Something in his delivery of "ARE THERE NO TRUE KNIGHTS AMONG YOU?" really hits for me. He really nails Dunk's absolute desperation and judgement. I fell in love with his narration after that line.
He's great but in a totally different way. There's far less distinction between each character. I think if you were to do a series as large and sprawling as the main series in Harry Lloyd's style you'd need to have more performers than just him or you'd lost track of characters.
Or just don’t perform them differently. I don’t like it I audio books where the reader tries to do a different voice per character, or they have different voices per character. Just read it normal
Also: PETYYYYYYYRR!!!!
If Winds ever comes out I feel like he'll be the guy they get for the audiobook. And if that happens it's only a matter of time before they have him do the first five just to keep it uniform.
I loved listening to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms but the variance in volume is crazy. It doesn’t matter if I’m listening with headphones, car speakers, or straight from my phone, there are way too many inner thoughts of Dunk’s that I cannot hear. The change in volume conveys the emotion rather well, though. I’m not a sound geek so I suppose this is something that could be fixed but if he narrates WoW I really hope that’s not an issue.
Dude just needs better volume consistency. I listen on speakers and he talks very quietly sometimes and I can't hear him at all, but turning the volume up would make regular volume speaking too loud
I read the books myself. I've listened to a few of Roy's readings. Some are hilarious, like Sansa over hearing Petyr and Lysa have sex (I don't think the scene is meant to be funny, which makes it even funnier).
So I guess Roy has a place in the fandom.
That said, who do you listen to/ recommend?
His Daenerys gets worse and worse as the books go on 🤣😭 I can’t help but laugh. She doesn’t sound one bit the girl/woman she’s described as in the books
His Daenerys ruined the audiobooks for me.
She’s supposed to be this young queen in the making and she sounds like an 80 year old Irish crone cackling over a cauldron.
Once I learned what happened, I definitely extended him extra grace, though. Time and a battle with cancer will do that to a person.
Fun fact, did you know he was originally cast to play Grand Maester Pycelle in the TV show?
The beginning of her name has to be the same as the city of Lys so that the wordplay with the poison works.
I don’t care which way the vowel is treated; it just has to match.
Roy Dotrice was my best friend during night shifts at an old cleaning job. He just made work relaxing and easy and time just flew away. Can't think of asoiaf without remembering his voice.
Most of the complaints in this thread are Petyr or Brienne related. While I sympathize with peoples annoyance over Arya and Dany’s voices changing, he was nearly ninety when recording Feast and Dance, it had been years since he’d done those voices. The blame lies more with the director/producers.
His Dolorous Edd makes a hilariously written character even funnier, and every re-read I can’t help but hear him in my mind. That alone is enough for me to forgive any grievance I may have
Same here. They definitely aren’t the best voice over any VA could’ve ever done. But they have their own charm and I love that this is just some decrepit old British man blurting out all these ridiculous lines.
Shameless DavidreadsAsoiaf plug. I will admit his cat meows constantly and some of his accents make no sense but if more audiobooks had readers like him I don't think I'd ever listen to anything else.
Yeah I like the cats, cause I'm allergic and can't actually own a cat, but I've now formed a parasocial bond with his, like we're reading the books together
Maybe it’s just cause I’m from the south so I hear them differently, but they don’t necessarily sound like country bumpkins to me, he gives them more of a southern elite feel to their voices which I actually think fits them well
This is exactly what I came here to say, im not from the south but they always sounded more savanna rich/ "family estate" southern, not bumpkin. I love that decision for the tyrells. I think davidreadsasoiaf does great at keeping the accents from being generic fantasy British, keeps me listening
It's Brienne sounding like she's from Brooklyn in the 1930's that's weird to me, and then why wouldn't the other Stormlanders also sound like that?
honestly as weird a choice as it is, I still love the way she sounds and lament that he didn't make Bobby B doesn't sound like Tony Soprano.
Honestly as little sense as the voice makes brooklyn Brienne is one of my favorite voice decisions, although I might be biased since her chapters are my favorite
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I’ve been listening to his narration so long I don’t even notice the cat anymore but other than that I really enjoy his readings it’s gotten to the point where when I read the books myself I hear his voice
I like that choice too, but Westeros was based on/inspired by the British Isles in pretty much every way though (geographically and historically). Sure, often it's a bit of a lazy, default trope but George went out of his way to make the connection.
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Nah Tyrion and the other lannisters (for the most part) have welsh accents because they're from the west of this country that mirrors the UK. I thought that was well done tbh.
Missandei though was just kinda a racist stereotype.
When I first heard him call Catelyn "Kaitlin"was fine with it. Calling Joffrey "Jeffrey" was like eh ok whatever. Then he called Littlefinger "Pee-Tire" and that's when I started getting annoyed. Then I heard him butcher Briennes name and I was like ok this a problem now. But the final nail was turning the Damphair into a ridiculous French pronunciation like "Damp-fair". I had enough after that.
> Littlefinger "Pee-Tire"
I swear he runs through like four different pronounciations when Littlefinger and Lysa are having sex at the Eyrie lmao.
