Not for the American version, no. It’s just 1 book from an ‘extended catalogue’ for free each month - most of which isn’t Japanese. I believe Japanese Audible is different. @Biblio would know more there.
Edit: I realized I explained this badly. I have premium plus which means I pay $15/month for a ‘credit’ which I can use to purchase anything in their catalogue, regardless of price. Audible Plus (which is a terrible name for the basic tier) is like 訊き放題 if you had a really terrible definition of 放題. I technically have their 訊き放題 built into my plan but I don’t think I’ve used it for anything except podcasts
That’s different indeed. Japanese 聴き放題 (that’s the one I have but, again, it’s also the only option) is 1500 jpy per month and it’s almost everything in the catalog (but you can’t keep anything if you stop).
Aaah good to know. Be careful! that’s how I got suckered in (tho I’ma need to pause mine, just about bought my entire wish list)
Not quite. It gets you a credit to spend to buy one audiobook a month to keep, discounts on some books (including this sale), and a VERY limited selection of free to listen books (本好き not included). You can pause it anytime though, so I’ll probably pause mine until more of my now gutted wishlist builds up and we get another big sale.
Oddly enough some of the 本好き pre-orders I was able to buy for ~4 USD. It’s stupid cheap as far as audiobooks go.
Not sure if it’s the same across all countries but for UK audible, you get a number of credits each month to buy books (credit number depends on the subscription you have) and you also get access to the subscriber catalog (free books subscribers can access) as well as podcasts and also get access to buy more credits at a lower cost as well as access to sales. I think you can listen to the podcasts even if you don’t subscribe and there are some free books for everyone to read. Most of the free language learning ones are first parts of a series for how to learn that language or are language learning vocabulary books though from what I’ve seen.
I paused all book clubs while in Japan (!!) for the last two weeks, and I think I was already behind before pausing cause I don’t think I’m more than halfway through book 1, but you all have convinced me to buy audiobooks 2 and 3 anyway.
I listened to the first half of CD1 on my morning commute. So far, they are replaying the best moments from arc 2 and arc 3. The dialogues are a bit simplified to be as understandable as possible without extra context, but it’s nice. I wonder if they are using the voice actors from the anime? (I could easily check, but I’m not curious enough about it).
The special effects felt a bit too much but otherwise the production quality is nice. I wouldn’t pay for it on its own, but since I can listen to all of it for “free”, I might as well. I have been looking for something to listen to during my daily commute anyway.
Edit: I listened to the second half on the way back. It focuses almost exclusively on the end of the third arc, with even a medley of short scenes (only a few sentences each) from the extra stories in volume 12.
I wonder if all cds are like that…
Edit edit: according to the description, cd2 covers volumes 13-15 plus some focus on other characters (unclear if that’s original for the cd or available in the volumes of short stories) and one extra original story.
Edit3: I guess I’ll just keep posting my impressions. I listened to CD2 today. It was fairly good. I really like Main’s voice actress. The extra story was nothing to write home about, but that’s still fun for the 本好き starved.
Actually they should cover exactly the number of days left until the next volume is released! Perfect!
So far, CD1 requires to have finished volume 12. It’s a hard requirement since it includes a big spoiler.
CD2 contains stuff from volumes 13-15.
I’m planning to listen to CD3 today, but the blurb says it covers volume 18.
I’ll check the description of the other ones later.
I’m listening to the Drama CDs as I read the books, and they’re fun as a way to get a feel for the characters in audio form. The afterword always mentions when a new Drama CD was being released, so it’s easy so know when to pick the next one up that way.
Hmm, I wasn’t that into the book (only read volume one and it felt too heavy on slice of life type stuff for my tastes) so if the drama CDs move faster and move sooner to the politics/etc I hear is part of the later volumes I might have to check them out
The drama CD are just voicing some of the “best of” parts in the story. They assume you know what happened in between. Characters are not introduced, no context is given (beyond “it’s that point in the story”) so I don’t think it’s possible to follow the story with just the CDs.
I think slice of life stuff are mostly gone after volume 1 with some remnants until volume 4 or 5. I can’t think of anything beyond that point.
It covered specific parts of volume 18, but that was pleasant. The voice actress of Main changed and I think it’s not a bad thing… but so did the voice actor of my favorite character and that’s unacceptable!
Live Naphthalene reaction to hearing the new voice actor
And it’s those voice actors until the end too. Oh well. Hopefully I’ll get used to them.
Yes, I think this is when they changed to match the Anime VAs (since it had just come out at the time). The audiobooks are all just 井口裕香 (マイン’s anime VA) up to at least volume 20, the latest one published.
Yes, this. The drama CDs are not an alternative way to experience the story. And I don’t just mean “the books are better overall experience” or anything vague like that-- the first one covers events halfway through arc 3 (books 10 and 11 11 and 12) and they skip all around from there. Listening to the drama CDs on their own would be impossible to understand.
(For context, I listened to just the audiobook for volumes 2~19, + Drama CDs when relevant and now am going back to printed novels only because the audiobooks don’t come out fast enough )
I think she is doing great. I liked the previous voice actor of フェルディナンド and don’t like this one though.
I’m going to continue not watching the anime then.
Ah, thanks for the correction. I looked up the Amazon page to check before but failed at math so it should be from books 11 and 12 (第三部４＆５) plus that bit from book 7.
)