I generally don't like first person either. I confess that I did start reading Hunger Games, but it is sitting in my kindle unfinished because I got annoyed.

I just finished reading 'Devil's Kitchen' by Alison DeLuca. It is the second book in the 'Crown Phoenix' series, (The Night Watchman Express' is the first book) and I am hooked. I can't wait until the third book comes out.

Ditto what connie said. Somehow there's something that puts me off about first person books.

@D_A

About useless weapons in BR, it reminded me something. I've remembered someone had a fork (or was it a spoon?!) as a weapon LOL! I think he was Mimura's (basketball dude) friend. I know it sounds cruel but I laughed out loud when he pulled it out of his bag

Eh, I'm cool with first person though that's cuz quite a bit of fanfic I read are first person and my fan couple are rare enough I just read whatever I can find.

It's 2nd person I can never get into unless it's one of those "Choose your own adventures" type of books.

Never even heard of Hunger Games before all the advertisements pop up in the newspaper, online, etc. And probably won't read it.

Slowly getting through Sherlock holmes at the moment. I'm jumping around in the series rather than read them chronologically.

@connie: Sounds interesting. What's the series about? The Devil's Kitchen? I remember reading a manga of the same title, LOL.

@rogue: Hated HG once for being overhyped. Hated it twice for being in first person. Tried to be fair and gave it a go. Hated it third time for being an epic failure of a book. Yeah, they wanted to make Katniss sounds all TUFF and HARDCOAR, but in the end... she fail to stay true to what her character was supposed to be. Inconsistent characterization: D_A does not like.

About first person POV in general: I don't mind it in fanfics. I have the bias from liking the character in canon that I don't mind too much. When in original stories, though, it's harder to like. Maybe because it makes the character sound so self-centered. Counts for fan-made characterization of minor characters. Like the Org 13 in Kingdom Hearts. Especially if I disagree with the characterization. But that's just personal bias. Everyone can have their own interpretation of the stories, no?

My favorite ones are:

The Tardy Boy series

Books:

Is That a Dead Dog in Your Locker?
Is That a Sick Cat in Your Backpack?
Is That a Glow-in-the-Dark Bunny in Your Pillowcase?
Is That an Angry Penguin in Your Gym Bag?

All of those are funny like when Leyton insulted the Glow Bunnies with bad breath, 5th place against a lady with a baby, etc. jokes

*RD laughs at the insult*



RD: That is one bad insult! I could beat those slow pokes any day!

Derpy: I wonder if they would like my muffin o'matic...

This is an excerpt from my review of it:

In the first book of the series `The Night Watchman Express', we met Miriam, an unhappy young girl who was orphaned when her wealthy industrialist father dies. With no other family, her father's business partners, the Marchpanes, become her guardians. The Marchpanes immediately move into Miriam's house, and take over her father's rooms. (Mrs. Marchpane is deliciously evil.) They make their attempt to gain full control of Miriam's money and her father's company. In book one, Miriam's adventures lead her and Simon, the Marchpane's son to captivity on the train known as the Night Watchman's Express. In this tale, their stories are picked up right where they left off in book one.

The book opens with Miriam and Simon on the terrifying train known as the Night Watchman Express. She is immediately thrown into a prison, the infamous `Devil's Kitchen' and forced to labor in horrible conditions. There are the requisite nasty, cruel people there, but there are also many characters who are kind, caring people.

Miriam's strength and courage make both friends and enemies for her, and her resourcefulness and courage make for a great adventure. Simon also is forced to find his courage and his strength and use his wits to survive the situation that he finds himself in.

Quote:

Yeah, I think that's the main problem with fictions (and fan-fictions for that matters) written in first person POV. The author tends to forget that the main character they're writing about is a different person from themselves; the author's thoughts, feelings and emotions affects how the main character reflects the storyline, thus making their personality deviate from what it was supposed to be.

I especially hate it when a bad, female writer writes up some fan-fiction on a male character with first person POV- because not only will the character becomes unbelievably OOC, he becomes about as whiny and immature as a teenage girl who's wangsting at every single thing.

I agree! To say nothing of the fact that it can sometimes sound like a walkthrough for an RPG!

Inconsistent characterization? What if the character changes her/his personality half-way? Would that count? o.o

Not really. If a character changes his/her personality, the transition of the character's personality difference should be written out clearly. Inconsistent characterization is when how the impression of the character's personality differs from what the author claims.