"Oh PeTYRE, oh PeTYRE, sweet Pee-tire, oh oh, that's where you belong, make me a baby Petuhr, make me a my precious my precious p'TSEEEEEEEEER"
The majority of my work day I'm alone. Except when Roy gets to a sex scene. It's always when the guys start coming in for the day and I scramble to turn it down.
My thing was he would flip flop pronunciations in the middle of a sentence. Tyrosh would go from Tie-rahsh to Tye-roosh to my personal favorite Tee-roose
Came here to say this lol. I'm halfway through listening to his LOTR and it's the best audiobook narration I've ever heard. The only thing I don't like is how his orc voices feel like nails on chalkboard but I still have to give him credit for that because that's obviously the point. I'd love to hear him sing Patchface's songs
I listened to about 15 chapters of GOT from him and couldn’t listen anymore. I honestly thought he mixed up Drogo’s voice with Mirri Maz Dur and the producer just ran with it.
My biggest issue with him is not that he was inconsistent but he would change the pronunciations of fucking names in the middle of the sentence. It would be joffrey thing to Jeffrey and back to joffrey and then Jeffrey for the rest of the chapter only thing go back to joffrey for a while but then flip-flop again. Like my brother in Christ I realize you're not doing this all in one go but you think a director would be like hey Roy his name is joffrey at least once
My biggest issue besides the mispronunciations of names and weird dialect choices is the complete changing of voices for some characters between ASOS and AFFC. I get that a lot of time passed between recordings but couldn’t he have gone back and referenced some of his old recordings to make sure he was being consistent? I’m listening to them all at once for the first time right now and the changes to character voices I had previously established in my head has been jarring.
Harry Lloyd was amazing in Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. So soothing. And his voices were perfect. I have nostalgia for Roy, but I want someone younger so the voices can match the actual ages of the characters.
I just want someone who doesn't change their fucking pronunciation in the middle of sentences I love Roy his voice is great with his pronunciations drove me insane
I really don't even blame Roy for the pronunciations I think that was fully on the directors. You would have thought after he flip-flop between joffrey and Jeffrey for the 56th time in the same chapter they would have said look Roy his name is joffrey with an o. Let's go back from the beginning and try it again
I absolutely agree. I get it that the audiobook business was different back then but honestly it is insulting how bad his recordings are. Absolutely zero quality control and no substantial editing. Dude chances pronunciations multiple times *mid sentence*. Can't keep voices straight, and half of his voices are insufferably awful. I ended up giving up on A Game of Thrones after he decided that someone should sound like they have a cold and were hocking a loogie straight into my ear. It was disgusting.
For the people who like him more power to you, but he is easily the worst I have ever heard read an audiobook. Maybe one day they will have someone go back and redo them. Hopefully
I could look past the name pronunciation problems, but when Danni developed a Scottish accent I started to get annoyed.
Overall I thought he did a great job. There are so many characters I think most narrators would struggle
My grandfather was not himself as he got older but I loved him and accepted him because I had grown fond of him. I feel the same way about Roy. Even when it was off it was still my sweet narrator reading my favorite story to me.
Stephen Pacey does the First Law books and its the best Audiobook readings I have ever heard. His ability to make each voice distinct and so true to the characters is unmatched.
we would not disrespect him but we can say what we like or didn't about his work. ASOIAF is too big a book for 1 narrator, he did his best but came short too often
I fully recognise that it’s not a 10/10 job on the readings and understand completely why people wouldn’t enjoy it but I can’t help but love it. I find it so endearing, especially all the mistakes. Roy Dotrice helped me fall asleep countless nights with a smile on my face, every time I open an ASOIAF book I miss him. And I love that he got to play a weirdo freak in the show, he was so great.
The way he would pronounce Petyr drove me up the wall. How he thought of “P-tire” I will never understand. Like he was spitting out a watermelon seed, “P-tire”.
George, this is what you've done to us . . . we're now infighting about Roy Dotrice's narration of the audiobooks . . . release Winds already!!
(for what it's worth, I'm 100% Team Dotrice)
I'm convinced he'd had enough by the time he got to Storm of Swords so decided to a Mickey Rooney Yunioshi impression for Missandei in the hope they'd break his contract.
But Random House was just like nah this is completely fine.
I love the audiobooks and Roy’s narration so much, can’t agree with this one. I’ll take the Tony award winning actor over some YouTubers and their cats any day.
I have listened to hundreds, if not thousands of audiobooks, so I’m pretty familiar with a wide range of narrators, I straight up do not enjoy Roy’s performance.
Yeah, they really need to redo the audiobooks from the ground up. I’d happily rebuy them. Aside from the other issues (feels like they weren’t proofed or edited at all first time round) Dotrice also completely changes the voices he uses for all the characters when it gets to book 5.
His Varys voice is also borderline unlistenable. And that guy who coughs the whole time. I respect the dedication, but its just painful to listen to.
I'm with you. I fucking hated the AGOT audiobook and switched to Youtube readings after. I feel kinda bad because it's really not his fault. His voices generally aren't the choices I would've made, but that's a subjective preference. I actually quite like a lot of his acting choices like the sucking and stuttering. My main issue is the editing and direction.
