As I mentioned some time back, Tantor Media, an imprint of RB Media, the largest publisher of audiobooks, will be publishing the first three books of the Frank Adversego series. They’re getting ready to go into production now, which of course begins with selecting a narrator. To help in that process, I put together a short piece where I describe how I see the series and the characters, and what I think readers resonate with. As I was writing it, it occurred to me that you might be interested in how I see my own characters, and I would certainly be interested in knowing how you do. So here it is, and all comments are welcome (spoiler alert: plot details appear throughout).
Overview: The first thing to note is that the series is “trans-genre.” An accurate (if extremely small) pigeonhole to put it in would be “Satirical, political, cyber-security mystery/thriller.” From a narrator’s point of view, the adjective “satirical” is very important to note. As it applies to these books, it relates to social satire as well as to highlighting the shortcomings or idiosyncrasies of a character, most often, Frank.
The second thing to note is that, unlike many blockbuster thrillers, the characters aren’t meant to be two-dimensional plot devices a la Dan Brown. They’re intended to be “real,” fully-fleshed out human beings that readers can relate to and care about. The reviews indicate that many readers look forward to the next book as much to find out what’s happening in the lives of the characters as to learn how the latest adventure turns out. In particular, each book includes a significant personal arc for Frank Adversego, the main character. His portrayal needs to be at times offended, focused, bewildered, socially cornered and persuading.
Most importantly, a constant mystery or thriller delivery would leave out what many readers find to be the most enjoyable part of the books and would leave them disappointed and unhappy. The narrator must therefore be able to switch gears between at least these two modes – empathetic delivery and suspenseful. The same would hold true for other characters, as the narrative sometimes switches, in the second person, from inside the head of one character to another.
Main Characters
Frank is a divorced, 40-ish programmer with real genius but few social skills. His name highlights two of his prime traits – ego and self-doubt (and, hence, “adverse-ego”). A MacArthur “genius award”’ winner early in life, his mix of arrogance and lack of discipline and commitment to succeed. We meet him for the first time years later, sadder and only somewhat wiser, as a near-total failure working in a boring job far beneath his skill level. He feels safest operating in an environment where personal contact is limited to email – even texting is too spontaneous, likely to lead him out on to ice too thin to support his insecurities. That said, in each book he inevitably rises to the occasion when the situation demands. In other words, he’s an endearing anti-hero in the everyman mode. He also has a warm and loving relationship with …
Marla, his daughter. Marla is in many ways Frank’s polar opposite: outgoing and self-assured. In book one (The Alexandria Project), she is a grad student at Georgetown in Washington, DC, where Frank also lives. She enjoys tweaking her father and plays a significant role in two of the books as well as walk-ons in the others.
Frank Sr. is the father that Frank adored until he seemingly skipped out on the family while Frank was a teenager. We later learn he went into an FBI protected witness program that his mother refused to go along with, using it as the opportunity to escape from a failed marriage. Frank stumbles on and reconciles with his father in book one. His father returns to play a significant role in book 3 (The Doodlebug War).
George Marchand is Frank’s boss at the Library of Congress, but in the course of the first book is revealed to also be a senior CIA cybersecurity expert. He is good at expressing “tough love” in the first book to get Frank’s professional life on track, and in later books often appears as his handler in CIA assignments.
Tim appears in book 3, working for the CIA in an entry-level position, where he is assigned to work with Frank. Young and idealistic, he’s also dating Marla, who he will marry at the end of book 4.
Other Characters can be serious participants in the plots of a given book or brief walk-ons for a single scene. Often, they are exaggerated send-ups of particular types, such as the VC (Josh Peabody) in book one and most of the politicians in book 2 (The Lafayette Campaign).
Book Plots
Each book focuses on a particular technology that has significant cyber-vulnerabilities that should have, but haven’t, been addressed by the global information technology companies that have unleashed them on society (as Frank notes, when it comes to technology, “We’re like kids in a candy store – we want all the good stuff now and worry about the cavities later.”) In each case, the potential catastrophic attacks described in the books have been vetted by experts, could actually occur, and in some cases later have.
In The Alexandria Project, Frank is plugging away at his desk when he is manipulated by his boss, George Marchand, to tackle a crisis that he would not have had the self-discipline to tackle unless he felt at personal risk. But instead of staying at his desk, he goes on the run, ending up in a rented camper out west where he knuckles down. Along the way, he encounters his father, who at first does not divulge his identity. The drama of the book is provided by two concurrent themes: a power play in North Korea which we eventually learn involves the provocation of a nuclear crisis, and Frank’s efforts to discover that plot before the US is manipulated into launching its own nukes. By the end, Frank, for the first time in his life, has successfully tackled a substantial challenge – but is still the same everyman he was before.
The Lafayette Campaign is a satirical reaction to the political nonsense that the US has been indulging in for the last twenty years. An idealistic young French woman – Josette – decides to launch a manipulation of political polls during the presidential primary season to persuade sane US citizens to actually vote in primaries in order to ensure that rational, rather than fringe, candidates confront each other in the November election. As Josette says to Frank before he becomes aware of her role, “You know, Frank, if you Americans want to insist that you elect the leader of the free world, you really ought to be more careful about who you elect.” As the book progresses, we learn that others are trying to hack the election as well for less honorable reasons. Frank is recruited by a nameless government agency to get to the bottom of the cyberattacks in order to avoid someone stealing the election. For the personal arc, Josette, who is in her mid-20s, takes advantage of Frank’s middle-age loneliness to manipulate him. But part way through the book me meets Simone Falconnet, a sophisticated French professor and former mentor of Josette, with whom he hits it off. By the end, Frank has gotten past his mid-life crisis and is enjoying a relationship with a woman his own age, while Josette is the one left thwarted and alone.
The Doodlebug War describes a plot by an ISIS-like state to devastate the US and Europe using a clever plot making use of WW II era technology to attack cloud computing data farms, which represent undefended targets of opportunity. The CIA enlists Frank to join a team seeking to counter the Caliphate, and pairs him with Tim. When Tim understands the vulnerability Frank uncovers, he is horrified when he realizes that by thwarting the attack, the government will be able to ignore the vulnerability. Unbeknownst to Frank, he decides to play a Snowden-like role by letting one attack get through. Frank catches on in time to figure out a way to have it both ways without allowing the attack to succeed. His personal arc involves finally coming to terms with his failed marriage, for which he takes full responsibility. The book ends with he and his ex-wife watching as Marla and Tim are wed.
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