Some news about the SCOTTISH PRISONER audiobook

I noticed today that the Recorded Books site is now showing Diana Gabaldon's upcoming novel, THE SCOTTISH PRISONER, as available for pre-order on CD, with a release date of November 29, the same day the book will be published in hardcover and e-book format.

Here is the direct link to the SCOTTISH PRISONER page.  If it doesn't work for you, go to www.recordedbooks.com, click on "Direct to Consumer", and search for "Scottish Prisoner".  (For some reason, the book is still listed under its old title of "Lord John and the Scottish Prisoner" on the Recorded Books site.)

They are estimating 13 CDs with a total time of 15.5 hours.  Just by way of comparison, LORD JOHN AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE was also 13 CDs, and 15.75 hours.

In case you're wondering, Diana has said the SCOTTISH PRISONER audiobook will also be available on audible.com, probably on or soon after the November 29 release date.  It's not yet listed there, but keep checking audible's site for further updates.

Interestingly, the SCOTTISH PRISONER page on the Recorded Books site doesn't specify who will be narrating this audiobook.  So I asked Diana, on Compuserve, if she knows the answer to that, and here is what she wrote back:

I'd suggested to [Recorded Books] that they consider doing two narrators for this, as half of the book is in Jamie's viewpoint, and it seemed incongruous to have his viewpoint done in Lord John's voice. The producer agreed with me, and went to great lengths in auditioning actors for the second (Jamie) voice--we both were sure we wanted Jeff Woodman to do the Lord John half of the book; he just _is_ Lord John. <g>

Anyway, the actor doing Jamie's half of the story will be Rick Holmes, and his name is absolutely all I know about him.

I think this is good news...provided that this Rick Holmes can manage a decent Scottish accent. <crossing fingers>  All due respect to Mr. Woodman, but many fans (including me!) really disliked his Jamie-voice in BOTB.  I'm delighted, however, that he will be doing Lord John's part of the book.

If anyone out there has heard any audiobooks narrated by Rick Holmes, please let us know what you think of him as a reader.