Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse
“At the age of sixteen, having found nothing in the local school system to challenge, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse went off to college.” And there you have him in a nutshell. He is a brilliant cryptographer who becomes best friend with real-life computer geekdom legend, Alan Turing. Brilliantly scientific, yes, but also endowed with the propensity to engage in highly philosophical flights of fancy that often wind up being more fanciful than scientific.
Randall Lawrence Waterhouse
In case you were not aware, this is a novel that takes place in two distinctly different timelines. The second is headed up by Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse’s grandson, “Randy.” Equally blessed with the brilliance of the science and math part of the STEM approach to education, he is a character who will show up in a later novel by the author at which point his geeky genius has made him a very wealthy man. In the 1980’s, however, Randy’s dream is simple: create a massive database of data free from government control.
Bobby Shaftoe
A Marine Raider who has Gomer Pyle’s gung-ho attitude, but is equipped with much more ability to carry out his jingoistic desires However, he also writes haiku. The poetry is fine, but word of advice: if Shaftoe even comes close to mentioning a story about a giant lizard, run the other way. Very, very fast.
Lt. Goto Dengo
Dengo is an officer in the Japanese army during World War II. If you have ever stopped to wonder for a second why the Japanese seemed to be the targets of offensive terminology more than the Germans, his accounting of what was going on during the war from the Japanese viewpoint may perhaps stifle the natural discomfort. An entire novel—a very fascinating one that, frankly, would probably enjoy a much larger reading audience, could be made from merely whittling away everything tangential to Goto’s amazing story that gives new meaning to ridiculous idea that the things can’t get any worse just because they are so bad now. Things seem only to get worse and worse and worse for him.
Ronald Reagan
As previously indicated by the friendship between Lawrence Waterhouse and Alan Turing, the book is filled with characters based on an actual historical people. While they are not exactly historically-based representations, they are close enough to serve the purpose. Reagan appears in the earlier timeline as a Lieutenant during World War II, an officer’s rank which he actually did attain.
