Point of View in A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

One of the things I like most in A Game of Thrones is how George R.R. Martin uses point of view. He moves the story so that we see it from Eddard's eyes, then move on to Bran, to Jon, Sansa, Catelyn, and so on.

Switching points of view works so well because these characters' stories interlock, and this also creates tension within the story. We see all the points of view, so sometimes the tension comes from waiting to see what happens when a character finds out something we saw in an earlier chapter. At other times tension comes from leaving one character at a critical moment and not seeing her point of view again for 50 pages or more.

With seeing all the parts of the larger story, surprises might lose their impact, but that's not the case. Many times in the book, we find out something at the same moment as a character. Even when we know about an event before it reaches across the kingdom, it's still exciting to see what happens.