A: Audiobook Voicework

[cjp]

I've recently picked up the full audiobooks, and listened to the last few chapters as I was reading along with Mark Reads (well not at the same time, but you get what I mean).

I really like Pullman's narration, to the point where I can't read the books now without hearing his voice in my head. Whenever I hear him put emphasis on a different part of a sentence than I would reading it, I'm quite happy to go along with this as they're his books. I'll defer to him on such matters.

I'm not so keen on the rest of the cast. Individually, I don't really have many complaints, even if the accents and voices aren't exactly as I'd imagined (Mary, Serafina, Xaphania, Lord Faa and Balthamos all sound older than in my head, and Mary a little more 'proper'), but some of the interactions aren't really up to scratch. I have no idea how these things are recorded; do actors record all their lines independantly? Sometimes it sounds like a conversation between two voice synthesized computers; the phrasing and emphasis of various words seems to be off, and unlike with PP, I don't 'trust' that this is as it should be (I generally think the younger voices are done better though).

For anyone who has them, the best example I can think of is the conversation between Mary and Serafina towards the end of 'The Broken Arrow' in TAS. The bit that goes:

“They’re in love.”
“I know.”
“They’ve only just discovered it…”

There's something about that, especially Serafina's, "I know," that just grates against me for some reason. I imagined it as a quiet, accepting line; almost said in a sigh. But here it's spoken like a huge celebratory "I knoowww!".

Am I being just a little too pedantic?