I’m rating the new HBO version based upon the first book in the series, A Song of Fire and Ice, by George R. R. Martin. The first episode was brilliant.

Casting:  10/10

Sets:  10/10

Acting:  10/10

Storytelling:  9/10 (simply because of the story’s complexity and the very slight loss in translation from a written medium to a visual medium)

Characters to watch:  Eddard Stark, Daenerys Targaryen and her husband Khal Drogo, Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Bran Stark, Arya Stark, Jon Snow.

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I’m reading a work of genre fiction, YA fantasy to be specific, and I’m having some issues with point of view. I’m the first to admit that while YA is not not my cup of tea, it hasn’t been my regular cup of tea in recent years, not since I read the first few books in the Harry Potter series.  The problem I’m encountering with this particular work, which has received some excellent reviews by the way, is niggling at me. The author keeps switching between a third person point of view, i.e., what the reader sees via one of the characters, and a third person omniscient narrator who keeps giving the reader a bird’s eye view of events. I don’t like it.

The book begins in the third person, but as the third person narrator is rendered unconscious within a page and a half, out of the blue the third person omniscient narrator takes over the story telling. Obviously he has to or the story would cease altogether until the narrator wakes up, which frankly, IMO, would be a better way to go. The narration switches back and forth between the two narrators without any rhyme or reason. In one single paragraph, the author switches from third person to third person omniscient four times.

Here’s my own example (off the top of my head) that is similar to a scene in the book – I’m not going to quote from the actual book because this isn’t a review and as an author, I don’t pick on other authors, I’m making a point about technique -

(Third person POV) Staring straight ahead, eyes riveted on the approaching storm, Meg began to shake with fear. (Third person omniscient POV) The young boy standing behind her couldn’t see the storm. He’d removed his spectacles and was bent over, cleaning them on his jacket.

**Do you see the problem with this paragraph? How does our third person narrator, Meg, know what the young boy standing behind her is doing? How does she know he can’t see the storm? She’s not looking at him. Her eyes are riveted on the approaching storm.

**How might an author fix this? Staring straight ahead, eyes riveted on the approaching storm, Meg began to shake with fear. Feeling something bump the back of her legs, Meg whirled around. She realized the young boy standing behind her couldn’t see the storm. He’d removed his spectacles and was bent over, cleaning them on his jacket.

Maybe ya’ll can let this stuff go when you read, but I can’t.

Genre fiction tends to be written in either first or third person point of view. The nice thing about using third person point of view in romance is that the reader can follow the events of the story through the eyes of two or more characters. Romance writers often tell a story from both the hero’s and the heroine’s points of view.

First person point of view speaks with an “I” voice, as in, “I said this and I said that,” with the main character doing all the “I”-ing.  We see the world through his or her eyes, and just as in third person narrative, we cannot see what our narrator cannot see.  As a reader, we only know as much as the person narrating the story knows.  The story is told via the narrator’s experiences.  We know what other characters are thinking and feeling only in as much as the narrator observes their behavior, their responses to external events, or interpolates their inner thoughts.

Here’s an example of first person point of view:  I ran into the store. Two men lounged near the far door. One thumbed through a girlie magazine while the other poured himself a cup of coffee. Both looked up as I entered. From the way the men stared, I could tell they were interested, but I doubted they were thinking about my pretty face. More than likely, they were looking at the long, angry, red gash running the length of my jawline. In first person point of view, we only know what the narrator knows or surmises. We don’t really know what the men see when they look at her; we know what she thinks they see or what she imagines they see.

Thoughts?

(Sorry – today was going to be about A Game of Thrones, but I got sidetracked.)

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IMO George R.R. Martin is the preeminent science fiction/fantasy writer of our time, followed closely by Tad Williams.  (Put your weak-ass hand down, Wheel of Time.)

Not only is HBO running with A Game of Thrones – which looks like a slam-dunk, Martin’s next installment, A Dance with Dragons, is almost here!  Oh joy!  Rapture!

From A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.

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