Meet the Characters #1: Commander James Fowler

Commander James Fowler is the main character of From the Grave of the Gods and the Augment Saga.

Statistics:

Full Name: James Mark Fowler
DOB: 12th June 1985
Hometown: Chigwell, London, UK
Parents: Mark & Esther Fowler
Partner: Angela Marie-Stewart

Education:
- A-Levels in Physics and Astrophysics
- Four-Year Integrated MPhys degree.

Occupational History:
- One year internship at a particle physics laboratory.
- Twelve years as an RAF fighter pilot
- ESA astronaut

Bio:

James is an astronaut; the First Officer aboard the Magnum Opus, humanity’s largest—and only—interplanetary spacecraft on the very first crewed mission to Mars. He’s living the dream; he gets to explore space, to be one of the first to set foot on another planet, and investigate the mysterious extrasolar object that impacted Mars five years ago.

Right from an early age, he’d always wanted to go to space, but unlike most kids, he threw everything he had into realising that dream. He is one of two representatives from the European Space Agency, and part of an international crew from Russia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain.

After the mission, thinks James, after the mission he’ll finally propose to his girlfriend of seventeen years, Angela Marie-Stewart. Maybe when he returns a hero, he’ll find the perfect moment, unlike the other bazillion times he’s tried.

An optimist when it comes to the future, but a staunch pragmatist when it comes to the present, he is by no means naïve. But his drive coupled with his impatience lead him into trouble more often than not.

Creating the Character

The concept behind James was one of the first things I came up with for the Augment Saga. Years ago, he was originally to be named Joshua Hales, but when I came back to the project after ten years, I felt like he needed to be called something different, so I used the vast resources of the internet (random name generators and baby-name websites) to come up with another name I liked.

I’ve mentioned before across my website that when I was a child, I used to make-believe play a very simplified, general concept that would later become this saga. Back then, I guess you could say I played the character of James Fowler, but aside from a love for space and science, he’s not based on me at all! The character I played as a child was a much more generic action-hero type, with none of the nuance of James.

For the Augment Saga, I have deliberately left his appearance up to the reader’s imagination, because I was personally never happy with any of the looks I came up with for him. He’s the only character I’ve done this with, and I think it works rather well. Sadly this does mean I won’t be able to make any artwork of him. But that’s not such a bad thing.

Heh… In a way, it's a bit like Ambassador Kosh from Babylon 5. Once From the Grave of the Gods comes out, I’d love to see and hear what you make of him.