While I've read enough of 'older' books to realise that a lot people believe that is a completely acceptable way to write and like to call it 'omniscient narrator', personally, I feel that it's a sign of a very low-quality unskilled writing.
It's one thing when pov changes to different characters in different sections of a same chapter, but when the you have to jump from thoughts and feelings of one character to thoughts and feelings of a different character between paragraphs, or even sentences in a same paragraph, it's beyond confusing and awkward. It's nauseating.
I've read books that had an interesting story but were pretty much ruined by the terrible head-hopping writing. If I see it when I'm editing, I mark it as a mistake that must be corrected.
It's one thing when pov changes to different characters in different sections of a same chapter, but when the you have to jump from thoughts and feelings of one character to thoughts and feelings of a different character between paragraphs, or even sentences in a same paragraph, it's beyond confusing and awkward. It's nauseating.
I've read books that had an interesting story but were pretty much ruined by the terrible head-hopping writing.
If I see it when I'm editing, I mark it as a mistake that must be corrected.