The Sounds Good audiobook blog series is back! Sounds Good is a monthly series from Emily about all things audiobooks.
I was on a break for several months while we were getting our new website ready. If you want to go back and view my older posts, you'll find them (and all the other posts from 2023-2024) on our previous page. Here's my very first post.
I started rereading Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings (ROTE) series in 2023 (see previous posts for extra gushing--it's my favorite fantasy series). I finished the last trilogy, The Fitz and the Fool, this month. It didn't take me 3 1/2 years to listen to 16 audiobooks, although to be fair, most of them are quite long. I was also listening to the wonderful Buckkeep Radio podcast as they read/reread the entire series (they also took about 3 years and did 112 podcasts, not including the current run of graphic novel adaptations, which they're still podcasting). I highly recommend this podcast if you're reading the series. It really adds to the experience. I also took breaks for other books (see below).
The readers changed a few times over the course of 16 books, but I liked most of them until I got to the last trilogy. Elliot Hill did a nice job in his portrayal of Fitz and Bee, the two POV characters, but I super disliked how he portrayed the Fool. It seemed like he really wanted to showcase all the accents he could do, as evidenced not only by his portrayal of the Fool, but also because he changed accents every time he read a chapter introduction. I did not love it. The last book, Assassin's Fate, is so exciting, I stopped listening at about the halfway point and blew through the ebook, and the bonus was I didn't have to be frustrated with the audio.
See below for books I listened to in between or on top of the ROTE books. Goodreads reviews are linked in the titles.
Red Rising
Pierce Brown's Red Rising saga--I listened to the 6 books that are out, all 4-5-star reads for me. I'm linking my review of the first book here. You can find all of these on Libby.
The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories--the readers change often, with mixed results, and I stopped at the 7th book, which I loudly and violently broke up with. You can find most of these on Libby.
Cards on the Table
Agatha Christie's Cards on the Table, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and Halowe'en Party--all well-performed and found on Libby.
Whose Body
Dorothy Sayers' Whose Body--great performance and found on Libby.
Unleashed
I listened to a couple of David Rosenfelt books--the Andy Carpenter ones are consistently great on audio, but I didn't like the first in his K-Team series, so I probably won't continue with that one. It had a different reader and a different POV, and it just wasn't as entertaining. Both series are on Libby. Unleashed is book 11.
Gardens of the Moon
Steven Erickson's Gardens of the Moon--it's been on my list forever. I found the plot rather complicated to follow on audio, but the performance was good. Audio not on Libby.