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1,875 Views | 36 Replies | Last: 8 mo ago by 07ag
easttexasaggie04
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AG
I've got a super long drive next week and hoping to find an audiobook that'll help the time pass. I'm a nerd and sci-fi usually keeps my attention or very interesting history books. I enjoyed audiobooks like Ready Player 1, Jurassic Park, Time Machine, and Into Thin Air. Any recommendations?
Claude!
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May be a little drier than what you're used to, but I enjoyed my audiobooks of both the Foundation series and Rendezvous with Rama. I recall the Ringworld audiobook also being pretty good, but it's been a decade or more since I've read it.
StinkyPinky
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Consider Red Rising.
Dekker_Lentz
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Dungeon Crawler Carl

Project Hail Mary

Bobiverse

Murderbot Diaries

All come to mind. I also like the books by Scalzi.
Canyon Lake Agbu94
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The Eruption this is a completion of a Crichton idea I believe.

I also like "The Terminal List" series
BenFiasco14
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Starship Troopers is 8 hours on audio
CNN is an enemy of the state and should be treated as such.
K Bo
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The Martian
Anything narrated by Ray Porter
MW03
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easttexasaggie04 said:

I've got a super long drive next week and hoping to find an audiobook that'll help the time pass. I'm a nerd and sci-fi usually keeps my attention or very interesting history books. I enjoyed audiobooks like Ready Player 1, Jurassic Park, Time Machine, and Into Thin Air. Any recommendations?
I'm going to try and give you some comps based solely on how much I enjoyed the audio book

Ready Player One.
I loved this audiobook and it got me into the concept of Lit-RPG, so my recommendations will come from that genre.
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl - Very funny, irreverent, lots of action. It's like you took The Running Man and Death Race, and made them funnier and added aliens.
  • The Mayor of Noobtown - same general Lit-RPG conceit. Funny, but not as gruesome (or as good) as Dungeon Crawler Carl. Still enjoyable.
  • Starter Villain - Not RPG, but it is Will Wheaton back as your narrator. Here's the tagline: "Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think... particularly when you discover who's running the place." Very funny, very entertaining.

The Time Machine & Jurassic Park.
You've got science, drama, a measure of horror.
  • 14 - Peter Clines' first book of the "Threshold Universe." Meet Nate and his weird apartment building and the secrets hidden in plain sight. Part X-Files. Part HP Lovecraft. Ray Porter is excellent on the mic.
  • The Outsider - Stephen King doing Stephen King things. A kid is murdered, and they have pinned it on the Little League coach with convincing hard evidence. But he has a rock solid alibi. What? Will Patton is awesome as your narrator.
  • Timeline - If you like Michael Crichton and time travel, why not a Michael Crichton book about time travel? Take the Assassin's Creed video games and mixt it with Excalibur.

Into Thin Air.
Maybe my favorite adventure novel of all time. Real people surviving in real danger. I don't have a great audiobook comp here, so I'm going to go fictionalized and recommend One Second After. Life in America after an EMP attack. It's fictionalized, and I hope it's not accurate but fear it is.

Very Interesting History.
If you like fictionalized history (i.e., storytelling set against the back drop of real historical events), there's a ton of excellent options.
  • The Pillars of the Earth - Am I really recommending Ken Follet's 40-hour audiobook about the building of a gothic cathedral in 12th centry England? Yes, yes I am. Probably in my top 10 books of all time.
  • The Company - Robert Littell's opus clocks in over 40 hours as well and blends real people and fake characters together to tell the history of the CIA, starting with then of WW2 and following them through the end of the Cold War. Excellent espionage book.
  • Fall of Giants - Back to Ken Follett here for another beast, though only 30 hours. This is the first book of the Century Trilogy. You meet five people from five very different families and watch as they become entangled in geopolitics leading up to the rise of communism and through WW1. Brilliant book.
  • The Power of the Dog Series - Don Wilsons' "Power of the Dog" series is three books (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border) that are fictionalized accounts tracking the real history of the drug trade and the DEA. Each book is like 20+ hours.
  • Devil in the White City - I hesitate to recommend this, only because I assume at this point everyone in the world has read it or listened to it. If you haven't this is your pick. Follow America's "first" serial killer, HH Holmes as he tricks people visiting his "Murder Castle" in Chicago while Daniel Burnham tries to get the city ready for the world's fair. Absolutely incredible, and Scott Brick is a master narrator.
  • In Cold Blood - Truman Capote's masterwork about the true story and lives involved in the 1959 Clutter murders. Scott Brick again to read you this American classic.
07ag
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in addition to ones already posted, check out Expeditionary Force series (scifi, alien invasion, ai fun) by Craig Alanson, Columbus Day is the first book. first 3 books are available on spotify/libby/overdrive and other services, the rest are audible exclusives


