Musings/Träumereien/Devaneios

"Pena Máxima" = "Maximum  Penalty".

When you switch perspective at a chapter or page break, it's not considered head-hopping. It’s another beast altogether: SF third person limited. George R. R. Martin’s Ice and Fire series comes to mind. Basically what Martin does is, in every chapter, the point of view shifts to a different character. One chapter's point of view is Lana's while the chapter after that is through the point of view of Eddard's.

What Álvaro Cordeiro attempts here is head-hopping, i.e., point-of-view change within the same scene. I’m not that well-read, but I think third person omniscient is getting rarer by the minute. It seems to me the most popular books (the word “thriller” comes to mind) these days are third person limited. And head-hopping is getting even rarer than third person omniscient… If Nora Roberts is able to avoid head-hopping, even though she’s held up as an example of head-hopping done right. She does not, however, use head-hopping. She uses the very subtle baton-pass method, i.e., she does transitions, not head hops (yes, I’ve read Nora Roberts in case you’re wondering…).

If you're into Portuguese Literature, read on.