When a viewpoint character dies, three things can happen:
we follow the character into a hereafter (this can happen in fantasy);
the narrative ends abruptly, even in mid-sentence;
the omniscient narrator continues the narrative, however briefly.
Thus, when Chen dies:
"Impact. Nothing."
-SM Stirling, Drakon (New York, 2000), p. 372.
Chen feels the impact, then the narrator informs us that there was nothing.
When Gwendolyn Ingolfsson dies:
"A moment of white light. Nothing." (p. 391)
Gwen sees the white light, then the narrator informs us that there was nothing.
Harry Turtledove describes Anson MacDonald's last moment:
"The poison worked almost as fast as they'd promised. He nodded before everything faded. He'd even got the last word."
-Harry Turtledove, "The Last Word" IN SM Stirling, Ed., Drakas! (Riverdale, NY, 2000), pp. 249-293 AT p. 293.
MacDonald reflects that he got the last word before everything fades.
When Rugo, the last native on a colonized extrasolar planet, drowns:
"He wondered if his mother would come for him."
-Poul Anderson, "Terminal Quest" IN Anderson, Alight In The Void (New York, 1993), pp. 1-28 AT p. 28.
Then a concluding paragraph describes the river flowing:
"...down in the valley, where the homes of men are built." (ibid.)
Men have conquered the planet.
There must by many other moments of death in Anderson's works?
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteI thought of the death of Kossara Vymezal in Chapter XVII of A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS.
Sean