Looking for a Fantasy audiobook recommendation

[chainer1216]

While in High School i read a lot of fantasy, it was pretty much the only thing i could get into, but after graduating i fell out of reading. Fast forward 12 years and i got myself a job thats mind numbingly simple and only requires the use of my eyes, so ive taken to listening to audiobooks which has been great except for one thing, i just cant get back into classic sword and sorcery fantasy, every series ive tried fell flat for me, R.A. Salvator, The Mistborn Trilogy, The Deed of Paksenarian trilogy. Game of Thrones, teenage me would have loved these books but listening them now was a dredge.

Since then ive REALLY gotten into Urban Fantasy, i have read/listened to well over a hundred UF books in the last two years and lately ive been wondering what the difference was and why i got into one but not the other and i think i figured it out.

So im asking for recommendations that mostly fit the following.

1. The language isnt too flowery.
2. The action is fairly realistic and pulpy.
3. The dialog is snappy and clever.
4. The characters are seen having fun at times and otherwise being human(even if not actually human)
5. Brooding is something the story forces on a character, not their normal state of being.


Bonus points for
Major female characters who arent prizes or unstoppable mary sue baddasses.

Limited world ruining magics, and a general lower powerscale.




Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, sorry for the long read.

[Eldan]

So, you want the Dresden Files. They tick all your points. Also, the audio books are read by James Marsters, and he's really good at it.

[chainer1216]

So, you want the Dresden Files. They tick all your points. Also, the audio books are read by James Marsters, and he's really good at it.

I think maybe you missed the part where i said ive read over 100 urban fantasy books, which most definitely includes the Dresden Files. Which are in fact great and James Marsters is fantastic.

[Eldan]

I thought you might, but they are still the obvious recommendation. Honestly, I kinda hate most audio books I tried, these are an exception. So, if anyone has anything else, I'm all ears.

[Excession]

Have you read the Peter Grant books, starting with Rivers of London? Urban fantasy crossed with British police procedural. I haven't tried the audiobooks, but they do seem to tick all your boxes.

[chainer1216]

Have you read the Peter Grant books, starting with Rivers of London? Urban fantasy crossed with British police procedural. I haven't tried the audiobooks, but they do seem to tick all your boxes.

Yes, i have.

Maybe i need to be more clear, i am looking for sword and sorcery fantasy, not urban fantasy, i have read plenty of UF and am not in need of recommendations for that sub genre.

[Knaight]

Just how flexible is that genre requirement? For swords and sorcery qua swords and sorcery, the only thing I can confirm is good both as a book and an audiobook is the First Law trilogy. A bit of genre flexibility opens that up a lot. There's Tales of the Dying Earth, a short story anthology set in Vance's Dying Earth universe. There's Epic and Warriors, short story anthologies that jump around genre-wise, but include a fair amount of sword and sorcery.

My audiobook recommendations reflect other people's tastes to some extent - if I want to read a book, I usually prefer actual writing. That makes the following recommendation a bit of a crapshoot in terms of narration quality. It just matches everything else so well.

Read Jhereg, by Stephen Brust. The specific book isn't really that critical, as it's part of a series that follows a particular set of characters, and basically any book following both Vlad Taltos and Lloloish (the protagonists) will fit. Snappy dialog? Check. Repeatedly. Characters having fun and being human? Check. Repeatedly. Their dynamic is just fun.

[dariathalon]

I know you said that you'd tried Mistborn, and didn't care for it, but I'd highly encourage giving one of Sanderson's other series a try. I have thoroughly enjoyed The Stormlight Archive series (starting with The Way of Kings). It checks many of the things on your list (but not all). This is a more recent writing, and I think he's improved in his craft since writing the Mistborn books. The people who read the series also did a very good job, imo.

Since you say you like urban fantasy, I'd assume you're familiar with Kevin Hearne. If not, his Iron Druid books are great for that genre. I haven't listened to their audio version, though. He does have a more traditional fantasy option too. Last year he started The Seven Kennings series with A Plague of Giants. Unfortunately, the audio version really didn't do anything for me. I didn't care for one of the voice actors (the female), and I found the series too complex to listen to (several POV characters and intermingling plots that I always wanted to go back and check on things). So I stopped listening about a third of the way through and picked up a physical book to read instead. I liked it a lot.

I haven't listened to it myself yet, but I've heard excellent things about Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology. That might be worth checking out too since its at least in a similar vein.

[farothel]

I'm not sure if it qualifies, but maybe try (if you haven't already) the Hollows series by Kim Harrison. It's about a witch and a vampire who are independant runners in an alternate version of Eearth (biotech instead of space race in the 60s and something went wrong). It's a great series, 13 books in all (not counting short stories and some add-ons), all of which have a title based upon a Clint Eastwood film. The first is called 'Death Witch Walking'.

[Dragonus45]

1. The language isnt too flowery.
2. The action is fairly realistic and pulpy.
3. The dialog is snappy and clever.
4. The characters are seen having fun at times and otherwise being human(even if not actually human)
5. Brooding is something the story forces on a character, not their normal state of being.


So, despite you not really feeling Mistborn I want to recommend a different Sanderson series called the Stormlight Archive. It is very much an alien world with high fantasy but his language is never to flowery and several of the characters are snappy dialogue incarnate. The action is easily the best he has ever written with some amazing moments where the action feels like its happening right in front of you, and the magic in the setting is very downplayed to start as the plot has the whole magic was gone and now its coming back thing. As for your last point, the series has more then a few various main characters and every last one is fairly damaged to some degree before the series even starts but the effort they put into overcoming things like depression or addiction is very realistic powerful so its not the tradition broody for its own sake kind of protagonist. For example Kaladin who is sort of the most main of the various main characters the most realistic depictions of depression I've ever read. The Audiobook version is great though and I can't recommend the series strongly enough.

[druid91]

I'm gonna second the suggestion of the Stormlight Archive.

But primarily I'm going to suggest the Cycle of Arawn/Galand. The first book is rough but still pretty good most of the time, apart from a few moments. But the second and third are great, and it's follow up series is even better.

[Luftwaffle]

I'll throw in my hat for the Wheel of Time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KAEh5Fa9C8) audiobooks. Some chapters are male narrated, and I don't know who they got to do the male narration, but the guy is pretty darn good. Be warned that the series is somewhere around 17 and a half days long if you're listening to the audiobooks.
There's also a very useful reddit thread if you're look for the wheel of time audiobooks.

After I'd gotten laser eye surgery I'd spent a couple weeks just chilling out and listening to that series while dipping in and out of sleep. Good times.