What makes a GREAT audiobook?


Posted September 22, 2018 in Discussion Tags:

In the past couple years, I have become a huge audiobook fan! Having listened to LOTS over this time, I have come up with what I think makes it GREAT and what makes it MEH.

  1. A story that translates well to audio: books that give descriptions that are vivid usually do well in audio. If a story has great descriptions of characters and setting, it helps you ‘see’ it as you listen.
  2. A phenomenal narrator: Audiobooks are MADE or BROKEN by the narrator. Some are GREAT. Some are NOT.
  3. A phenomenal narrator that doesn’t distract from the story: If a narrators accent is weird, or they try too hard to do the voices of the opposite sex, it can totally pull you out of the story.

Having given you my tips on great audiobooks, here are clips of my favorites!

Lord of Shadows narrated by James Marsters

Why I love it: James Marsters has the most pleasing voice! He does accents beautifully, and he adds such appropriate dynamics to the story. He never distracts you from the story.

Any book in the Psy-Changeling Series narrated by Angela Dawe

Why I love it: Singh writes great stories and she is able to create ‘visuals’ as you listen. Dawe has a very pleasing voice. She doesn’t ‘over do’ voices to sound more masculine. However, her voices are different enough for the listener to differentiate between characters.

Andi Arndt and Zachary Webber

These two narrate a lot of romance and its always very well done!

Samantha
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4 responses to “What makes a GREAT audiobook?

  1. Great post. All of those reasons you listed are important. I’ve come to find out what I like and don’t and one thing I really like is if a story has great descriptions of characters and setting, it helps bring that story to life. I have to say Singh does a fabulous job with us also the Andrews team and Patricia Briggs. Those three authors are my favorite to listen too because of the great world and character building, but also the narrators for each really bring the stories out and I can just fall into it and not realize how much time has gone by.

  2. Angela Dawe is pretty amazing, I love the way she narrators the Changeling series as well. And I am such a fan of audiobooks especially since I am able to listen to them at work and everything. Although lately I have been in the mood for podcasts hehe But also if the writing is hard to get into then I will try it in audio format and that can help me. And I just love the way a talented narrator can really make the book so AMAZING!!

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