Star Born · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Star Born by Andre Norton.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Raf Kurbi
major
Also known as Raf, Kurbi
Raf Kurbi is crew on the Spacer RS 10, restless under Captain Hobart's discipline and hungry for a world he can explore on his own terms. Waking blind and immobilized after the Center is invaded, he must trust the merman and stranger who claim his companions fled without him. His panic, anger, and stubborn identity as a Free Man make him the reader's raw nerve as first contact turns hostile.
Dalgard Nordis
major
Also known as Dalgard
Dalgard Nordis belongs to the second generation born on Astra, descended from outlaws who fled Terra and now answer to the Council of Free Men. His wordless rapport with Sssuri crosses species lines, but the question of what he and his people are becoming haunts every choice he makes. When a wounded off-worlder falls into his care, Dalgard becomes the bridge between two branches of humanity that no longer recognize each other.
Sssuri
major
Also known as Sssuri
Sssuri moves between the merpeople's underwater world and Dalgard's land-bound colony, bound to the human by a rapport that needs no speech. His rainbow-tipped pelt and barbed bone blade mark him as alien, yet his loyalty to Dalgard is total and unhesitating. As the aliens' grip on Astra tightens, Sssuri's knowledge of the deep gives the two voyagers their only edge.
Captain Hobart
supporting
Also known as Hobart
Captain Hobart runs the Terran survey of Astra with the automatic recorder always running and the com always open to the ship. He is the authority that keeps Raf's reckless curiosity in check, the one who decides what the flitter will and will not do. His presence turns a planet of wonders into a mission with rules, and the tension between his caution and Raf's hunger for the open sky drives the expedition's first days.
Soriki
supporting
Also known as Soriki
Soriki rides behind Raf with the com clamped to his skull, the expedition's lifeline to the silver pencil of the RS 10 receding behind them. He is the quiet professional whose constant chatter of coordinates and check-ins measures how far the flitter has strayed into the unknown. When contact matters most, Soriki's headset is the thin thread between the explorers and everything they left behind.
Lablet
supporting
Also known as Lablet
Lablet is the expedition's observer, the one whose records and readings are meant to make sense of a planet that feels impossibly new. He moves through the survey with equipment hung about him, part of the small team that tramps down the ramp behind Raf each morning. His presence signals that this is a mission of study as much as survival—and that whatever Astra is hiding will be measured, logged, and reported.
Wonstead
minor
Also known as Wonstead
A Terran crew member involved in the expedition.
Pax
minor
Also known as Pax
A native creature or entity encountered on the planet.
Forken Kordov
minor
Also known as Forken
A minor character from the native human settlement.
