Fantasy Foretold Forum Point of View

I'm definitely a huge fan of third-person omniscient. I've often dreamed about writing a story in third-person limited, but I'm just not as good as J.K. Rowling. ;-/ Omniscient's really more fun to write anyway, though. It's way better than first person for fantasy (in my oh-so-personal opinion) because you have the opportunity to include massive amounts of detail about your world. In first person, you can only really say things that the character would think. In 3PO you have the ability to describe things that are within the character's sensory range, but that he/she may not have actually thought that much about.

Example: "His trousers weren't much better; he'd managed to keep the same pair since his capture at the battle of Carthali Vale, and they were more than a little worse for wear." The context here involves a character who's spent two years in prison and has just been freed. There's no way he's thinking about his pants (he's had 2 years to think about that same pair, after all), but 3PO gives you the opportunity to mention it anyway, because it is technically within the character's range of sensory perception.

Sorry, I got kind of ramble-y, but that's my take on it ;-P

I think the POV that's best for a story differs depending on the story itself and what you, as a writer, are trying to achieve.  For example, my most complicated fantasy is written in third person omniscient, as you mentioned, because of all the different complexities (events relevant that take place somewhere other than where the MC is at the time, for example, descriptions of the world and explanation of made up terms) and, for this story, leaping between time periods.  However, the story I am currently working on (a low fantasy, actually, so maybe that tells you something) is written in the first person because I want the reader to experience all the events through a single perspective and all the mystery and sense of unknown accompanying this (also, it takes place on a small private island, so there isn't much I need to get across to the readers in terms of world technicalities and the like).  So I'd say, as Arutha did, that 3PO is  good for high fantasies in which politics, religion, social standing, surrounding nations, etc. are essential to the story; however, 1POV may be better for when you want to build on the MC's character extensively and the aspects of your world aren't extremely complicated/ essential.  The downside to 1POV is,as Arutha also said, that there would be no reason for the narrator to go into great detail of the room they've lived in for the past decade (unless that's his or her character) it wouldn't make for a realistic narration.  What would be interesting, though, if you're up for a challenge, is a 1POV high fantasy in which the narrator regards everything completely normally and anything that doesn't happen near him or her/affect him or her wouldn't be mentioned and the reader would have to piece things together based on what the 1POV reveals. 

Hope that was helpful, and good luck! : )

Personally, I'm the fan of third person point of view, either omniniscient or limited. This way of narration seems more natural for me, perhaps because in my native language it's the most common type of POV and the first person narration is rather rare.

I agree with Arutha that writing in 3rd person is much more fun because you could include the thoughts and opinions of your characters, but also slip some of your own comments. With the 1st person POV you're bound by the limits of the character who's narrating.

Every time I read a story when there's a 2nd person POV I shiver with anger. I know it's a challenge to use that type of narration, but I never came across any text where it actually sounded good.

For me it really depends on the story. I'm writing a historical fiction novel and a fantasy novel right now. The fantasy is in third person (omniscient or limited I don't know) and the historical fiction is in first person. Originally I started writing the fantasy in first person too without realizing. It was only when I got to a huge block that I noticed what was happening. Afterwards I changed my perspective and basically got around the block. With my historical fiction I started it in first but then switched to third to see what would happen. Well it fell apart in third so now it's back in first.