[shayhiri]

Mine has to be the "Third person objective".

"The author does not enter a single mind, but instead records what can be seen and heard. This type of narrator is like a camera or a fly on the wall."

Has this POV been used in fantasy? Help. :)

[JBI]

Frank Herbert uses that.

[shayhiri]

Thanks!

Do you mean in "Dune"? Do we not get to "see" Paul's thoughts sometimes? Long time since I read it.

("Dune"'s not exactly fantasy, on a side note. Leans heavily on sci-fi, I think.)

[SKK]

Third Person Limited.

This is kinda a cop-out, but it's the POV that works best for me: one noodle, one set of eyes, and little else. The narrator can, however, point out things that the subject DID or SHOULD HAVE seen/noticed and emphasize them for the reader, so its a very powerful POV, all in all.

[Glelas]

Thanks!

Do you mean in "Dune"? Do we not get to "see" Paul's thoughts sometimes? Long time since I read it.

("Dune"'s not exactly fantasy, on a side note. Leans heavily on sci-fi, I think.)

Funny, I am reading the Dune saga as we speak, err type...Although Herbet uses a "fly on the wall" approach, you are correct that he does jump into the heads of his characters. Sometimes every character involved in the scene.

[KatG]

Mine has to be the "Third person objective".

"The author does not enter a single mind, but instead records what can be seen and heard. This type of narrator is like a camera or a fly on the wall."

Has this POV been used in fantasy? Help. :)


It's sometimes called "camera obscura." It means a story with only an omniscient narrator and no inner character pov's at all. I have seen it used, but only for short stories.

There may be an epistolary-type novel in sff -- say where the whole story is told in memos between office workers or some such -- where this technique is used, but I don't know of one off-hand. Doesn't mean you couldn't try it, though.