: Re: How can I Switch Protagonists Between Books? Disclaimer: I am not intending on doing this. It is just a question I thought was fascinating and might be useful to other writers. Here's the scenario.

@Debbie451

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I've seen it more than once. It can be a bit jarring, but it can also work fine. It depends on the plot and the writer.

Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising pentology: the first
book is about three siblings, and then the second book is about
another young man entirely in a different country who has nothing to
do with them. They eventually meet in the third book and books 3
to 5 alternate between their viewpoints. It was confusing at
first, but smoothed out eventually.
Anne McCaffrey's YA Harper Hall trilogy does something similar: Books
1 and 2 are about Menolly, a young girl who has to escape her abusive
home to become a musician, and Piemur is a younger boy who is a
singer whom she meets and befriends. Book 3 is about Piemur's
adventures and Menolly plays little to no role. It works better because McCaffrey set many books in this universe and frequently switches protagonists. Robinton, the Master Harper, is a secondary character in several stories and then eventually got his own origin novel.
Another McCaffrey example in the same universe: Moreta is about a queen dragon rider, while Nerilka's Story is set starting about two-thirds of the way through Moreta and follows someone else's experiences. Each woman is a tertiary character in the other's story.
The Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee: Book 1 is almost a
"history of the future," and books 2 to 4 are more traditional novels
about a family (and are set some years later, IIRC).

So yes, you can do it. Make all your protagonists worthy of being admired and trust that the reader can keep up.

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