What makes certain audiobook narrators so much better than others?

3-Inflections and accents.

What are some of the things that IMHO make for a bad job of narration?

2-Pronunciation, particularly names of main characters.

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Just because I was commenting on accents does not mean they do not have their place. One of the masters of narration, (IMHO) is Jim Dale. His version of the Harry Potter series is a favorite example. From the first three words that each character speaks, without referring back to the written books for help, you KNOW who is speaking. He used accents and inflections and various pitches of voice to achieve all of that.

If a new narrator takes over a series (there was one where the first narrator passed away mid-series), it would be helpful if the new person could listen to a few minutes of the first narrator's work - not to pick up the technique, but to pick up the names the readers have gotten used to. Or consult with the original author. I stopped listening to that series because the new narrator changed the name pronunciation of the female main character so much that I was swearing at my audio player. Completely ruined the series for me.

In my experience (almost 1000 Audiobook titles in my collection), at least PART of the answer to this comes down to individual taste.

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I will end with this - if all that is needed is to render the words into sound - there are several mechanical programs available - and they generally make the text sound as boring as a 5 year old picking his way through the phone book. It is almost always the Narrator who makes or breaks the Audiobook - I encountered One narrator who managed to ruin a Nora Roberts novel with her monotonous drone (and I am a BIG fan of Nora Roberts!)

As an example, I have a favorite series with a favorite narrator. Early on, I loaned one of my titles (on CD) to a friend. She HATED the same narrator that I still rate as one of my top 10. Some of her complaints centered around accents, others around inflections, all of which were pluses in my book.

1st - Accents. I have one audio title that I bought because I really like the author. She was also releasing, in addition to her main focus, Romantasy titles, a historical series based in Scotland. This was the ONLY title that went DNF for me, because the narrator was such a good job with the (thick) Scottish brogue that no one who had not grown up in the Highlands could understand more than one word in every three.

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