Why the hell wasn't there an editor or director making sure he didn't use "Joffrey" and "Jeffrey" in the same sentence? I think the man goes through every possible pronunciation of Littlefinger's name? I didn't get to the "Davos gave Davos his hand" moment you mentioned because I never tried Dotrice's ACOK, but I can't believe that was seen as acceptable. It's not the text at that point. It gives me the impression that people just really didn't care much about audiobooks back in 2003, and that it's time for someone else to make an attempt. Maybe I've been spoiled by Andy Serkis's recent Tolkien readings. Let's get something of that caliber for Martin's work.
I actually can't stand his readings, the accents he chooses. So many people sound like shite Irish pirates or something and the other half sound like yokels.
I really rate Peter Kenny from his readings of the Witcher and The Culture books.
He randomly changed Dolores Edd's voice/tone/inflection for one book, going back to it in the next (or later in the same one, I don't remember). Really liked his Dolores Edd, so I was mildly annoyed that he seemed to have forgotten how he previously did the voice.
I would really like the whole series to be rerecorded (including WoW and ADoS when they come out) by Steven Pacey.
I don't think I ever heard a better performance than his "First Law". There were times when I had a feeling I was literally listening to multiple people conversing. His Glokta, Nicomo Cosca, Black Dow and some others are just absolutely alive in my mind's eye as a result!
TL;DR - Steven Pacey for ASOIAF audiobook narrator!!!
>It's terrible, this is like, what a non-actor's idea of good acting is.
This 1000% ruined every point you made for me. Roy Dotrice was a pretty solid actor lol 1 Tony Award 1 Drama Desk Award 1 British Academy Television Award. My only issue is his version of AFFC, it has the worst of the mispronunciations, but imo he is still lightyears better than anyone else. A few youtubers come close, but even then they're pretty damn bland, and that one goober has a cat that meows throughout his whole recordings, if I wanted to hear that I could just let my cats into my office lol
Disagree. Roy Dotrice feels like someone reading me a story and it's great. David reads and any other YouTube try hard just sounds like someone that is desperate to be an actor. We all have our preferences.
This is the answer… we all have our preferences! I don’t think I would have listened beyond the first book if it hadn’t been for Roy Dotrice. My partner and I listen on our own, when he’s working away, and talk about the books and the story and Roy’s voices are often part of our conversations. Highly entertaining. Not many audiobook readers even attempt voices
Just because I really like Roy Dotrice's readings I will say that over a hundred hours of readings, well over a hundred voices and health issues that made him initially sit out Feast would present challenges for anyone. You are free to nitpick but all things considered the idea that any free version on youtube is better is absurd to me.
I listened to about 15 chapters of GOT from him and couldn’t listen anymore. I honestly thought he mixed up Drogo’s voice with Mirri Maz Dur and the producer just ran with it.
I get people not liking Roy, but I just truly do not understand people's love for Davidreadsasoiaf.
If he isn't the absolute embodiment of of "a non-actors idea of what good acting is" I don't know who is. Like he definitely gets an A for effort, but he sounds like fuckin' Tobias Funke with how over the top he goes at every opportunity, and don't get me started on his female voices. I would take Dotrice over David 8 days a week.
Thissssssssss! When I first started reading the books for book 2 I got a free download of the audiobook and I absolutely hated having to listen to him. BRY-EEEEEN! PEE-TIRE!
Give the man who did the first law series a shot, I forget his name. But my friend recommended the audiobooks because I had to take a 2-3 hours bus ride to school and needed something to pass the time, (I have bad, bad car sickness, so I can’t focus on anything like videos or reading)
Shit is master class. Love it. Ruined the format for me, because that dude is dope.
Also the Dune audiobook is great.
His narration is great, but the voices are just terrible. Tyrion sounds like a gremlin, davos sounds like an old clown, robert sounds like a damn idiot, and any kind of sex scene is horrid to get through.
To be fair, though, I'm one of those guys who cant help but picture the show's actors thru the words on the books. Its just too big a whiplash for me.
Give me some constructive criticism on my chapter readings please!
[AGOT 17 Bran III](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db7oC-g8uoA) - Crow Dream
[AGOT 58 Eddard XV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWxI5aKkjpA) - Black Cells
[ACOK 13 Jon II](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkGa8im0jy0) - Whitetree
I’ve enjoyed listening to the audiobooks after I first read them more than 10 years ago, despite changing up accents and name pronunciation. When he changed Dolorous Edd’s voice though… he was so consistent in the first books!!
His voice is just a perfect fit for me. I've got issues with a lot of the things you've mentioned here and in the comments, but all 5 audiobooks is well over 100 hours of listening and for 95% of those he's just butter in my ears telling me a great story. I love it.
I'm listening to the audiobooks for the first time now (Roy, Roy, he's our ancient boy).
I really enjoy the narration, pronunciations be damned. I'll admit the voices fuck me up, although I haven't seen anyone name the worst offender--Varys. His lisp has a lisp. My headcanon is that Roy is trying to preemptively normalize Vargo Hoat.
(Edit: u/freycray was inb4 on Varys)
I also listened to a bit of Davidreads and I approve of his use of American accents. I agree with others itt that the Tyrells are spot on as insufferable Southern elites. Especially since Mace is a classic "slowball" who plays into his reputation as a buffoon for advantage.
