1st person or 3rd person?

[cstanley1976]

This is a question for the betas. I don't think this would spoil anything. And I haven't seen it mentioned in the discussions. Is it first person like Dresden or third like Codex?  I love both series but I have a friend who won't read first person. No matter what I do I can't get him to read anything with the word "I" in it.

Thank you.

[raljamcar]

Now what about Ayn Rands Anthem? no 'I's there.

[Serack]

This is a question for the betas. I don't think this would spoil anything. And I haven't seen it mentioned in the discussions. Is it first person like Dresden or third like Codex?  I love both series but I have a friend who won't read first person. No matter what I do I can't get him to read anything with the word "I" in it.

Thank you.

It's like Codex Alera.  3rd person with sections following different characters.

[MX]

It's like Codex Alera.  3rd person with sections following different characters.

I'll buy the first book and give the new series a shot, but really not a fan of jumping perspectives in books.  I prefer 1st person, but do like some third person series.

In The Black Company series by Glen Cook, the flipping perspective occurred repetitively in one book and to this day, when I re-read the series, I jump to the book after it.  Nothing wrong with doing it, just not to my personal taste.

[Serack]

I'll buy the first book and give the new series a shot, but really not a fan of jumping perspectives in books.  I prefer 1st person, but do like some third person series.

In The Black Company series by Glen Cook, the flipping perspective occurred repetitively in one book and to this day, when I re-read the series, I jump to the book after it.  Nothing wrong with doing it, just not to my personal taste.

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.

[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]

It's like Codex Alera.  3rd person with sections following different characters.

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.

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.

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]

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.

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]

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.

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. 

[Nexfalx]

Hmmm, third person is cool and all, it has it's advantages, like hopping from character to character, the biggest flaw (to me) in the Dresden Files is when cool stuff is happening in the back ground or half way around the world but we only get to hear about it because harry wasn't present, or awake or what ever else. That is not to say that First person isn't all that bad either you get to be Much closer to the protagonist, in this case harry, than you would when you jump between 4 character or more in a book and only view them in third person not from in their head.

so both are fun and i don't care how he writes this series because if it's anything like DF or CA this will be right up there with my favorites.

[PilgrimDan]

From this reading (part 2 is there, too) I'd say Cinder Spires is written in the third person, omniscient or not.

[Sully]

On switching perspectives:

You know what I would LOVE to see?

e-books being used to somewhat full potential.

Since we're talking about Codex Alera, why do I have to read the chapters sequentially? I like Amara's chapters in FLF.  Why can't I just read all of her chapters, right in a row?

It would be child's play, technologically.

edit: This would be utterly amazing in ASoIaF, as well.

[Shecky]

On switching perspectives:

You know what I would LOVE to see?

e-books being used to somewhat full potential.

Since we're talking about Codex Alera, why do I have to read the chapters sequentially? I like Amara's chapters in FLF.  Why can't I just read all of her chapters, right in a row?

It would be child's play, technologically.

edit: This would be utterly amazing in ASoIaF, as well.

Sounds like a fan project. *snaps fingers* Hop to it!

[Sully]

Not sure how I would distribute it without breaking copyright laws and encouraging piracy.

Besides, I don't own the e-books, only the hardcovers.