Best of ‘Included in your (Audible) subscription’?
April 13, 2024 6:47 PM   Subscribe

What is the best content on audible that is included with a standard subscription? So far, for example, I have found the complete Sherlock Holmes read by Stephen Fry, and a handful of shorts set in METAtropolis by some of my favorite authors, a couple Scalzis, the first Murderbot. What else should I look at (har har). Outstanding reader and outstanding content both welcome.
posted by bq to Media & Arts (15 answers total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I'm currently listening to LOTR read by Andy Serkis and it's fantastic.
posted by cozenedindigo at 7:20 PM on April 13, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Christa Lewis does an exquisite reading of the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy: Arrows of the Queen, Arrow's Flight, and Arrow's Fall.

I enjoyed Room with a View read by Rebecca Hall, and Middlemarch read by Maureen O'Brien.

I'm currently listening to, and very much recommend The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn read by Tom Parker. (I previewed a half of dozen versions of this book before settling on this one. I'm very happy with it.)

All of these were free and included with the Audible membership.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:44 PM on April 13, 2024 [1 favorite]


(From what I can see, the Andy Serkis LOTR is not free to Audible members. It has to be purchased. I believe the OP is looking for books you can add to your library and listen to without additional charge just by having some sort of membership.)
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:53 PM on April 13, 2024 [3 favorites]


Richard Armitage is an excellent reader and has recorded quite a few classics that are included with the membership, absolutely worth looking up.

Also when I’ve been having trouble sleeping I do a quick sleep music search and pick something at random, it’s been fun!
posted by lepus at 8:07 PM on April 13, 2024 [1 favorite]


I'm not a member anymore, but numerous Jim Harrison books were free, including Legends of the Fall and Revenge.
posted by dobbs at 2:39 AM on April 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


Currently listening to The Overstory by Richard Powers. It’s pretty great and I was out of my audible credits so was nice it was “free”.
posted by creiszhanson at 2:50 AM on April 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


I think this stuff may vary by region - I'm an Audible subscriber in the UK and would have to spend a credit to access any of the titles mentioned above.
posted by altolinguistic at 3:55 AM on April 14, 2024


(thinking about it, though, my membership may be paused - but I can still see the Audible Plus catalogue and don't see the above titles in it).
posted by altolinguistic at 4:01 AM on April 14, 2024


I think this stuff may vary by region

Yes, this is true with any rights-based content.
posted by dobbs at 5:39 AM on April 14, 2024


Best answer: A bunch of the Mick Herron Slow Horses books are in there. They're excellent.
posted by dobbs at 5:47 AM on April 14, 2024


They Thought They Were Free by Milton Mayer is a study of 10 men in a smaller German city who all joined the Nazi party. It’s a sobering look at how people supported the Nazis sometimes eagerly, sometimes reluctantly, and how they felt about it afterwards. Timely, you might say.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:08 PM on April 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


I have no idea if these are included, but Trevor Noah reading his memoir Born a Crime is something I listen to over and over.

I had an audiobook version of LOTR read by Christopher Lee and that was pretty cool.

Kenneth Branagh reads a mean Frankenstein, but it's some kind of abbreviated version of the novel.

I have yet to find a good performer for In Search of Lost Time.
posted by Snowishberlin at 1:09 PM on April 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: John Scalzi's Dispatcher novellas are really good, read by Zachary Quinto, who adds a nice grim noir note to Scalzi's lighthearted writing style.

I loved Lily Chu's The Stand-In, read by Philippa Soo.

If you really like Aliens (which I do) there are a series of Audible Originals with full voice casts that are set in that universe. They are all basically the same story ("What's going on? Oh crap!"), but they are really well made. I listened to like one per year, so it wasn't too much. I suggest Alien: Out of the Shadows, because it has Rutger Hauer AND a really good Sigourney Weaver impersonator.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:51 PM on April 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Books 7 to 9 of the Expanse are included for me. That's not that helpful probably but I listened to 1-3 in Libby so was willing to spend the credits to get through the rest (which is I'm sure what they want).

I enjoyed the Rosamund Pike Jane Austen ones.
posted by lookoutbelow at 10:29 PM on April 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


I was very pleased to find Theory and Reality - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science by Peter Godfrey-Smith as an included title (UK Market). It's not nearly as dry as it sounds, though I'll grant it's a bit niche.

As I've shared here before - a bonus suck-it to Amazon Audible tip to help stock up on those credit-gated titles :

You can login to Amazon marketplace sites worldwide using your same original region login / password, and you'll have an account created for that region.

After having done that, you can e.g. in a private browser window connect to different regional Audible sites and get their free or massively cheaper (imho the only way it's acceptable value) intro / don't go / come back to us offers that much more often.

I don't know about other marketplaces, as just doing this between UK / FR gets me more than enough to keep a backlog of listens going, but Audible.fr certainly has all of the titles I'm looking for in English.

The only hassle is that you do then have to log out of the Audible app and reconnect to it with a specific marketplace selected to access each set of titles.

posted by protorp at 1:14 PM on April 15, 2024 [1 favorite]


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