5 recordings
The Hall of Shame
A book worth your time, and a recording that is not its equal. Somebody has to say which half is which.
This is the hardest page on the site to write, because a recording is made by people whose names are on it. So nothing new is said here. Every recording below is already called the weak half of its own book, on that book’s own page, in these same words. This page only gathers them up and shows what put them there. If you want the opposite and far happier list, it is the Hall of Fame.
The book is the better half, and that is the whole claim
Every book on this page carries a Read it, and we mean it as a recommendation. The claim is a mismatch between a book and one recording of it, and it is not a claim about a narrator’s career, their other work, or your enjoyment of theirs. Plenty of people love these readings; we are telling you where the evidence we hold points, on the one question this site answers.
What it takes to end up here
Two independent things have to agree, and they are measured over different crowds so that neither can drag the other in.
First, our own arithmetic already calls it the weak half. That is the same judgement the verdict itself rests on (how far a reading beats the book it is reading, set against every other book on our shelf), and it is what tips those books to read it rather than listen to it. It only counts above the bar we publish for saying anything at all about a voice: 250 ratings of the reading, counted across both Audible shops (House Rules).
Second, an unusual share of the room actually bounces off it. That is a different measurement over a different denominator: the number of listeners who gave the performance one or two stars. The middle half of our shelf runs from 1.0% to 3.1%, and a recording only comes in here if it sits above that band. A judgement of ours agreeing with itself proves nothing; a judgement of ours agreeing with a room full of listeners is a fact worth publishing.
Then two conditions that keep the wrong recordings out. The book must hold up in print, at or above the middle of our shelf on Goodreads, because a weak reading of a weak book is not an injustice, and this hall is about the mismatch. And a won Audie of any kind keeps a recording out outright: where a jury of the industry’s own people heard a reading and gave it a prize, our shelf-relative arithmetic does not get to contradict them by name. Any category counts here, on purpose. Only a narration prize is a way into the Hall of Fame, because a prize is weak evidence for praise and conclusive evidence against blame. That veto is not hypothetical. It keeps one recording off this page today that clears every other test.
One last thing this page will never do: name a series. A place in either hall belongs to a single recording, and a verdict on a run of books is pooled across its volumes, so there is no one reading it could fairly be about.
The shelf is small today, and it is unusually strong
Five recordings out of 198 works is not a survey of the audiobook world. It is what our own library looks like, and our own library is a few hundred well-loved books with mostly excellent recordings. On a shelf like this, good books and good readings travel together, which is exactly why so few come through: our arithmetic calls 14 readings the weak half of their own book, and the two further conditions above let five of those onto this page. As the library widens we expect that to change, and the bar itself is due a fresh look when it does. We would rather revisit it in the open than quietly loosen it to fill a page.
Rebecca Yarros · read by Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton
The book is the better half · 58,692 ratings · Audible UK and US
- Enough listeners to say anything
- 58,69258,692 people have rated this reading, in every shop we count. Our published bar for saying anything at all about a voice is 250.
- What listeners make of the reading itself
- 4.55Audible’s performance score out of five, from the same listeners counted above. Plenty of people love this reading and that figure says so. It is not one of our tests and nothing on this page rests on it. What it cannot settle is the only question we asked: whether the reading keeps up with the book it is reading, which is the line below.
- The reading is the weak half, not the book
- −1.05Rebecca Soler and Teddy Hamilton’s reading sits in the bottom 8% of our shelf of books for how far a reading beats the book it is reading, and −1.98 against what the book’s own readers made of it (two different crowds, each measured against its own crowd’s middle before we compare them), on 58,692 ratings of the narration.
- More of the room bounces off it than usual
- 5.5%3,229 of 58,692 listeners gave the performance one or two stars, where the middle half of our shelf runs from 1.0% to 3.1%. It counts listeners, never the narrator.
- The book itself holds up in print
- 4.56Goodreads’ rating of the book, 1.68 above the middle of our own shelf. A weak reading of a weak book is not an injustice, so this is a condition of being here at all.
Our verdict on the book is Read it. This recording is why. A different reading would change our answer; until there is one, give the first encounter to the page.
Richelle Mead · read by Khristine Hvam
The book is the better half · 1,700 ratings · Audible UK and US
- Enough listeners to say anything
- 1,7001,700 people have rated this reading, in every shop we count. Our published bar for saying anything at all about a voice is 250.
- What listeners make of the reading itself
- 4.27Audible’s performance score out of five, from the same listeners counted above. Plenty of people love this reading and that figure says so. It is not one of our tests and nothing on this page rests on it. What it cannot settle is the only question we asked: whether the reading keeps up with the book it is reading, which is the line below.
