The main characters in Phoenix in the Ashes are Amanda Montoya and Cristovao Hoffmann. Both are outcasts from their society. Hoffmann is outcast both because he is a loner by nature and because he is irreverent to his superiors. Hoffmann is tolerated, but not liked, because of his uncanny ability at "prospecting," finding abandoned cities in the devastated Northern Hemisphere to be mined by the Brazilian government. Hoffmann talks to himself and to his helicopter more than to anyone else. Amanda Montoya is outcast for refusing to marry the man of her father's choice. As a result, her father and mother no longer speak to her. Her only real contact with kinsmen comes from her sister Teresa's family, and only because Teresa's husband is a kind man. Because she is unmarried, Amanda is not allowed to socialize with anyone outside her family. She no longer even goes to...