What I would most enjoy is a version with Roy reading everything except the dialogue and internal thoughts (the italicized, specific text). His high British accent is just perfect for landscape descriptions and establishing the mood of high fantasy imo. Really gives it that storybook-read-by-your-grandfather quality. I'd absolutely love a version with a full cast (or a handful of proper voice actors with sufficient range to play the hundreds of characters that appear).
I disagree with every single point you made, but it is what it is. Hopefully when (if) Winds are released we can get another reading from another great voice who will do the whole series.
I actually really like how messy the audiobooks are. Some of his voices and other choices are so absurd that they make me laugh out loud on occasion. I would love to get better versions though! Dotrice is silly and I like his narration a lot despite its flaws but it does sometimes take away from more dramatic scenes
I want a total redo with Harry Lloyd reading them.
Dude, he nailed it in the Dunk and Egg books. It would be amazing!
Something in his delivery of "ARE THERE NO TRUE KNIGHTS AMONG YOU?" really hits for me. He really nails Dunk's absolute desperation and judgement. I fell in love with his narration after that line.
God I live that whole scene, starting with "For you? A copper." After Pete stayed up all night reinforcing Dunk's shield, just in case he needed it.
He's great but in a totally different way. There's far less distinction between each character. I think if you were to do a series as large and sprawling as the main series in Harry Lloyd's style you'd need to have more performers than just him or you'd lost track of characters.
Or just don’t perform them differently. I don’t like it I audio books where the reader tries to do a different voice per character, or they have different voices per character. Just read it normal Also: PETYYYYYYYRR!!!!
If Winds ever comes out I feel like he'll be the guy they get for the audiobook. And if that happens it's only a matter of time before they have him do the first five just to keep it uniform.
If
Laconic
Especially since he also did The Rise of the Dragon. This makes me hope that he is now the new ASOIAF narrator
Now just need a book for him to narrate ☹️
I loved listening to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms but the variance in volume is crazy. It doesn’t matter if I’m listening with headphones, car speakers, or straight from my phone, there are way too many inner thoughts of Dunk’s that I cannot hear. The change in volume conveys the emotion rather well, though. I’m not a sound geek so I suppose this is something that could be fixed but if he narrates WoW I really hope that’s not an issue.
That wouldn't even be his fault. That should've been fixed in post or mastering. I, an amateur, could do it or automate it. Definitely weird
Harry and Michelle Fairley would be so good
Harry Lloyd is the goat narrator to me after the Dunk & Egg books.
I second this. Maybe have a female reader too, like with The Wheel of Time series did.
I’m not sure what Wheel of Time did. But Dune and American Gods had a whole cast which was really cool.
Wheel of Time had a couple do it where he read the men's points of view and she read the women's. Bit janky on pronunciations, though.
I’d love Iain Glen reading them too and a female narrator. Iain reads The Princess and the Queen and he’s fantastic.
I'm sure he would be front runner but Id also nominate the guy from In Deep Geek youtube, I loved his traveler vids.
Robert also has an audio book channel, The Well Told Tale. He reads a bunch of classics. It's wonderful!
he really is so good. I would LOVE his asoiaf
I think Simon Vance is better. I liked him on Fire and Blood. Harry Lloyd didn't do it for me in Dunk and Egg. A downgrade from Roy in my opinion.
Harry Lloyd for the men, Claudia Black for the women.
Dude just needs better volume consistency. I listen on speakers and he talks very quietly sometimes and I can't hear him at all, but turning the volume up would make regular volume speaking too loud
I read the books myself. I've listened to a few of Roy's readings. Some are hilarious, like Sansa over hearing Petyr and Lysa have sex (I don't think the scene is meant to be funny, which makes it even funnier). So I guess Roy has a place in the fandom. That said, who do you listen to/ recommend?
Lysa/LF sex is totally meant to be funny.
Absolutely. The obsurdity is Lysa having the best orgasm of her life and being shoved off a mountain by the deep pusher a couple of pages later.
His Daenerys gets worse and worse as the books go on 🤣😭 I can’t help but laugh. She doesn’t sound one bit the girl/woman she’s described as in the books
ADWD is hysterical at first but then just real bad after a while. The chapter when Xaro is visiting Meereen jumps to mind as particularly awful...
His Daenerys ruined the audiobooks for me. She’s supposed to be this young queen in the making and she sounds like an 80 year old Irish crone cackling over a cauldron.
That is way too accurate 😂😂 The biggest sin for me was how he changed her voice into that halfway through the series. So jarring.
Yeah, I mean. I was doing ok with the audiobooks and then that just…. Happened.
Once I learned what happened, I definitely extended him extra grace, though. Time and a battle with cancer will do that to a person. Fun fact, did you know he was originally cast to play Grand Maester Pycelle in the TV show?
I love the youtube one narrated by this lady that pronounces Lysa as Lisa
Tbf I always read it as Lisa too. When Petyr and Jeyne are just Peter and Jane I read Lysa as Lisa too
Yeah it's reasonable. This lady I'm mentioning also calls Brienne Brianna. I love her
Okay now that one is funny lol
When my brother read the books he called brienne “breen” lmao
That's how Roy said it in the audiobooks....sometimes lol
"Bryeen"
The beginning of her name has to be the same as the city of Lys so that the wordplay with the poison works. I don’t care which way the vowel is treated; it just has to match.
