Victor Lawson

Victor Lawson, usually referred to as Vic, is the protagonist of the novel. While the novel is narrated in the third person, the majority of the novel is told from Vic’s limited third-person perspective. Vic is the only human character. He grew up with three robots who form his social group and family: Gio, an android who is his father, and Nurse Ratched and Rambo, two robots. Although he is the only human in his family, and indeed the world as he finds out later, Vic understands and relates well with his machine family members.

As he encounters other machines through the group’s journey to the City of Electric Dreams, Vic is sometimes overwhelmed by new sensory experiences and people he meets, and the novel ends with him taking care of his intimate family unit in isolation. Vic is defined by his close connections to...