The Hobbit

I had no idea this was read by Inspector George Gently. And, I must say, thank God I didn't as I sometimes find him somewhat contrived and unnatural in his acting. So, when I found myself loving the storytelling art in this book and googled the name Martin Shaw (knowing that I had seen or heard his name before - bare with me, I'm not British) I could not have bern more surprised when his face popped up. Having said this, I loved, loved, loved this version of Tolkien's masterpiece that has been making me company on the way to work. Highly recommend it!

This American version of the Hobbit is delightful. I much prefer this version to the BBC one, although some of the accents may sound strange at first, they suit the Dwarves, but not the Elves!, but you soon forget that and just enjoy the story, which is told in 4 CDs.The music is enchanting and adds to the magic of the story. I'll be playing this again and again.

I bought this as a gift for my son's birthday. He has raved about it ever since, so, I played it in my car whilst driving some distance alone. He was right, the quality of the CD was excellent and the story, brilliant. Will certainly buy more in the series.

Good listen

This is the best audiobook of the hobbit out there, Martin Shaw reads it beautifully and his voice lends itself to the story perfectly

Very Good Book have reas it a few times in the past but never had it read to me. Terrific experience was realy engrossed, nearly as good as the film

Absolutely fabulous, Martin Shaw does a good job too.

Lolvey present for aunt - a tolkein fan

Truth be told I’ve never read any of Tolkien's books, but I am a big audiobooks lover! Because I can let my imagination go and I can see with my minds eyes what’s taking place, I can listen to it anywhere. This is perfect for long road trips the sound effects make you feel like you’re right they’re having an adventure with BilBo. For anyone who loves audiobooks on CD and loves listening to audiobooks on road trips, I would totally recommend this. Fun for the whole family to listen to.

This reading does justice to the book. There are some small shortenings, but nothing I missed much. Very good!

５枚組みの朗読CDです。語り手さんは渋い声です。聞きやすいです。でも省略版ですね。ちょっと残念でした。原書を片手にさぁ聞くぞ！　…と耳を傾けていたところ、あっちこっちの文章が端折られていたのでおろおろしてしまいました。省略されてないのが聞きたいのでまた別のを買う事になると思います。ちょっとでも参考になれば幸いです。

Good

This is the version produced by National Public Radio a long time ago. This is not the BBC version, which is IMHO an inferior product compared to this one. In fact, when I first bought this product, it was on cassette tape. I firmly believe that this version is the best audio presentation ever produced of tolkiens work. Why? Well, its really a voice character based play complete with ambient sound effects, it's theater of the mind set in tolkiens universe. It's NOT a plain old voice of one person doing his best to give you a read over like some grandpa reading a bedside story (not that i'm against that mind you, it's just not my cup of tea, ya know). My kids grew up hearing this on long car trips, and it kept us all entertained with a shared universe we could all enjoy at the same time. My tapes had gone bad and I thought we would never be able to hear this great and wonderful audio play again. Lo and behold, its on CD and Amazon has it. It's now playing behind me as I write this review and my youngest, home from college on break, is enjoying it with me. "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit", go Bilbo, go Tolkien, go Amazon and NPR.