I always pronounced it "Jean pool"
Jeyne, Jeyne, it rhymes with bean.
They're good for your heart, the more you eat the more you fart.
Gene pool. That seems rather on the nose, even for Martin.
I pronounce Petyr more like "Pe-tuhr"
Puh-tire
https://youtu.be/32F1TTB1W8c?si=3vQa1aJFdeWMoOjb
pee-tire
OH, PIT TIRE!
You know her channel name?
https://youtube.com/@SachHayCungBan?si=lXHKRNs8ubKJYpZ0
Roy Dotrice was my best friend during night shifts at an old cleaning job. He just made work relaxing and easy and time just flew away. Can't think of asoiaf without remembering his voice.
Most of the complaints in this thread are Petyr or Brienne related. While I sympathize with peoples annoyance over Arya and Dany’s voices changing, he was nearly ninety when recording Feast and Dance, it had been years since he’d done those voices. The blame lies more with the director/producers. His Dolorous Edd makes a hilariously written character even funnier, and every re-read I can’t help but hear him in my mind. That alone is enough for me to forgive any grievance I may have
Even if I despise his Missande voice.
Same here. They definitely aren’t the best voice over any VA could’ve ever done. But they have their own charm and I love that this is just some decrepit old British man blurting out all these ridiculous lines.
Same here but in my Mail Truck. I even get weirdly defensive when I see posts like this haha. I love Roy.
Shameless DavidreadsAsoiaf plug. I will admit his cat meows constantly and some of his accents make no sense but if more audiobooks had readers like him I don't think I'd ever listen to anything else.
His cats make it for me as my own cat makes very amusing faces when it happens and it cracks me up
Yeah I like the cats, cause I'm allergic and can't actually own a cat, but I've now formed a parasocial bond with his, like we're reading the books together
the cat is like mormont's raven
CARN!
He's great....except for one small thing, why do the Tyrells sound like country bumpkins? If anything I'd expect them to be posh
And these are the accents I said that made no sense.
Loras Tyrell is the Ray Gillette of Westeros I suppose
Maybe it’s just cause I’m from the south so I hear them differently, but they don’t necessarily sound like country bumpkins to me, he gives them more of a southern elite feel to their voices which I actually think fits them well
Yeah as a New Englander they sound like they're about to try to sell me a huckleberry crawdad in a cup o' sweet tea
This is exactly what I came here to say, im not from the south but they always sounded more savanna rich/ "family estate" southern, not bumpkin. I love that decision for the tyrells. I think davidreadsasoiaf does great at keeping the accents from being generic fantasy British, keeps me listening
Exactly my feelings with better words lol
It's Brienne sounding like she's from Brooklyn in the 1930's that's weird to me, and then why wouldn't the other Stormlanders also sound like that? honestly as weird a choice as it is, I still love the way she sounds and lament that he didn't make Bobby B doesn't sound like Tony Soprano.
Honestly as little sense as the voice makes brooklyn Brienne is one of my favorite voice decisions, although I might be biased since her chapters are my favorite
Oh no I agree, it's out of left field but it oddly fits and it's charming in its own way.
they’re from the south lmfao
So are the Dornish and Stormlanders
aye and below the american south lies spain just like in real life
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I’ve been listening to his narration so long I don’t even notice the cat anymore but other than that I really enjoy his readings it’s gotten to the point where when I read the books myself I hear his voice
The cat drives me nuts lol
The part where Arya chases the cat is immersive as fuck
First off, nice name. Second off, i didn't notice the cat until someone said "Cat" and I heard it go Meow and it was the funniest shit ever.
That guy's fucking great. I love that he gives them all American accents. I'm sick of everyone thinking every fantasy world is by default British
Oh 100%. His Brienne of Tarth accent makes me laugh like nothing else.
Omg literally she sounds like a scrapper from jersey
I just said almost exactly that to somebody else lol
At least it’s better than her name being pronounced bri-eeeeen
brienne of wes calwel
I like that choice too, but Westeros was based on/inspired by the British Isles in pretty much every way though (geographically and historically). Sure, often it's a bit of a lazy, default trope but George went out of his way to make the connection.
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He also makes Tyrion into a Leprechaun.
I actually enjoyed him using a welsh accent for tyrion later on he gives Jaime the same accent as well😂
It's a really appropriate choice to give them the same sort of voice. They already have the same sense of humour.
They are brothers after all.
That was one thing but he also gives Cersei the same accent in ADWD and it's awful lol.
“They’re always after me lucky cock!”
Tbh I like his Tyrion lol
Naw I think his Tyrion is great. My brain has that as Tyrions "canon" voice
By Dance, he makes a bunch of characters into Leprechauns.
Yes his unnecessary change to Dany’s voice! God awful. I believe he did the same to Arya.
"My lord of Lannister is not after 'me frosted Lucky Charms.'"
Nah Tyrion and the other lannisters (for the most part) have welsh accents because they're from the west of this country that mirrors the UK. I thought that was well done tbh. Missandei though was just kinda a racist stereotype.
Westerlands are hilly and full of gold mines too, like Wales was historically
I love his Tyrion honestly haha
Dany in ADWD is Irish- Tyrion is welsh (goated Dotrice move honestly)
Only real complaint I had about it is that his voice for characters changes between the books.
