8 Replies to “First Cup of Coffee – June 21, 2019”
I so agree with you. I don’t mind a couple of viewpoints, but if authors include a gazillion viewpoints including the dog they lost me.
Worst I’ve come across was in a tie-in novel for a game. I hated the main character of the novel in the game, so read the novel to see if it could change my mind. The pivotal scene, the one that would be the most emotional to her and could have made me understand her, was told from another point of view… ? Such a missed opportunity.
I quite enjoy multiple POVs in books, but usually they’re written as third person. A good example is the Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh where the first book is all from that book’s heroine and hero’s POVs, then the next book starts with additional characters’ POVs. But the overarching series plot would not work without having multiple POV characters. Also, unlike the example you gave, there’s always an obvious reason a specific scene is from that particular character’s POV. She isn’t just picking random characters to mix things up.
Whereas as much as I often say I would have loved to have additional characters’ POVs in the Twelve Kingdoms/Uncharted Realms series, by “limiting” the books to one character’s POV it presents a different story structure which then creates a different set of challenges, but also opportunities. One POV per book works well for that series. Plus you have given us the novellas for some of the heroes’ POVs so I no longer feel like they have been left out. Though I wouldn’t mind more of them *Rayfe*cough*and*Marskal*cough*and*Nakoa*cough* spring immediately to mind as I figure the Zyr cheering section is already well-established.
What I find super odd is alternating first person POV for the heroine and third person POV for the hero or vice versa. I hesitate to call it a trend but I have read more than one recent book that does it. As I said, I am all for alternating, but pick first or third! Please.
I loathe the practice of labeling the chapters by the character’s name when authors write in alternating first person POVs. It’s such a spoon-fed approach as if readers are too stupid to figure it out. I’ve even seen this done is some books which are alternating third person POV and it is so annoying! I think, and I may be wrong, it’s something coming into the romance arena from books which are YA but have a strong romantic element to them so could also easily be classified as romance. Wherever it originates, I am so NOT a fan.
I’m laughing so hard at this: “I figure the Zyr cheering section is already well-established.” The need for more hero POVs is noted 🙂
Yeah – I think the way Nalini does it is different, and works well because it does arc over multiple books and with her complicated interweaving of plots and conspiracies, she really HAS to do that.
I know what you mean on 1st and 3rd. I tried it on an early iteration of THE ORCHID THRONE, just to see how it worked, and it had the effect of making the hero (3rd) feel much less immediate than the heroine (1st). It didn’t work.
The name thing… right? I feel the same way. But I also, as a reader, tend to skip that information and if the author is relying on me paying attention to those headers to know, I don’t. And sometimes I’m all WTF is going on here???
I enjoy having many POVs and loved Spinning Silver (though I could have done w/o the boy POV, I’ll agree), but I do definitely prefer them to be in 3rd rather than 1st. I don’t usually see chapter titles or headers, so that is not a good way to convey information to me either.
I think a lot of why she chose the Jewish angle had to do with the main character’s role as a banker, and how pivotal that was to the story. Also, I believe Naomi is drawing on her own Jewish and Polish heritage for both this and Uprooted (I re-“read” it via Audiobook, and it is read with a Polish(?) accent, as is Spinning Silver).
I agree on playing on Jewish heritage, which I thought worked fine. It’s not that I thought she shouldn’t write about that, but that I find real-world religions in alternate world fantasy distracting. Interesting on the accent though!
//
I so agree with you. I don’t mind a couple of viewpoints, but if authors include a gazillion viewpoints including the dog they lost me.
Worst I’ve come across was in a tie-in novel for a game. I hated the main character of the novel in the game, so read the novel to see if it could change my mind. The pivotal scene, the one that would be the most emotional to her and could have made me understand her, was told from another point of view… ? Such a missed opportunity.
sometimes I think that’s a misguided instinct of the author’s – to flinch away from the pain
I quite enjoy multiple POVs in books, but usually they’re written as third person. A good example is the Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh where the first book is all from that book’s heroine and hero’s POVs, then the next book starts with additional characters’ POVs. But the overarching series plot would not work without having multiple POV characters. Also, unlike the example you gave, there’s always an obvious reason a specific scene is from that particular character’s POV. She isn’t just picking random characters to mix things up.
Whereas as much as I often say I would have loved to have additional characters’ POVs in the Twelve Kingdoms/Uncharted Realms series, by “limiting” the books to one character’s POV it presents a different story structure which then creates a different set of challenges, but also opportunities. One POV per book works well for that series. Plus you have given us the novellas for some of the heroes’ POVs so I no longer feel like they have been left out. Though I wouldn’t mind more of them *Rayfe*cough*and*Marskal*cough*and*Nakoa*cough* spring immediately to mind as I figure the Zyr cheering section is already well-established.
What I find super odd is alternating first person POV for the heroine and third person POV for the hero or vice versa. I hesitate to call it a trend but I have read more than one recent book that does it. As I said, I am all for alternating, but pick first or third! Please.
I loathe the practice of labeling the chapters by the character’s name when authors write in alternating first person POVs. It’s such a spoon-fed approach as if readers are too stupid to figure it out. I’ve even seen this done is some books which are alternating third person POV and it is so annoying! I think, and I may be wrong, it’s something coming into the romance arena from books which are YA but have a strong romantic element to them so could also easily be classified as romance. Wherever it originates, I am so NOT a fan.
I’m laughing so hard at this: “I figure the Zyr cheering section is already well-established.” The need for more hero POVs is noted 🙂
Yeah – I think the way Nalini does it is different, and works well because it does arc over multiple books and with her complicated interweaving of plots and conspiracies, she really HAS to do that.
I know what you mean on 1st and 3rd. I tried it on an early iteration of THE ORCHID THRONE, just to see how it worked, and it had the effect of making the hero (3rd) feel much less immediate than the heroine (1st). It didn’t work.
The name thing… right? I feel the same way. But I also, as a reader, tend to skip that information and if the author is relying on me paying attention to those headers to know, I don’t. And sometimes I’m all WTF is going on here???
Zyr cheering section? I don’t know what you are talking about ?
>_>
I enjoy having many POVs and loved Spinning Silver (though I could have done w/o the boy POV, I’ll agree), but I do definitely prefer them to be in 3rd rather than 1st. I don’t usually see chapter titles or headers, so that is not a good way to convey information to me either.
I think a lot of why she chose the Jewish angle had to do with the main character’s role as a banker, and how pivotal that was to the story. Also, I believe Naomi is drawing on her own Jewish and Polish heritage for both this and Uprooted (I re-“read” it via Audiobook, and it is read with a Polish(?) accent, as is Spinning Silver).
I agree on playing on Jewish heritage, which I thought worked fine. It’s not that I thought she shouldn’t write about that, but that I find real-world religions in alternate world fantasy distracting. Interesting on the accent though!