That is true. Changing one's personality does not happen in a second. It gradually happens overtime and good writers should be able to write that transition seamlessly.

Unless, of course, unexpected incidents happen, like amnesia or the person becomes possessed by an evil spirit or something. But that doesn't count.

@Rogue: My very reason for not liking first POV, both to read or write. When writing, I feel like I'm intruding in my story's universe and it's hard to make things happen to the protagonist because of the "me" element attached. When reading, it becomes annoying when I cannot relate to the protagonist because their opinion may be different from mine. Or worse yet, they believe in something I completely disagree with, and I'm expected to like them. No.
------------------------------------------------
Also, in a lot of cases authors forget that readers cannot see into their heads and that what is on the page may seem different to others. Part where it gets hard. Don't over-describe, or it'll end up filling up the page with pointless junk and the core of the story is buried under the excess words. Too little description leaves the readers confused. Finding the right balance is tricky.

This is what editors do, but really, the editors should be a lot stricter than they are now. A lot of these description fails slips through at the final product.

I was under the impression that in order to make good characters, you need to be able to 'get into their heads' reliably. So in a way, writing in first person is a good way to do that if only as an exercise.

Gotta say though, getting into certain characters head (Evil!Teijal for example) is disturbing because it makes me wonder if it's me who's talking or my character. The implications are unsettling.

Though I am guilty of writing as a male character in 1st/3rd person for role plays. For some reason, I cannot play female characters most of the time. They feel wrong. Roleplaying as a male feels more comfortable to me.
Not gonna try to understand why at the moment.

@d_a: I agree SO MUCH with your last two paragraphs. So many authors shove in so much detail and all it does is make me spend all of my time adjusting the little details of the setting or the characters or whatever in my head rather than paying attention to the story. It's exhausting. It turned me off reading for like a year, and I'm still in recovery. It's why I'm reading HP again: if nothing else, I think J.K. Rowling gets her descriptions 100% right. She tells us what something is in such a way that the image can pop right into our heads fully formed, and we don't have to deal with adjusting that image or whatever. It's effortless. I think there are quite a few problems in the HP books (love love love them though I do), but this is certainly not one of them.

@iPink: Yeah, you gotta leave enough room for readers to imagine stuff. That overload of description turned me off Eragon because there's so much description of pointless stuff that I forgot what was going on sometimes. Was thinking "SHUT UP ALREADY!!!" through most of the books.

@KTC: Well, I dunno. I still write in third even when trying to explore my characters' thoughts and stuff. Coz I'm describe them. Using first feels like I'm putting myself, even the tiniest bit, into the person. Or RP-ing as the person. I don't want to be that person, or inserting myself into the person. Feels like I'm tampering with the character. Gah, I don't understand myself. I just don't like using first POV because it makes me feel a little ill inside.

*note to self: nix on the info dumps*

(posted Oct-21-2011 on my Best In Fantasy Blog


"Just like every other obsessed, fanatic reader of High Fantasy, I am always on the lookout for that one special book that presages the advent of a new classic series in the genre. In my opinion, L. T. Suzuki has written that book in Imago Chronicles Book One: A Warrior's Tale.


In an intriguing twist, A Warrior's Tale begins with the end. Taking shelter from a freak blizzard, Nayla Treeborn, half elf, half human and not fully either, huddles next to the corpse of a dead soldier; using his body and the now un-needed cloaks of other dead soldiers to shelter her from the killing weather. As she shelters there, she finds herself thinking about her life to that point; going back to a day when she had been a child the mental and physical equivalent of a mortal 12 year old, but was in reality 37 years of age.


Nayla's father, a high Elf and the Steward of Nagana, Dahlon Treeborn, despises her for reasons which are not made clear in this book. He has punished her for publicly disagreeing with him; nearly beating her to death. Joval Stonecroft discovers her, dreadfully mutilated and bloody and is horrified. Healing her as well as he can, he spirits her out of the elven city of Nagana to the human city of Anshen, home of the legendary Kagai Warriors. Taking the name of Takaro, the young girl embarks upon a lifetime of training, eventually becoming the only female Kagai Warrior ever accepted into the brotherhood. When at long last she reaches womanhood, not only is Takaro fully trained in the manly arts of the warrior, but she is also a woman fully trained in the womanly arts as a spy, a courtesan and an assassin.


