Fantasy Readers: Preference on MC POV or multiple POV's

I don't really care one way or the other. It all depends on how well the author does it. For epic fantasy, I think multiple POV characters is generally a better option, but it doesn't have to be. A lot of YA epic fantasy has a single point of view character and can still tell an epic story.

Some of my favorite authors have used both approaches. Jim Butcher uses a single POV character in the Dresden Files, but he uses multiple POV characters in the Codex Alera series and in his new Cinder Spires Steampunk series. Similarly, Brandon Sanderson varies the number of POV characters based on how epic the story is. Both authors have written third and first person.

Banshee_Lingers said:

When you read a fantasy novel that has many twists, turns and complicated characters who each have a story to tell, do you want to see it through the MC's experience or do you enjoy POV shifts to change things up in the story and get to know other characters?

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This is like asking if I prefer red covers or blue... Both approaches can work. And both approaches can fail. Sometimes I pick the red cover, sometimes the blue, and once in a while the green cover grabs me.

If each character has a story to tell that relates to the plot, they can tell it to me themselves. Or the MC can relate these stories as the MC learns of them. Or the omni narrator can reveal them. It's up to the author to decide and execute it in a way that keeps people reading. By the time it reaches my hands as a reader... well, the decision's already been made. Either I like the way they did it or I don't, and I find something else to read. I'm just one reader, though...

Banshee_Lingers said:

I have read my fair share of fantasy novels and came across a lot of different ways to unravel the story. Some authors of a in-depth fantasy world choose to write in the POV of their main character through either 1st or 3rd person. It works.

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This is true. I've never encountered a fantasy novel written in second person. Not saying none exist, but the overwhelming majority of fantasy writers pick first or third.

Others write in multiple POV's to show readers what is happening in locations when the MC is not present.

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How is this distinct from writing in first or third? Either of these narrative approaches could have a single pov character throughout or multiple pov characters.

I'd argue that the point of multiple pov characters isn't just to show things happening where the main character isn't, but because the story itself is larger than any one character, and several different people drive different aspects of the plot and/or have goals, obstacles and arcs that are part of a more complex, interwoven story.

Either can work well. Depends on the focus and scope of the tale. Epic fantasies in particular tend to have multiple pov characters or be written in omniscient third (and have an external narrator who is telling the reader about many different characters and settings without doing it through any of their eyes). But a smaller-scale story can too.

They manage this task without constantly head hopping and jarring the readers mind. It's fascinating how this tool works in certain novels or with certain authors but not in others.

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Because they understand what narrative pov is and how to use it in a way that works best for the story at hand.

When you read a fantasy novel that has many twists, turns and complicated characters who each have a story to tell, do you want to see it through the MC's experience or do you enjoy POV shifts to change things up in the story and get to know other characters?

-Banshee

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It completely depends on the story. I enjoy epic fantasy, so I'm used to stories with more than one pov character. I'm not as crazy about omniscient narratives, but that depends very much on the narrator's voice and style and on the focus of the story too.

I also really like first-person or very close limited third narratives that stick with just one character perspective, or just a couple too. I think it's possible to have too many characters--I got a bit glassy eyed reading the third ASoIaF novel by George RR Martin for this reason and haven't read on in the series so far. But I don't make my reading choices based on whether I think the author will have just one "main" character or more than one. I go off prior experience, recommendations, a look at the overall premise and story description provided, and a few sample pages read to see if they pull me in.

Sometimes I'll stop reading if the narrative whips me away from a character I like and got invested in, and the plot arc or character they move me to isn't as interesting as the first one.

Banshee_Lingers said:

It's fascinating how this tool works in certain novels or with certain authors but not in others.

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Well, a lot depends on how well the author understands POV, and what can and cannot (or should not) be done with it. Not all do. See my post to you in BWQ.

