Audiobooks v Audio Dramas

[Noserenda]

Thanks to some special offers ive been catching up on the 42nd millennium books via Audible recently and it got me wondering about how they decide how many folks to read the book. I get that a full Audio Drama with SFX and a big cast is a higher budget proposition but could there be a middle ground?

The second Watchers of the Throne for example has each of the characters read by a different person which works really well even when, for example, they all speak with Guilliman in quick succession and he sound very different. Most books have just a single narrator though which can get confusing when you have say, half a dozen Plague Daemons chatting like in Dark Imperium 2 where (And the man tries) they all pretty much sound the same which gets confusing and could have benefited from getting a couple more folks in just for those characters maybe?

Not sure what im trying to say exactly but just interested if any more knowledgeable frater could shead some light on the decision making?

[BluejayJunior]

It probably comes down to the producer/director of the project. 

Most audiobooks in general only have one narrator. The big non-40K example that doesn't are the Wheel of Time books that has a female narrator for the female POV chatpers and a male narrator for the male POV chapters. But, at least from my experience, that is the exception. 

It also comes probably comes down to how it is written. Most 40K books are written in the 3rd person so it makes sense to just have the single narrator. The Watchers of the Throne books are written in 1st person for each of the three characters. In that case, having a different narrator (while not necessary) differentiates those characters a bit more. 

[RedFurioso]

Audio Dramas are shorter than audio books (but not always)

[DarkChaplain]

There's really no point in having multiple narrators unless there are multiple PoV characters with their own, separate chapters. Switching narrators mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence is just jarring. When you have three strings like with Watchers of the Throne, it makes sense, as each character brings his or her own character into the narrative. The writing is colored through their lenses, their commentary and all, and they'll have the bulk of dialogue as well.

 

A good example of narrator switchups is Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. You get a few different PoV characters, so there's two major narrators (male and female) to deal with either of the major plotlines. But even then, the narrator will also voice the other character's lines instead of switching back and forth, even when the two are having a chat. It's much less disruptive.

 

On the production side, it's also waaaay more complicated to edit. You can't rely on both actors being around at the same time, especially not with a 12+ hour book, when their contributions are relatively small compared to whoever is narrating the main thing. You have to edit a LOT, coordinate timings, pronunciations, etc. There's a reason why audio dramas, despite their runtime, can be fairly expensive.

Edited April 6, 2020 by DarkChaplain