help me figure something out

[zabbers]

Quick, think of a contemporary literary novel that you have read that made you think, wow, this is really good. That was really good.

Now answer this question:

What person was it written in?

Comments

[3weasel]

Third person, past tense is the best, though first/past is sometimes acceptable (see userpic for example). Edit upon further reflection: Switch those; the best thing I've ever read, and amazingly it's fairly recent, is first/past. But that judgment may just be because I have a ttly gay love for Hugh Laurie. (The Gun Seller. All of you, buy it right now.)

Upon reading the other comments that mentioned perspective, I prefer limited, with the narrator grilling other characters at the end to fill in the holes, but I'm not sure my example of that is all that contemporary (Chandler's Phil Marlowe).

I've suffered through an entire series of books that had decent plots and likable characters, but were first/present/limited (with 3rd/past/omniscient chapter intros all in goddamned italics), and the style alone (well, and the annoying-as-hell main character; I'd love properly-written books about the secondaries) made them terrible. It was an omnibus, if you were wondering why I kept going past the first. Four novels in one big book for $10, how can you pass that up? (If you were wondering even more, it was the Warhammer 40k Last Chancers books by Gav Thorpe. If you want some grim darkness, go with Dan Abnett.)