Authors: David Wingrove
CHARACTER LISTING
MAJOR CHARACTERS
Ascher, Emily | | Trained as an economist, she joined the |
DeVore, Howard | | A one-time major in the T’ang’s Security forces, he has become the leading figure in the struggle against the Seven. A highly intelligent and coldly logical man, he is the puppetmaster behind the scenes as the great ‘War of the Two Directions’ takes a new turn. |
Ebert, Hans | | Son of Klaus Ebert and heir to the vast GenSyn Corporation, he is a captain in the Security forces, admired and trusted by his superiors. Ebert is a complex young man: a brave and intelligent officer, he also has a selfish, dissolute and rather cruel streak. |
Fei Yen | | Daughter of Yin Tsu, one of the heads of the ‘Twenty-Nine’, the minor aristocratic families of Chung Kuo. The classically beautiful ‘Flying Swallow’, her marriage to the murdered Prince Li Han Ch’in nullified, is set to marry Han’s brother, the young Prince Li Yuan. Fragile in appearance, she is surprisingly strong-willed and fiery. |
Haavikko, Axel | | Smeared by the false accusations of his fellow officers, Lieutenant Haavikko has spent the best part of a decade in debauchery and self-negation. At core, however, he is a good, honest man, and circumstances will raise him from the pit into which he has fallen. |
Kao Chen | | Once an assassin from the Net, the lowest levels of the great City, Chen has raised himself from his humble beginnings to become an officer in the T’ang’s Security forces. As friend and helper to Karr, he is one of the foot-soldiers in the War against DeVore. |
Karr, Gregor | | A major in the Security forces, he was recruited by Marshal Tolonen from the Net. In his youth he was an athlete and, later, a ‘blood’ – a to-the-death combat fighter. A giant of a man, he is to become the ‘hawk’ Li Shai Tung flies against his adversary, DeVore. |
Lehmann, Stefan | | Albino son of the former Dispersionist leader, Pietr Lehmann, he has become a lieutenant to DeVore. A cold, unnaturally dispassionate man, he seems to be the very archetype of nihilism, his only aim to bring down the Seven and their great City. |
Li Shai Tung | | T’ang of City Europe and one of the Seven, the ruling Council of Chung Kuo, Li Shai Tung is now entering his eighties. For many years he was the fulcrum of the Council and unofficial spokesman for the Seven, but the murder of his heir, Han Ch’in, has weakened him, undermining his once strong determination to prevent Change at all costs. |
Li Yuan | | Second son of Li Shai Tung, he becomes heir to City Europe after the murder of his elder brother. Thought old before his time, his cold, thoughtful manner conceals a passionate nature, expressed in his wooing of his dead brother’s wife, Fei Yen. |
Shepherd, Ben | | Son of Hal Shepherd, the T’ang’s chief advisor, and great-great-grandson of City Earth’s Architect. Shepherd is born and brought up in the Domain, an idyllic valley in the south-west of England where, deciding not to follow in his father’s footsteps and become advisor to Li Yuan, he pursues instead his calling as an artist, developing a whole new art form, the Shell, which will eventually have a cataclysmic effect on Chung Kuo’s society. |
Tolonen, Jelka | | Daughter of Marshal Tolonen, Jelka has been brought up in a very masculine environment, lacking a mother’s influence. However, her genuine interest in martial arts and in weaponry and strategy mask a very different side to her nature, a side brought out by violent circumstances. |
Tolonen, Knut | | Marshal of the Council of Generals and one-time General to Li Shai Tung, Tolonen is a big, granite-jawed man and the staunchest supporter of the values and ideals of the Seven. Possessed of a fiery, fearless nature, he will stop at nothing to protect his masters, yet after long years of war even his belief in the necessity of stasis has been shaken. |
Tsu Ma | | T’ang of West Asia and one of the Seven, the ruling Council of Chung Kuo, Tsu Ma has thrown off his former dissolute ways as a result of his father’s death and become one of Li Shai Tung’s greatest supporters in Council. A strong, handsome man, he has still, however, a weakness in his nature: one that is almost his undoing. |
Wang Sau-leyan | | Fourth and youngest son of Wang Hsien, T’ang of Africa, the murder of his two eldest brothers has placed him closer to the centre of political events. Thought of as a wastrel, he is, in fact, a shrewd and highly capable political being who is set – through circumstances of his own devising – to become the harbinger of Change inside the Council of the Seven. |
