Category: Reviews

Here is where I will put up any audiobook reviews I’ve done. I’d love to hear some of your reviews too

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My New BOOK is out!

Finally, after several months of refining and trialing I have written my first dummies manual on ‘Blueprints to Building Your Own Voice-Over Studio’. And it’s out now where all good ebooks are sold.

This is a no-nonsense guide to creating from scratch an ideal beginners/intermediates personal studio, or ‘voice-box’ (love the pun?) for under $500!

A dummies guide to beginning your own career and what tools you will need starting out, for under $500.

Try a 20% sample for free here, of this dummies guide to building your own Voice-Over Studio

Watch the book trailer…

I use this myself for my own Voice-Over Career

If you’ve ever been told ‘you’ve got a great voice’ or, you have been thinking of a change in career, then this world of voice actors is wide open! However, not everyone would suit this career. After all, you will need to have a little confidence, creativity and good articulation to fit the bill. And if you find you’re sitting on the fence in such an area then, even if you do decide to ‘give it a crack’ and it doesn’t work out for you, at least you would not have shelled out thousands of dollars, only to waste it on dead ends.

The key thing to always bear in mind with voice acting and audio works is to fight the chief enemy of recordings… and that is ‘noise’. Electronic hum, fan noise, bumps, bangs, bad weather, echos and lawnmowers… whatever. So, I’ve developed a small recording space that gives you plenty of room to gesture wildly within, as you articulate that most dramatic audio book of Movie Trailer.

Book Blurb:

This book is a dummies guide to helping you develop the tools you will need for PROFESSIONAL VOICE-OVER WORK. This field is huge! You supply the talent and I’ll show you what to do with it. These are Blueprints; step-by-step plans, showing you exactly how to build your own Vocal Home Studio. It is filled with colour photos, measurement conversions and technical plans that will show you exactly how to build this important tool of the trade.
The key thing to always bear in mind with voice acting and audio works is to fight the chief enemy of recordings… and that is ‘noise’. Electronic hum, fan noise, bumps, bangs, bad weather, echos and lawnmowers… whatever. So, I’ve developed a small recording space that gives you plenty of room to gesture wildly within as you articulate that most dramatic audio book, and yet you can still get up, close and personal, with the microphone to create your own take on, the ‘Voice of God’, for that movie trailer you might be cast for. And don’t forget there is equipment you’ll need to share that space with as well. This Home Studio Space, or Booth, is a solid, well built and designed with all of these considerations in mind.
This is filled with tips and advice throughout and will take you from woe – to go, in this very busy gold mine of talented narrators and voice actors.

This book is filled with scale drawings, measurements and step by step guidance, from woe, to go.

I list all the equipment, tools and supplies you will need and have handy tips and advice throughout. There is a handy guide, converting metric into imperial, for those of you using those measurements. This book is easy to read, detailed clearly, and been proven to work superbly.

All the steps have associated images with them, to let you know whether you are heading in the right direction, or not. I will gently guide your through the entire manufacturing process, even to the sound treatment and specialty materials you need. I will show you how and where to position your completed studio and equipment. And there are recommendations of everything, right down to the audio equipment you should be using.

This is the shell and what it will eventually look like. However, there is still soundproofing and noise treatment to be added to this
A few of the images and processes of how to do-it-yourself

Reviews:

I love the TIPS you offer. Everyone likes to know what you recommend even though there are choices out there. I like how you often point out what you would do or what you would recommend. And they are very helpful tips indeed. This is simple to read. Your personality shows through the writing and make the reader feel like it will be simple enough to put together, whereby inspiring them. A. Elliston

You must have put quite a bit of work into this and it will definitely be a useful guide for beginners looking to improve their sound! This guide offers a practical way for people to record themselves without reflections. T. Ricketts

Grab your copy today here: And watch for a real live paperback that will be coming out in 2020, so watch this space.

Ian King is an author of several books; a voice actor/narrator and full time dad. He’s been married for over 20 years and lives with his lovely wife and six kids in sunny Northland, New Zealand.
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DUNE – Frank Herbert Review

Dune – Audiobook Review

This has a **** Star from me. It is an epic battle of the finest where you must watch your back, otherwise you will never survive.

