Point of View

Gathering Blue is told from a limited third-person omniscient view, centering on Kira's experiences. The action is always described in relation to Kira, though the reader occasionally gets limited insight into the thoughts and feelings of the other characters, mainly through dialogue.

The surprise impact of the story, the realization that Kira's society lives in a primitive future that is the result of the destruction of contemporary society, requires that most descriptions of objects and places remain vague throughout the novel. Descriptive details about the Edifice and its contents are not provided until the last few chapters, and they are still somewhat obscure at the end of the novel, leaving the reader to make the final interpretive leaps.

Most of the novel takes place in the present, but two main plot points are told as recollections by relatively minor characters. Kira's mother, in the form of...