First Person Stories

[Azzagorn]

I don't know if its just me, but, I really can't get into a book written in the first person. I've tried Twilight and hated it. I've tried a couple of other books which the names escape me.

I've been thinking about it and I think the reason I don't like it is simple. I don't know what the other characters are thinking or for that matter feeling.

Do you guys and girls have any feeling on this one way or the other?

Az

 

[Vince W]

I'd have to disagree. There are several stories out there that work very well in the first person. A few you might try are:

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

I know there are many more, but those are the ones that come to me immediately.

 

[HareBrain]

I'm not sure three books is an adequate basis on which to decide you don't like a particular narraive style, especially when one of them is Twilight, which let's say isn't univerally admired.

In a (well-written) first-person narrative, you often know what the other characters think and feel because they reveal these things through their words and behaviour (unless they're trying to deceive).

Also, in close-third-person POV, the most common style, you still only get the thoughts and feelings of the POV character of the time. Yes, this character might change between scenes or chapters, but you rarely get more than a handful of characters' perspectives throughout the novel.

Personally, I'm happy to go with whatever best suits the story and the writer. Many of my favourite books have been first-person narratives.

 

[Dozmonic]

I dislike a lot of first person perspective books, more because I disagree with the thought patterns of the person. That said, I really enjoyed The Beach by Alex Garland. The Stainless Steel Rat books mentioned above were a lot of fun, too. Fight Club is another example of well written first person perspective book.

A lot of young adult fiction seems to be first person at the moment.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Kathy Reichs, Charlotte Bronte, Alex Sanchez, Dale Peck, Lian Hearne, Gervaise Phinn, Iain Banks and Mark Twain are some of my favourite authors. All write some or entirely first person. Whether it's first, second or third in their various forms I only notice narrative, tense etc when it doesn't suit the story and it jars a little.

Of that list Lian Hearne's I did think could have been better in third person but Tales of the Otori was still a great set of stories, and didn't ruin my enjoyment. Dale Peck's Sprout would not have worked third person, because the humour would have had less of an impact.

Like HareBrain says you get to know the other characters through dialogue, action, interaction, facial expression etc I struggled with Seeley Booth in the Bones TV series for awhile (well i struggled with the wholesale change from the books), but I'd adored Andrew Ryan in Kathy Reich's books. Now I love both show and books, but to be honest still prefer the male love interest in the books.

The first person works really well for Kathy Reichs and seems to give her work a warmth that Patricia Cornwell's similar stories in third, lack (they read like a science report). Part of that is down to one is a better writer, but I think also it adds to the atmosphere of the book and the first takes the science report feel out of the sciency bits.

 

[Azzagorn]

To be honest maybe I was abit hastey in damning all first person books I was half way through Iain M Banks House of Suns. and I was enjoying it til I moved home and misplaced it!

Maybe I shouldn't of judged on three books especially one of them us Twishite! lol Sorry I do have a undiscribeable hatred of those books they are to me... well teenie bopper drivle.

 

[Abernovo]

I think a lot of Urban Fantasy is written first person (I think that's the genre that Twilight falls under, although a lot of people would classify that series under another, less polite, genre definition). Both Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Richelle Mead's Succubus series are first person, but are much better written and more accessable than Twilight.

I'll add my name to those championing The Stainless Steel Rat. If I remember correctly, another of Harry Harrison's novels, Rebel In Time is also written first person (apologies if I'm incorrect here, I lost my copy a few years back - I'm still trying to rebuild my library)

Heinlein's The Number of the Beast and Silverberg's The Book of Skulls are written first person, with the narration changing between four characters.

Leaving the SF&F genres, I have to agree with Anya - Reichs, Bronte and Twain all produced excellent first person fiction. I've not read Hearne and Phinn, so can't comment on them.

I think it's the quality of the narrative and the story that's more important than the point of view it's been narrated from. As HareBrain says, whatever is best for the story. Please, try a few more authors, before you give up on first person narrative.

 

[Interference]

I think hating Twilight is a good sign

Some books benefit from the first-person experience, but too many on the trot can probably get a bit tiresome. However, when it's used skillfully, it allows us and the author to experience the motivations of someone we'd never, otherwise, be.

 

[Mouse]

I thought I disliked first person narrative until I read Robin Hobb.

 

[Montero]

Juliet McKenna's Einnarin series (starts with Thief's Gamble) has an interesting take that mixes first and third person. Little while since I last read it, but as I recall it alternated in each chapter. The first person character is the main focus of the plot, but there is a lot going on with other people, elsewhere, and they appear in third person. It is the same first person character for an entire book, but alternates between two people through the series. (Livak for 1, 3 and 5, Ryshad for 2 and 4 if I recall correctly.)

 

[Fried Egg]

I personally have no problem with first person but this discussion reminded me of Christopher Priest's "Glamour" in which he used a shift of narrative perspective at the end to produce the twist with great effect.

 

[Extollager]

Fritz Leiber's "Coming Attraction" is an example of an acknowledged sf classic written in first person. Wells's Time Machine and War of the Worlds would be two more (and I love them). More recently, Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go is an effective sf novel written in first person.

