Case in point:
I am currently listening to book 3, Blameless, in the Parasol Protectorate series. Light, frothy, amusing paranormal suspense/romance set in Victoria England. Perfect fare when life is a little... heavy.
There is a character in these books called Lord Akildama. (Since I am listening to the audiobook, that spelling is my guess and may bear no resemblance to its actual spelling in the book.) In books 1 and 2, Soulless and Changeless, this is pronounced Lord Ah-kill-DAH-mah. But in book 3 -- same narrator, mind you -- it becomes Lord Ah-KEEL-dah-mah. Annoying, but oh, well.
Imagine my astonishment when suddenly in the middle of book 3 the name become Lord Ah-kill-DAH-mah once more. WTF? How will it be pronounced in book 4, Lord Ab-ber-CROHM-bee?
And that is what has set my teeth on edge today. I knew y'all wanted to know.
It seems like every audiobook has at least one thing that makes me stop and think, "Wha?" I think odd pronunciations are the audiobook verion of a printed book's typo.
Posted by: Erika | 26 August 2012 at 01:51 PM
This is not encouraging me to start listening to audiobooks, you know. It's spelled "Akeldama" in the print books, so that second pronunciation makes even less sense.
Posted by: Silvernfire | 26 August 2012 at 03:16 PM
Gah! I hate it when that happens mid-series. I can't remember which book(s) I noticed it in, but it is disconcerting.
Posted by: Shelly | 26 August 2012 at 04:36 PM
or Fitch...
Posted by: Lisa | 26 August 2012 at 07:30 PM
The reader makes all the difference in an audiobook, that's for sure.
The guy who read the Bonhoeffer biography was great, and the woman who read Stiff was brilliant (both available from MPL).
Just sayin'
Posted by: Soxanne | 26 August 2012 at 08:36 PM
I think, the little things make us doubt ourselves and therefore we get annoyed at having to figure it out and/or annoyed for doubting ourselves. Switching pronounciation in the middle of the book would have me wondering if we'd changed characters or I'd zoned out through entire chapters or hit the wrong button and was listening to a different book ...
Posted by: bullwinkle | 27 August 2012 at 07:23 AM
I recently "read" an audiobook in which the reader/actor was all dramatic about putting longish pauses before prepositional phrases at the ends of sentences. Each time it happened, I lost track of the story while figuring out which sentence owned the phrase! Arrgh.
Posted by: auntiemichal | 30 August 2012 at 07:25 PM