I don't normally imagine a voice in my head when I read a dialogue, unless the character has a lot in common with a screen character (the punisher sounds to me like Clint Eastwood, for example.)

However, an idle train of thought has led me to wonder what those wavy dark bubbles that represent Dream's speech actually sounded like.

The easy answer would be "a voice you wouldn't remember afterwards." However, based on a few experiences involving waking up in the middle of the night, I'd rather think of it as a pattern emerging from the background noise. Which can be very disconcerting when there isn't any.

No reason to limit myself to comic-book characters with funny speech bubbles, I thought.

How about Elrond? I don't really imagine Hugo Weaving's voice, but rather a melodious Alto. Or possibly a tenor.

Aragorn would also have a good singing voice, but probably a baritone.

Even thinking about specific characters, I can't really think of a voice they ought to have. How about you lot? Do any of you normally imagine fictional characters complete with voice, or not?

I imagined Dream's voice as having a lot of reverb distortion.

Dream's voice was always just kinda the "everyman" voice that doesn't really leave any impression at all, in my head. Not really bass, not really tenor, just kinda there.
And every character has a voice in my head. How else could I keep the dialogue straight?

See i must be odd one out i always took dream as sounding very sorta like neil, english and deep, and very penetrating, the sorta voice where you hear every word even if it's said in a whisper, and very well pronounced like shakespearian actor.

and i have a Voice that is sorta similar for Terry Pratchetts DEATH though i know that one is supposed to just 'burn into your brain'

I think Dream sounds like his voice was put through a flange effect. Like the guitar during the verses of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun." (sorry, only example I can think of)

I hear Dream's voice as this incredibly deep and slow voice, the kind that sort of makes your eardrums vibrate when you hear it.

Most voices I don't really hear, though. There's only a few that stand out. Most wind up sounding like my voice. (As I hear it).

I have trouble giving characters accents unless the dialogue is written to show that they have a strong one.
One of the things that was strange to me when I watched the "Neverwhere" miniseries was hearing Richard with a Scottish accent. I knew he was Scottish, of course, but I didn't read his dialouge with an accent.

EDIT: I read Dream as sounding like Keith David. Death sounds like my sister, and Del sounds a voice actress whos name I can't remember offhand.

I think Dream's voice wouldn't have a sound at all---he's a voice in one's head. A telepathic transmission.


And Terry Pratchett's Death would have that same feel in one's head only after having a conversation with him, you'd have to sit in a dark room for a couple hours with a pounding migrane.

I read Life of Pi with a very reedy voice in my head, a clear, bright voice with an Indian accent. And Richard Parker had a deep voice, most likeley because I thought of Shir Khan from The Jungle Book when thinking of a talking tiger.

Sean Bean's voice, with a slight harmonic distortion, like what happens when the frequency going into an amp is too high, or when you're so close to a sound stage, you get that buzzing in your skull with each note.

Something that's signature, but wouldn't get annoying.

I rarely hear character voices, but more often I hear narrators. Halfway through Strange & Norrell, I started hearing Glenn Close, from when she read Neruda's "I Like For You to Be Still." When I read "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," naturally I hear Morgan Freeman. And Stephen Fry is just the perfect narrator for stuff like PG Wodehouse, Kyril Bonfiglioli.