Point of View

Startide Rising by David Brin is, for the most part, told in the third person past tense by an omniscient and anonymous narrator. A few short chapters and parts of chapters are presented as Dr. Gillian Baskin's Journal. These tend to be summaries of recent events and are, of course, told in the first person. The narrator switches rapidly between scenes, particularly in the final chapters, creating a staccato effect, keeping the many strands moving forward in parallel. The narrator appears to be human, from a subtle prejudice for human ways and defensiveness when negative aspects of human history are brought up. He does not go all the way to adopting a defensive posture, however, because the neo-dolphins who make up the majority of the characters for the most part appreciate humankind's benign treatment. A few Stenos neo-dolphins, however, have been purposefully driven to unnatural homicide...