Other Jimness > Cinder Spires Books
1st person or 3rd person?
Mr. Death:
Yeah, CA's most "frequent" perspective jump was chapter to chapter, and each chapter was still pretty long. And even then, it was usually two or three chapters in a row before the perspective changed.
KevinSig:
--- Quote from: Serack on July 16, 2013, 12:06:02 PM ---It's like Codex Alera. 3rd person with sections following different characters.
--- End quote ---
Oof, I hope it isn't as brutal as Codex. He sometimes he left plots hanging a bit too long for my tastes.
But honestly, I'm not a fan of multiple 3rd persons, as gets really hard to keep track of what's going on. Especially when you've got a complicated plot of a new unfamiliar world.
The exception to this, for me, has been the Heores of Olympus books, which doesn't backtrack or cover concurrent events. The stories are a free flowing marathon, in which the narrator gets swapped, but the action is always moving forward.
--- Quote from: Mr. Death on July 18, 2013, 03:02:09 PM ---Yeah, CA's most "frequent" perspective jump was chapter to chapter, and each chapter was still pretty long. And even then, it was usually two or three chapters in a row before the perspective changed.
--- End quote ---
Which was a problem for me, on a number of occasions. Off the top of my head, there was this time Bernard & Amara infiltrated this camp of Collar bound prisoners. The book followed them up to a certain point, then took a number a chapters before picking up where the story left off.
And flow of the stories felt off.
MX:
--- Quote from: Serack on July 18, 2013, 02:36:50 PM ---Jim's a huge fan of that series. I don't remember CA having rapid jumps from perspective to perspective, but I haven't read it since like 2010.
--- End quote ---
Ah, no, I was talking about one of the Black Company novels that did the jumping. It involved both time and perspective and just didn't sit right. It wasn't an every chapter thing.
When I get invested in a book and perspective switches, it throws me. It's a personal thing I understand not everyone has issues with, but it disrupts the flow for me and takes me out of the story. Once out of it, I tend to put the book down until I can generate interest. With the Black Company, I had read so many before it that were awesome so I finished the book and went on to the next. Thankfully the rest of the series worked for me.
I don't mind perspective switches when they keep the continuity flowing nicely, like in the new Kevin Hearne Iron Druid book Hunted. However, a multiple jump, including time and perspective, while not really keeping the story in a flow (for me, anyway) tends to lose my interest.
Serack:
--- Quote from: MX on July 19, 2013, 06:10:31 AM ---Ah, no, I was talking about one of the Black Company novels that did the jumping. It involved both time and perspective and just didn't sit right. It wasn't an every chapter thing.
When I get invested in a book and perspective switches, it throws me. It's a personal thing I understand not everyone has issues with, but it disrupts the flow for me and takes me out of the story. Once out of it, I tend to put the book down until I can generate interest. With the Black Company, I had read so many before it that were awesome so I finished the book and went on to the next. Thankfully the rest of the series worked for me.
I don't mind perspective switches when they keep the continuity flowing nicely, like in the new Kevin Hearne Iron Druid book Hunted. However, a multiple jump, including time and perspective, while not really keeping the story in a flow (for me, anyway) tends to lose my interest.
--- End quote ---
I understood you. I guess I didn't seperate my two points well enough.
Great example with Hunted. Having just read it, it makes for a great example of perspective changes with realatively little 4d discontinuity. Although I remember one cut that went back to a grave in another country ;)
PilgrimDan:
Third person unreliable is the way I'd go.
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