Character guide

Oliver Meek

major

Also known as Mr. Meek, Meek

A mild-mannered nobody who never did anything to get talked about, until a gangster's ultimatum wakes a cold anger that turns him into Asteroid City's newest marshal.

Gavin Duncan

major

Also known as Duncan

A frontiersman on Layard who crosses a river into unclaimed forest and claims the discovery as his own, only to find the Cytha he's tracking grows more cunning with every mile.

Frederick West

supporting

Also known as West, Mr. West

A patient, soft-spoken man who takes a dying stranger's grotesque ward and a cryptic message about a painting, then finds himself untangling a mystery tied to Pluto's secret laboratories.

Grant

supporting

Also known as Old Stiffy Grant, Stiffy

A jumpy spaceman called Stiffy who watches his ship's energy get drained by a rock-eating alien robot, then reluctantly climbs aboard the creature for a ride home.

Carl Jacobi

supporting

Also known as Mr. Jonathon Chambers, Mr. Chambers

A solitary man of fixed habits whose nightly walk to buy a cigar goes wrong when an entire city block simply vanishes, and only he seems to notice.

Scott Nixon

supporting

Also known as Scott, One Nixon

A pilot who finds a bloodied stowaway aboard his Mars-bound rocket and must decide what to do with a man whose memory was erased by the same tragedy that started humanity's doomed parade into space.

Gus Hamilton

supporting

Also known as Old Gus Hamilton, Hamilton

Gus Hamilton belongs to the smoky, many-tongued world of the Silver Moon, where prospectors, gamblers, and Martian dancing girls trade rumors over Venusian leaf. He is the sort of weathered veteran a timid newcomer like Oliver Meek might approach for counsel, and his easy authority in that room makes him a natural gatekeeper between earthbound dreamers and the void they long for. Whether he encourages or deflates Meek's thirty-year obsession, his presence sets the tone for what the frontier really costs.

Cheviot Sherwood

supporting

Also known as Sherwood, Mr. Sherwood

Sherwood is a man on the run, having left his last port without clearance and with a fortune in gems he knows he did not strictly need. Stranded on a hostile planet with a broken radio, he seizes rescue from an unmarked ship, reasoning that any vessel without markings must be as outlaw as himself. His greed and his quick, self-justifying calculations drive him up the ladder, and the voice that answers him from inside the empty hull turns a simple escape into a confrontation with something neither human nor machine.

Andrew Young

supporting

Also known as Young

Young moves through council chambers and flagstone patios as a man at odds with his own species, bitter at Chairman Riggs and the slow machinery of human problem-solving. He carries a private grief: the memory of a bluebird-bright joy he held as a boy and lost the moment he began to think like a human being. That remembered thing, which he never had words for, becomes the emotional engine of his arc, pushing him toward a search across six thousand years for something he never understood.

Mal Shaff

supporting

Also known as Steadily Mal Shaff

Shaff stands apart from the quarantine panic and the commission's secret hormone research, seeing the whole affair as the latest chapter in humanity's long habit of stoning lepers and smothering madmen. He knows he is being watched, double-checked, and quietly sentenced to exile, and he has chosen a different exile of his own. His calm, unbitter voice reframes the story's central fear: that a mutant is human first, and that the race's history is itself the history of long mutancy.

Wesley Adams

supporting

Also known as Wes, Adams, Wes Adams

Adams arrives in Washington with a portfolio, a constitution, and the weight of a first presidency thrust upon him, facing a secretary of state and a chief of protocol who have never heard of his country. His awkwardness with the wrecked car and the general's shotgun contrasts with the audacity of his diplomatic mission: recognition, Point Four aid, a defense pact. He is the human face of a wild gamble, and his nervous persistence in the early negotiations determines whether Mastodonia becomes a footnote or a nation.

Henry Woods

supporting

Also known as Woods, Henry

Woods moves through the same hard-edged frontier as Sherwood, sharing the unmarked-ship world where clearances are skipped and fortunes are made in a single reckless grab. He is the counterweight to Sherwood's greed, the voice that might have counseled taking only a half dozen diamonds instead of the whole sack. His steadiness matters because it throws Sherwood's escalating commitment into relief, making the moment of no return feel earned rather than arbitrary.

Hugh Nixon

minor

Also known as Hugh

A character who appears in the narrative.

Blacky Hoffman

minor

Also known as Blacky, Hoffman

A character with a dark nickname.

the Cytha

minor

Also known as Cytha, clever Cytha

A clever alien or creature entity.

Asteroid Prowler

minor

Also known as the Prowler, The Asteroid Prowler

A ship or entity that prowls the asteroids.

Cartwright

minor

Also known as Burton Cartwright

A character with a full name Burton.

