Forums » Smalltalk » Audible recommendations

Hey, people!
I just started my Audible subscription and am completely clueless as to what book to pick after I'm finished listening to the one I got with the trial (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as a nod to my Potterhead days). There just seem to be so many to pick from. Do you have any recommendations? I'm most interested in crime, mystery or thriller stories, but satire has been something I've wanted to get into for a while now. Feel free to recommend books from any genre, though.

(And just to make this clear, this post is not an ad for Audible. I'm just too lazy to click through summaries.)

All the old Raymond Chandler books are a good read/listen...
Farewell My Lovely, The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, The Long Goodbye.

Also, if you're into high fantasy on a gritty level The Black Company series is worthy of consideration.

I am a huge audiobook fan! I listen to like 50+ a year.

Unfortunately I don't often listen to Mystery or Thriller but in this genre I recommend
The Spy who Came in From the Cold - John Le Carre
The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (Audible has multiple recordings. I listened to the one narrated by John Lee. You often see it in the bargain bin sales so don't pick it up for full price)

Books of other Genres
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Magic Realism)
The Broken Earth Series - NK Jemisin (Fantasy / Sci Fi)
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (Magic Realism) (This narrator gave me shivers down my spine)
American Gods - Neil Geiman (Modern Fantasy) (Ensemble cast reading. Very good performance)
Cloudstreet - Tim Winton (Magic Realism) (This narrator has A++ thick Australian accent.)
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch (Fantasy)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon (Contemporary Literature)
The Martian - Andy Weir (Sci-Fi) (Very funny narrator)

If you want you can take a look at my Audiobook Tag on Goodreads and I can give you an opinion on the story / reader
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1823217-claine?shelf=audiobook

If you want both Mystery, Crime and a bit of Fantasy I can definitely recommend the Dresden Files. The narrator who does these also improves considerably as the series goes on to the point where it becomes almost like a radioplay at certain points.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series is great fun and has the lovely Stephen Fry and Martin Freeman as narrators. Perfect if you enjoy comedy in space.

If you've enjoyed Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman before then Good Omens is a perfect blend of their strengths IMO, and the radio dramatization is on audible with some first rate voices such as Peter Serafinowicz (from The Tick amazon video series which I will sneakily recommend too).

The Diviners by Libba Bray

If you like stories set in the 1920s New York, you will enjoy this. There is a fine mix of horror, mystery and historic tidbits brought to life by an excellent narrator.

What took me completely by surprise with my own audible subscription was just how enjoyable all the Game of Thrones books are on audio book format. I never could get through them just by reading alone but I did with audible. The person they have reading them is incredibly good at what they do- he just sucks you into the world and holds you transfixed.

The new Star Wars movie novels are actually quite good. Can’t recommend the Force Awakens novelization enough.

Anything by Obert Skye but specifically the Pillage trilogy

And I loved The Dark Thorn by Shawn Speakman, which is a modern take on Arthurian mythology in Seattle but still very gripping.

Anything by Neil Gaiman- American Gods is incredible.

If you haven’t read them, the Tony Hillerman novels regarding Jim Chee- the entire series is gripping stuff. I grew up on the Navajo reservation, Hillerman does it and the Navajo tribe a lot of well deserved justice. And at least one of the novels as I remember it, deals entirely with a skinwalker and scared the crap out of me in the best way.

Libba Bray is so good at historical fiction and blending the history seamlessly into her own story. I read A Great and Terrible Beauty as my first foray into young adult fantasy novels and I was not disappointed. Terrific author!