In the opening paragraph, "...Commander Max Abrams, Imperial Naval Intelligence Corps..." (p. 12) hears construction work in progress. Thus, he is the viewpoint character of this chapter as Mark Hauksberg was of the first.
However, in the second paragraph:
"The whole place stank. He didn't notice." (ibid.)
If Abrams did not notice that his office stank, then that datum was not part of his point of view. Here, the omniscient narrator, very unobtrusively, intervenes to give readers the bigger picture. Most readers do not notice that they have momentarily stepped outside of Abrams' pov before stepping back inside it again for the remainder of the current chapter.
Or maybe the point here is that Abrams does know that his office stinks but is too preoccupied to notice it right at this moment. Thus, the text remains inside his pov after all? Sometimes what seems to be an omniscient narrator turns out to be a very remote pov within the narrative, e.g., see here.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I have to admit I had never particularly noticed before that Abrams'office stank! (Smiles)
I did notice that chess game he was playing with the Merseian commandant.
Ad astra! Sean
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