AI Audiobook Readers
Lovely intonations, exactly the same every time
Today’s newsletter includes:
AI Audiobook Readers
Organic Audio Narrators: Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle deCuir
And lately…
What you can expect in my newsletters: musings on things I'm thinking about, an occasional short story, links to articles I enjoyed, updates on writing projects, books I recommend, freebies and deals I hear about, news, upcoming events where I'll be, and more.
Newsletters are sporadic. I never know when they’ll stray into my solar system.
AI Audiobook Readers
Artificial Intelligence is reading audiobooks for us.
It’s been developing the tools for a while and it’s still scouring human audio resources looking to improve its patterns. Forget how much these projects cost and how they impact climate change or the economy. Don’t think about how an actual human would be more cost effective.
Aren’t those of us who love tech excited about the possibilities AI brings? It’s the next step in technological progress and we don’t want to get left behind.
If it makes us nervous, we can just write scary novels about AI taking over the world because it is doing what it thinks we want…or deserve…since we’re self-destructive losers with no future. (Not you and me specifically, just the faceless masses out there.)
We can laugh at our unease and invest in tech stocks and cross our fingers.
Should it matter if AI takes over audiobooks? Would we even be able to tell?
There is a rain app I used to listen to sometimes when writing and there was one particular track that was my favorite until one day, when my brain had, apparently, found the pattern. I suddenly could detect that it was repeating itself, looping. It wasn’t obvious and I wasn’t sure where the track started over but it quickly became irritating and I could never listen to it again!
Would you notice if AI replaced your mom? Maybe you could choose from hundreds of different mom-types and refine the qualities you prefer. And maybe I’m sketching a short story I should write…better not expand on that picture.
If AI becomes the conduit for another person’s creative thought and story-telling, gelling the content down into a patterned product…
…Instead of my own mind as I am reading and imagining what is written,
…Instead of a gifted professional who has spent time absorbing the story, the writing style, the characters, and plot of another person’s creation,
…Instead of a human with feelings and thoughts and ideas saying sentences with their own bent, their own perception, their own emotions filtering the story,
What are we losing?
It would be like training AI to create a CGI portrayal of Hamlet. It could spends millions of dollars and tons of energy dissecting the work of multiple actors and come up with something that is persuasively entertaining.
We might even be impressed.
And maybe threatened.
Who needs people if you can digitally create people-like products?
Computer generated performance could be impressive the first few times, maybe many times, for those without an appreciation for the creative arts. But it can’t create new patterns for every single role it interprets, nor will there be any nuances of change in its portrayal when it’s repeated.
It will never capture the creative performance of a living human being with their own thoughts, emotions, movements, expression, and gestures.
People are alive.
Audiobooks written by living authors deserve to be read and interpreted by living narrators.
The best audiobook narrators are artists who bring individual interpretation to their work, who add style, nuance, and art that can never be digitally generated. Every book and sentence they read is unique.
We should treasure that.
I do.
“Body Suit” on audio is for sale right now for $2.99 (marked down from $22.95) and it’s read by my favorite audiobook narrators. More on them below.
Organic Audio Narrators: Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle deCuir
There is a cadence to reading aloud, a music to the words and intonations, the sentences and paragraphs. The listeners’ emotions can be stirred or soothed by the voice and each chapter fresh with subtle changes the narrator makes.
It is an art with levels of mastery, and Rudnicki and deCuir have mastered the art.
“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card had been a favorite of mine but when I heard the audio production, my appreciation of it was magnified—and the voices of Stefan and Gabrielle were the main reason for that. While I prefer reading ebooks, I sometimes buy audiobooks just because they narrated them.
But it wasn’t until they took on “Body Suit” and its sequels that I realized how gifted they were. By that I mean, they developed the characters I had written with touches of artistry that were wonderful. I found myself thinking of my characters’ voices in their narrative voices.
Gabrielle left me in awe when, in the first book, she took the dispassionate, female voice of an AI in the generic welcome, gradually stepping down in pitch, and transitioned into the sinister voice of Companion. And Stefan: I will never be able to think of Yandus’ salute of “Deepen” in the third book, except in the sound of his voice. It penetrated my soul. There are so many moments like that, more than I could recount.
They blend together so well as a team that their renditions of various characters, whether read by one or the other, are consistent and cohesive, so that, for example, I thought of Companion, as having one voice, whether narrated by Stefan or Gabrielle.
Maybe this is what it’s like for composers to hear their work performed and interpreted.
I am honored and delighted to have my books read by them.
Here is Stefan’s bio from MacMillan’s website:
Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFileEarphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.
Here is Gabrielle’s bio from MacMillan’s website:
Gabrielle de Cuir is a Grammy-nominated and Audie Award-winning producer whose narration credits include the voice of Valentine in Orson Scott Card’s Ender novels, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan, and Natalie Angier’s Woman, for which she was awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Earphones Award. She lives in Los Angeles where she also directs theatre and presently has several projects in various stages of development for film.
The Silvarian Trilogy is read by them and the first book on audio, “Body Suit”, is on sale for $2.99 for a short time.
First in a series: Once a powerful businessperson, Silvariah Frandelle is now an indentured laborer on Mars… and her only way out lies in unraveling a deadly conspiracy. But in a world of ruthless enemies and eerie AI experiments, trust is a luxury she can’t afford. Read by dual narrators — an Earphones Award winner and an AudioFile Golden Voice!
$22.95 $2.99
Chirp is a free membership with no monthly fees and daily deals at incredible prices.
And lately…
My father almost died last week yet, somehow, found his way back from the brink to go home with enough kidney function to avoid dialysis. He would have been ready to go, (no dialysis for him, he says), but for my mom who has no desire to live without him, and for us, his children, who love him. His last day is hanging there in the wings, and we know it will come, but for now, we are glad for a little more time.
I lost a sister, eight years ago, and long before that, a little brother who was only three at the time. My parents, in contrast, have lived long and fruitful lives, 93 years.
But there is never an easy time to lose someone. Grief must take its place within.
And I wonder whether I will ever be able to turn my word crafting to recording their lives. Someday when I am not so weary.
They would certainly deserve it.
