I think the first thing that made me realise I would like it was Master Wu. Or, actually, it may have been the deadly aikidoka. But it was confirmed by Mr Wu. I love that character deeply. I cried when he died. Cried and cheered, actually.

Harkaway does suggestion very well. He does not force characters on you, but suggests them through a myriad little details that provides the illusion of a fully formed person. Like an impressionist. Which I suppose makes sense, since the narrator is not omniscient, and we are based on his impressions.

So many of the characters have flair. They stand out from a crowd.

Now, I said I began to realise I would like the book when Master Wu showed up. This is in part because I did not warm to anyone in the first chapter. And while they grew quite a lot later on, the Haulage & Hazmat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company are not my favourite characters, nor, I feel, the best painted (despite having a truly awesome name). I love Zaher Bey, Assumption Soames, Elisabeth Soames, Ike and the mimes, Ma and Pa Lubitsch...

I also grew to like the narrator quite a lot (but that wasn't really until he went to the big city and tricked his way into a lovely suit. I loved that.

Gonzo was the one who seemed two-dimensional to me. That is of course easily explained in retrospect, as his personality is spread over two people, and if you view them as a whole I think they/he are/is rather interesting.

Robbie Cheung did not appeal to me overly much at first. He seemed like a caricature. And then he reacted the right way to soft style, and then he reacted REALLY the right way to the suggestion of training ninjas. And that suggestion of depth redeemed him. I think he is a character who is pretty much what you make of him.

Pestle. I didn't like him. He scared me. So I suppose he worked. He scared me a lot, actually. And not just because he was a super-ninja.

Zaher Bey, both in his incarnation as Freeman ibn Solomon and as the Bey, has that anarchistic wonderfulness and shiningness (yes, I made up that word) which makes me fall head over heels every time. It is why I love Doctor Who (hmmm, second television reference in this discussion. Possible I should cut back on series). The Bey is a character who sees into the centre, sees how things work, and more importantly, he is a character who speaks up and does not take the safe road to homogeny and safety because he is not willing to compromise. He is like a Rorschach without the mental problems. He is Nietzschean. He gets the power of laughter over fear. Actually, now that I just wrote that I realised he really is Nietzschean. He is connected to dancing, to music, to laughter, opposed to cold order and submission to the safe pattern. Nietzsche would love him.

Assumption Soames was great mainly because she made me happy by surprising me. She is another of those characters focused on doing the right thing, despite the cost. Although I suspect she enjoyed it tremendously.

Elisabeth wasn't terribly multi-dimensional, but I liked her as a counterpoint to Master Wu, as a voice of reason and her coolness as Dr Andromas. Mainly I like how she made a happy ending. I was always a little unhappy with Leah popping up from nowhere and taking the place I had thought Elisabeth would have. I am a sucker for a happy ending.

And Master Wu. I have met Master Wu. Ok, I haven't. But I have met people like him. They were Japanese, not Chinese, and I don't think they were the masters of a secret group, but they acted just like him and they are bloody amazing at doing impossible things with soft style martial arts. And I can see them in my mind's eye opening and closing a tupperware box. And it fits. Perhaps that is why I took to him instantly. I don't know. Master Wu sprang from the page. I loved him. I could see why the narrator loved him, why Elisabeth did, and ultimately why the Voiceless Dragon did what they did. But I don't know whether this springs from me loving soft style martial arts, or whether it springs out of the character himself. Others will have to tell me. I can't separate the two.


But yes, I kind of want to marry Zaher Bey. Sorry, Tor.