Tonight, I’m going to speak a bit about my PoV characters.
The first thing is that this is about becoming Terran, not about being some part of it. Since that’s the case, we have to look at people from all over the world, not merely privileged men from one place.
It’s also about all of us, rather than some Hero or Profit or whatever, who leads all the rest of us spear carriers to some promised land. It’s about people like you and me, taking control of what’s our – our lives, and making something that matters to us all.
Then there’s Francoise.
As Lis Carey – who reviewed the book for File 770 – said in a thread about the book, she couldn’t be anyone else.
We’ll ignore certain alleged billionaires who fail to do this, but 90% of all wealthy people, and 99% of the wealthiest, have everyone who they’re going to see vetted, if for no other reason than 99.99% of everyone wants to hit them up for money.
Francoise completely circumvents that. She is literally a prisoner, in danger of being killed. She’s utterly unimportant, with no power whatsoever… and when she creates agency for herself, Tolliver reacts emotionally, unedited. He knows she has no agenda other than staying alive, and so she draws him in.
What immensely helps her, and later Amelie, is – speaking as the writer – that the two of them have literally won the genetic lottery. Both of them are seriously brilliant, and on top of that, beautiful. Those two things can give them agency if they take it… and, of course, when she has to, Fransoise does.
The same is true of the third PoV character, and all the major secondary characters: when the time comes to them, they find the courage to take agency. None of them are acted up – like aikido, they use the moment’s momentum to change its direction, for the better.