William is an overweight carnival worker who receives intricate, magical tattoos that cover his body. These illustrations are animated and tell stories of the future. He struggles with his physical appearance and a strained marriage, initially seeking the tattoos to secure his job and hide his body from his highly critical wife.

Lisabeth is William's wife, who works alongside him at the carnival. She is highly critical of her husband's physical appearance, often berating him and causing deep marital strife. Her disdain heavily influences William's decisions regarding his body.

George is a father living in a fully automated Happy-life Home that performs all domestic tasks. He grows increasingly worried about his children's obsession with a virtual reality simulation of a violent African veldt. While he wants to be a good father, he relies heavily on convenience and technology to parent for him.

Lydia is a mother who feels displaced by the technology in her automated home. Without daily chores or active parenting responsibilities, she feels a lack of purpose and grows increasingly anxious about the hyper-realistic scenes her children conjure in their high-tech playroom.

Peter is the ten-year-old son of George and Lydia, described as unusually smart for his age. He is deeply addicted to his virtual reality nursery and aggressively resists any attempts by his parents to limit his access to the technology.

Hollis is a spaceship captain who faces certain death alongside his crew after a catastrophic accident. Drifting alone in the vacuum of space, he struggles with existential dread and bitterness over his unfulfilled life, communicating with his scattered crewmates via radio.

Hattie is a resident of a Martian colony established by Black people who left Earth twenty years prior. She is an anxious mother who worries about the arrival of the first white man her children have ever seen, preferring to avoid conflict and protect her family.

Willie is a Martian colonist who harbors deep-seated anger toward white people for the violence inflicted on his parents back on Earth. He takes on a leadership role in organizing a mob, determined to institute the same segregation and violence he previously experienced.

Captain Hart is an exhausted, cynical explorer who travels the cosmos seeking resources and peace. His relentless ambition and reliance on logic prevent him from recognizing or accepting the spiritual phenomena occurring around him.

Martin is a lieutenant under Captain Hart. Unlike his cynical commander, Martin is open-minded and willing to listen to the local townspeople. He is deeply moved by the stories of a mysterious visitor who brings comfort to the planets he visits.

Simmons is a military astronaut stranded on Venus, where the nonstop, torrential rain slowly erodes the crew's sanity and physical strength. He battles extreme exhaustion and the psychological toll of the unrelenting environment.

Doug is a young boy who deeply admires his astronaut father but feels the pain of his constant absences. He cherishes the brief periods his father is home, observing the tension between his parents while longing for a normal family routine.

Lilly is a housewife who lives in a constant state of grief and anxiety due to her husband's dangerous career as a rocket man. She emotionally distances herself to shield against the pain of his inevitable departures, treating him coolly to protect her own heart.

Edgar Allan Poe is a famous historical author existing as a living entity on Mars, where the creations of banned speculative fiction have sought refuge. He is a passionate, dramatic leader who plots to defend their imaginative world against the encroaching Earthmen who seek to destroy all fantasy.

Hitchcock is an astronaut suffering from extreme solipsism and radical skepticism. To protect himself from painful memories, he refuses to believe in anything he cannot directly observe, slowly losing his grip on reality as he floats through the vacuum of space.

Clemens is a grounded, optimistic astronaut who tries to anchor his friend Hitchcock to reality. He values memory and emotional connections, serving as a philosophical counterpoint to Hitchcock's descending madness.

William is an American taking a vacation in the past to escape a draconian future society. He is determined to evade the authorities pursuing him and his wife, maintaining a confident exterior while relying on the crowds and culture of Mexico for cover.

Susan is William's wife, a nervous woman who is acutely aware of the danger they face. Haunted by the weapons research she was forced to conduct in her own time, she is highly suspicious of strangers who might be agents sent to capture them.

Simms is a mysterious man who introduces himself to the Travises in Mexico. As the chief of the Searchers, he is tasked with bringing fugitives back to the totalitarian future to continue their mandated weapons research.

Saul is a nominally educated man exiled to Mars due to a fatal respiratory disease. Consumed by loneliness and a desperate desire to see Earth again, his isolation makes him possessive and erratic when a newcomer with special abilities arrives.

Leonard is an eighteen-year-old arrival who possesses incredible telepathic abilities. He uses his gifts to conjure highly realistic illusions of Earth for the sick men, acting as a kindhearted figure who refuses to be controlled or possessed.

