Point of View

The narrative is written in third person omniscient. The point of view shifts about rapidly, sometimes cutting to another character in a complete different location for a paragraph or even, in some cases, a single sentence, before cutting back. Even during longer scenes, the viewpoint is rarely fixed upon one character and often drifts around to each character in the scene to provide a fresh perspective. Pratchett uses this mercurial narration to pack each scene with jokes told from the point of view and sensibilities of the various characters, as well as to describe humorously the reactions of other characters to this behavior.

The author will also frequently break into the flow as the narrator, sometimes describing physical processes that are not witnessed by the characters, the appearance of a crop circle in an empty field, a humors description of some point of the mechanics of...