due to his close personal friendship with military strategist RJ Benjamin and, later, John Shade. Shade's relationship with Mandrake tends to be one of mutual antagonism with moments of deep trust. Minor characters include Shade's colleague and romantic interest Pappy, the government strategist RJ Benjamin and a rich "nettie" called Sinclair. The novel also features a character called "the No Poet", an unknown author of existentialist poetry. He (or she) claims to be nonexistent, an experimental computer program created as part of ongoing research into sentient artificial intelligence. Despite - or perhaps because of - this, the No Poet's work is highly regarded by humans, and his lonely, forsaken sense of self is shared by many in a dissatisfied future. References 1989 American novels American science fiction novels Novels by Jack Butler Novels set on Mars Vampire novels