Amplirecathon 2012: One more time around the block

[niko]

I mainly listen to podfic in my car, so the stories that jumped out at me as must-rec are ones that had me taking the long way home, driving around the block a couple extra times, or just plain sitting in the driveway for an extra five... ten... ok, fifteen minutes.

I also *may* have over-estimated my ability to put this together coherently, so please, please, please forgive the sentence fragments and general scattered-ness of my thoughts on these. 
 

The Narrator  (Sherlock Holmes Movie-verse)  written & read by candle_beck
This came on while I was driving back to my hotel at MediaWest this year, and when I got to the hotel, I literally drove right past and kept going.  Happy for me, the streets in that part of Lansing just keep going and going in straight lines, because I didn't have to remember where I was going.  :)   The story is absolutely brilliant on its own - so messy, and aching, and complicated.  But for me, this is definitely a case where the podfic amplifies what is on the page and makes it even more so.  The unforgiving, staccato delivery of Watson's take on his own life.  The way she captures the cutting edges in the dialogue while still having that flippant 'bantery' side to it.  My heart was in my throat with achy *feels* the whole recording.
 
Semaphore (Avengers) written by DevilDoll, read bycrinklysolution
This is a long-ish recording (4 1/2 hours), but when I got to the end of it, I wanted to go back and start listening from the beginning again.  There's something kinda sneakily straightforward about crinklysolution's reading in this.  In any given five-minute snippet, you could come away thinking it's a fairly emotionless narration style, but as things go on, the nuance really shines through in Tony's wry POV to the narration, and there's so much *affection* in the dialogue bits between Tony and Steve that I just want to wubble both of them.

In Bond and Blood (Naruto) written by thehoyden , read bylily_wordsmith
This story and podfic are just so freakin' adorable.  Seriously - so, so, *so* sweet and hilarious and ADORABLE.  Her character voices are priceless - especially Naruto - so perfectly bratty and yet so cute you want to reach into the podfic and pinch his cheeks. :)  I love how the reading, overall, just SOUNDS like she's smiling the whole time.  It makes me smile, too.

Say My Name (Sherlock BBC) written by etothepii , read bychestnut_filly
The story is a really cool take on Anthea, and chestnut_filly does a great job voicing her in both the regular narration and the blog-style entries.  She captures that who-are-you-and-why-are-you-bothering-me-and-never-mind-I-really-don't-care tone that makes Anthea so memorable brilliantly.

This Wasn't What the Brochure Promised (Avengers) written by kahn, read bykalakirya
There's quite a lot of back-and-forth with Tony/Steve/Clint/Bruce in this story, and Kalakirya does *such* a great job keeping them distinctive. (Which is usually pretty do-able with two adult men in a scene, but four? A feat.) The parts I love best are the snarky bits, and she sells those beautifully. Just opening the file and listening to a few minutes to refresh my memory for this has a big grin on my face. :)

Apotheosis (Sherlock BBC) written by mad_maudlin , read bycalliglad
Just listened to this a few days ago and had to rearrange my mental recs list to include it.  Definitely my favorite Sherlock BBC podfic so far.  She does such a great job evoking this story's John - the same character we see in the series, but with a lot of his joy in life left out to reflect how he's hardened up for/by his mission.  And yet, there's a bit at the end where Mycroft reveals a certain spoiler, and the emotion bleeds through... really powerful-yet-understated reading.  Great stuff.

And to round out the set, a couple favorites that were short enough to fit into a single drive to work:

Carnivale (12th Night) written & read byfresne
Delightfully wicked and decadent, in both story plot and delivery.

Round World with a Square Heart (Avengers) written bysomehowunbroken , read bymeri 
I love the Steve POV voice for the main narration of this, and her reading of Tony's lines hits that great sense of Tony not having much of a brain-to-mouth filter.  :) 

Comments

[cybel]

Thank you for the great recs!

I think you must have accidentally combined two recs in the first one, though--unless this was an Sherlock (BBC)/Avengers fusion. ;-)

[niko]

Yeah, I missed something with either the lj-user links or the lj-cut tags when I copied my original post over from LJ. Working on fixing it, but it's being a brat. :) The recs themselves should all be there now, though.

[cybel]

:-)

[crinklysolution]

Thanks for the excellent recs, I downloaded several of them that I had missed. I was so happy to see that you liked Semaphore enough to rec it! Also, I am very pleased that you think that I was able to transmit the nuance of it - I try not to overdo it on the reading, but underlay what I think the characters are feeling, and I am thinking that "sneakily straightforward" is one of the best complements I could hope for! Thanks for making my day....

[niko]

*grin* I'm glad the compliment of that came across. :) I was a little worried after-the-fact that it would read as too backhanded, which I totally didn't intend. It's really a great podfic. :)

[hardboiledbaby]

Whee, more Sherlock recs! I do a lot of listening in my car too (about the only thing that makes gridlock bearable) Thank you for these *bounces*

[niko]

Yeah, the car thing is great. I think half the reason I went to MediaWest this year was to have an excuse to listen to podfic for four hours straight. :)

Hope you enjoy! :)

[fire_juggler]

LOL. This post totally made me think of NPR's "Driveway Moments". Goodness knows I've done that so many times before. Just sat in the car to hear just a few more minutes! Several new podfics to me here that I can't wait to download, and I totally second Carnivale. Amazing fic and podfic!!! Thank you so much!!! My iPod is getting so happy right now!

[niko]

Sorry I'm slow replying, but yeah, I almost called it Driveway Moments, except that I'm more likely to just keep driving. :) Enjoy the podfics. :)

[kalakirya]

Ooooo awesome recs! And I'm so glad you enjoyed This Wasn't What the Brochure Promised enough to rec it! <3

[niko]

*grin* Thanks. :) I really did adore the snark... especially Clint. :)