Going Postal - again
Nov. 22nd, 2005 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustBorrowed the audiobook of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal from my local library recently. I haven't listened to an audiobook since Hitchhiker's back in high school, but I think I'll have to do so more often now. Not only does it bring the words of the story to life, but it lets you roam around doing other things at the same time.
I loved Going Postal when I first read it last year, and Stephen Briggs does a brilliant job of this narration. He's the guy behind the Discworld play adaptations, and he seems to be a pretty good actor too, at least where the Discworld characters are concerned. Then again, Pratchett dialogue translates very well to live performance - which I guess all good dialogue ought to.
Moist von Lipwig sounds exactly how I imagined him, and so do Groat and Stanley. Mr Pump the golem sounds amusingly like a certain Austrian ex-bodybuilder. Reacher Gilt is interesting, having a sort of hoarse, knavish, Bill Sikes type voice which I never imagined before but fits well. And Briggs nails Vetinari perfectly. Vetinari always has wonderful lines, and to hear them delivered with such expertise and flair would have made the audiobook worth it for that alone.
The only voice I did have an issue with was Adora Belle Dearheart's. For some reason, Briggs gives her what sounds like a Scottish accent, which I found very jarring. I'd imagined her having the default Ankh-Morpork accent, since there's nothing in her character or background to suggest otherwise. Though it's possible that to people in the UK, her accent isn't anything out of the ordinary because they hear Scottish accents all the time, whereas to someone from Australia it stands out a lot more.
I loved Going Postal when I first read it last year, and Stephen Briggs does a brilliant job of this narration. He's the guy behind the Discworld play adaptations, and he seems to be a pretty good actor too, at least where the Discworld characters are concerned. Then again, Pratchett dialogue translates very well to live performance - which I guess all good dialogue ought to.
Moist von Lipwig sounds exactly how I imagined him, and so do Groat and Stanley. Mr Pump the golem sounds amusingly like a certain Austrian ex-bodybuilder. Reacher Gilt is interesting, having a sort of hoarse, knavish, Bill Sikes type voice which I never imagined before but fits well. And Briggs nails Vetinari perfectly. Vetinari always has wonderful lines, and to hear them delivered with such expertise and flair would have made the audiobook worth it for that alone.
The only voice I did have an issue with was Adora Belle Dearheart's. For some reason, Briggs gives her what sounds like a Scottish accent, which I found very jarring. I'd imagined her having the default Ankh-Morpork accent, since there's nothing in her character or background to suggest otherwise. Though it's possible that to people in the UK, her accent isn't anything out of the ordinary because they hear Scottish accents all the time, whereas to someone from Australia it stands out a lot more.
