Help me pick an audiobook version of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings for my mum and I to listen to when on holiday in Scotland.
Note that my mum is hard of hearing so can't hear high pitched sounds well and can't understand what is being said if there's music or sound effects playing. Whereas I have really good hearing but I hear all sounds on the same level and can't separate individual sounds, meaning if there's lots of noises I struggle to hear what is being said.
It's Rob Inglis vs Andy Serkis.
Rob Inglis is Australian but his accent sounds Standardised English to me, you can't tell he's Australian. He sounds like an old grandfather and I could fall asleep to his narration. More traditional audiobook. His recording is from the 90s so there is some background noise and breathy sounds (less clarity). But his reading is all on one sound level (not too quiet or too loud). His voice acting is very subtle so at times it's hard to tell who is speaking when he switches character quickly or often. His pacing is a little slow at times. He performs Gollum well but my mum can't understand a word. There is music at the beginning but it cuts out after the first couple lines, my mum can't hear when there's music. His performances of the songs/poems is how Tolkien wanted them to be and is unarguably the best version of them (but are you here for the songs or are you here for the story?).
Andy Serkis is English, his audiobooks were recorded a couple years ago, he performed Gollum and various Orcs in the films. There are strong pros and strong cons to his version.
Pros: His audio clearer with no background noises or breathy sounds. His enunciation is great and performance dynamic, gripping, although at times (a con) melodramatic for scenes that don't need it. But that is better for paying attention. His voices for characters are very similar to the films. You can usually tell who is speaking. As far as I can tell there's no music (but I might be wrong).
Cons: He mispronounces some words, which Rob Inglis doesn't do. His songs are different from Tolkien's version. Sometimes flat or the wrong pitch or something, really he should have just read them as poems. When he's loud, he is very loud, when he's quiet, he is very quiet. Most people love his version. But for some people, this inconsistent volume made them unlistenable when in bed or in the car.
I will say, though, my mum could always understand him from the samples of his reading I could find (I couldn't find a quiet part to test out).
In Summary
Honestly, if Rob Inglis's version had been recorded recently with all the clarity that entails I'd go for him. But I can hear all the background noise and breathy sounds in the samples really, really well, which effects my listening experience and so I struggle to tell when he changes character. And because of the music at the beginning and the background noise/breathy sounds and his not strongly changing his voice between characters, my mum can't always hear what he's saying or know who is speaking.
Whereas Andy Serkis's version doesn't suffer from any of those issues. But I couldn't find any samples of his quiet reading or his singing to form an opinion on them, I can only guess from what others are saying on Reddit and YouTube. In truth, if Andy Serkis's version had more level volume so that you don't need to consistently change volume to listen, and if he read the songs like poems, then I'd go for him.
As yet, I am undecided. What are your thoughts?
Edit: After feedback from a few different people in a few different places, I have decided to go for Andy Serkis's audiobook version of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, simply because his version has more clarity, is more dynamic and is enunciated better. Which is a priority due to my mum being so hard of hearing. As to the cons previously mentioned, I think that, if his volume varies, I can just adjust the volume manually on my loudspeaker from where I'm sat in the passenger seat, and I am not that invested in the songs really so it doesn't bother me if they are not so good. And I guess I'll have to put up with the occasional mispronunciation (like Caradhras where the 'dh' in it is pronounced like a 'th' but he pronounces it like 'dh', which he should know better having been in the films). I'm here for the narrative! It's cost me a pretty penny to buy these (audiobooks are not cheap and I've bought four of them!) but now we're all audiobook set for the holiday beginning 29th August (2025).