the expanse is another great scifi series


for real history, check out Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
https://ts.la/eric59704
aggiegrad01
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Dan Brown's: Deception Point

Little over 17 hours long. Action/thriller/Political intrigue; about NASA finding a rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice.
Apache
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Endurance, about Shackelton's failed expedition to the South Pole is riveting.
Great narration & the story is beyond belief.
Victory Dance
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StinkyPinky said:

Consider Red Rising.
Would recommend, i'm on book 5
Rocag
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The Dresden Files series is read by James Marsters (Spike from Buffy but without the fake accent) and he does an excellent job. That's my go-to audiobook series.
AgHawkeye
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Sci-fi - depend what you are looking.
-agree on Red Rising
-children of time is one you won't hear about as much but is a great sci-fi listen
- you may have already read or seen the Martian but an amazing listen. If so and you haven't done Project Hail Mary then that is great.
- if you just want fun sci-fi to past the time then The Bobiverse is the answer.
- if you to laugh out loud the whole ride then Dungeon Crawler Carl is it and maybe the best narration around
- if you want hard science fiction with a focus on the science and making you think then Three Body Problem is good.
- more literature Station Eleven is good.

I could go on if you have questions.
Hogties
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Apache said:

Endurance, about Shackelton's failed expedition to the South Pole is riveting.
Great narration & the story is beyond belief.


Can't recommend this one highly enough. It is an incredible book, story and narration is off the charts. My all time favorite audiobook. 10 hours.

Similar to Into Thin Air in terms of survival. May be the greatest survival story of all time. Alfred Lansing as the narrator is awesome.
Madmarttigan
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StinkyPinky said:

Consider Red Rising.


I have both read and listened to a large portion of the audiobooks on this and the audiobook is *********amazing in parts, also because the books are awesome. (4 and 5 probably my least favorite though) 6 was a return to form for me.
zip90
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easttexasaggie04 said:

I've got a super long drive next week and hoping to find an audiobook that'll help the time pass. I'm a nerd and sci-fi usually keeps my attention or very interesting history books. I enjoyed audiobooks like Ready Player 1, Jurassic Park, Time Machine, and Into Thin Air. Any recommendations?
As listed above, The Martian
If you have read it then
Project Hail Mary
By the same author.

I also agree with The Bobiverse series and cannot recommend Dungeon Crawler Carl loud enough.

Definitely Not A Cop
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DCC is the best. Great story, best audiobook production I've ever listened to.

Deadpool level humor, just a warning if you have kids.
AustinAg2K
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I love The Expanse series. The audiobooks are great.
W.C. Griffin '09
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Churchill's Secret Warriors
VP at Pierce and Pierce
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Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthey
StoutAg
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I started Dungeon Crawler Carl after reading about it on this board. It's awesome. Probably one of the best I've listened to. (I have 690 titles in my audible library over the last 11 years). Ready Player One was awesome, too. Will Wheaton is a good narrator.

I like the Mitch Rapp, Gray man, and Orphan X series (plus some others in that genre)

If you want an autobiography, "It's so easy" by Duff McKagan was pretty good.

I started looking for books based on narrators since I feel like a bad narrator can ruin a good book and vice versa. Jay Snyder, Ray Porter, Scott Brick, and Bronson Pinchot (yeah, Balki is a good narrator IMO) are all really good. The guy from Dungeon Crawler Carl, Jeff Hays is spectacular too. Some of the titles with multiple readers of characters are a lot of fun for me - which is funny because that's probably how radio was back in the 1920-30's.
OKCAG02
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There are a lot of good ones, but none better than Project Hail Mary.
JoCoAg09
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StoutAg said:

I started Dungeon Crawler Carl after reading about it on this board. It's awesome. Probably one of the best I've listened to. (I have 690 titles in my audible library over the last 11 years). Ready Player One was awesome, too. Will Wheaton is a good narrator.

