Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, readers get a freebie and can choose whatever topic they want. As we are getting towards the end of the year, I thought that this would be a good time to start a series of Top Ten Tuesday posts that look at my favourite books of 2019, and the first of these lists is going to look at my favourite audiobooks that came out this year.

I have long been a major fan of the audiobook format. In my opinion, the audiobook is often the best way to experience a good book, and in many cases this format actually makes a book more enjoyable for me. As a result, I listened to quite a few audiobooks this year, and while many of them are books that had been released before 2019 and which featured in my Throwback Thursday posts, a large majority of them were released this year. There were some absolutely outstanding audiobook adaptions this year, and while I had a few books to choose from, I was eventually able narrow my absolute favourites down to a top ten list.

For this list I have only included audiobooks released in 2019 that I have listened to and completed, so I am excluding a few books that probably had some great audiobook productions (for example, I am sure that Starsight’s audiobook was amazing, but I ended up reading a physical copy instead). While all of the books that made the top ten are outstanding novels, I have tried to take overall audiobook production into account while choosing my list. Each of the books that I included below had great narrators, and I think that for most of these novels, the audiobook format actually enhanced the story and helped me enjoy the book even more.

Honourable Mentions:

The Captain’s Oath by Christopher L. Bennett, narrated by Robert Petkoff

The Malta Exchange by Steve Berry, narrated by Scott Brick

Recursion by Blake Crouch, narrated by Jon Lindstrom and Abby Craden

Top Ten List:

1: Rage by Jonathan Maberry, narrated by Ray Porter

There was no way that I would do a list about my favourite audiobooks of 2019 without mentioning the latest book Joe Ledger book narrated by Ray Porter. Not only is Rage an outstanding novel, but Porter once again brings his incredible vocal talents to the audiobook adaptation, perfectly encapsulating the various characters and providing a voice filled with humour and raw emotion. The Joe Ledger books are one of my favourite series at the moment, and thanks to Porter’s voice work, the audiobook is the best way to enjoy them.

2: The Bone Ships by R. J. Barker, narrated by Jude Owusu

I am still working on my review for The Bone Ships, but it easily one of the best new books I read this year (it gets a full five stars from me). I really loved listening to The Bone Ships’ audiobook format, and it was a really good way to absorb the excellent story. I was particularly impressed with Jude Owusu’s narration, and his enthusiasm and understanding of the characters really shines through and creates and epic production that is really worth checking out.

3: The Night Fire by Michael Connelly, narrated by Titus Welliver and Christine Lakin

Not only is The Night Fire an amazing piece of crime fiction, but the use of two separate narrators really adds a lot to the novel’s audiobook adaption. Both narrators do an amazing job with this book, and it’s pretty cool that they get Titus Welliver to voice the character he plays in the Bosch television adaptation.

4: Red Metal by Mark Greaney and Lieutenant Colonel Hunter Ripley Rawlings IV (USMC), narrated by Marc Vietor

This is an epic and well-crafted military thriller that deals with a potential invasion into Europe and Africa from Russia. This book was pretty exceptional, and the audiobook format helps add a lot to the story, enhancing the various action sequences and bringing some great life to characters.

5: Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio, narrated by Saul Reichlin

Howling Dark is a massive and exceedingly detailed science fiction novel. Not only was the narration top-notch, but I found that the audiobook format was really effective in helping me absorb all the relevant plot details and appreciate all the world building that Ruocchio came up with.

6: The Kremlin Strike by Dale Brown, narrated by William Dufris

This was an amazingly fun book to listen to, as all the action, dogfights and battles in space against the Russians really came to life in this format.

7: Dark Forge by Miles Cameron, narrated by Mark Meadows

Another book I haven’t yet finished my review for. Dark Forge, the sequel to the excellent 2018 novel, Cold Iron, is an exceedingly detailed book, and I find that Meadow’s narration really helped we appreciate everything going on.

8: Star Wars: Master and Apprentice by Claudia Gray, narrated by Jonathan Davis

Master and Apprentice was one of my favourite Star Wars novels of 2019, and I had an absolute blast listening to its audiobook. Not only are the Star Wars audiobooks filled with all the iconic sound effects and music from the movies, but Davis’s narration was very impressive, and did a great job of impersonating several major movie characters.

9: Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey, narrated by Jefferson Mays

A great piece of science fiction and a really good audiobook production. Mays comes up with some amazing voices for this novel, and I felt I was able to enjoy the widespread, science fiction story a lot more in this format.

10: Boundless by R. A. Salvatore, narrated by Victor Bevine

The final inclusion on this list is the audiobook format of the latest R. A. Salvatore book, Boundless. Bevine did a fantastic job with his narration, coming up with all manner of unique fantasy accents and voices. I quite enjoyed this audiobook production, and it was an amazing way to enjoy this fantasy book.

There is still time for me to listen to a few more great audiobooks this year, and I am planning to check out the audiobook adaption of Joe Abercrombie’s A Little Hatred next. Let me know what your favourite audiobooks of 2019 were in the comments below, if they sound interesting, I might try and check them out.