Hollister And Karsov

"The Big Rain."

I am bound to have made this point before so I will not belabour it again. However -

In the opening passage of this story, we read descriptions of a room, of a man sitting in the room, of a second man entering the room and of a conversation between them but we are not told what either man thinks or how either of them feels. Unusually, there is no narrative viewpoint. Or almost none -

We are told of the first man, Simon Hollister, that:

"...he was unarmed; they had searched him thoroughly the minute he disembarked." (I, p. 201)

That is information about an event earlier than the current conversation so it can only have come to us from Hollister's memory.

When the second man, Captain Karsov of the Guardian Corps, introduces himself, we are told that his English is:

"...fluent, with only a trace of accent." (ibid.)

If the fluency and the faint accent are noticed by Hollister, then again we are inside Hollister's pov (point of view).

On the other hand, something of Karsov's pov comes across:

"[Hollister's] precision didn't get by Karsov, but the officer ignored it for the time being." (p. 202)

When Hollister bristles, this might be his pov or something that Karsov notices. When Karsov explains, "...with an attempt at patience...," (ibid.) this again might be Karsov's pov or something noticed by the other guy. 

Since, of the two men, it is Hollister that is newly arrived on Venus from Earth, it is likely that the story is going to be about him and therefore that he will become our viewpoint character and, sure enough, on p. 205, after a double space between paragraphs:

"Hollister didn't enjoy his meal." (p. 205)

Now, unequivocally, the text has taken its readers inside a single narrative viewpoint.

On p. 203, there should be a double paragraph space between the end of the conversation and the description of the city on the mountainside.

(Alright, I did belabour the point but, without povs, where are we?)