Larry Niven

The Barsoom Project

Cast of characters and glossary

Falling Angel

RICHARD ARBENZ: Ambassador from Falling Angel; Charlene Dula’s maternal uncle.

Dream Park

MARTY BOBBICK: Griffin’s assistant. Plays as Hippogryph.

ARTHUR COWLES: Founder of Dream Park.

ALEX GRIFFIN: Security Chief of Dream Park.

THADEUS HARMONY: Dream Park Director of Operations.

MITCH HASAGAWA: Dream Park Security.

TOMISUBURO IZUML Dream Park R and D tech.

CALVIN IZUMI: Brother of Tom, deceased.

SANDY KHRESLA: Head of Dream Park Maintenance Division.

CARY McGIWON: Alex Griffin’s new assistant.

MILLICENT SUMMERS: Formerly Griffin’s secretary. Now an executive in the Department of Financial Affairs.

DOCTOR VAIL: Dream Park psychologist.

DWIGHT WELLES: Senior computer tech for Dream Park; Game Master for the altered Fimbulwinter Game.

Gamers

ROBIN BOWLES: Professional actor. Actor in the Fimbulwinter Game. Talisman: caribou’s ear, for hearing.

CHARLENE DULA: Gamer from the zero-grav habitat Falling Angel, and friend to Michelle Sturgeon. Talisman: a swatch of white fur, arctic seal, for invisibility.

EVIANE alias MICHELLE RIVERS alias MICHELLE STURGEON: Veteran of the first Fimbulwinter Game. Plays most of the game as a tornrait. Talisman: semi-automatic rifle.

FRANCIS HEBERT: Marine, Major in the reserves. AVRAM HENDERSON: Gamer

MAZIE HENDERSON: Gamer.

OLLIE NORLISS alias FRANKISH OLIVER: Professional Gamer and MD.

MARTIN QATERLIARAQ alias MARTIN THE ARCTIC FOX: Sorcerer or angakok among the Inuit. Actor in the Fimbulwinter Game.

GWEN RYDER alias CANDICE alias KANGUQ alias SNOW GOOSE: Professional actress. Married to Ollie Norliss.

MAX SANDS: Gamer Professional wrestler under the name Mr. Mountain. Talisman: owl claw, for strength.

ORSON SANDS: Max Sands’s brother Gamer.

TRIANNA STITH-WOOD: Professional chef.

KEVIN TITUS: Computer programmer and computer gamer Talisman: a crumpled skin crusted with black soot, for strength. “Soot is stronger than fire.

JOHNNY WELSH: Gamer; professional comedian.

YARNALL alias THE NATIONAL GUARDSMAN: Dream Park actor

Others

ANDREW CHALA: Pan-African ambassador.

KAREEM FEKESH: Industrialist, suspected supporter of UMAF

ROBERT J. FLAHERTY: Producer of Nanook of the North, 1922.

TOBY LEE HARLOW JUNIOR: Alias of the person who disrupted the first Fimbulwinter Game.

LOPEZES: Legendary Game Masters, now semiretired.

TONY McWHIRTER: Computer whiz, incarcerated for industrial espionage against Cowles Industries.

MADELEINE: Mystery woman; a possible link to Kareem Fekesh.

RAZUL: Libyan ambassador

Glossary

AHK-LUT: Leader of the Cabal; son of Martin Qaterliaraq, brother of Snow Goose.

AMARTOQ: A headless troll.

ANANSI: A space shuttle, the object of a terrorist attack some years earlier

ANGAKOK: Sorcerer

BRANTA CANADENSIS alias Tuutangayak alias Canadian Snow Goose.

THE CABAL: The clique of evil sorcerers.

COWLES INDUSTRIES: The parent company of Dream Park

COWLES MODULAR COMMUNITY: Living quarters for Dream Park employees.

FALLING ANGEL ENTERPRISES: Industrial nation-state, off-Earth.

FAT RIPPER SPECIALS: Games modified for the reeducation of substance abusers.

HOLY FIRE: Terrorist organization, precursor to the UMAF

INTELCORP: The company formed by the partnership of General Electric and Falling Angel Enterprises.

INTERNATIONAL FANTASY GAMING SOCIETY: The governing body supervising the world of Adventure Gaming.

KOGUKHPUK: The Burrowing Mammoth.

LEVIATHAN IV: Mining rig proposed for use in terra-forming Mars.

MARK CARD: A widely accepted inter-Union credit card.

OFFICIAL IFGS KAMA SUTRA: A myth, a mere rumor. It doesn’t exist. Forget it. Trust us.

PAIJA: Giant female demon.

PEWITU: Taboos.

PHANTOM FEAST: A Dream Park diet restaurant.

RAVEN: Progenerative force in Inuit mythology.

SEDNA: Goddess of the sea and of the sea’s life.

SEELUMKADCHLUK: Where the sky meets the sea; the barrier between reality and the Inuit spiritual world.

TERICHIK: A gigantic caterpillar-like monster; the spirit form of Ahk-lut.

TIN-MI-UK-PUKS, or THUNDERBIRDS: Fabulous Roc-like creatures.

TORNGARSOAK: Sedna’s lover, Lord of the Hunt.

TORNRAIT: Ghost who serves an angakok, usually as a source of information.

UNITED MOSLEM ACTIVIST FRONT or UMAF: A radical mideastem terrorist organization.

USIK: A weapon crafted from the pubic bone of a walrus.

WINIGO: Inuit Yeti.

WOLFALCONS: Hybrid creatures, half wolf, half giant bird of prey.

PROLOGUE

Like a raging mountain, the Terichik rose screaming from a frozen, nightdark sea. Its many-sectioned, grotesquely wormlike body reared up; tons of water and ice thundered into the ocean with a howl like the death of worlds. The black night swirled wind-whipped snow through mist that tasted of salt. The Terichik’s mouth gaped cavernously. Endless rows of serrated teeth gleamed as it shrieked its mindless wrath. Its breath was a cold and fetid wind.