IV Hudson

minor

Also known as Hudson

A character designated as the fourth.

Louis Nevin

minor

Also known as Louis, Nevin

A character named Louis Nevin.

Moe

minor

Also known as II Moe

A character with a simple name.

Jimmy Baldwin

minor

Also known as Jimmy, Baldwin

A character named Jimmy Baldwin.

Sipar

minor

An entity or character named Sipar.

Ouglat

minor

An entity or character named Ouglat.

Dr. Silas White

minor

Also known as Dr. White, White

A doctor named Silas White.

James Belden

minor

Also known as Belden, Jim Belden

A character named James Belden.

Russ Jensen

minor

Also known as Jensen

A character named Russ Jensen.

Luke Blaine

minor

Also known as Luke, Blaine

A character named Luke Blaine.

Andrew Smith

minor

Also known as Smith

A character named Andrew Smith.

Henrietta Perkins

minor

Also known as Miss Perkins, Miss Henrietta Perkins

A female character named Henrietta Perkins.

Walter J. Darling

minor

Also known as Darling

A character named Walter J. Darling.

Mr. Richard Belmont

minor

Also known as Belmont

A gentleman named Richard Belmont.

Shotwell

minor

A character named Shotwell.

Mr. Craney

minor

Also known as Craney

A character named Mr. Craney.

Mr. Hudson

minor

Also known as Hudson, This Hudson

A character named Mr. Hudson.

Billy Jones

minor

Also known as Bill, Jones, Billy

A character named Billy Jones.

Bud Craney

minor

Also known as Bud, Craney

A character named Bud Craney.

Buster

minor

Also known as Old Buster

An older character named Buster.

Harry Decker

minor

Also known as Harry, Hank

A character named Harry Decker.

General Leslie Bowers

minor

Also known as Les, Bowers

A general named Leslie Bowers.

Steven Alexander

minor

Also known as Dr. Steven Alexander, Alexander, Dr. Alexander

A doctor named Steven Alexander.

Ex-ambassador Hudson

minor

A former ambassador named Hudson.

John Cooper

minor

Also known as Cooper

A character named John Cooper.

Screamers

minor

Entities or characters that scream.

Commissioner Stanford

minor

Also known as Stanford

A commissioner involved in official matters.

the general

minor

Also known as General

A military general figure.

Man West

minor

Also known as West, The Last Man West

A character referred to as the last man West.

the Martians

minor

Also known as The Martians

Martian beings appearing in the story.

Secretary Cooper

minor

Also known as Cooper

A secretary named Cooper.

John Riggs

minor

Also known as Riggs, Chairman Riggs

A chairman named John Riggs.

Annabelle

minor

A female character named Annabelle.

Rosie

minor

A female character named Rosie.

Stella

minor

Also known as the telepathic Stella

A telepathic character named Stella.

The Rev. Harold Brown

minor

Also known as the Rev. Brown, Brown

A reverend named Harold Brown.

Ancestor Young

minor

Also known as Ancestor, Young

An ancestor figure named Young.

Doc Alexander

minor

Also known as Doc, Alexander

A doctor named Alexander.

Jack Riley

minor

Also known as Jack, Johnny

A character named Jack Riley.

Chuck

minor

Also known as Chuck ca

A character named Chuck.

Mr. Hamilton

minor

Also known as Hamilton

A character named Mr. Hamilton.

Jerry Palmer

minor

Also known as Palmer

A character named Jerry Palmer.

George

minor

A character named George.

Langdon

minor

A character named Langdon.

Protocol

minor

A character or entity named Protocol.

Zikkara

minor

An entity or character named Zikkara.

Saturn

minor

The planet Saturn personified or referenced.

Mummy

minor

A mummy character.

Bugs

minor

Also known as Educated Bugs

Educated bugs as characters.

Fingers

minor

A character named Fingers.

Juno

minor

A character or entity named Juno.

Rockets

minor

Rockets as characters or entities.

Robertson

minor

A character named Robertson.

Mr. Grant

minor

A character named Mr. Grant.

Mr. Hoffman

minor

A character named Mr. Hoffman.

John Hoffman

minor

Also known as Hoffman

A character named John Hoffman.

President Adams

minor

Also known as Adams

A president named Adams.

Jim Smithers

minor

Also known as Smithers

A character named Jim Smithers.

Jake Loomis

minor

Also known as Loomis

A character named Jake Loomis.

Robert Blake

minor

Also known as Blake

A character named Robert Blake.

Hope

minor

A character named Hope.

Stark Terror

minor

Also known as Stark

A character or entity named Stark Terror.

Mr. Smith

minor

A character named Mr. Smith.