Ward, Kim | | Born in the Clay, that dark wasteland beneath the great City’s foundations, Kim has a quick and unusual bent of mind. His vision of a giant web, formulated in the darkness, has driven him up into the light of the Above. However, after a traumatic fight and a long period of personality reconstruction, he has returned to things not quite the person he was. Or so it seems, for Kim has lost none of the sharpness that has made him the most promising young scientist in the whole of Chung Kuo. |
THE SEVEN AND THE FAMILIES
An Liang-chou | Minor Family prince |
An Sheng | head of the An family (one of the ‘Twenty-Nine’ Minor Families) |
Chi Hsing | T’ang of the Australias |
Chun Wu-chi | head of the Chun family (one of the ‘Twenty-Nine’ Minor Families) |
Fu Ti Chang | Minor Family princess |
Hou Tung-po | T’ang of South America |
Hsiang K’ai Fan | Minor Family prince |
Hsiang Shao-erh | head of the Hsiang family (one of the ‘Twenty-Nine’ Minor Families) and father of Hsiang K’ai Fan and Hsiang Wang |
Hsiang Wang | Minor Family prince |
Lai Shi | Minor Family princess |
Li Ch’i Chan | brother and advisor to Li Shai Tung |
Li Feng Chiang | brother and advisor to Li Shai Tung |
Li Shai Tung | T’ang of Europe |
Li Yuan | second son of Li Shai Tung and heir to City Europe |
Li Yun Ti | brother and advisor to Li Shai Tung |
Mien Shan | Minor Family princess |
Pei Chao Yang | son and heir of Pei Ro-hen |
Pei Ro-hen | head of the Pei family (one of the ‘Twenty-Nine’ Minor Families) |
Tsu Ma | T’ang of West Asia |
Tsu Tao Chu | third son of Tsuchang, deceased first son of Tsu Tiao |
Wang Hsien | T’ang of Africa |
Wang Sau-leyan | fourth son of Wang Hsien |
Wang Ta-hung | third son of Wang Hsien and heir to City Africa |
Wei Chan Yin | eldest son of Wei Feng and heir to City East Asia |
Wei Feng | T’ang of East Asia |
Wu Shih | T’ang of North America |
Yi Shan-ch’i | Minor Family prince |
Yin Chang | Minor Family prince; son of Yin Tsu and elder brother to Fei Yen |
Yin Fei Yen | ‘Flying Swallow’, Minor Family princess; daughter of Yin Tsu; widow of Li Han Ch’in |
Yin Sung | Minor Family prince; elder brother of Fei Yen and son and heir of Yin Tsu |
Yin Tsu | head of Yin family (one of the ‘Twenty-Nine’ Minor Families) |
Yin Wei | younger brother of Fei Yen |
Yin Wu Tsai | Minor Family princess and cousin of Fei Yen |
FRIENDS AND RETAINERS OF THE SEVEN
Auden, William | captain in Security |
Chai | servant to Wang Hsien |
Chang Li | Chief Surgeon to Li Shai Tung |
Chang Shih-sen | personal secretary to Li Yuan |
Ch’in Tao Fan | Chancellor of East Asia |
Chu Ta Yun | Minister of Education for City Europe |
Chuang Ming | Minister to Li Shai Tung |
Chung Hu-Yan | Chancellor to Li Shai Tung |
Ebert, Berta | wife of Klaus Ebert |
Ebert, Hans | major in Security and heir to GenSyn |
Ebert, Klaus Stefan | head of GenSyn (Genetic Synthetics) and advisor to Li Shai Tung |
Erkki | guard to Jelka Tolonen |
Fan Liang-wei | painter to the court of Li Shai Tung |
Fest, Edgar | captain in Security |
Fischer, Otto | head of Personal Security at Wang Hsien’s palace in Alexandria |
Fu | servant to Wang Hsien |
Haavikko, Axel | lieutenant in Security |
Haavikko, Vesa | sister of Axel Haavikko |
Helm | general in Security, City South America |
Heng Yu | Son of Heng Fan and nephew of Heng Chi-Po |
Hoffmann | major in Security |
Hua | personal surgeon to Li Shai Tung |
Hung Feng-chan | Chief Groom at Tongjiang |
Hung Mien-lo | advisor to Wang Ta-hung; Chancellor of City Africa |
Kao Chen | captain in Security |
Karr, Gregor | ‘blood’, and, later, major in Security |
Lautner, Wolfgang | captain in Security Personnel at Bremen |
Little Bee | Maid to Wang Hsien |
Lung Mei Ho | secretary to Tsu Ma |
Mi Feng | see ‘Little Bee’ |
Nan Ho | Li Yuan’s Master of the Inner Chambers |
Nocenzi, Vittorio | General of Security, City Europe |
Panshin, Anton | colonel in Security |
Pearl Heart | maid to Li Yuan |
Rahn, Wolf | lieutenant in Security, City Africa |
Russ | captain in Security |
Sanders | captain of Security at Helmstadt Armoury |
Scott | captain of Security |
Shepherd, Ben | son of Hal Shepherd |
Shepherd, Beth | wife of Hal Shepherd |
Shepherd, Hal | advisor to Li Shai Tung and head of the Shepherd family |
Shepherd, Meg | daughter of Hal Shepherd |
Stifel | alias of Otto Fischer |
Sun Li Hua | Wang Hsien’s Master of the Inner Chambers |
Sweet Rain | maid to Wang Hsien |
Sweet Rose | maid to Li Yuan |
Tender Willow | maid to Wang Hsien |
Tolonen, Helga | aunt of Jelka Tolonen |
Tolonen, Jelka | daughter of Knut Tolonen |
Tolonen, Jon | brother of Knut Tolonen |
Tolonen, Knut | Marshal of the Council of Generals and father of Jelka Tolonen |
Wang Ta Chuan | Li Shai Tung’s Master of the Inner Palace at Tongjiang |
Wen | captain of Security on Mars |
Wu Ming | servant to Wang Ta-hung |
Ying Chai | assistant to Sun Li Hua |
Ying Fu | assistant to Sun Li Hua |
Yu | surgeon to Li Yuan |