I'm a fan of listening to audiobooks read by great narrators over and over again. I have a few that are my go-to titles for long car trips, endless nights of insomnia, or marathon crochet sessions. You probably have some perennial favorite narrators. Mine include Jim Dale, Neil Gaiman, and Tim Curry.
Ah, Tim Curry. His voice is simultaneously soothing and intensely interesting. At times I listen to how he pronounces each word. Other times I put on one of his books to let that silky voice lull me to sleep. He's narrated quite a few audiobooks which you should definitely check out, but my absolute favorite is the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix.
I love them not just because Tim Curry reads them (which is reason enough). I love them also because they are great stories with fantastic characters. An Abhorsen is a person whose duty it is to keep the dead from walking the earth and doing bad things to the living, like eat them. This is an inherited position, one from which you cannot escape. No shirking your take-down-the-dead responsibility.
The trilogy starts out with Sabriel, a pull-an-all-nighter-to-finish intro to the Abhorsen universe, in which Sabriel must find her missing father, who happens to be the current Abhorsen. Over the next books, Lirael and Abhorsen, and another generation in the lives of the characters, the trilogy ramps up to a save-the-earth climax.
Part of the appeal of the trilogy to me is the setting. Since my earlier reference to Jim Dale, you might have guessed that I like fantasy fiction and magical universes. The Abhorsen trilogy is set in the Old Kingdom where magic rules and technology fails, and Ancelstierre, a place much like our own, with no magic and a population cynical about and all this walking dead business.
I highly recommend the trilogy for teens and adults alike. Listen for the story. Listen for the characters. Listen for Tim.
-Jen
