There's an important difference in terms of focus -- if you view action only from one character, you only see what that character sees. Bren Cameron in CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series is a good example -- it's told in third person but you only see what he sees, and sometimes you know a lot more from what he misses.
The sterling example of multiple character viewpoint is Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, in which every chapter is from a different character's viewpoint, including that of the corpse. It can be really good or it can be schizo, depending on the author.
True universal omnicient viewpoint is always third-person, remote and doesn't get into anyone's head for any length of time. It's looking at the whole scene. It isn't sequential single-person viewpoint, but more distant than that. And, no, I haven't seen it done in SF in a while. A good example in an older style is Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter.
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The sterling example of multiple character viewpoint is Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, in which every chapter is from a different character's viewpoint, including that of the corpse. It can be really good or it can be schizo, depending on the author.
True universal omnicient viewpoint is always third-person, remote and doesn't get into anyone's head for any length of time. It's looking at the whole scene. It isn't sequential single-person viewpoint, but more distant than that. And, no, I haven't seen it done in SF in a while. A good example in an older style is Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter.