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OSC had recently written a review of a book in which he said this was difficult to do, but I just finished listening to The Jester on audiobook, and I didn't see any problem with it whatsoever- even though the same actor was reading all sections (unlike the audiobook of Life of Pi.
I didn't see how it would be that different from establishing different POVs in an all third person book. I can see how going from 1st to omniscient without a close POV would be annoying.
I do know that I just finished reading "Along Came A Spider" by James Patterson. (By "finished reading" I mean put the book down in disgust at page fifty and never picked it up again). Patterson tried really hard to mix first and third and failed miserably. Just one reason among many that I've decided James Patterson is a super-crappy author.
So if you want to make it work, you have to be a better author than James Patterson.
A turd on a plate would be a better author than James Patterson.
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"Impossible" in author speak means hard to love, and hard to sell. Doesn't mean you can't do it...there's nothing you can't do.
Harlan Coben pulled the first/third thing off remarkably well in...um...I think it was called "No Second Chances" -- it was actually integral to the plot, and so worked well for me.
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not having read the books mentioned so far in this thread, i am unsure just how much mixing of perspectives there is, but stephen king quite successfully switches from first person to third person and back to third person in "christine." the switch is, in fact, important to the way the plot plays out, so it works
Posts: 37 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Theodore Sturgeon wrote the novel "More Than Human" in three books, the middle of which he wrote in first person. I found it very jarring and a bit irritating.
I considered changing to first person after a critical event in a story I just completed, and I found it just as jarring as I found Sturgeon's forray. Then again, maybe Sturgeon would have told me I made a mistake by staying in third person. Sometimes you just have to go with your instinct.
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I think the only real problem with a pov change is if the reader notices...or notices enough that it bothers them. The goal of writing is to keep the reader from paying attention to the writing and become engrossed in the story. No matter what we can get away with, it really comes down to how the reader deals with the crazy things we do.
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One thing that might make a difference is if the POV switches from first to third and vice versa are between different characters (as in some of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books where the Lew Alton chapters are in first person and the Regis Hastur chapters are in third person) or if they are with the same character, and how the switches are handled.
If, say, the first person POV parts were from a report or a journal or a conversation or a letter from the POV character, it ought to work to have those in first person. If there weren't any such reason for the switch, it might be harder for the author to make them work.
POV person switches between different characters or even with the same character can be done, but it really depends on how they're handled and what purpose they serve in the story.
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Sturgeon wrote the "Baby Is Three" section of More Than Human first, then wrote the first and last sections to complete the novel at an appropriate length. Perhaps I was more appreciative because I read "Baby Is Three" in an anthology before picking up the whole novel. (I don't think I "got it" until I read it again in the Complete Theodore Sturgeon books published relatively lately...either it had improved enormously in the meantime or I have.)
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That's so funny, Wetwilly, because The Jester was also written by James Patterson- but he had a co-author, so maybe that was how they helped it to work. I thought it worked really well technically. It was just like any other book, except the parts that were from the MC's POV. Now as for the plausibility and taste of the story, those were highly questionable. But it kept us awake while we were driving, so at least as good as Dr. Pepper. :P
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Whatever keeps you from perishing in a heap of burning metal on the highway, Franc Li. Personally, that's a fate I find only slightly more distasteful than reading James Patterson again. My personal opinion.
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