Easily one of the best books I've read in 2020, Sisters of Sword and Song follows two sisters with two very different- but interwoven- stories who, for a majority of the book, are on different corners of the kingdom. The author, Rebecca Ross, does a wonderful job juggling their two journeys, and she does this by using a 3rd person limited point of view narration that switches between the sisters.
The limited narration creates suspense. This book has many characters- just within this scene there's one of the protagonists, Halcyon, and the two villains Selene and Macarius. If we had insight into Macarius's mind, we would know what he's looking for as he "sweep[s] through [Halcyon's] mind." However, we're only privy to Halcyon's thoughts, and as she is doing her best to avoid thinking about the "details of the [at this point unspecified] mission," we readers still do not know what about this mission is so important that the kingdom's highest officials are obsessed with it. And then when Macarius finally finds "one particular moment" that he can take to use "against [Halcyon] and her sister," we are again left in the dark to what the moment is. If the narration gave insight to Macarius's (currently satisfied and victorious) mind, we would no doubt know what this important memory is. Since this book is a bit over 450 pages, it is necessary to not fully reveal developments every time they happen, because doing so would take the suspense out of the plot and leave readers feeling like this book is dragging out. A 3rd person limited narration helps accomplish that.
Additionally, the characters in this book are too out of it too often for 1st POV narration to give a cohesive story. Take this scene for example. Halcyon is practically getting tortured as she has her mind forcibly swept. She has "coughed blood," and is "screaming" and bruising "herself on the chains." All in all, her mental state is not very put together right now. Throughout the story, Halcyon and Evadne are constantly fuzzy-minded either because of literal torture like this, or because of hunger, exhaustion, and fatigue. If the story was in 1st person, then we would not (realistically) have half the details that we do. A 3rd person limited narration creates the intimacy with the protagonists that 1st person would, but it also provides us with details and descriptions that the characters alone would miss.