When you read a fantasy novel that has many twists, turns and complicated characters who each have a story to tell, do you want to see it through the MC's experience or do you enjoy POV shifts to change things up in the story and get to know other characters?

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I enjoy both kinds, when they're well done. I did read a book earlier this year, first in a series, that stuck with one POV throughout, and I loved it. Loved reading about the character and seeing the world through his eyes. In the second book, however, the author used four POV characters, and that one was a disappointment to me. The original character didn't get much page time, and the other three were not nearly as interesting to read.

OTOH, I loved the first three books of Martin's ASOIAF, but he's losing me now because he's brought in too many POV characters, many of whom are not particularly interesting or I don't want to spend time with or they just simply feel unimportant. This has also had the effect of slowing the pace considerably and making it harder to keep up with all the various plot threads. So there are pitfalls to watch out for when writing multi-POV.

(And I'm saying this as much to myself as anyone here, since I use multi-POV in my own story.)

I'm pretty broad on what I like, with the caveat everyone else has said "if well done".

Up to the limit of "not so many characters and threads the story slows to a crawl" and "not so many characters that I forget who is whom and I don't get to meet my favourite often enough". ASOIAF is one I gave up on because of the story line moving to focus on characters I didn't care about/like.

One of the things I like to see in well done multi-character books is how they make the book greater than the sum of its parts. As was said further up the thread, multi-character is not just about what is going on elsewhere. I like books where there are subtle character or world building points achieved by handing the narrative to a different person. It can be the different viewpoint of the same item, or how one person's obsession is not even on the radar of a second person.

What hasn't been mentioned yet is well rounded secondary characters and walk on parts - so not POV in the second one - but minor players who clearly have a full and busy life "off screen" and are interrupted/interested by the story passing through. (Jasper Fforde Thursday Next books do influence my perception of reading these days. )

I made a strange discovery about three years ago - I found that I really enjoy writing in first person with only one POV throughout the entire book. Up to that point I tended to write in 3rd with multiple POVs. I tried first/ single POV as an experiment - to see if I could do it. And I liked it.

It is more challenging to tell a story when you can't head hop into someone else's POV. But that can also have huge advantages. Not knowing something can be more interesting than knowing it. And you get to spend longer with one character. Plus, we all experience the world through a single POV - our own.

It was about half way through my first first (!) person book that I realised that I had previously been using multiple POVs as a way of avoiding writing problems. If I didn't know how to show time passing I would zap into a different POV. I would skip over boring bits by alternating viewpoints. Ditto if I wanted to advance the plot. Or squeeze in some exposition. Changing POV could be a sneaky writer's shortcut.

You can't do that sort of thing with only one viewpoint. So it it makes you confront writing problems that you would otherwise have side-stepped.

When I am reading, I really don't mind whether it is first or 3rd, multiple or single POV, as long as it is well done.

Roxxsmom said:

This is true. I've never encountered a fantasy novel written in second person. Not saying none exist, but the overwhelming majority of fantasy writers pick first or third.

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One of the POV characters in N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season is written entirely in second person. It was a bit strange at first, but I ended up really enjoying the book.

rwm4768 said:

One of the POV characters in N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season is written entirely in second person. It was a bit strange at first, but I ended up really enjoying the book.

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Well, never say never, then. But the OP commented that most fantasy novels are written in either first or third, and I think that's true overall.

One of these days, I'm going to write a novel in fourth person.

Now there is a thought. If you have a multi-brained alien, what person should you write them in?

Bolero said:

Now there is a thought. If you have a multi-brained alien, what person should you write them in?

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Now I'm thinking of Cherryh's T'ca. They had multipartite brains and communicated in matrices. But she never wrote anything from the pov of one.

I'm used to sticking to a single POV in third person when I write because it lets me remain impartial while following a single plot thread. I don't mind first person or multiple POVs but the latter definitely needs a level of restraint for me.

The thought of a high fantasy story with more than 2 or 3 POV's is exhausting.

