I’ve been rereading the Book of Words trilogy by J.V. Jones and I am hooked (again). The last time I read the series was over 10 years ago so I’m really enjoying my second read through and am surprised at how much of it comes back to me. The style Jones employs is different from what most other fantasy writers employ and it is used to great effect.

In the first person, where you are seeing through the main character’s eyes (whether its limited or not). The author can either have the entire book through their eyes only (Dresden Files), have multiple characters in first person (Spinning Silver), or have the main character be the first person perspective and have the side characters in third person to differentiate. In third person there is a lot more freedom in having multiple characters telling the story together and makes it easier for side characters to enact a B-plot away from the main character. The limiting factor here is that since you, the reader, are observing them from outside rather than inside, portraying the character’s inner thoughts can be more of a challenge without going omniscient and having the story being told as if the main character was the one telling you the story. In that situation the whole story will usually be told from that character alone (Kingkiller Chronicles).

I’m not really bothering with second person, as although it can be done well in small chunks (Book 1 of the Fifth Season, The Night Circus), I’m yet to read a fantasy book which is done entirely in second person which does it well.

Book of Words has been written in the third person and has a wide variety of colourful characters. These range from the baker’s boy with hidden sorcery, the spoilt noblewoman who runs away, an Archbishop from an entirely different country, the court rivals and even a pair of guards who seem to be there for comic relief but are the representation of the eyes and ears of the court as a whole judging the subtle undercurrents. Although there are 10 (I think) different point of view characters, each of these characters have distinctive names, appearances and mannerisms which allows for the reader to identify them within a paragraph of the perspective swap.

This is a key difference between Jones and many of her contemporaries: she has multiple perspective changes per chapter. Yes, other authors do it too. Some do it well and others make a mess of it (looking at you Oathbringer climax). My biggest issues with other books that have attempted to do this and, in my opinion, fall short are as follows:

1. The characters are too similar (either in name, personality or motive) so that they can appear to be one and I’m left thinking “wait, wasn’t ‘so’n’so’ just with ‘other character’…?” and confusing events, or
2. The point of view swaps are ill timed and leave a feeling of incompleteness rather than a feeling of anticipation.

I think that the reason why the multiple perspectives is pulled off so well in this trilogy is because the characters are so vibrant and each point of view is its own complete scene within the story. There aren’t any cutaways like a movie can pull off and each scene organically leads to the next with the same character and allows for the long stretches of time to pass as the characters travel around the countries and kingdoms in Jones’s world.

Through the perspective swaps, Jones builds her world and introduces us to new settings through the eyes of multiple characters, each of whom has a different world view that colours their perspectives. This, alongside the time passing between perspectives, gives a great feeling of vastness and weight to her world. The actions of one character gets felt around the world by other characters, albeit weeks or months after it has happened. The stakes are raised then raised again as characters begin reacting to prophecy, some unknowingly and others pre-emptively to try and use it to their own ends, leading to a bittersweet ending that exemplifies how Jones’s characters have been treated throughout the entire trilogy.

This was the first publishing contract that Jones had, and her style of writing in her five book series (Sword of Shadows) changed to conform more to the way in which other fantasy writers treat their books. In this five book series she only had a few point of view characters and has tonally shifted the series to be darker. The world is the same, shown by mentions of characters and places in the Book of Words trilogy, but it doesn’t quite feel the same so unfortunately I do not recommend it (this might change when the final book is finally released).

I do, however, thoroughly recommend J V Jones’s Book of Words trilogy. Unfortunately there is no audiobook but the paperbacks appear available on Amazon. Since the books were released in 1995, 1996 and 1997 its unlikely that you will be purchasing new copies of the books, unless all of her books are re-released when the final book in her Sword of Shadows series is released in the future.

Note: I have not read The Barbed Coil therefore I can make no comment.