I wonder if first person is more common in sf than in fantasy. C. S. Lewis's very fine late novel Till We Have Faces is written (masterfully) in first person from a woman's point of view. But there aren't very many out-and-out fantasy stories written from first person, are there?

 

[Montero]

Just an impression, wondering if it is that fantasy tends to be more multi-threaded, many characters than science fiction, so first person doesn't work as well for it.

Another good first person series is John Barnes's Thousand Cultures. In places that gets quite complex first person, because of psypyx technology. Psypyx is a copy of the memories and character of a person who has been killed/died before their time, put on a little chip, embedded in a host's mind while a cloned body grows. Usually done between friends and the hosting lasts a couple of years. So you get the first person thread, with comments from the second person in the first person's head (from POV of first person), often including them re-examining memories they have in common - being at school together, whatever. The hosting activates the chip to make sure it is viable for transplant to the new body.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Just an impression, wondering if it is that fantasy tends to be more multi-threaded, many characters than science fiction, so first person doesn't work as well for it.

QUOTE]
Or is that sci fi's about wonderment, about revealing the extraordinary so it can read very fresh from a first person perspective? Personally since Huck Finn I love reading first person, provided it's well done.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Just an impression, wondering if it is that fantasy tends to be more multi-threaded, many characters than science fiction, so first person doesn't work as well for it.

Funny when writing my fantasy it was because of the many threads and multitude of characters I placed it in first person. It seemed to control the story better and keep the character rather than the world at the forefront.

It isn't necessary with first person to keep it to one POV though - there have been a few multiple first persons I've enjoyed. The Hardy Boys have a series where Frank and Joe take turns in narrating and some of them are really good. (There are others but can't recall them right now )

 

[Cam Winstanley]

This would be better if only I could remember the name of the book, but my friend once told me about a book he was reading written in the rarely-mentioned SECOND person format - ie "You approach the door and open it. A man inside turns to you and nods."

He said it wouldn't have been so hard to take if not for the fact the hero of the book was some kind of galactic assassin who regularly sliced up people who didn't really deserve it. That is to say, "you" sliced up innocent people.

 

[HareBrain]

Iain Banks (not "M") wrote a book called Complicity in which the unidentified assassin's scenes (and only those) are written in the second person. But since there's nothing galactic about it, it can't be the one you mean. Interesting coincidence though.

 

[Hex]

I used to hate first person but I've been liking it more and more. Normally I don't remember if a book is written in first person or close third, just if it's written in a way that doesn't work for me -- head hopping really annoys me, so I tend to like first person stories because it's rarer there.

I loved the Stainless Steel Rat (haven't read them for years, must read again).
Ditto the Amber books, which I'm re-reading -- there's no way those could have been as funny and idiosyncratic if they hadn't been written in first person. Patrick Rothfuss' amazing fantasy stories are first person (aren't they?), and as you say a lot of YA fiction is -- including The Forest of Hands and Teeth (I think), The Hunger Games and The Knife of Never Letting Go trilogy.

Some absolutely wonderful authors for adults write in first person -- e.g. Carol Berg (who is a tremendous author, with amazing stories), Sarah Monette (I expect not everyone appreciates her -- her story about wolves while not in first person was especially eyebrow raising, but the writing is beautiful) and Robin McKinley (Sunshine might not really be your thing since it also involves vampires, but it's a brilliant book).

It does seem a bit unfair to judge first person narrative on the basis of Twilight, which I'll confess to having read, not-hated, and not really understanding what the fuss is about, but which -- it is true -- one could dislike for many reasons which have nothing to do with the fact it's written in first person.

 

[Kierkegaurdian]

Gene Wolfe is a master of writing in the first person, which means that some of the best stuff out there is from that perspective. That I have read, his New Sun books, The Sorcerer's House, Peace, portions of The Fifth Head of Cerberus, and The Knight are all first-person, and they are all top-notch.

 

[J-Sun]

Silverberg's Dying Inside and Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon" are basically first person narratives and basically have to be and are a couple of the very best stories. (And, like apparently everyone else, I love the Stainless Steel Rat books, too (at least the first three).) I'm sure there are hundreds of other examples but those are the first two that jump to mind.

That said, there are specific things to be achieved and certain costs to be paid. If the story is all about the character's head, then 1st person is appropriate. If you want to play games with the reader using an unreliable narrator or do other things specifically related to the 1st person, then it can be good. But it basically requires creating a great narrator because the reader's going to be stuck in his head for the duration. What can be an annoying character who gets lost in the shuffle of other narratives can be a book-killer in 1st person. And I'd certainly never choose 1st person as a narrative strategy without a good reason. The natural default and my favorite in the abstract is good ol' 3rd person omniscient. There you have to be careful to also make your "off stage" narrator/god appealing or invisible and so on and, while you can get into a character's head just as much as in 1st person, it lacks the existential immediacy and can imbalance the story and so on.

Basically, all narrative strategies have their pros and cons and I favor 3rd person omniscient in the abstract, so get your not much caring for the bulk of the 1st persons you come across.