Plague of Pythons · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Plague of Pythons by Frederik Pohl.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Chandler
major
Also known as IV Chandler, V Chandler, IX Chandler, XIV Chandler, XV Chandler, Gingerly Chandler, Tardily Chandler, Chandler's
A reluctant everyman whose body is borrowed like a telephone by distant possessors, he narrates a world where a thousand execs rule two billion slaves.
Rosalie Pan
major
Also known as Rosie
A vanished musical-comedy star turned gracious executive, she drives Chandler through Honolulu and gently defends the masters who own everyone's flesh.
John Hsi
major
Also known as John, Hsi
A leader among the Orphalese resistance, he reads Kahlil Gibran aloud as scripture and turns captured hunters into brothers under the rules of this chessboard.
The Girl
major
A watchful young Orphalese who binds newcomers to chairs and tests them for flame spirits, guarding the resistance with cheerful, unsparing suspicion.
Koitska
supporting
Also known as the exec Koitska
A fat, wheezing exec in a leather wheelchair, he tinkers with submillimeter microwaves and coronets while possessed bodies shuffle through his workshop.
Guy
supporting
Also known as Evidently Guy, Uncle Guy, So Guy
An Orphalese elder whose broken jaw keeps him from presiding, he remains the standard Walter hopes to match when reading the Prophet aloud.
Peggy Flershem
supporting
Also known as Margot, Meg
Peggy moves through the story under shifting names—Peggy, Margot, Meg—each tied to a different man's memory or mission. When Chandler is seized mid-assault on her in the culture room, she becomes the living proof that possession strikes without warning or reason, and she later resurfaces among the Orphalese as a chatty, watchful recruiter who explains how the hunters can tell a person has been ridden. Her casual competence and her willingness to bind a man to a chair minutes after apologizing to him make her a quietly unsettling fixture of the new world's rules.
The Judge
supporting
When Guy's jaw is broken in the scuffle, Walter takes the rostrum—steel-rimmed glasses, ornate book, a sip of wine—and presides over the strange liturgy of the Orphalese, quoting the Prophet to explain why flame spirits tear their world apart. He is less a jurist than a preacher of makeshift theology, binding captives and reading comfort into catastrophe. His authority matters because it shows how quickly the possessed world has grown its own rituals, its own scripture, and its own willingness to tie a man to a chair and call it justice.
Ellen Braisted
minor
Also known as Ellen
A named female character with a limited but notable role.
Mrs. Porter
minor
A woman who appears as a narrator or focal character briefly.
Walter
minor
A minor character with a few mentions.
Jack Souther
minor
Also known as Jack, Souther
A named character with a small role.
Meggie
minor
A minor character, possibly a variant of Peggy.
Judge Ellithorp
minor
A specific judge named in the story.
Orphalese
minor
Also known as the Orphalese, eight Orphalese, O Orphalese
A group or entity referenced in the narrative.
Andrei
minor
Also known as No Andrei
A named character, possibly a false lead.
Tripler
minor
A character mentioned by name.
Dr. Palmer
minor
A doctor appearing in the narrative.
Bert
minor
A minor character with a few mentions.
Bradley
minor
A minor character with a few mentions.
Linton
minor
A named character with limited presence.
Sergeant Grantz
minor
Also known as Grantz
A military figure in the story.
Stranger
minor
An unnamed stranger who appears briefly.
Kahlil Gibran
minor
Also known as Gibran
A historical figure referenced in the text.
Hanrahan
minor
A minor character with a single mention.