Jamz3k

Anyone listened to any good yins?

Generally love a good Sci-Fi novel but will try anything!

Markus

How about some of the Discworld novels? I recently listened to the BBC Radio version of Nightwatch (was re-reading the book at the time) and it wasn't at all bad.

I am listening to Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, comprising of Northern Lights (known in the US as "The Golden Compass"), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. One could say it's for teens, but the author also intended for it to be read by adults.

If you're into Sci-Fi then see if there are audio book versions of Iain M Banks novels. If you this then see if his non Sci-Fi (Iain Banks, ie; without the M) books have audio versions.

It would be worth having a look here to see what is available on CD (bit old fashioned I know ) or have a look at Audible which will have mp3 versions.

One major thing of note to check for is to find out if the audio version is abridged. Ideally you don't want an abridged version. For example, Iain M Banks' latest novel, Matter, is available on Audible in both abridged and unabridged versions. The unabridged is a little more expensive, but it will be worth it.

Jamz3k

being an uneducated FOOL do u mind telling me the difference between abridged and unabridged?

Markus

"I Pity da foo!" Sorry, bit of a Mr T moment there

Abridged basically means the work has been condensed, so it won't be a word for word recreation of the original. Essentially a book read aloud could take 40 hours to listen to, which is rather a long time, thus an abridged version is created, which removes certain elements and can cut the time down to say 10 hours, or less. Most of the stuff that is trimmed isn't critical to the plot.

Unabridged typically means that it's not so cut down. I think it may even be a word for word recreation (or close enough to it) of the original book.

Again taking the example of Matter by Iain M Banks. The abridged version is 5hrs and 32 min long, the unabridged is 17hrs and 56 min in length. Quite a difference! If I were to listen to the abridged version, having read the book a couple of times, I would no doubt be able to realize what has been trimmed.

Jamz3k

Sweet! Thank you kind sir for that explanation!

Will try this Iain M Banks fellow as i have so long journeys to make in the next few weeks and i can't hack Radio especially first thing in the morning

Love Alistair Reynolds Space opera's but unfortunately i used to have loads of time on trains/buses to read them!

Markus

Also check out the free stuff here. It's full of BBC Radio adaptations of things. It's where I got "His Dark Materials" from.

bigsinky

try stephen king's dark tower series. superb

Jamz3k

Just downloaded the original War Of The Worlds, Sad as **** as i can't wait to go for a long journey now!

Thanks guys for the input!

Dedrater

Stephen Hawking - A Briefer History of Time, not to be confused with A Brief History of Time is also very good, it is a updated and easier to understand version of the original, with alot of mad concepts like the four dimensions (3 space, 1 time) absolute time etc put into layman's terms.

unclebuck

I've got War of the Worlds - very good.

My favs are Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods and A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Currently listening to - The Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku.

There are loads more I could recommend.

Dedrater

That book is brilliant, did you ever see Visions of the Future?

BBC - BBC Four Documentaries - Visions of the Future

If not then its well worth tracking down

unclebuck

Yes - seen those, did you see his series on 'time'?

A couple of others worth listening to:

Dava Sobel - The Planets
Neil Degrasse Tyson - Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries

The Adventure of English - by (believe it or not...) Melvyn Bragg