Cobra is not a strongly characteroriented book, but Jonny Moreau is a protagonist whom the reader is likely to remember. His mixture of physical strength with vulnerability and occasional pigheadedness, and his moral strength in tight situations, give him an appeal beyond and different from that of the Rambo-type warrior figure. He suffers and grows and learns, but he never abandons the ideals that led him to join the Cobras as a young man.

The people surrounding him are drawn well enough to make a plausible story, but none becomes truly memorable. Strangely enough, the next most notable character is one whom Jonny does not meet until the very end of the book. But his acts influenced Jonny's life long before this scene. Vanis D'arl is a powerful Central Committee member, who competently bears the burden of decision-making for the multiple worlds under his jurisdiction. If D'arl seems...