Listener & critic reviews of audiobooks by narrator Ralph Lister

THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS

Benjamin Wood
“Ralph Lister is perfectly cast as Oscar Lowe—a once lovely single English gent who works as a care assistant near Cambridge University. He describes with elegant candor how Oscar’s satisfactorily humdrum routine fatefully changes when he’s drawn into King’s College Chapel by the inviting music. There he meets the charming Iris Bellwether and her peculiar brother, Eden, a musical intellect. Unfamiliar with this world of privilege, Oscar finds himself in strange territory that includes Eden’s mad psychological experiments, which claim to cure by way of music and hypnotism. Lister transitions among characters with perfect accuracy—from the highbrow friends and parents of Iris and Eden to the genteel elderly doctor who is in Oscar’s care. Lister provides a spellbinding tour de force.”

THE FLINT HEART

Katherine Paterson, John Paterson
“Narrator Ralph Lister’s tone is warm and authoritative—like a nice cup of hot toddy—a style that is perfect for a story set in England in 1910. Twelve-year-old Charles and 5-year-old Unity undertake a quest to get rid of the Flint Heart, which turned their father into a cold and conniving person. Lister’s vocal characterizations are excellent. Every affectation reflects and enhances the characters. The toads are coarse, members of the fairy court haughty, and the sentient hot-water bottle sounds as though he suffers a head cold. Lister’s performance is both familiar and fresh, qualities particularly suited to this utterly charming, classic tale. In an afterword, Katherine Paterson describes how this “freely adapted” retelling came to be.”
2012 Audie Awards Finalist

BELLADONNA

Mary Finn
“Much of this historical novel is told through dialogue, making it a natural for audio. Thomas, a British teen, helps Ling, a French girl, search for Belladonna, the horse she used to ride in the circus. Along the way, they encounter painter George Stubbs, whose anatomical studies of horses both draw in and repel the young people. Ralph Lister’s low, raspy voice moves easily from the French girl to the adolescent British boy and to English folks of all classes… Note: This is not an audiobook for the faint of heart; Stubbs butchered horses to draw their anatomy, and his methods are described in detail.”

NIGHTFALL

Stephen Leather
“Ralph Lister takes full advantage of his British accent as he guides listeners through Stephen Leather’s first installment of the Jack Nightingale trilogy. The narration of this supernatural thriller is excellent. Lister creates a rich backdrop of suspense with a diverse cast, including a sibilant demon, a noir-style private eye, and the stereotypical breathy blonde. The story contains some of the elements found in a classic English mystery, with an occult twist. The protagonist discovers that his father made a deal with the devil, promising Jack’s soul as payment. Lister powerfully builds the tension to the climax, leaving listeners with the hope that he will return as narrator for the rest of the trilogy.”

NOTES ON A CENTURY: Reflections of a Middle East Historian

Bernard Lewis
“Bernard Lewis, a prominent and sometimes controversial historian, provides an engaging account of his very long life. Ralph Lister’s performance is absolutely perfect. The account begins with a narrative of Lewis’s early years in England during WWII and the years after. After his migration to the U.S., the narrative turns into a series of fragments and scenes that are interesting but not always clearly delineated with respect to time. Lewis enjoys humor, particularly one-liners—some are quite good. Lister’s reading is always well paced, and his British accent works wonderfully. He captures the perceptive and occasionally irascible scholar and his changing views over a lifetime.”

AGAINST THE LIGHT

Dave Duncan
“Ralph Lister is resourceful in his creation of voices for this story of the followers of the Earth Mother and their persecution by the Hierarchy of the Children of the Light. The establishment members of the Hierarchy hold political and economic power and seem to have free reign, but the oppressed have reached a point where they’re no longer willing to meekly suffer. Lister contrasts the gruffness of the resistance leaders with the youthful innocence of Bram, whose magical gifts the resistance tries to exploit. Lister excels in portraying the complexity of the characters’ motives and the balance of power among them. Listeners will see a number of parallels to English history as well as themes common to fantasy literature.”

MIDNIGHT

Stephen Leather
“This second Jack Nightingale installment finds the private eye bumping into dead bodies all over the place, dodging killers and policemen who are out to get him, and discovering he has a half sister who is a convicted serial killer. With a tone of patience and quiet resignation, narrator Ralph Lister takes the hard-boiled detective into police interrogations and séances aimed at calling forth demons. Nightingale also has a soft side, and Lister avoids presenting him as a clichéd down-on-his-luck gumshoe. Some of the conversations with devils and demons are chilling; others sound more ordinary than the encounters with human evil. The book stands on its own, but the background from the first book, NIGHTFALL, provides interesting context.”

TOMB OF THE TEN THOUSAND DEAD

L. Ron Hubbard
“A full-cast narration is perfectly suited to a Golden Age of adventure story. Cinematic-quality music and sound effects combine with the voice talents of Josh Robert Thompson, Ralph Lister, and Michael Yurchak, to name a few, to create a complete old-time radio listening experience. This collection of three short stories features the title story, in which freelance archaeologists search Pakistan for a lost treasure of Alexander the Great. The other stories, “Price of a Hat” and “Starch and Stripes,” are not quite as engaging. The excellent narrators, sound effects, and music will have listeners imagining themselves traveling the globe in search of adventures.”
Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

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