Timdalf
Active Member
I remember CO (aka Prof Corey) reacted negatively to Serkis' reading of LotR... But I have to disagree. First, I always found the Rob Inglis reading stuffy, tedious and boring, with an annoyingly nasal voice. It is nothing more than a recitation, a bookish run through) So I very much welcomed the Phil Dragash reading, dramatic, with sound effects and Shore film music. A true labour of love! He misreads a bit too often, but he does the over 100 voices... as imitations of the film cast. The Serkis reading (which it took me some time to find on cd... as I cannot get Audible to download properly) is far far better. Very expressive, with distinct characteristics for the 130+ characters he does. Very accurate reading of the text. Some of the voices again are film adaptations (Boromir has a Yorkshire accent a la Sean Bean, Pippin a Scots a la Billy Boyd - his Gandalf is his own. His Sam is his best -- Sean Astin was miscast anyway). No sound effects nor Shore film music. Dragash takes 48 + hrs. Serkis takes 65+.... Inglis takes about 53 because he includes the Foreword, the Prologue and three of the Appendices (which Dragash does not and Serkis does.) Serkis has 56 cd's. each an hour+ in duration. (I think Inglis has 46.) Serkis is the longest of the three, with ample pauses for expression. He reads or sings in the character who is performing. His female voices are less successful. My only complaint is the odd track breaks. Basically each track is 6 minutes plus or minus and do not follow the intra-chapter breaks, and sometimes are in mid-paragraph. I find that odd. I am compiling track timings and initial phrases of each track as I go through for future reference. But overall, a masterful job.... I suggest you order it quick, as his Hobbit reading is already no longer listed as available by Amazon. Comes in 3 sets of about $35 each. Dragash is available via Internet Archive for downloading. He even did illustrations for it. He was in his early 20's when he recorded it, and I only regret some cd company has not commissioned him to do an improved version. But now we have two excellent readings to replace the unlistenable Mr. Inglis. I have attached the track by track statistics of the three.
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