Hloch of Stormgate Choth on Avalon is the main fictional historian of the "first part." Hloch introduces all twelve of the instalments collected in the Earth Book and this is exactly half of the instalments in the "first part." Thus, Hloch's introductions permeate the first two and a half volumes of the Saga. He signs off at the mid-point of Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire.
The second part of the Technic History has no such historian although Donvar Ayeghen, President of the Galactic Archaelogical Society, could have fulfilled this role. He introduces the story that immediately follows the last Earth Book instalment in Volume III but then is heard from no more.
CHAPTER SIX of The Rebel Worlds, in Volume IV, Young Flandry, opens with a passage that could have been attributed to Ayeghen or to someone similar. This passage describes the star Virgil and its fourth planet Aeneas. The reader is addressed directly:
"You must bear in mind..." (p. 420)
"...the University of Virgil in Nova Roma drew students and scholars from greater distances than you might expect." (p. 421)
This passage presents the narrative point of view neither of Dominic Flandry, the central character of the novel, nor of Hugh McCormac who becomes the viewpoint character of this chapter after a double space between paragraphs.
1 comment:
"Limited third-person omniscient", to be technical about it. It's an old storytelling technique; the ancient epic poets use it occasionally.
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