First person fantasy. Can it work?

[Erlking]

My first post woo!

Anyway, I was never into english class and all the writing details and terms so just to make sure Dresden Files is first person right?
I've read lots of fantasy and thats what I enjoy. After seeing the show i picked up the books and its the first books i've read in that view and wondered would fantasy work like that. I mean fantasy like Eddings, Tolkien, Feist type settings because we all know stuff in Dresden Files is real so not fantasy 

So does anyone know that sort of fantasy written in first person and did it read well?
I've been toying with a book idea for a long time but just couldn't get started but that first person really seems 'easy' to me compared to third person.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

So does anyone know that sort of fantasy written in first person and did it read well?

You're making me wince by mentioning drek like Eddings in the same context as Tolkien, you know.

That said, gigantic epic save the world form evil in first person; no. Fantasy world with magic and dragons and so on in first, yes, definitely.  Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books, starting with Jhereg, which I think is now most readily available in a collection with the next two called The Book of Jhereg, is an excellent example.

I've been toying with a book idea for a long time but just couldn't get started but that first person really seems 'easy' to me compared to third person.

It looks that way until the first time your reader absolutely has to know something your narrator doesn't know, can't know, or would never, never, never stop to explain.

[Erlking]

You're making me wince by mentioning drek like Eddings in the same context as Tolkien, you know.

Heh, I didn't mean style or skill, just the medieval type settings. Forgive me! 

[Spectacular Sameth]

Dresden Files IS as much Fantasy as everything else like that. The setting has nothing to do with the genre you classify it in. DF is classified as Urban Fantasy because Fantasy breaks down into Urban Fantasy (such as The Dresden Files, Harry Potter, or such other things because they take place in OUR world) and several other different subgenres (and DF might actually fit into a couple of the others...) The term you're looking for is High Fantasy.


Is there a work of High Fantasy that works in the first person?

And my answer to that question is *shrugs.*

[meg_evonne]

Absolutely.  I did some research on point of view with a recent class.  First person is supposed to be the easiest and I certainly found it fun once I got used to HAVING to stay in the same room with the main character all the time.  Writing in the other points of view is much more tricky and difficult apparently and I wanted to do something I wouldn't get embarrassed putting out there to be read.

Anyway, I attacked the local library and drug out all of my favorites over the years.  They were all but one in FIRST PERSON,  I was shocked!  I guess we are so keyed into media that jumps all over the place that our minds tend to write that way.  After the third week of class and reading other students comments--"I got lost, did you switch characters?"  That I just stuck to the one point of view and things really smoothed out after that.

It was tricky trying to remember that you can't say what another character is thinking.  Instead you have to SHOW it so readers can see what they were thinking.  A rather fun puzzle and improved the total output of the piece. 

Best wishes!  Visit your own library and take a peek at what POV they were using.

Meg in IA

[Beamer]

You're making me wince by mentioning drek like Eddings in the same context as Tolkien, you know.

Could you please explain why you consider Eddings drek?

Beamer
Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth, or the only truth.
Charles A. Dana

[Cyclone Jack]

Zelazny's The Chronichles Of Amber are in first person. I doubt you can find a more epic fantasy. 'Epic' is as much a function of atmosphere and style as location and event.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Zelazny's The Chronichles Of Amber are in first person. I doubt you can find a more epic fantasy. 'Epic' is as much a function of atmosphere and style as location and event.

I didn't mention those, because so far as I am concerned, the first two read well, and then they slowly get less and less good.  Zelazny freely admitted that he only kept writing them to put his kids through college.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Could you please explain why you consider Eddings drek?

Bearing in mind I haven't read one for ages, because of how negatively they struck me when first I found them, let's see... lack of originality, paper-thin characterisation, irritating banter, predictable plots - almost at the level of "take a close look at the map, you know they're going to have to visit every damned country in it", moral obnoxiousness on the "casual mass slaughter is OK if the heroes do it" front, and, on a word-by-word level, the writing is banal.

[CrazyGerbilLady]

Personally I love the Belgariad and the Mallorean.  Love the characters.  Couldn't get into their latest series though .. THOSE characters I just couldn't bring myself to give a hoot about.  Different strokes for different folks I guess.

[Jacen]

I enjoyed the Belgeriad and Malloreon precisely because they weren't deep, philosophical treatises. Yeah, they're pretty shallow but they're fun. As for the Taltos novels, I highly recommend them. Probably one of the coolest things I've ever read. I can't wait to get my hands on the sorta prequel books. And I hope the rest of the series comes out soon. He's got a lot more books planned though.

[Dom]

Robin Hobb's Assassin books are written in first person, and are high/epic fantasy set in a medieval-type world.  You may want to check them out.

[prophet224]

I'd just like to throw out there that ANYTHING can work.  It's a matter of whether it truly fits the work that you are trying to create.  Sometimes it doesn't do it, sometimes it does. 

FPV is often considered the 'first resort' of aspiring writers.  I'm not saying that stories don't work out well that way, but it takes a certain feel and plot for it to be right. 

Also, here's a series; while not 'High Fantasy', I hesitate to call these horror, so I would say they are fantasy:  The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.  You will find many of these written from a first person viewpoint, and honestly, they wouldn't have worked as well otherwise. 

[Mickey Finn]

This fits in nicely with how Alera came about...because Jim believed a good story could be written by a good author on *anything*. (The bet was to combine lost roman legions with pokeman)

Sir Apropos of Nothing is another great series in first person...closer to The princess Bride in feeling, though. A sarcastic, snarky version, where the hero just wants to be the damn hero in his own story, and not the stupid sidekick or villian in some other villian's story that he keeps winding up being. Great stuff from Peter David.
Although the 3rd book gets depressing as hell.

[Stuart1512]

Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch series is a fine example of First Person fantasy/Sci Fi.