It all depends on the story, of course.

And one's reading preferences...

For me, I don't read epic fantasy. I read more down-to-earth/("intimate"?) fantasy or just less epic (in scope).

Because of that, I tend to enjoy intimate, close POV stuff. I tend to love first-person POV stories with one POV character the most. I also enjoy limited 3rd person with one or two POV characters.

After reading all that Gene Wolfe in my twenties, I'm pretty committed to 1st person. Lotsa limitations, but also more interesting in so many ways. Unless any of you out there have secret powers I don't know about, we only get one set of eyes and one perspective we're privy to, so 1st person feels more honest. Also, the MC can lie, equivocate, not know whats going on, or just plain miss something, so that's always interesting (if done well). I'm not a big fan of dual 1st person, both Marie Lu in Legend and Alastair Reynolds in House of Suns did this in otherwise great books, and both voices felt the same. My other big problem is with 'snarky' 1st person, like in ten million YA novels. Done right in the Bartimaeus series though, and probably many others.

Big ASOIAF fan here, but I think it shows exactly what can go wrong with the whole viewpoint character thing. Martin's protege's, the excellent dual entity called James SA Corey, also missteps sometimes with this convention. From what's he's said, GRRM actually adopted the viewpoint 3rd person trick from Gene Wolfe, where he likes to do the same tricky sort of things by narrowing the viewpoint. I think it's a good way to go, actually, though as everyone else is saying, limit your POV characters, please!

I've never particularly liked first person, not sure why. Maybe because it feels like the main character is telling me the story directly and it pulls me out of the world a little bit. As for a singular or multiple POV, I prefer multiple although I can see where a single MC can develop the story more closely.

It totally depends on how the author does it. My fantasy novel is told in three different POVs, and I've found that it's a terrific method for delivering dramatic irony. I also love getting into more than one person's head and seeing the other POV characters from their perspective.

In terms of reading, I don't have much of a preference between first and third, or single or multi POV. I do think that present tense sounds uncomfortably like summarizing, but if the book is good enough I stop noticing it fairly quickly.

I think multi POV is easier to botch than single, because some authors 1) make each voice sound the same 2) have just too many POVs 3) use the multi POV structure as a cop-out--for instance, I read one fantasy book in which each POV started out slow and dull, with the character walking and brooding, and as soon as something interesting happened the book would switch to another POV and the cycle would repeat. 4) another drawback is that often the reader becomes attached to one POV character or plot thread and becomes impatient to get back to that one.

As for writing, I definitely prefer sticking with just one narrator, and I don't usually plan to have multi POVs, but sometimes I get to a point where I need another POV and it just becomes the natural course of action (I make up stories as I go. Definitely not a planner here). In my recently completed draft my two main characters became separated at one point and I found it necessary to have a viewpoint for each of them. I had a lot of fun with the second character's voice, but the majority of the book is from the original character's perspective (they get reunited later). The new draft I'm working on will be a single POV all the way through.

Banshee_Lingers said:

When you read a fantasy novel that has many twists, turns and complicated characters who each have a story to tell, do you want to see it through the MC's experience or do you enjoy POV shifts to change things up in the story and get to know other characters?

-Banshee

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As long as it's either first person, or third person, past tense, it can have up to three or four POVs without bothering me at all. But I don't think each character should actually have a story to tell. There's only one story. Everything else is a subplot, and if you spend too much time away from the main story, every reader will lose interest.

Vertle said:

I've never particularly liked first person, not sure why. Maybe because it feels like the main character is telling me the story directly and it pulls me out of the world a little bit. As for a singular or multiple POV, I prefer multiple although I can see where a single MC can develop the story more closely.

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The main character is telling the story directly. This is the great strength of first person. It's supposed to pull you into the world because no POV is closer than first person. It's like sitting down with a friend you haven't seen in a long time, and having him tell you about his adventures since the last time you saw each other.