• Red Rising
• Golden Son
• Morning Star

All narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, and he’s AWESOME.

THEN also

• Iron Gold
• Dark Age
• Light Bringer

Also narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, but there are also more voiced character in these, so there’s more variety, and it’s great.

I really like Red Rising.

I used to work while listening to audiobooks so I have come across a lot of this.

It’s not quite what you asked for but what I found was that in general, nonfiction memoirs were my favorite types of books to listen to as it would be ok if you get distracted and they were usually very interesting to me.

If I remember later I’ll check my list of books I’ve read and try to find some good fiction too.

Lord of the Rings read by Andy Serkis

Any of Naomi Novik’s books, particularly the Deadly Education series

The first two Hyperion books. (I’ve only read the first one but will read the second soon)

Those will get you started if you haven’t read them already.

I really got into the foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

Try the Expanse series. It’s long and very well done, but you can tune in and out and still get the story.

Off to be the wizard. By Scott Meyer. It is hilarious and fantastic. Very similar in style to the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

Discworld is my go-to these days. Goes well with cross stitching

In contrast I would never want to listen to a Terry Pratchett book while doing something else

Ah well. Sarah J. Maas was also a fun experience. It’s so bad it’s good. I went with A court of thorns and roses but I hear her other series follow a similar vein. It’s hard to miss the important details. Look for the Graphic Audio releases.

I always recommend Diskworld

Reckoners Series - Written by Brandon Sanderson - read by MacLeod Andrews

In fact, I’d probably recommend any of his books/audiobooks. His stories are very gripping but also very easy to follow, in my opinion.

Pretty much all major books are published as audiobooks as well. Even ones that have computer code written in them, which is not something that you’d ever expect to have read out loud.

It used to be that books would be “narrated for the blind” where not a lot of attention would be put into the audio. Nowadays, there tends to be a lot more effort put into them. I suppose that’s because they don’t need to be packaged as 12 to 20 cassette tapes or CDs any longer.

There’s the added element that a narrator can ruin or improve things. The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a wonderful book, but the narrator displays an unprofessionally slim knowledge of physics.

Then there’s World War Z. I’m not sure that there’s a better way to tell that story than the audio book. It’s the exact interview style that the author intended.

Orson Scott Card really likes audio books, so the Ender’s Game series is really good.

Jonathan Maberry, Joe Ledger series is a really good action, near future sci-fi, popcorn romp, style of fiction. It’s like Saturday morning cartoons (just sit and listen) combined with some good writing.

Project Hail Mary is my #1 fav audiobook, hands down. Just don’t look up anything about it beforehand, because spoilers would really ruin it. All you need to know its about a scientist on a spaceship who has a very important mission.

I really enjoyed Stephen Fry’s Greek mythology audiobooks. He wrote three, basically a modern editorial of the mythology cleaned up a little bit and presented as a more linear sequence of events. He did the golden and silver ages, followed by the Trojan war.

I also really enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, narrated by himself. They are all easy to follow, and entertaining. Neil Gaiman’s book isn’t particularly to ribald as far as mythology goes, and my kids loved listening to it in the car.

Edit: also from the young adult section, Abhorsen and Sabriel are on audible narrated by Tim Curry, who makes them a hoot. Don’t recommend the other two as much. The books weren’t as good and they aren’t narrated by Tim Curry.

I recently listened to Daisy Jones and the Six and the audiobook was incredible. The book was written as a series of interviews, which worked great as an audiobook. There were definitely times I got a bit distracted but it didn’t impede my understanding too much. It does take a bit to absorb all the characters, so you’d probably want to listen uninterrupted for the first ~hour.

Killers of a Certain Age is another good one. Written about mature women assassins. It’s a fun thriller and an easy listen.

Final rec is any of Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge series as read by John Lee. They’re long as hell, but straightforwardly told. There’s something I just love about how John read them, too.

This one is more niche but it’s among my favourite audiobooks for both great writing and a stellar vocal performance.

I highly recommend the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett and performed by Toby Longsworth. Or if you want to dip your toes then try the first one Xenos.

It’s set in the Warhammer 40K universe but you don’t need to know much lore to get into it. The trilogy is a pretty good primer into 40K.