Reviewing The Facts

"Esau."

"He reviewed the facts, as if hoping for some hitherto unnoticed salvation in them." (p. 112)

This is another way of Imparting Information to readers. Instead of telling someone what he already knows, the viewpoint character inwardly reviews the facts. Daniel Holm did this while inadvertently staring at Ferune early in The People Of The Wind. There have been other examples in texts recently reread. How many literary devices are there for telling readers what they need to know? Sometimes the information is implicit. Thus, when Hloch, in his Introduction to the Earth Book, writes:

"The came the Terran War..." (p. 2)

- this is enough to inform readers who did not already know it that there has been a Terran War. Any other necessary information can be filled in later.

Dalmady's thoughts include the information that killing a ruler is unthinkable to Suleimanites. How could that be? It is suggested that it is an effect of pheromones. Rulers eat special foods which it is believed would poison anyone else. Sometimes such facts are disclosed early in a story because they will be important later. This time it is just one more instance of the alienness of Suleimanites.