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Post by TimPendragon on Jan 14, 2019 22:57:05 GMT
Finally listening to these. Did no one think to give the narrator a pronunciation guide?!?!?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2019 23:10:23 GMT
Finally listening to these. Did no one think to give the narrator a pronunciation guide?!?!? I find that with so many genre audiobooks, especially Trek. There was one I had where the guy kept referring to Gul Dukat et al as "Kardashians"....along with Ferengi being pronounced with a soft "gee" at the end etc. Made it quite unlistenable.
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Post by TimPendragon on Jan 15, 2019 6:10:42 GMT
Finally listening to these. Did no one think to give the narrator a pronunciation guide?!?!? I find that with so many genre audiobooks, especially Trek. There was one I had where the guy kept referring to Gul Dukat et al as "Kardashians"....along with Ferengi being pronounced with a soft "gee" at the end etc. Made it quite unlistenable.
In the older Simon & Schuster Trek audiobooks, it wasn't that much of a problem. There was the occasional flub, but hardly ever, because either the readers were experienced with the Trek pronunciation themselves, or between the pronunciation guide and the director, those problems were sorted early. I haven't heard any of the newer audiobooks since they started up again a couple of years ago. It had been over a decade since any of Pocket Books' Trek novels had been read for audio.
But these Prometheus books. Alex Newman has a good voice for this, but seriously, it's like there was no effort made to get the pronunciations of anything right outside of the novel's main characters. I could deal with the occasional "Bah-jor" instead of "Bay-jor," "Reese-an" instead of "Rice-an," and so on. But the Klingon homeworld is pronounced KRO-NOS, like the Greek god Chronos, not CO-NOSS. And don't get me started on character names. Admiral Alynna Nechayev. Reading it, the last name might pose a problem, but the first name should be fairly obvious. A-lynn-a, yet he pronounces it A-line-a, and doesn't butcher her last name so badly, though it should be pronounced "Nech-AY-ev," not "Ne-CHAI-ev." Oh, and he gives her an eastern European accent, when she never had one on TV. Then there's Leonard James Akaar. Properly pronounced "Acka-arr," yet here rendered consistently as "a car." Vulcan female names frequently have a T-prefix, and "T'Pol" would be pronounced "Ta-Pol," but instead we get "Tee-whatever."
And then there's normal words. I'm perfectly willing to accept British pronunciations for "Beta," "Omega," and so forth... but who says the rank Ensign like "en-sine"? Yet he's very careful to say "Lew-tenant" instead of "Leff-tenant."
It's every damn scene in this reading, and it's driving me bonkers.
Pronunciation guides are a necessity for reading genre fiction for audio, and Big Finish should know that. And if you're not sure on something and don't have time to check the original source, or even the internet, phone a Trekkie. Everyone knows at least one. And any of us can tell you that raktajino is pronounced "rack-ta-JEE-no" not "rack-ta-YEE-no."
I really, really want to hear these readings, but these problems are taking me out of the story entirely, so much so that it's enough to make me want a refund.
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Post by tuigirl on Jan 15, 2019 7:17:51 GMT
I find that with so many genre audiobooks, especially Trek. There was one I had where the guy kept referring to Gul Dukat et al as "Kardashians"....along with Ferengi being pronounced with a soft "gee" at the end etc. Made it quite unlistenable.
In the older Simon & Schuster Trek audiobooks, it wasn't that much of a problem. There was the occasional flub, but hardly ever, because either the readers were experienced with the Trek pronunciation themselves, or between the pronunciation guide and the director, those problems were sorted early. I haven't heard any of the newer audiobooks since they started up again a couple of years ago. It had been over a decade since any of Pocket Books' Trek novels had been read for audio.
But these Prometheus books. Alex Newman has a good voice for this, but seriously, it's like there was no effort made to get the pronunciations of anything right outside of the novel's main characters. I could deal with the occasional "Bah-jor" instead of "Bay-jor," "Reese-an" instead of "Rice-an," and so on. But the Klingon homeworld is pronounced KRO-NOS, like the Greek god Chronos, not CO-NOSS. And don't get me started on character names. Admiral Alynna Nechayev. Reading it, the last name might pose a problem, but the first name should be fairly obvious. A-lynn-a, yet he pronounces it A-line-a, and doesn't butcher her last name so badly, though it should be pronounced "Nech-AY-ev," not "Ne-CHAI-ev." Oh, and he gives her an eastern European accent, when she never had one on TV. Then there's Leonard James Akaar. Properly pronounced "Acka-arr," yet here rendered consistently as "a car." Vulcan female names frequently have a T-prefix, and "T'Pol" would be pronounced "Ta-Pol," but instead we get "Tee-whatever."
