Looking for a page turner with a good audiobook!
I like sci fi and fantasy and historical fiction and speculative fiction and basically anything that doesn’t take place in the here and now!
My few criteria:
– should be fairly straightforward in terms of character introductions and exposition so that if I happen to miss a word or a character name somewhere I’m not doomed to not understand what’s going on the whole rest of the drive.
– isn’t weird about women/POC/lgbtq
– engaging and fairly easy to follow
I think the last audiobook I listened to that really made me really excited and desperate to keep listening was **Project Hail Mary**. Otherwise my usual go-to book genres are so full of exposition and worldbuilding that they end up being really hard to follow on audio when I’m concentrated on not dying while driving in the Canadian winter.
Would love some suggestions!
by IReadBooksSometimes
20 Comments
I bet you’ve probably already listened to this one. But World War Z’s audiobook is one of the best I have ever listened to and on a road trip, its mesmerizing.
Is you liked hail mary check out: We are Legion, We are Bob.
World War Z is supposed to be the best audiobook there is. I can only speak to the book itself as audiobooks make me fall asleep, lol. The book is fascinating, easy to follow, has various POV characters so you don’t need to learn their names, just get a sense of how they experienced the apocalypse, and because the POV characters shift, it’s easy to put it down for a bit and come back without losing the plot.
If you’re open to middle grade, I highly recommend Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend! The audiobook is great, and it’s just really great overall!
legends & lattes is the most adorable audiobook. it’s cute and sweet and easy to follow. I also recently listened to the wizard’s guide to defensive baking, and it was similarly peaceful and upbeat.
Do you know Terry Pratchett? Discworld books are great – funny and engaging and great to listen to. Starter books – Men at Arms or Wyrd Sisters or Mort; I’m a big fan
I really enjoyed the Iron Druid series and the Seven Kennings Series by Kevin Hearne. The Seven Kennings is my favorite of the two, but it does jump character to character a lot. They have a male and female narrator, and they are good at distinguishing voices, so the audio book was easier for me. Iron Druid has a single narrator and stays more single character focused for the majority of the series. Both awesome tho
When The Angels Left the Old Country, Sacha Lamb
Literally one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever heard. Easy to follow, easy to pick up and put down if needed (I listened to it at work), and while it’s historically set (early 1900s, following a Jewish Angel and demon) not weird at all about women or LGBT people—quite the opposite!
The Murderbot audiobooks are great if you haven’t listened to them already.
So This Is Ever-After by FT Lukens is a lot of fun on audio and not too serious so even if you get distracted you won’t have any trouble following it.
My latest audiobook listen is Dark Rise by CS Pacat, but it’s a bit more exposition-heavy than the others. It does repeat things a few times, though, so even if you miss something the first time around it’ll get brought up again by the time it’s important.
Dungeon Crawler Carl! You’ll be absolutely gripped and the narration is one of the best.
My wife and I absolutely loved listening to Coz. It’s an audible original so you won’t have to use your credit but worth a listen.
I haven’t listened to the audio book but fairytale by Stephen King is long! I really liked the book!
I loved the audiobook of Ready Player One. It’s narrated by Will Wheaton, who did such a good job that when it was over I searched for other books read by him.
The 10th anniversary edition of American Gods with the full cast is amazing. One of my best listening experiences ever.
If you want something light and significantly shorter, I really enjoyed Wil Wheaton reading Ready Player One.
Doppelgänger by Naomi Klein is absolutely fascinating.
Children of Time is great. There is some worldbuilding but you can for sure not pay 100% attention.
7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was my last long drive book. It is a book where you don’t get a lot of info up front and sort of learn with the main character in a unique way so you have to pay attention, but it you miss some dialogue it won’t ruin anything.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I couldn’t stop listening to this one. Very engaging and will keep you focused.
The Terror by Dan Simmons the performance is amazing, it’s 40 hours long, it will make the winter conditions seem balmy by comparison.
Fall of Giants – Ken Follet
I just finished the Silo series on audible and it was great! Also highly recommended World War Z (I LOATHE zombie/vampire type stuff, and fucking loved this book). Lock In by John Scalzi, and the Wayward Pines trilogy are also super engaging and binge-worthy
I loved FantasticLand and The Grand Hotel. Both horror stories with multiple POVs though the Grand Hotel the stories are less connected