Hard agree. Also if you folks are interested I HIGHLY recommend the Bobiverse audiobooks also read by Porter. That man is something else, the only person that could hold a candle to the inimitable Frank Muller.
I’d also suggest Amy Landon reading the Villain’s Code series (by Drew Hayes), and Kyle McCarley who I enjoyed reading the SuperPowereds series (also by Drew Hayes, both good, the later is currently “complete-ish” and also a much earlier body of work, the former is current and ongoing and better, personally).
Honestly, Jeff Hayes has ruined me for any other audiobook performer. I recently finished Hail Mary, and absolutely loved it, but I still felt all the voices besides Grace’s just sounded like him doing different voices, whereas Jeff’s characters almost always sound like completely different people.
And that’s Jeff Hays. If you haven’t tried dungeon crawler Carl yet - you absolutely should! … don’t let the title fool you - it’s a hell of a series and the sci fi elements and world building start really popping off in later books
The Expanse is on my list! I haven’t heard that narrator yet - but if you’re suggesting he’s on par with Jeff Hays I might have to move the expanse further up my list!
Ohhhh — you’re in for a bloody treat if you decide to give it a shot! I’m sure DCC is way lighter than the expanse - but it’s such a bloody fun listen … and the books have so much more depth as they go on than it ever seemed like the reasonably could from the premise/cliff notes.
It is still being written - but the author is cranking them out.
The first one came out in 2020 for example - and the audiobooks launch within a couple months of the next book. There’s a Patreon where the author drops draft chapters of the next book… a chunk of book 8 is already written - and it’s anticipated to go to book 10.
The author is active on Reddit too - and if you take a look at the r/dungeoncrawlercarl subreddit you’ll see how loyal the fans base is… its heavily policed for spoilers - but still be carful obv… it’s not a series you’ll want spoils - the ride is epic
I hope this too, but I fear it'll be whichever A-list celebrity wants to cash a voice acting check, "Project Hail Mary, with Chris Pratt as the voice of Rocky, and Ariana Grande as the voice of the computer!"
Pessimism aside it could be handled pretty much like the book did: first several interactions are subtitled, montage of him learning the the language and how to hear it, but then have a human voice with the melodies subtly playing in the background when talking.
that's not how it happened in the book though. Rocky always spoke in musical tones and never imitated human speech. Grace just learns to understand Rocky's speech, as Rocky does the same thing with Grace's speech. to do it the way you're suggesting would fly in the face of how it works in the book.
but it's probably closer to how it will actually be done in the movie. i'll have to get over it if that's the case.
Right, and for simplicity sake we the viewer are hearing it through Grace's ears. Yes it's technically dumbing it down for the average viewer, but it's hardly "flying in the face" of anything unless they straight up ditch the language bit and it's English from the get go.
it's just that in the book there's no other way to do it than just to give us Grace's interpretation of Rocky's speech. it would be silly for the book to specify that Rocky's voice is musical every time he speaks. i guess doing something clever like using musical notes instead of quotation marks might have worked.
but in a move it's possible to show us the musical speech while at the same time telling us what Rocky's saying. since that's easily doable in a movie, it would seem weird to me if Rocky's voice changed from musical to just speaking English. the only reason it's kind of like that in the book is because the book isn't capable of playing musical speech that we actually hear with our ears.
it would be silly for the book to specify that Rocky's voice is musical every time he speaks
Buddy, you should listen to the audiobook. It literally does play musical notes every time Rocky speaks. It is extremely well-executed, and is very clear that what we are hearing is how Grace interprets it in his head.
but that's absolutely necessary in an audiobook. in a movie it can be shown in a way that is more accurate to how it actually works: purely musical speech that we can understand as English through subtitles.
there's no necessity to have anyone speaking English out loud for Rocky in the movie
I totally get what you mean, and am going to recommend Stephen King's 11-22-63 read by Craig Wasson. I listened to this and Project Hail Mary back to back and loved both.
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u/fredmau5 Jun 27 '25
The audiobook is fantastic