The three chief characters of "The Satanic Illusion" are Rivers, Zahn, and Hubert. Rivers has the advantage over the other two because his character is developed through several stories, whereas Zahn and Hubert barely have time to fulfill their functions as antagonists. Rivers is from Australia and for most of his life he has led hunting safaris, the objective of which is to secure trophies for the customers. The modern world is fast running out of trophy animals, with most being either extinct or endangered and on protected wildlife reserves. Faced with unemployment, Rivers learns that a time machine has been invented, and he and his partner Chandra Aiyar, as well as a host of other professional hunters, rush to the machine's inventor Prochaska and arrange to use it to ferry customers and supplies back to eras in which exotic animals such as dinosaurs and mastodons existed. Rivers's...