Dick Jarvis

Jarvis is the narrator of 'A Martian Odyssey,' a practical, good-humored scientist who stretches out in the cramped quarters of the Ares and spins the tale of his solo scouting flight south. His resourcefulness — and his willingness to treat a bird-like Martian as a colleague rather than a specimen — is what keeps him alive and what makes the story's encounters possible. He matters because his curiosity, not his caution, drives the expedition's first real contact with an alien mind.