In this idea-driven novel, the characterizations receive less attention than speculation or science. Nonetheless Eon has hosts of characters, major and minor, most of whom dot the pages as mere names or functionaries, types both human and nonhuman. Among the latter are such beings as the Frants and Talsits, interesting mainly as curiosities. Bear acknowledges some sixtyfive speaking parts.

Among the handful of highly visible characters, Patricia Luisa Vasquez stands foremost. She is twenty-four years old, brilliant, and possesses a doctorate and publications in mathematics and physics. At Patricia's first arrival on the Stone, she represents her countrymen's hope to forestall by scientific means the nuclear war on Earth, recorded in the Stone's archives. It is mainly through the eyes of Patricia that the reader comes to know the Stone and its enigmatic seventh chamber, the infinite Way.

Patricia reacts with appropriate wonder as she tries to calculate...