changing scenes

I recently read that our attention span is about ten minutes if there isn't some change in style, for example in the nature or focus of a lecture, a switch to video from slides, verbal or reading, topic change different enough to re-generate interest. i figure the end of Chapter 8 and the beginning of chapter 9 make a sufficient jump i nsetting and focus and the nature of the interactions, but it brings along a whole new set of challenges that I'm not sure whether I've adequately managed. The explostion of characters, the chaos of multi-character discourse, with one side of the conversation coming from disparate voices and unknown characters... A few are characters I'd like to use again but this is definately not a forum for a proper introduction. Quick and light and unpausing for awhile, and I'm not sure that the last few paragraphs don't grind it too thoroughly to a halt, or whether they are a timely change...