Jun is the co-protagonist of the far-future timeline in my post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, Ada’s Children. See last week’s profile of his partner co-protagonist, Sila, for more on how these two characters grew out of one character.
Here are his biographical details:
Birthdate: An unknown year in the far future
Birthplace: The village of the People of the Bison, in a place known only as the Land
Age: 19
“Profession”: Hunter
Hobbies: Questioning authority, specifically that of the Goddess Ada, Mother of the Five Peoples, and discovering the true nature of the place where he lives
Relationship Status: Single but in love with Sila. Since this relationship is taboo according to Ada’s laws, he’s pretty much an Incel at the beginning of the novel
Two things drive Jun: his love for Sila and his inquisitiveness about how the world works. The two are intertwined, because his desire to be with Sila leads him to question why Ada’s law bans relationships between men and women from the same village. This in turn makes him question the goddess’s other rules, like the taboo against entering the Howling Forest and discovering what lies beyond.
Right from the beginning, when Sila and Jun sit looking up at the stars and moon, Jun questions why the Land where they live seems so small in comparison to everything above them. (I conceived of the Land as an area around 60 to 80 miles in diameter, or a few days’ ride on horseback. Between the Five Peoples who dwell here, the Land is a well known and finite area.)
Jun uses a lunar eclipse as an example. It’s obvious that the thing creating the shadow on the moon is the place where the People live. If the Land is really all there is, how can such a small place cast such an obviously large shadow? It’s also obvious to him, as it was to many “primitives” observing lunar eclipses, that the thing casting the shadow has to be a globe.
Jun’s inquisitiveness comes from his father, who also wondered what lay beyond the confines of the Howling Forest. His father disappeared when Jun was young, and everyone assumed he tried to leave the Land, either dying in the Howling Forest or simply failing to return after finding whatever was beyond it. In taking up his father’s questions, Jun is in some way trying to keep his memory alive, even as his mother quickly forgot him and partnered with another man. His abandonment by his father and the feeling of being pushed aside by his mother make Jun feel like a bit of an outcast in his own village, furthering his rebellion against everything to do with it.
Jun is abetted in his questioning by Mar Gan, an old hermit shunned by the Wise Women for questioning Ada’s laws. Mar Gan has a story, handed down for generations by outcasts just like him, of an ancient people with a civilization Jun can hardly believe. Sparked with that knowledge and his own questions, he resolves to break out of the confines of the Land and discover what happened to the Ancient Ones.
If only he could persuade Sila to come with him! This slight possibility is the one thing that keeps him from leaving the Land as the story progresses. Beyond the Howling Forest, they wouldn’t be subject to their people’s rules. But he also knows that Sila doesn’t want children, and he has no answer for that. So he bides his time, waiting for something to happen that will persuade Sila.
My worry with Jun was that he would seem too much the whiny spurned lover. Sila is always aware of the effort it takes for him to hide his attraction and simply be friends. It makes things awkward between them. Only the fact that he is her oldest and best friend keeps her from cutting him off entirely. But then, she’s also hiding her own reciprocal attraction, not just from him but from herself.
Will Jun give up on Sila and strike out on his own? Will they become “friends and colleagues” as they seek the answers to Jun’s questions? Or something more? If you’ve been reading along, then you already know the answers to these questions. If not, you can start at the beginning of the novel at this link. The Prologue and first three chapters are free.
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Come back next week when I introduce big changes on this blog — ways to read Ada’s Children for less and a preview of my next novel, Ship of Fools, which I’ll be posting for free.