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, participants were given a love themed freebie in honour of Valentine’s Day. As such, I’m going to focus on something that I have a lot of love for, the audiobook format, as I once again revisit and update a fun post I last looked at nearly two years ago.
As readers of this blog will be aware, I am a massive fan of audiobooks, and it is often the best way to enjoy a good book. I have been lucky enough to listen to an impressive collection of audiobooks over the years, with some of them being extremely long, often taking me weeks to get through. Back in 2019, I got curious about all the audiobooks I had listened to, and I wanted to know which was the longest one that I had ever listened to. As a result, I sat down and worked out which ones had the longest run time and turned it into a massive list. This ended up being such an interesting endeavour that I posted it on my blog here, with the longest 20 books featured. I had such an amazing time doing this that a year later I had a go at updating it, adding in a few additional audiobooks I had listened to, and then I once again updated it in 2022.
Well, it has been nearly two years since I last updated this list and I always intended to keep coming back to this list to see how the recent long audiobooks I have listened to stacked up against the books already on this list. Since the last update in 2022 I have managed to listen to quite a few new audiobooks, several of which had an excellent run time. The list below is similar to the list I posted a couple of years ago, with several new additions added in (see the highlight posts). I ended up returning the list back to the original 20 entry format I previously had, and the resulting post turned out pretty damn well.
Top Twenty List:
- The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, narrated by Nick Podehl – 42 hours and 55 minutes
- Magician by Raymond E. Feist, narrated by Peter Joyce – 36 hours and 14 minutes
- A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, narrated by Roy Dotrice – 33 hours and 45 minutes
The longest new entry on this list is the exceptional audiobook, The Shadow Casket by Chris Wooding. The sequel the Wooding’s previous novel, The Ember Blade (the audiobook version of which also appears on this list), The Shadow Casket proved to be a remarkable piece of epic fantasy fiction, and I loved the elaborate narrative that emerged. The impressive narration by Simon Bubb helped to turn this massive audiobook into something very fun to listen to, and The Shadow Casket ended up being one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2023.
Amazon
Amazon
Amazon
Another exceptional audiobook from last year was The Will of the Many by James Islington. An awesome and complex fantasy book that saw a young, fugitive prince infiltrate an elite academy of his enemies, The Will of the Many had so many fun elements to it, and I was quickly enthralled by its brilliant narrative. Narrator Euan Morton added his unique voice to the mix, and this helped to turn The Will of the Many into a pretty fun listen, and one I managed to power through quickly despite its over 28 hour long run time. A highly recommended audiobook, especially if you are looking for a long listen to get lost in.
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, narrated by Nick Podehl – 27 Hours and 55 minutes
An intriguing and powerful fantasy audiobook from a couple of years ago. Dragon Mage was an impressive book, that featured some great classic fantasy elements to it. Following two young protagonists dragged into a deadly war for the fate of magic and its dragon protectors, Dragon Mage was an awesome listen that I couldn’t get enough of.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale – 27 hours and 2 minutes
One of my favourite author and narrator combos, Jonathan Maberry and Ray Porter, made its way onto this list with Son of the Poison Rose. The sequel to Kagen the Damned, Son of the Poison Rose is an excellent and very brutal dark fantasy read that I could not get enough of. Maberry makes full use of the extra runtime of this novel to tell an impressive story, and this audiobook comes highly recommended, especially with Porter’s exceptional voice work.
- Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch, narrated by Michael Page – 25 hours and 34 minutes
An epic and highly addictive new fantasy novel by Brian McClellan, In the Shadow of Lightning was one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2022, and I really fell in love with its elaborate story. I honestly flew through In the Shadow of Lightning’s near 25-hour runtime, and narrator Damian Lynch ensures the action and intrigue laden narrative really flows along. An exceptional piece of fantasy fiction that comes alive in its audiobook version.
Considering how some of the other original Inheritance Cycle audiobooks dominate the top half of this list, it is unsurprising that Christopher Paolini’s latest addition to the series, Murtagh, also makes an appearance. Featuring original narrator Gerard Doyle, Murtagh was a great addition to the series, and I had a wonderful time getting through this lengthy audiobook at the end of last year.
Well, those are some cool new additions to this list. I am pretty happy with how this new version of the list turned out, although I should work on listening to some longer audiobooks in the coming year. I will have another go at updating this list in a couple of years or so, but in the meantime let me know what the longest audiobook you have listened to is in the comments below.
The Unseen Library 