if only because it offers a very different reading to Shaw.

I hope that comes across as diplomatic as I don't want to put anyone off purchasing it. I am still very glad that I bought it even though I might only listen through it once or twice.

I agree with onthetrail, about Andy Serkis Lord of the Rings reading which I found to be spoilt by his impersonations of the actors in the Peter Jackson films.

However, The Hobbit is great and The Silmarillion is brilliant.

I originally thought that Samuel West would have been a better choice, but was wrong. I'm struggling to find any criticism at all about this performance. Highly recommended.

Finished the quenta silmarillion on audible last night and I highly recommend it. I thought Serkis read it very well without (almost) the annoying stumbles in timing that marred his LotR reading. This time it sounds like he knows the text very well indeed. My one complaint is that his pacing is a bit monotonous, I would have preferred that he varied a bit more for example during sequences like the flight of the noldor.

Thank you for sharing I have already ordered mine.

I liked his narration of both The Hobbit (excellent!) and The Lord of the Rings (with the exception of the singing and a couple of characters), and was initially excited for this when it was announced. However, I became somewhat concerned about whether he would be suited to read The Silmarillion. Though from what I'm reading, it seems I will enjoy it very much!

Guardian review

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023 ... y-serkis?CMP=share_btn_tw

Another preview of the Audiobook.

I just finished chapter 8, and I really like his narration of the book. I think he does an excellent job of making it all sound epic.

My only gripe is that in the first 20 minutes of the book, he pronounces Illuvatar 3 different ways. And clear into chapter 8 he is regularly flipping between Mand-oss and mand-ose. I really wish he’d done his homework on pronunciation cuz it’s kind of everywhere with multiple names/words