Saturday 26 March 2011

Roy Dotrice returns to read A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

Roy Dotrice, the popular audiobook reader for the first three A Song of Ice and Fire books, has been signed up by Bantam to read the audiobook for A Dance with Dragons. Schedules are being put together now for the recording and release of the audiobook.


Excellent news. There were fears that Dotrice's health issues - the same issues that meant he couldn't take up the role of Grand Maester Pycelle in the HBO series - would prevent him from reading the audiobook, but fortunately he has made a full and rapid recovery. HBO are also now looking at giving him a role in Season 2 (if renewed) of the TV show. Personally I think he'd make a great Maester Cressen (if a rather brief appearance).

20 comments:

Rohrerbot said...

Yes yes....Maester Cressen. Good call!

Joel said...

AWESOME news. they should go back and re-record AFFC too. i often don't mind john lee as a reader but he was so wrong for this series.

of course what's truly said is the reality of roy's age vs. GRRM's writing pace means it might be the last of the books he reads.

Jason Boulette said...

Dotrice is way too good for Cressen, which would be, what, five minutes of screen time at most? There are much meatier roles where he could really shine. I'd much rather see him as Qyburn, for instance, though that'd be a delayed role.

Anonymous said...

I only wish that Random House would re-publish the 4th Audiobook with Roy. I am likely to skip the AFFC audiobook and just read it myself rather than destroy the excellent characters that Roy created.

Anonymous said...

Why the hell did he change the voices he uses for some characters and not others? It is VERY disappointing to have him do new voices and makes the book very difficult to get into.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely agree. The voices are all wrong. There is no reason why Daenerys should suddenly sound like she does. He was great in the first three books I can only assume that because GRRM took so long to get this new book out, dementia has set in and old Roy who was always an old boy isn't all there anymore. He also sounds knackered reading the book as though the effort is too much for him. Still, much better than the jackass who read the last book though.

Anonymous said...

Completely agree. The new voices are very disappointing and I don't understand why they have changed. It puts me off the audio books, and Daenerys sounds ridiculous. I prefered the voice he used for Melisandre in the other books too, it added to her dark appeal. I'm finding it very hard to listen to...

Anonymous said...

perhaps he got crap for the voices he used in the first three books and thought a change may be necessary? I just could not get into John Lee's voices after Roy Dotrice

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, Roy used the voice he used for Asha for Daenerys in DANCE, which really threw me for a loop the first time I heard it. Poor ol' bloke, he's been so many fantastic characters he can't even keep them straight himself! (Or, he did it halfway like that before he realized what happened, and just decided to hell with it)

Anonymous said...

bummed about Daenerys voice... I was so happy to finally get Roy back, then I herd him speak for Daenerys and was the WTF?! She's always been my favorite character and he changed it completely to make her sound simple and old... not a fan so far, I'm hoping I can learn to adjust...

Anonymous said...

Dotrice has massacred A Dance with Dragons. All the women sound like old crones. Give me John Lee any day.

Anonymous said...

I had to Google this because I started listening to the Audio book today and couldn't believe how bad he was. I thought I was going crazy when I heard the voice he was portraying for Daenerys. I stopped listening to it because it is SOOOO bad. Wow, what a let down. I can’t believe he didn’t go back to one of the other books to remember how he did the characters voices. I am embarrassed for how bad Roy is reading this book!

Anonymous said...

Found finally time to listen to Dance with Dragons. Was a bit disappointed with John Lee in 4th book but got used to him. And for ADWD I would have preferred John lee (thought I never would say this). Roy was great for the first three books but I got shocked listening to his performance on ADWD. Almost all his characters just sound wrong and indeed are Daenerys and Melissandre esecially hurtfull to the ears. Having the voices massacred does not really help to enjoy the book which in itself is not GRRM's best...

Anonymous said...

Roy Dotrice has made my ears bleed in A Dance with Dragons. His character voices are ridiculously bad.Daenerys sounds like she is a 90 year old toothless wench. He basically has three voices for all the characters in this book and mumbles his words on top of it all. Half the time I'm trying to figure what he just butchered on the audio cd.

Anonymous said...

I was never fond of Dotrice myself, as I preferred Avers, but even without any high expectations I was shocked... And not just Daenerys and Melissandre was horrible to listen, Bran and every single boy and girl younger than 50 sounded like garandpa and grandma exhausted after some night long lovemaking. After the first two chapters I had to return to reading, the narration was just that unbearable. I cant believe no one realized how bad the narration went before they released it...

Manroy said...

Roy Dotrice is absolutely TERRIBLE in ADWD! Goodnight he is bad. I'm sure that people are thinking I'm some kind of troll, but I am so mega pissed that they let this 90 year old, poor leprechaun woman read for the audiobook. It is unlistenable, which is really disappointing since I am a new father, and don't have time to chug through a massive book right now. So, so, so, so, so disappointing.

Anonymous said...

Im currently listening to AFFC. The first 3 books by Dotrice were great but ARGGGHHHHH! What on earth is he doing here! Im almost at the point where I think he is purposely changing voices for a laugh.

Arya got on the boat to Bravos speaking like a little girl, but got off the other side presumably searching for a pot o´gold at the end of the rainbow considering her new found Leprechaun accent.

Dolourus Ed was one of my favourite characters in the first three books - I used to love the way Dotrice put a little "eh!" at the end of nearly all of his sentences, yet now he just speaks like someone from the cast of Eastenders.

I Googled "Roy Dotrice horrible" to find this page, and just had to comment and rant to get it out of my system, but now ive seen here that he has butchered voices of my favourite characters like Daenerys in ADWD im even more angry knowing what Ive got to come :(

Really, I just dont understand why he couldnt of just listened to a clip from any of the books 1-3 to re-familiarise himself with his previous voices before just sticking in whatever he felt like at the time.

Pure laziness, bad directing, shouldnt of been released like this. aSoIaF has been ruined for many customers of the audio books, Im sure.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Anonymous said...

I don't really blame Roy. The director should have stopped him immediately and said, "Uhhh, Roy? That's not the right voice. Here's a recording from the first few books to review. Do it like that." I'm sure Roy could have done it right with the proper direction.

Anonymous said...

I had to google Daenerys sounding like a leprechaun in book five, just to see if it was me alone that was disappointed. Now after reading the comments I am scared to hear what Melisandre sounds like. Listening to Daenerys is like torture. She lost all her strength in my mind with this simple girl sounding voice. I was already bothered by the change of Little Finger's and Arya's voices in book four... and the way he kept saying "kate-lynn" instead of "cat-lynn." Makes me mad I spent my money on this audio book and do not see any other options for a narrator in audible.

Captain Black said...

I listened to the first 3 books A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings,A Storm of Swords with Roy Dotrice reading, I was never very impressed with his reading style, but his were the only versions I could find….

Then I heard A Feast for Crows with John Lee and I have to say the difference was shocking, John’s interpretation is so so much better, I never once questioned his characterizations, and his flow of narrative so much better suited the story. But unfortunately I have finished A Feast for Crows….

Now I am back to Roy Dotrice for A Dance with Dragons, his Am-Dram pirate interpretation of this series is possibly the worst audio-book I have ever heard, and I have heard many, at times its so bad that I burst out laughing, Daenerys sounding like a little old Irish woman??? I’m sure that is not what the Author or Publisher envisaged when commissioning this series.

This is a massive world wide best selling series, do you at Random House actually think that Roy Dotrice's interpritation of these books is of a quality that that you are proud of? There is so much negative chatter on the internet regarding the Roy Dotrice versions.

PLEASE CAN WE HAVE THIS SERIES READ IN FULL BY JOHN LEE……