I like the Mitch Rapp, Gray man, and Orphan X series (plus some others in that genre)

If you want an autobiography, "It's so easy" by Duff McKagan was pretty good.

I started looking for books based on narrators since I feel like a bad narrator can ruin a good book and vice versa. Jay Snyder, Ray Porter, Scott Brick, and Bronson Pinchot (yeah, Balki is a good narrator IMO) are all really good. The guy from Dungeon Crawler Carl, Jeff Hays is spectacular too. Some of the titles with multiple readers of characters are a lot of fun for me - which is funny because that's probably how radio was back in the 1920-30's.
That's the truth. I started one a while back but had to bail quickly because the 70 yr old monotone British voice just wasn't going to cut it.
MW03
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Pinchot's read of Matterhorn (about the Vietnam War) was great.
Rule Number 32
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Dungeon crawler carl is the right answer.

I have listened to a TON of fantasy and sci fi over the last few years and DCC is easily the best production I've heard. The narrator is awesome. And it's hilarious. Highly recommend!
ElephantRider
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Cat's Cradle
Lathspell
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Rocag said:

The Dresden Files series is read by James Marsters (Spike from Buffy but without the fake accent) and he does an excellent job. That's my go-to audiobook series.
Granted, he doesn't really hit his stride as a narrator until about Book 3. After that, I always say audiobook is the best way to enjoy the series because of how great Marsters is. His reading of Changes... wow.
StoutAg
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I'm going to have to add that to my list
Rule Number 32
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Lathspell said:

Rocag said:

The Dresden Files series is read by James Marsters (Spike from Buffy but without the fake accent) and he does an excellent job. That's my go-to audiobook series.
Granted, he doesn't really hit his stride as a narrator until about Book 3. After that, I always say audiobook is the best way to enjoy the series because of how great Marsters is. His reading of Changes... wow.


I love that series. It's fantastic
SoTxAg
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MR Carey's "Infinity Gate" and James SA Corey's (the guys who did Expanse) "The Mercy of Gods" are two sci fi novels i've recently listened to and enjoyed.
MW03
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Marsters reading Dresden is up there in my narration rankings alongside Jim Dale doing Potter, Frank Mueller doing The Dark Tower books, and yeah, Jeff Hayes doing DCC.
07ag
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JoCoAg09 said:

StoutAg said:

I started Dungeon Crawler Carl after reading about it on this board. It's awesome. Probably one of the best I've listened to. (I have 690 titles in my audible library over the last 11 years). Ready Player One was awesome, too. Will Wheaton is a good narrator.

I like the Mitch Rapp, Gray man, and Orphan X series (plus some others in that genre)

If you want an autobiography, "It's so easy" by Duff McKagan was pretty good.

I started looking for books based on narrators since I feel like a bad narrator can ruin a good book and vice versa. Jay Snyder, Ray Porter, Scott Brick, and Bronson Pinchot (yeah, Balki is a good narrator IMO) are all really good. The guy from Dungeon Crawler Carl, Jeff Hays is spectacular too. Some of the titles with multiple readers of characters are a lot of fun for me - which is funny because that's probably how radio was back in the 1920-30's.
That's the truth. I started one a while back but had to bail quickly because the 70 yr old monotone British voice just wasn't going to cut it.


Was it Hamilton' Commonwealth Saga? Decent story but I hated the narration
https://ts.la/eric59704
TrustTheAwesomeness
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07ag said:

check out Expeditionary Force series (scifi, alien invasion, ai fun) by Craig Alanson, Columbus Day is the first book. first 3 books are available on spotify/libby/overdrive and other services, the rest are audible exclusives


Highly recommend.
zip90
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TrustTheAwesomeness said:

07ag said:

check out Expeditionary Force series (scifi, alien invasion, ai fun) by Craig Alanson, Columbus Day is the first book. first 3 books are available on spotify/libby/overdrive and other services, the rest are audible exclusives


Highly recommend.

Also recommend.

trust the awesomeness.
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