Point of View

The story is written in third person from a limited omniscient point of view. The biggest limiting factors are setting and time, used primarily as a tool to keep the reader interested. For example, there is a scene in which Bob, Nick and Dobbler are walking toward the next flare location and Dobbler simply refuses to go on. That's all told from the perspective of Payne and Shreck, watching through binoculars from some distance away. In truth, the scene was staged in order to allow Nick to peel off from the group and seek out the sniper. Limiting the perspective in this manner lends suspense to the reader though it is somewhat misleading. It's important to remember that the book was made into a movie and might have been written with that objective in mind. Scenes such as the one just described do lend a sense...