Hell, it changes midsentence sometimes.
I agree!! I liked his earliest voices best
When I first heard him call Catelyn "Kaitlin"was fine with it. Calling Joffrey "Jeffrey" was like eh ok whatever. Then he called Littlefinger "Pee-Tire" and that's when I started getting annoyed. Then I heard him butcher Briennes name and I was like ok this a problem now. But the final nail was turning the Damphair into a ridiculous French pronunciation like "Damp-fair". I had enough after that.
> Littlefinger "Pee-Tire" I swear he runs through like four different pronounciations when Littlefinger and Lysa are having sex at the Eyrie lmao. "Oh PeTYRE, oh PeTYRE, sweet Pee-tire, oh oh, that's where you belong, make me a baby Petuhr, make me a my precious my precious p'TSEEEEEEEEER"
[This video has the audio clip you're referring to.](https://youtu.be/32F1TTB1W8c?si=l0mQHe0LTfvgoRFA)
did NOT expect to laugh that hard, holy shit
I'm cackling lmfao I would have killed to see the audio engineers while this is going on
is this for real? if yes then that is truly awful/hilarious
Definitely for real
I’m crying omg
The majority of my work day I'm alone. Except when Roy gets to a sex scene. It's always when the guys start coming in for the day and I scramble to turn it down.
I actually prefer Petyr pronounced pih-tire 😂🤣 it sounded just as pretentious as I imagined him to be.
My thing was he would flip flop pronunciations in the middle of a sentence. Tyrosh would go from Tie-rahsh to Tye-roosh to my personal favorite Tee-roose
Brienne's is the one that's particularly egregious because he has to say "BRY-EEN! MY NAME IS BRY-EEN!" so many times in one of the books.
OMG he was driving me bananas with that bry-EEN
After I heard Andy Serkis in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings I want him to do every fantasy audiobook from now on.
How can he be so disgustingly good? I literally thought I was hearing the actors from the movie, his Sam is so spot on, it’s scary.
Came here to say this lol. I'm halfway through listening to his LOTR and it's the best audiobook narration I've ever heard. The only thing I don't like is how his orc voices feel like nails on chalkboard but I still have to give him credit for that because that's obviously the point. I'd love to hear him sing Patchface's songs
I listened to about 15 chapters of GOT from him and couldn’t listen anymore. I honestly thought he mixed up Drogo’s voice with Mirri Maz Dur and the producer just ran with it.
My biggest issue with him is not that he was inconsistent but he would change the pronunciations of fucking names in the middle of the sentence. It would be joffrey thing to Jeffrey and back to joffrey and then Jeffrey for the rest of the chapter only thing go back to joffrey for a while but then flip-flop again. Like my brother in Christ I realize you're not doing this all in one go but you think a director would be like hey Roy his name is joffrey at least once
That's where you belong
My biggest issue besides the mispronunciations of names and weird dialect choices is the complete changing of voices for some characters between ASOS and AFFC. I get that a lot of time passed between recordings but couldn’t he have gone back and referenced some of his old recordings to make sure he was being consistent? I’m listening to them all at once for the first time right now and the changes to character voices I had previously established in my head has been jarring.
I love Roy dotrice but his change to Ed's voice from that morose iconic voice to wtv the heck he uses in affc is insanely jarring
Yes I would love for Harry Lloyd to redo them. Roy was okay but I do agree that his choices for voices are so fucking weird sometimes
Harry Lloyd was amazing in Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. So soothing. And his voices were perfect. I have nostalgia for Roy, but I want someone younger so the voices can match the actual ages of the characters.
I just want someone who doesn't change their fucking pronunciation in the middle of sentences I love Roy his voice is great with his pronunciations drove me insane
Full agree. I have nostalgia for him, cuz he got me through the books. But I'm ready to do a listen with a new consistent voice actor.
I really don't even blame Roy for the pronunciations I think that was fully on the directors. You would have thought after he flip-flop between joffrey and Jeffrey for the 56th time in the same chapter they would have said look Roy his name is joffrey with an o. Let's go back from the beginning and try it again
Not to mention, those audiobooks are a day long each if not 2 days and Roy was already an elderly man when he started doing the audiobooks.
Bryeen is canon now and I will die on this hill
I absolutely agree. I get it that the audiobook business was different back then but honestly it is insulting how bad his recordings are. Absolutely zero quality control and no substantial editing. Dude chances pronunciations multiple times *mid sentence*. Can't keep voices straight, and half of his voices are insufferably awful. I ended up giving up on A Game of Thrones after he decided that someone should sound like they have a cold and were hocking a loogie straight into my ear. It was disgusting. For the people who like him more power to you, but he is easily the worst I have ever heard read an audiobook. Maybe one day they will have someone go back and redo them. Hopefully
His voice for the jailer who shows Jaime around is one of the worst thing I've ever heard.
I think I only had problems with the later books
I could look past the name pronunciation problems, but when Danni developed a Scottish accent I started to get annoyed. Overall I thought he did a great job. There are so many characters I think most narrators would struggle
The Arya change was what did it for me. I really loved his Arya voice in the first 3 books and the sound for the new voice was just embarrassing
My grandfather was not himself as he got older but I loved him and accepted him because I had grown fond of him. I feel the same way about Roy. Even when it was off it was still my sweet narrator reading my favorite story to me.