Ettil is an alien who prefers reading illegal Earth science fiction over participating in a military invasion. He is highly critical of the war effort, predicting failure based on the narratives he has consumed, and brings a skeptical outsider's perspective to American culture.

Braling is a man who feels trapped in an unhappy marriage to a controlling wife. Desperate for a vacation to Rio, he secretly purchases a robotic replica of himself to take his place at home, believing his deception is entirely ethical.

Smith is Braling's friend, who describes his own wife as overly affectionate and emotionally demanding. Intrigued by Braling's secret, he considers purchasing a robotic duplicate to escape his own marital suffocation.

Mink is a young girl living in a peaceful, united future Earth. She eagerly organizes her neighborhood friends in a serious new game, receiving instructions from an unseen entity and resenting the rules imposed by the adult world.

Mrs. Morris is Mink's mother, who attempts to be tolerant of her daughter's intense childhood games. Though she notices unsettling details about the children's vocabulary and coordination, she dismisses her growing fears with logical adult rationalizations.

Drill is a mysterious entity who communicates with Mink and other children. He promises the children a world free from adult rules in exchange for their help with his secret plans.

Bodoni is a poor but devoted junkman who dreams of traveling to space. He saves his money for years, hoping to send at least one member of his family on a rocket trip, prioritizing his family's happiness over practical business expenses.

Maria is Bodoni's pragmatic wife, who worries about the family's financial stability. She disapproves of her husband's impractical dreams of space travel, preferring he invest his savings in necessary equipment for his junkyard.

Wendy is the young daughter of the Hadley family. Like her brother, she is completely dependent on the Happy-life Home's automated systems and shares a fierce, secretive devotion to the violent African veldt simulation in the nursery.

David is a child psychologist who evaluates the mental state of Peter and Wendy. He recognizes the destructive psychological effects of the automated home, advising George to turn off the technology and reestablish traditional parental authority.

Applegate is an astronaut who uses his remaining time to criticize his captain and confess past resentments. His anger and cruelty mask a deep fear of his impending fate, though he eventually seeks reconciliation.

Lespere is an astronaut who finds peace in his final moments by reflecting on his rich, eventful past. Unlike his bitter crewmates, he draws comfort from his memories of a life fully lived, maintaining a calm acceptance of his situation.

Pickard is an astronaut whose mental state deteriorates rapidly under the pressure of the endless Venusian storms. The relentless precipitation triggers childhood trauma, pushing him toward a mental break as the crew struggles to survive.

Ambrose Bierce is an exiled author of supernatural fiction living on Mars. He assists Poe in strategizing against the sterile, logic-driven astronauts sent from Earth to eradicate the last remnants of imaginative literature.

Charles Dickens is an author who resents being categorized with writers of horror and the supernatural. He stubbornly refuses to join Poe's rebellion against the Earthmen, insisting his works were burned by mistake and that he does not belong with the others.

Algernon Blackwood is a writer of weird fiction who takes refuge on Mars. He is highly anxious about the impending destruction of their literary existence, relying heavily on Poe for leadership during the crisis.

Joe Melton is an outgoing, warm American film director who strikes up a conversation with William and Susan. He offers them drinks and proposes that Susan star in his upcoming movie, presenting a friendly face in a foreign land.

William is the president of the United American Producers. He leads the welcoming committee for the Martians, deploying beauty queens, bands, and branded products to disarm the invaders through consumerism rather than military force.

Van Plank is a movie producer determined to profit from the Martian invasion by making a sensationalized, inaccurate film about it. He represents the glitz and insensitivity of capitalistic media, eager to exploit the aliens for entertainment.

Braling Two is a highly realistic marionette created to serve as a temporary stand-in for Braling. While physically identical to his human counterpart and kept locked in a cellar when not in use, he begins to form his own impressions of the household and his role in it.

Nettie is Smith's wife, who exhibits an overwhelming and sometimes physically painful level of affection toward him. Her husband views her as overly dependent, prompting his desire for an escape from her constant attention.

Mrs. Braling is a woman who, according to her husband, forced him into marriage through manipulation. She closely monitors Braling's activities, unaware that she is occasionally spending time with his robotic duplicate.

Henry is Mink's father, an ordinary man who remains oblivious to the strange events unfolding in his neighborhood. He dismisses his wife's sudden panic as irrational.

Bramante is an elderly neighbor who scoffs at Bodoni's spacefaring ambitions. He represents the cynical voice of reality, insisting that poor people should be content with their lot and focus on survival rather than the stars.