Horus audiobooks question?

[welshrat]

Im thinking of starting the HH series in audio form but obviously i dont have the cash to buy everything.

Ive read all the books previously and listened to a copy of the opening trilogy in abridged form but am wighing up whether to get the unabridged version and start with that or just skip it and start with thousand sons and prospero burns.

As ive read the series before im going to listen to them in goupings of legions.

Are the differences between abridged and unabridged worth listening to the books again?

[DarkChaplain]

I'd recommend against the abridged opening trilogy in any case. It is alright for casual listening, but it lacks so much of what made the trilogy great, and the cut plotlines directly affect the vital characters and make them skip too many beats in their development.

 

They just make for a very shallow experience compared to the real thing. Keeler is almost entirely gone, as are any non-Legion, non-Loken parts. The scale of Isstvan III is hugely diminished, too.

It didn't help that I wasn't a fan of Martyn Ellis' narration. Toby Longworth's unabridged versions are massively better.

[Tymell]

It's purely a personal preference, but I'll also say I enjoy Toby Longworth and Jonathan Keeble's narration a lot, whereas Gareth Armstrong's isn't my favourite. I'm just not as much of a fan of his voices, whereas I find the others can put in enough variety while not sounding silly. I'm re-doing the novels myself at the moment, and I'm sticking to the print versions where it's Mr. Armstrong doing the narration, but going for the audios with the others.