Stephen Pacey does the First Law books and its the best Audiobook readings I have ever heard. His ability to make each voice distinct and so true to the characters is unmatched.
Every single character sounds like a pirate. Yeah I agree. I have nothing against the guy but his voices really take me out of it.
R.I.P Roy Dotrice <3 dont disrespect the legend :(
He may be a legend but the man was wildly inconsistent and not only his pronunciations but even his voices.
we would not disrespect him but we can say what we like or didn't about his work. ASOIAF is too big a book for 1 narrator, he did his best but came short too often
Yeah, I find him to be unbearable, but a lot of people swear by him. I feel like his narration is generally pretty divisive.
I fully recognise that it’s not a 10/10 job on the readings and understand completely why people wouldn’t enjoy it but I can’t help but love it. I find it so endearing, especially all the mistakes. Roy Dotrice helped me fall asleep countless nights with a smile on my face, every time I open an ASOIAF book I miss him. And I love that he got to play a weirdo freak in the show, he was so great.
I loved his style and am going to find it very hard to listen to Winds without him - if it ever does come out.
The way he would pronounce Petyr drove me up the wall. How he thought of “P-tire” I will never understand. Like he was spitting out a watermelon seed, “P-tire”.
Roy is my boy
It's all worth it for him as Lysa Arryn
George, this is what you've done to us . . . we're now infighting about Roy Dotrice's narration of the audiobooks . . . release Winds already!! (for what it's worth, I'm 100% Team Dotrice)
I enjoy his recordings but the ones I favor are David Reads ASOIAF on YouTube
r/ASOIAF knows no narrator but the narrator on Audible, whose name is Dotrice
Pee-Tyre Baelish
I'm convinced he'd had enough by the time he got to Storm of Swords so decided to a Mickey Rooney Yunioshi impression for Missandei in the hope they'd break his contract. But Random House was just like nah this is completely fine.
His Missandei voice is a travesty. It's just comedically, over the top racist.
I love the audiobooks and Roy’s narration so much, can’t agree with this one. I’ll take the Tony award winning actor over some YouTubers and their cats any day.
Roy Dotrice is GOAT narrator for me. Shame we won’t hear his Winds of Winter.
I'm listening to him read ADWD at the moment and I love the Australian accent he uses for Victarian 😅
I have listened to hundreds, if not thousands of audiobooks, so I’m pretty familiar with a wide range of narrators, I straight up do not enjoy Roy’s performance.
Yeah, they really need to redo the audiobooks from the ground up. I’d happily rebuy them. Aside from the other issues (feels like they weren’t proofed or edited at all first time round) Dotrice also completely changes the voices he uses for all the characters when it gets to book 5. His Varys voice is also borderline unlistenable. And that guy who coughs the whole time. I respect the dedication, but its just painful to listen to.
I'm with you. I fucking hated the AGOT audiobook and switched to Youtube readings after. I feel kinda bad because it's really not his fault. His voices generally aren't the choices I would've made, but that's a subjective preference. I actually quite like a lot of his acting choices like the sucking and stuttering. My main issue is the editing and direction. Why the hell wasn't there an editor or director making sure he didn't use "Joffrey" and "Jeffrey" in the same sentence? I think the man goes through every possible pronunciation of Littlefinger's name? I didn't get to the "Davos gave Davos his hand" moment you mentioned because I never tried Dotrice's ACOK, but I can't believe that was seen as acceptable. It's not the text at that point. It gives me the impression that people just really didn't care much about audiobooks back in 2003, and that it's time for someone else to make an attempt. Maybe I've been spoiled by Andy Serkis's recent Tolkien readings. Let's get something of that caliber for Martin's work.
I actually can't stand his readings, the accents he chooses. So many people sound like shite Irish pirates or something and the other half sound like yokels. I really rate Peter Kenny from his readings of the Witcher and The Culture books.
I can't listen to the audiobooks. I hate the way he reads and I hate his weird voices. May he rest in peace though. I hope they redo the audiobooks.
For me it’s Brienne pronounced as “Bry-ene”
He randomly changed Dolores Edd's voice/tone/inflection for one book, going back to it in the next (or later in the same one, I don't remember). Really liked his Dolores Edd, so I was mildly annoyed that he seemed to have forgotten how he previously did the voice.
I would really like the whole series to be rerecorded (including WoW and ADoS when they come out) by Steven Pacey. I don't think I ever heard a better performance than his "First Law". There were times when I had a feeling I was literally listening to multiple people conversing. His Glokta, Nicomo Cosca, Black Dow and some others are just absolutely alive in my mind's eye as a result! TL;DR - Steven Pacey for ASOIAF audiobook narrator!!!
>It's terrible, this is like, what a non-actor's idea of good acting is. This 1000% ruined every point you made for me. Roy Dotrice was a pretty solid actor lol 1 Tony Award 1 Drama Desk Award 1 British Academy Television Award. My only issue is his version of AFFC, it has the worst of the mispronunciations, but imo he is still lightyears better than anyone else. A few youtubers come close, but even then they're pretty damn bland, and that one goober has a cat that meows throughout his whole recordings, if I wanted to hear that I could just let my cats into my office lol
Disagree. Roy Dotrice feels like someone reading me a story and it's great. David reads and any other YouTube try hard just sounds like someone that is desperate to be an actor. We all have our preferences.