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Wow! What an adventure! This is a brilliant read and a well laid out story, set on the desert planet ‘Dune’. A place where the universe is battling to control the ‘Spice’ found on this wretched land. This is a story of corruption, control and universal domination between various races who will betray one another at the drop of the hat. Whoever pays the highest price get’s the greatest army, or so they think. Baron Harkonnen thinks he has the new planet administrator, ‘The Duke of Atreides’, wrapped around his fat finger and so he does, but the Baron had not accounted for The Dukes prophesied son Paul. Paul is a long awaited production of the ‘Bene-Jeseret’ experiment, which has been in development for many generations. A Bene-Jeseret is born and raised through a selection process of the highest order and of the best training known. Once Paul Atreides comes of age, he is put through the terrible ‘Jongebar’ test which could cost him his life and he survives with unprecedented results. A brutal plot is afoot to take absolute control of ‘The Spice’ and The Atreides family line is destroyed, only Paul and his mother survive and go into hiding and become allied with the planets local natives. They will rise again, a most powerful army that sets the universe on its edge. It’s a long trilogy and sometimes hard to follow, but certainly worth your time. I listened to the audiobook version of this (over 22 hours) and was a little disappointed with this, as the characters voices and narration changed constantly. This is the only reason I’ve given it a 4 star. I found that the main narrator sometimes played the individual characters, which is fine, but other times there were other people doing those same characters so there was no real consistency to the audio flow. I found this distracting because I was expecting a particular character voice to be heard and it would have been even more enjoyable if the production company got this one right. They should have stuck to either the single narrator, or the different character voices playing their parts throughout… one, or the other but definitely not both.


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Review! Pennies for Hitler

Feeling like a spy in WW2

***** – Stars
Wow! What a moving story. Georg, or George is a small German boy who witnesses students of a university massacre their professor… his father, during the revolt against the Jews. Georg, is smuggled out of Germany to England and eventually on to Australia. He is a boy alone in the world who’s identity must be kept hidden, in case he is found out to be the German enemy, occupying allied countries. And possible to be considered, a spy! His heart is broken and then broken again as he’s tossed here and there, an unsuspecting, forgotten victim of WW2.
What he witnesses and experiences effect the rest of his life as he grows up, from a child, war survivor being raised in a foreign country and into an educated, caring man as he ages.

He struggles to adapt to other cultures not his own and wishes only to see his father, and mother again.
In the end, George’s experience brings a deep understanding, protection and healing to his new family, in Australia.
The narrator, ‘Humphrey Bower’ does a brilliant job of drawing the listener into George’s world and keeping them captive throughout the entire, terrible journey.
If you’re really not an audio book person, then you can get the book here…Trust me, it’s worth it!

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The Boy Born Dead: Review

Wow! This heart wrenching true story of David vs Goliath, is one of the best I’ve ever heard.

In 1953, Jonesboro, Arkansas, a baby boy was born – dead. The attending physician set his little body aside and tended to his mother for 18 minutes. Now, more than 60 years later, that boy leads an internationally known ministry that encourages hundreds of thousands of people every year. The Boy Born Dead tells his incredible story from the perspective of his best friend, David Wideman.
This is my review on it…

David (Ring) vs Goliath Review:***** Stars

What a heart wrenching, true story. I was shedding tears even in the first chapter! This is a story of an unlikely hero, with a courage that is nearly impossible to have for such a life, especially for this young man David, born with Cerebral palsy.
This deep-telling story brings to reality the cruel nature of ‘normal’s’ with a plaything to laugh at. David was indeed a plaything for certain people (including an abused girl!).
Although he, himself had developed a cast-iron harshness; an internal fortress that proved difficult to break down… he came to know God and this changed so many things about him and the world around him. This story is a fascinating account of his life, which right off the bat, should never have been. He was in fact declared ‘dead’ on his birth, for 20 minutes! But oh no, David rose against all obstacles and conquered. A real David, and Goliath story that will have you racking thorough the pages at break-neck speed. I bet even the toughest of us could not read this, without having those silly water spouts (our eyes) flowing freely. A must read!!
N.B. I listened to the audiobook version of this story, which was narrated superbly, by Paul Michael.

Get the Audiobook here…

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I challenge anyone to read this story, without shedding any tears. If you don’t shed tears, then unfortunately… your wood is wet!
May your life never be the same again!


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Review: Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire

Narrated by: Michael Page and definitely worth

***** Five stars!

Egg & Spoon is such a wonderful story – long winded, but wonderful all the same. It seems most people who comment love the witch Baba Yaggah the most, but I love Dumb Domer more I think. Michael Page’s narration was superb as he threw himself into all of the various characters, with gusto!
As indicated this could have been condensed into a smaller story, but the characters make up for the long windedness of it. The real adventure doesn’t begin until well into it when the ‘League of Free Prisoners’ go a-hunting for the ‘fire-bird’ and possible cause of the massive changes in the countryside; including the big City of St Petersberg, where the Czar is holding a party in honour of his nephew – wishing to marry him off to a young, well educated Russian girl from a prominent family. Did the Czar, however even ask is Anton wanted to be married? You shall have to read it to find out. One thing I really like about this story was the ending . . . It could not have been better in my opinion.


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