Good fantasy page-turners

[Pilusmagnus]

Unless narration is covered by someone else after they die and have somehow managed to write their story before, I don't see how that could happen. It happens in All Quiet on the Western Front though, but it is coherent with the story.

[Night's_King]

Dead people can narrate books.

THIS!

I still don't know, why you wouldn't care for first person characters. You should try Stokers Dracula.

[Night's_King]

Unless narration is covered by someone else after they die and have somehow managed to write their story before, I don't see how that could happen. It happens in All Quiet on the Western Front though, but it is coherent with the story.

What? So you think all first-person-narrators write their stories down?

[matt b]

Unless narration is covered by someone else after they die and have somehow managed to write their story before, I don't see how that could happen. It happens in All Quiet on the Western Front though, but it is coherent with the story.

You're assuming that the text exists, "in-world" so to speak, that the writer is working from the conceit that the narrator sat down after the events of the story and wrote it all down, and that's what you're reading. That isn't always the case.

[john]

Clearly all the other contestants apart from Katniss do not die in the Hunger Games (as you'll presumably know from watching the movie :P).

So your objection falls down immediately.

[Pilusmagnus]

It does not mean that they sat and wrote their story, but how would you want them to say "Then I died"?

And anyway, the fact that they can narrate their story without actually writing it is what breaks suspension of disbelief for me. It just sounds unreal. (Personnal tastes, It does not mean it's bad.)

[Darth Richard II]

Are we being trolled?

[Pilusmagnus]

Are we being trolled?

I am a troll expert in french language, but not this time. Do I sound like I do?

[Night's_King]

It does not mean that they sat and wrote their story, but how would you want them to say "Then I died"?

And anyway, the fact that they can narrate their story without actually writing it is what breaks suspension of disbelief for me. It just sounds unreal. (Personnal tastes, It does not mean it's bad.)

So you believe in a all knowing entity that watches our protagonists, knows their feelings and scribbles down everything they feel, see or speak?

Or would you elaborate why the narrative mode of Ice and Fire is so much more real and believable than the first-person-narrator?

[john]

You should read The Lovely Bones, Pilusmagnus, you'd love it.

[Pilusmagnus]

Or would you elaborate why the narrative mode of Ice and Fire is so much more real and believable than the first-person-narrator?

Somehow it seems like it is. I never said there was any logic behind it, I just feel that way.

[Darth Richard II]

You should read The Lovely Bones, Pilusmagnus, you'd love it.

Haha!

[Night's_King]

Quoting Lovecrafts Dagon:

"The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window! The window!"

This is how a first-person-narrator can die.

[Pilusmagnus]

Interesting! Does the book end here?

[Night's_King]

Interesting! Does the book end here?

Well, it's a short story of five pages or so. The first sentence is actually:

"I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more."

And yes, this is how the story ends.

[Diziet]

How is it so different from when someone's dies in their own third person PoV?

[Night's_King]

How is it so different from when someone's dies in their own third person PoV?

I can understand, that "And then he died." sounds better than "And then I died." :D

[williamjm]

In the first book, it means you know from the start that all the contestants other than Katniss are dead from the moment you meet them. Totally ruins the metatextuality that I had seen in the films.

I don't see how writing in third person would make any difference here, since Katniss is the sole protagonist of the series it's fairly obvious she's going to survive no matter whether it is first or third person. Harry Potter is third-person but there was never any tension that he was going to die before the end of the final book.

Anyway, if lack of tension over whether the main character can die or not is enough to ruin a book then it probably wasn't a very good book to begin with.

[Darth Richard II]

Man, rec threads. Am I Right?

[Rhom]

I do better with first person past tense like in The Warlord Chronicles than first person present tense like Hunger Games.

As for fantasy page turners, they don't get much more fast paced than The Lies of Locke Lamora.