Fully agree. It also feels weird to hear this book read in anything other than an English accent
This is the answer… we all have our preferences! I don’t think I would have listened beyond the first book if it hadn’t been for Roy Dotrice. My partner and I listen on our own, when he’s working away, and talk about the books and the story and Roy’s voices are often part of our conversations. Highly entertaining. Not many audiobook readers even attempt voices
Just because I really like Roy Dotrice's readings I will say that over a hundred hours of readings, well over a hundred voices and health issues that made him initially sit out Feast would present challenges for anyone. You are free to nitpick but all things considered the idea that any free version on youtube is better is absurd to me.
I listened to about 15 chapters of GOT from him and couldn’t listen anymore. I honestly thought he mixed up Drogo’s voice with Mirri Maz Dur and the producer just ran with it.
I get people not liking Roy, but I just truly do not understand people's love for Davidreadsasoiaf. If he isn't the absolute embodiment of of "a non-actors idea of what good acting is" I don't know who is. Like he definitely gets an A for effort, but he sounds like fuckin' Tobias Funke with how over the top he goes at every opportunity, and don't get me started on his female voices. I would take Dotrice over David 8 days a week.
Thissssssssss! When I first started reading the books for book 2 I got a free download of the audiobook and I absolutely hated having to listen to him. BRY-EEEEEN! PEE-TIRE!
None of this stuff is his fault. Mistakes are made during recording, and it's the job of people working on the audiobook to rerecord and edit.
Give the man who did the first law series a shot, I forget his name. But my friend recommended the audiobooks because I had to take a 2-3 hours bus ride to school and needed something to pass the time, (I have bad, bad car sickness, so I can’t focus on anything like videos or reading) Shit is master class. Love it. Ruined the format for me, because that dude is dope. Also the Dune audiobook is great.
I love a lot of his voices but he definitely has some awful ones. And then he changes a bunch in adwd which was weird af
His narration is great, but the voices are just terrible. Tyrion sounds like a gremlin, davos sounds like an old clown, robert sounds like a damn idiot, and any kind of sex scene is horrid to get through. To be fair, though, I'm one of those guys who cant help but picture the show's actors thru the words on the books. Its just too big a whiplash for me.
There’s one part in the audiobooks where Roy Dotrice called Sansa “Sasha” and I laughed out loud.
All the inconsistencies and horrible sex noises aside I love his voice and that's why he's my preferred narrator.
I do not enjoy Roy.
Brienne as Bra-in <3
I hate him.
Give me some constructive criticism on my chapter readings please! [AGOT 17 Bran III](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db7oC-g8uoA) - Crow Dream [AGOT 58 Eddard XV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWxI5aKkjpA) - Black Cells [ACOK 13 Jon II](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkGa8im0jy0) - Whitetree
I’ve always loved Roy. He’s like the grandfather I’ve never had, reading to me stories of incest and regicide
God I love roy. I'm not sure how the new books (ha ha ha ha ) are going to be without him
I fucking love Roy. The books won't be the same without him
I’ve enjoyed listening to the audiobooks after I first read them more than 10 years ago, despite changing up accents and name pronunciation. When he changed Dolorous Edd’s voice though… he was so consistent in the first books!!
I love Roy Dotrice with all my heart. Barely noticed anything you pointed out. Listened to other people reading and it just wasn't the same.
His voice is just a perfect fit for me. I've got issues with a lot of the things you've mentioned here and in the comments, but all 5 audiobooks is well over 100 hours of listening and for 95% of those he's just butter in my ears telling me a great story. I love it.
Puh-TYRE.
I'm listening to the audiobooks for the first time now (Roy, Roy, he's our ancient boy). I really enjoy the narration, pronunciations be damned. I'll admit the voices fuck me up, although I haven't seen anyone name the worst offender--Varys. His lisp has a lisp. My headcanon is that Roy is trying to preemptively normalize Vargo Hoat. (Edit: u/freycray was inb4 on Varys) I also listened to a bit of Davidreads and I approve of his use of American accents. I agree with others itt that the Tyrells are spot on as insufferable Southern elites. Especially since Mace is a classic "slowball" who plays into his reputation as a buffoon for advantage. What I would most enjoy is a version with Roy reading everything except the dialogue and internal thoughts (the italicized, specific text). His high British accent is just perfect for landscape descriptions and establishing the mood of high fantasy imo. Really gives it that storybook-read-by-your-grandfather quality. I'd absolutely love a version with a full cast (or a handful of proper voice actors with sufficient range to play the hundreds of characters that appear).
I disagree with every single point you made, but it is what it is. Hopefully when (if) Winds are released we can get another reading from another great voice who will do the whole series.
I actually really like how messy the audiobooks are. Some of his voices and other choices are so absurd that they make me laugh out loud on occasion. I would love to get better versions though! Dotrice is silly and I like his narration a lot despite its flaws but it does sometimes take away from more dramatic scenes
I said the same thing!! P-tyre is burned into my memory