And then there's normal words. I'm perfectly willing to accept British pronunciations for "Beta," "Omega," and so forth... but who says the rank Ensign like "en-sine"? Yet he's very careful to say "Lew-tenant" instead of "Leff-tenant."
It's every damn scene in this reading, and it's driving me bonkers.
Pronunciation guides are a necessity for reading genre fiction for audio, and Big Finish should know that. And if you're not sure on something and don't have time to check the original source, or even the internet, phone a Trekkie. Everyone knows at least one. And any of us can tell you that raktajino is pronounced "rack-ta-JEE-no" not "rack-ta-YEE-no."
I really, really want to hear these readings, but these problems are taking me out of the story entirely, so much so that it's enough to make me want a refund.
Good that I did not get this. I would also be quite annoyed by that!
I wonder if anyone has told Big Finish about this issue. And if yes, they would find I think enough pronounciation help on this forum alone...
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Post by TimPendragon on Jan 15, 2019 7:29:48 GMT
In the older Simon & Schuster Trek audiobooks, it wasn't that much of a problem. There was the occasional flub, but hardly ever, because either the readers were experienced with the Trek pronunciation themselves, or between the pronunciation guide and the director, those problems were sorted early. I haven't heard any of the newer audiobooks since they started up again a couple of years ago. It had been over a decade since any of Pocket Books' Trek novels had been read for audio.
But these Prometheus books. Alex Newman has a good voice for this, but seriously, it's like there was no effort made to get the pronunciations of anything right outside of the novel's main characters. I could deal with the occasional "Bah-jor" instead of "Bay-jor," "Reese-an" instead of "Rice-an," and so on. But the Klingon homeworld is pronounced KRO-NOS, like the Greek god Chronos, not CO-NOSS. And don't get me started on character names. Admiral Alynna Nechayev. Reading it, the last name might pose a problem, but the first name should be fairly obvious. A-lynn-a, yet he pronounces it A-line-a, and doesn't butcher her last name so badly, though it should be pronounced "Nech-AY-ev," not "Ne-CHAI-ev." Oh, and he gives her an eastern European accent, when she never had one on TV. Then there's Leonard James Akaar. Properly pronounced "Acka-arr," yet here rendered consistently as "a car." Vulcan female names frequently have a T-prefix, and "T'Pol" would be pronounced "Ta-Pol," but instead we get "Tee-whatever."
And then there's normal words. I'm perfectly willing to accept British pronunciations for "Beta," "Omega," and so forth... but who says the rank Ensign like "en-sine"? Yet he's very careful to say "Lew-tenant" instead of "Leff-tenant."
It's every damn scene in this reading, and it's driving me bonkers.
Pronunciation guides are a necessity for reading genre fiction for audio, and Big Finish should know that. And if you're not sure on something and don't have time to check the original source, or even the internet, phone a Trekkie. Everyone knows at least one. And any of us can tell you that raktajino is pronounced "rack-ta-JEE-no" not "rack-ta-YEE-no."
I really, really want to hear these readings, but these problems are taking me out of the story entirely, so much so that it's enough to make me want a refund.
Good that I did not get this. I would also be quite annoyed by that!
I wonder if anyone has told Big Finish about this issue. And if yes, they would find I think enough pronounciation help on this forum alone...
Oh, it gets worse...
I had to stop in the middle of a scene in the Klingon High Council because someone is challenging Alexander's loyalty because of his parentage. It's not enough that his last name is mispronounced as "rose-heen-ko" here, but when K'Ehleyr is mentioned, and yes, I know the spelling is strange, instead of "Kay-lar," Newman pronounces it "Collie Ear."
I... I don't know if I can go on after that.
It's not like it's even mostly the actor's fault. This is on the producer and director. PRONUNCIATION GUIDES are rule number one in audiobooks. BF has a proven track record that is much better than this. This travesty alone sets the art of dramatic reading back by decades.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2019 8:32:13 GMT
Giving Admiral Nechayev an Eastern Bloc accent would be really jarring. She sounds about as Russian as Riker or Geordi did....that would be like giving Jean Luc Picard a cod-French accent just based on his name not the actual performance Patrick gave on screen.
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Post by Tim Bradley on May 10, 2022 5:51:44 GMT
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Post by fitzoliverj on Jan 14, 2024 11:10:59 GMT
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