So what's happening? Well, I had a really good time last week, recording a new series of audio drama with the ever fabulous Big Finish gang. As usual, I can't really give any further detail at the moment, although keen Twitter followers might well have joined the dots by now and have a pretty good idea of what's been going on. I will of course spill all the necessary beans just as soon as I'm able, but I'll end on the teasing note of saying how much I enjoyed working with BF friends & acquaintances old and new, some of whom, I haven't seen for quite some time. Great to catch up during working hours and very civilised to wander off together for a quick sherry or two at close of play.
After 26 audio releases so far this year, the pace has eased a little, although there's much more in the pipeline; much more! It 'may' be (May.. geddit? Oh, please yourselves...) that the unabridged
NRSV Bible is to be released this month, all 74 plus hours of it and also perhaps, the first of the Malazan Empire novels,
Dancer's Lament might be issued on CD. It's currently available as a download only, possibly from both Amazon and Penguin Random House. We shall soon see!
For various reasons, but all to do with self-promotion and getting the next job if I'm honest, I've uploaded some new material to Spotlight and to this web site, in the form of samples taken from some of the Games Workshop recordings I've been working on recently.
I love, I mean, really
love recording the Warhammer stories and dramas; they are fascinating and beautifully written. Because both the audio books and dramas deal with such a finely crafted and well documented world and often in fantastic detail and use a language intended to convey the sheer majesty and scale of both the soldiers themselves and the vastness of space they inhabit, they can be unbelievably tricky to do. Giving voice to such larger than life characters such as the many Legions of Space Marines and their even larger than 'larger than life' Primarch's and the variety of other creatures and humans who also feature in the stories, can be a huge challenge.
In order to illustrate the point about the complexity and density of the language, I've just uploaded another audio sample from
the
opening chapter of
The Harrowing, by Rob Sanders, a short story taken from the
War Without End anthology, which I narrate in the voice of a character,
'
Operative-unit 55/Phi-silon'. I hope you'll give it a quick listen and see what I mean. It's posted below. Allowing the narrative to sound 'conversational' is also quite a challenge, but enormously satisfying -
if it all works! The Harrowing is a fantastic story and I really had fun recording it.
And that I think is about all for now. Of course, I couldn't post with out adding a graphic or two - how dull would that be, just acres of text to look at?!? So I've randomly added some Space Marine imagery to liven the whole thing up; two White Scars and two Ultramarines.
* * * * *
As a bit of a 'post script' and because this posting differs from the usual style/content of a regular update, I'm going to add a review for the audio book,
Mr. Mac and Me that I happened to come across the other day and here it is:
In 1914, young Tom is disturbed, yet fascinated, by how
his Suffolk coastal town is affected by the outbreak of war. The energy
and enthusiasm of John Banks's performance key into the 13-year-old
boy's active imagination and natural curiosity. Tom is especially drawn
to the newcomers Mr. Mac--the real-life artist and architect Charles
Rennie Mackintosh--and his wife, whose loving marriage is so different
from what he sees at home. Banks's excellent use of volume and pacing
builds tension as the authorities begin to suspect the Mackintoshes of
treason and Tom, who has befriended the couple, is at a loss for what to
do or believe. In addition, Banks's characterizations are spot-on;
young or old, male or female, he has the inflections down pat.
by Esther Freud
Read by John Banks
Fiction • 8.25 hrs. • Unabridged •
© 2014 C.B.L. ©
AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2015]
I am most grateful to 'C.B.L' for taking the time to write such a
sympathetic and generous review of a book that I loved and thoroughly
enjoyed recording.
Thanks also to C.B.L for a similarly generous review on the same AudioFile web site, for
Ali Smith's
How To Be Both, which I also narrated -
thank you!
* * * * *
At the moment, I have two audio dramas to prepare, but the heat is off in comparison to the last six or seven months; so...
...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!
I love, I mean, really love recording the Warhammer stories and dramas; they are fascinating and beautifully written. Because both the audio books and dramas deal with such a finely crafted and well documented world and often in fantastic detail and use a language intended to convey the sheer majesty and scale of both the soldiers themselves and the vastness of space they inhabit, they can be unbelievably tricky to do. Giving voice to such larger than life characters such as the many Legions of Space Marines and their even larger than 'larger than life' Primarch's and the variety of other creatures and humans who also feature in the stories, can be a huge challenge.
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