I notice some fiction authors not only love to revisit a particular universe of theirs over and over, but they love to re-visit the same events, only thru the eyes of a different character. Usually that character was present and participating in the original story, but now events occur through their viewpoint. Generally new scenes are added, new adventures only hinted at before are expanded upon.
David Eddings did this a lot with his works, particularly in his Belgariad universe. John Scalzi does in Zoe’s Story, part of his “Old Man’s War” universe.
Can you name other authors who do this? And what do you think of it? While I find it can nicely flesh out an author’s world for me, I don’t find that many stories so compelling that I think it’s worthwhile to visit every corner of that world, looking for gold nuggets amongst the dross (JRRT’s works excepted, of course!)
I would have thought that the biggest example of this would be Orson Scott Card, re-writing Ender’s Game from several other perspectives (Bean, Ender’s siblings, etc.).
I assume that you’re not referring to storylines which only tangentially intersect, like Turin’s brief meeting with Beren.
Ah yes, Card is endlessly pretelling/retelling his most popular work from multiple perspectives. I got burnt out on them rather quickly. I notice he doesn’t revisit the world or characters he created in Speaker for the Dead, or xenocide or Children of the mind. I found those novels more interesting, frankly.
But of course! Two separate characters who only briefly crossed paths, that had a particular poignancy for me, knowing it came about under the curse of the Noldor. But I still could have appreciated a JRRT story told from Maeglin’s perspective. Or Fëanor’s.
I did think about those two books written by Steven King, one as himself and one as Richard Bachman. But I’m not sure if they would fit the criteria (having not read them again since the initial publication.)
I just decided to rattle off the top of my head some of the best science fiction novels I have read over the last 3 decades. The Martian is #1 for me, because it’s more like science fact porn in a way. Breach is amazing because it has a story that builds into a broader universe. Wool does as well, and so does 14 by Peter Clines.
And Footfall is just good fun.
Maybe my tastes are different than yours, but no need to complain about rehash novels, there are plenty of original works for you to read.
Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy and Susan Howatch’s Starbridge series are examples of series of novels that are told from the viewpoints of different characters but that have some overlap in their settings, characters, and events.
Piers Anthony does that in his Incarnations of Immortality series. Several of the later books show what incidents from previous books look like from the POV of a different character.
Are you looking only for scifi/fantasy books? If not, William Faulkner pretty much made a career of this. I’m not sure if he ever fully retold the same story start to finish from two characters" perspectives, but a lot of the same events figure into multiple novels, where they impact different characters to varying degrees.
ETA: In Faulkner’s case I enjoy it because a major theme in his work is the long, painful fallout of the Old South, so having characters retell and relitigate everything is central to the books.
IIRC, Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall Trilogy showed some events from the original Dragonriders of Pern novels from the point of view of some teens on the periphery.
Moreta, Dragonrider of Pern expands on an event that’s referred to in the original trilogy.
Frances Hodgson Burnett rewrote A Lady of Quality from the POV of the male main character, His Grace of Osmonde. I’m glad she enjoyed herself and glad that she wasn’t shy about indulging her authorial whims, because sometimes the results were spectacular, but this isn’t one of those times. If she’d polished A Lady of Quality I think it would be standard canon right next to Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. His Grace of Osmonde is just boring.
If you wanted to consider the books of the New Testament as works of literature, you could certainly make the case that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the retelling of the same events from the perspective of each participant. Some of the books of the Apocrypha, like the Gospel of James are, well, apocryphal accounts of the same events.
