Characters
Professor Bill Reynolds: The story's narrator, who is writing a thesis on fame.
Carlton: A "Bowie" robotic secretary owned by a comedy duo. He is of a now-obsolete series based on David Bowie, with one green and one blue eye, with Carlton's particular model, the 4.5, being based on Bowie circa 1985. He is studying his owners as part of his research on comedy.
Alex Muscroft: The comedian who bought Carlton, and sees him like a person much more than most of the human cast, having a concern and affection for him not commonly shown towards robots. Short with short red hair, a ruddy complexion in appearance, loud and personable in temperament. Carlton describes him in his thesis as having the boisterous troublemaking slapstick qualities of his "Red Nose" comic archetype.
Lewis Ashby: Alex's comedy partner, he is tall, skinny, has thinning black hair and is gruff and introverted. Carlton describes him in his thesis as having the grave deadpan and somewhat cruel qualities of the "White Face" comic archetype.
Katy Wallace: A mysterious woman who befriends Alex.
Tay: Lewis's daughter
Keppler: Owner of the space liner the Princess Di
Brenda Wooley: An aging pop-star who is still popular in the outer Solar System, and Keppler's wife.
The Amazing Keith: A comedy-magician whose act utilizes explosives.
Boo: Another comedian, he appears to be somewhat mad, providing a contrast to the story's other somewhat more professionally-minded comedians.
Read more about this topic: The Road To Mars
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“The major men
That is different. They are characters beyond
Reality, composed thereof. They are
The fictive man created out of men.
They are men but artificial men.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“It is open to question whether the highly individualized characters we find in Shakespeare are perhaps not detrimental to the dramatic effect. The human being disappears to the same degree as the individual emerges.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“The Nature of Familiar Letters, written, as it were, to the Moment, while the Heart is agitated by Hopes and Fears, on Events undecided, must plead an Excuse for the Bulk of a Collection of this Kind. Mere Facts and Characters might be comprised in a much smaller Compass: But, would they be equally interesting?”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)