When this occurs, the narrator can directly address the audience (in a science fiction or fantasy work, the audience being addressed with be a fictional creation as well--not the actual audience of the book). First person-second person-third person..."The reason that I am telling you what Abunabi (the hero of the story) did is because I want to show you that Abunabi was a hero." Think of Great Gatsby for a moment. The book is written in first person, but not from the POV of the main characters, so most of the narration is third person by the first person narrator character. Of course, being a contemporary work, the audience wasn't fictional...except for the fact that the real audience recieved the work as fiction, while the fictional narrator "Nick" never hints at the account not being factual.

Complicated enough for you? This is one reason that third person limited omniscient without elaborate suspension of disbelief measures is the most popular format for fiction today. Because it is so much easier. But artificial document fiction can have a delightful effect if well done, so I think it will never die out.

If the existence of the fictional narrator (or fictional audience) makes a big difference to the meaning of the story, then it can be important to have such a narrator character (think about how different the ending of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome would be without the epilogue about telling the tell and turning the city lights on). So if you want to create that kind of epic feeling to the story, then creating a fictional narrator can be important, even if you don't make the narrator an obtrusive part of the narrative. Ursula K. LeGuin uses the prologue (and epilogue) of A Wizard of EarthSea to establish that Ged became one of the greatest mages of the Archipelago and explain why the story is important--but the narrator character is almost completely absent from the body of the narrative.

Survivor, you ask if it is complicated enough for me? All those different POVs in one story, that is.

Yes it is. So I am thinking that I will skip having a narrator and make enough changes to the story so that I won't need one. I'm only on the second draft and have room for making changes.

Doc, the story at the moment is in first person, which will more than likely change. My problem is that the person telling the story dies in a terrible acident halfway through and cannot tell what happens afterward. Actually her body, having been changed into something tough enough to survive the accident, lives, but her brain and her personality do not. Her body is taken over by another personality which uses her name and which has access to data recorded to memory nodes while the original personality was in the body.

Complicated isn't it?

I think it will be easier all around if I keep the original personality intact.