- The reading is the weak half, not the book
- −3.16Khristine Hvam’s reading sits in the bottom 1% of our shelf of books for how far a reading beats the book it is reading, and −1.80 against what the book’s own readers made of it (two different crowds, each measured against its own crowd’s middle before we compare them), on 1,700 ratings of the narration.
- More of the room bounces off it than usual
- 8.4%142 of 1,700 listeners gave the performance one or two stars, where the middle half of our shelf runs from 1.0% to 3.1%. It counts listeners, never the narrator.
- The book itself holds up in print
- 4.25Goodreads’ rating of the book, 0.30 above the middle of our own shelf. A weak reading of a weak book is not an injustice, so this is a condition of being here at all.
Our verdict on the book is Read it. This recording is why. A different reading would change our answer; until there is one, give the first encounter to the page.
Raymond E. Feist · read by Peter Joyce
The book is the better half · 4,287 ratings · Audible UK and US
- Enough listeners to say anything
- 4,2874,287 people have rated this reading, in every shop we count. Our published bar for saying anything at all about a voice is 250.
- What listeners make of the reading itself
- 4.50Audible’s performance score out of five, from the same listeners counted above. Plenty of people love this reading and that figure says so. It is not one of our tests and nothing on this page rests on it. What it cannot settle is the only question we asked: whether the reading keeps up with the book it is reading, which is the line below.
- The reading is the weak half, not the book
- −1.43Peter Joyce’s reading sits in the bottom 4% of our shelf of books for how far a reading beats the book it is reading, and −1.16 against what the book’s own readers made of it (two different crowds, each measured against its own crowd’s middle before we compare them), on 4,287 ratings of the narration.
- More of the room bounces off it than usual
- 3.5%149 of 4,287 listeners gave the performance one or two stars, where the middle half of our shelf runs from 1.0% to 3.1%. It counts listeners, never the narrator.
- The book itself holds up in print
- 4.32Goodreads’ rating of the book, 0.61 above the middle of our own shelf. A weak reading of a weak book is not an injustice, so this is a condition of being here at all.
Our verdict on the book is Read it. This recording is why. A different reading would change our answer; until there is one, give the first encounter to the page.
C.S. Lewis · read by Michael York
The book is the better half · 1,172 ratings · Audible UK and US
- Enough listeners to say anything
- 1,1721,172 people have rated this reading, in every shop we count. Our published bar for saying anything at all about a voice is 250.
- What listeners make of the reading itself
- 4.48Audible’s performance score out of five, from the same listeners counted above. Plenty of people love this reading and that figure says so. It is not one of our tests and nothing on this page rests on it. What it cannot settle is the only question we asked: whether the reading keeps up with the book it is reading, which is the line below.
- The reading is the weak half, not the book
- −1.53Michael York’s reading sits in the bottom 3% of our shelf of books for how far a reading beats the book it is reading, and −0.89 against what the book’s own readers made of it (two different crowds, each measured against its own crowd’s middle before we compare them), on 1,172 ratings of the narration.
- More of the room bounces off it than usual
- 4.8%56 of 1,174 listeners gave the performance one or two stars, where the middle half of our shelf runs from 1.0% to 3.1%. It counts listeners, never the narrator.
- The book itself holds up in print
- 4.24Goodreads’ rating of the book, 0.26 above the middle of our own shelf. A weak reading of a weak book is not an injustice, so this is a condition of being here at all.
Our verdict on the book is Read it. This recording is why. A different reading would change our answer; until there is one, give the first encounter to the page.
Ursula K. Le Guin · read by Samuel Roukin
The book is the better half · 991 ratings · Audible UK and US
- Enough listeners to say anything
- 991991 people have rated this reading, in every shop we count. Our published bar for saying anything at all about a voice is 250.
- What listeners make of the reading itself
- 4.38Audible’s performance score out of five, from the same listeners counted above. Plenty of people love this reading and that figure says so. It is not one of our tests and nothing on this page rests on it. What it cannot settle is the only question we asked: whether the reading keeps up with the book it is reading, which is the line below.
- The reading is the weak half, not the book
- −1.96Samuel Roukin’s reading sits in the bottom 2% of our shelf of books for how far a reading beats the book it is reading, and −1.17 against what the book’s own readers made of it (two different crowds, each measured against its own crowd’s middle before we compare them), on 991 ratings of the narration.
- More of the room bounces off it than usual
- 5.3%53 of 991 listeners gave the performance one or two stars, where the middle half of our shelf runs from 1.0% to 3.1%. It counts listeners, never the narrator.
- The book itself holds up in print
- 4.21Goodreads’ rating of the book, 0.13 above the middle of our own shelf. A weak reading of a weak book is not an injustice, so this is a condition of being here at all.
Our verdict on the book is Read it. This recording is why. A different reading would change our answer; until there is one, give the first encounter to the page.