In book 1 of the series the main antagonist is Eldred Firestaff, a sorcerer who combines the nicer qualities of Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter) with the personal charm of Ctuchik (The Belgariad), and who is an immortal tool of evil, resurfacing every generation or so. Each time he comes back, he uses the armies of the weak Emperor of East Orien as his power-base in his eternal quest to conquer the world of Imago. However, in this first book of the series, although the battles with this slippery and long-lived villain are colorful and intense, they are almost secondary to Nayla's personal battle for acceptance and with her own inner demons. This book is concerned with fleshing out Nayla and really whets your appetite for the rest of the tale!

As a half-caste, Takaro/Nayla ages much more slowly than humans, and much more quickly than elves. During the course of the story she outlives three of her Kagai Masters, all of whom live to be very old men. She also outlives their grandsons and their grandson's grandchildren, yet at the end of the book she appears to be a woman of about twenty-five years of age. Her wisdom and abilities are that of a warrior at the prime of life, and she becomes the most respected of the fierce Kagai Warriors. When her father is maneuvered into asking for the finest Kagai Warrior to train his own warriors, Nayla finds herself back in Nagana, and her father is forced to suffer her presence there; a situation that is bad at best.


The world of Imago is clearly drawn, and is every bit as compelling as that of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Here we have two distinct cultures living side-by-side in peace and harmony for generations; coming to each other's aid whenever the other is threatened. Loyalty, honor, hard-work, love and family are the central facets of the human society that Nayla/Takaro finds herself adopted into as an abused child, and these values are echoed in the society of the Elves. Within each society, the political and social divisions are clear and the differences between Elves and Men are well drawn and consistently portrayed throughout the drama that unfolds.


Suzuki is herself a master of the martial arts, being a practitioner and instructor of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu; a system that incorporates 6 traditional Samurai schools and 3 schools of Ninjutsu. As one who was once a mere grasshopper in the obscure art of Shou Shu, I fully appreciate the wisdom and experience that the master crafts into the fabric of this tale. Every element of this story evokes both the martial and the spiritual aspects of the culture of Imago; every element is vivid and believable to the reader.


With each book in this series, I am drawn deeper into this amazing and very real world of Imago. In book 2 of the series, Tales From the West we find out more about the real evil that threatens Imago, and discover who or what is behind the sorcerer Eldred Firestaff.


I know I am repeating myself, but Suzuki has created a masterpiece in this series. I have been compelled to read every single volume in the series The most recent installment in the series, 'Destiny's End' calls to me, and I must quit working now, and curl up on my sofa for a good long read."

WELCOME TO THE NARNIA CLUB!

This is the place for The Chronicles of Narnia fans. You can discuss the Narnian movies/books over here.

But please: Follow all the AM forum rules & don't talk about anything else except for Narnia here. If you want to talk about about other books or movies, we have a Reader's Club, Fantasy Book Club, Classic Book Club & a Movie Club. If you wish to view any other clubs, please refer to this guide. Just keep this place clean of other non-Narnia related chats.

SO - NARNIAN FANS UNITE!


Topics merged. Sorry but there is no reason to have a topic for just one book series, especially when there exists a topic for fantasy books. We don't want the club house to be full of threads for just one thing.
~Mopiece

*butts in*
Narnia wasn't that good, imo. :/ I read them all and found them predictable and average, after a while. They had a dose of "catchy-ness" but enough only to get me to finish them. And then be like "that's it?!".

@Related the first person thing: Who read Les Miserables knows what I mean. Almost every character took their time to stop and start a monologue about their political views towards Napoleon. And they all had the same views, and people who could not afford a bread and lived all their lives in poverty could give quotes from the world's wisest people. Come on.

@connie: you got me interested, I am considering reading it now :]

I am reading the last book of the trilogy "The Eldarn Sequence", written by Robert Scott and Jay Gordon.
I am usually against people from our world traveling to another, where creatures and magic exist, but this series is just amazing. It's fantastically written and it's just so catchy. The books are each pretty long, but that did not stop me.

I recommend this series to all fantasy book lovers.

Huh, I remember reading Narnia and was bored out of my skull, though I had this mild curiousity of "What happens next?" I appreciate the Garden of Eden and Jesus allegory in the first two books (Magician's Nephew and Lion Witch Wardrobe), but the rest was pretty eh to me.

Narnia was a good series and it was ground-breaking for its time.


Ruffi - I will definitely check out "The Eldarn Sequence", written by Robert Scott and Jay Gordon.

Well, yes, I believe Narnia WAS intended to be for children also? So now that I look at it, I should have expected it to be light literature, easy to read. Kids would probably be on their toes when they read this, but... not me.