The Last Command, like the prior volumes, uses a semi-omniscient technique that cross-cuts rapidly between events happening in widely separated places. It is told in standard fictional prose style, with very few long paragraphs, descriptions of place or characters, and almost no inner monologue.

This pattern is reflective of the cinema approach to storytelling. Short paragraphs and many changes of scene increase the pace of the action. They also enable the writer to develop and juggle multiple plot lines. These provide increasing tension, because the reader can see them threatening to converge long before the fictional characters can.

Without some modification, though, this technique does not give the reader many visual cues. In motion pictures the visual element is primary. For characters or events that appeared in the films, the reader can use these images for his or her own mental picture. There is no problem in imagining...