The Sirens of Titan

Content Warning: this section of the guide includes discussions of sexual assault.

The Martian Army marches six miles past "the northwest corner of Phoebe, the only city on Mars" (66), on their way to the launch site, where ships will take them to Earth. Boaz and Unk march together. Unk holds a live grenade in his hand with the pin removed. He throws it into a sewer grate and, as the soldiers scatter, he escapes into Phoebe "in search of his wife and son and his best friend" (67).

Chrono is named after a month of the Martian calendar. Other months include Rumfoord, Kazak and Salo. The name Salo refers to "a messenger from another galaxy who was forced down on Titan by the failure of a part in his spaceship’s power plant" (68). Rumfoord met Salo on Titan. Salo has spent 200,000 years on Titan as he waits for a replacement part for his broken spaceship, a vehicle which is fueled by "the Universal Will to Become" (68). UWTB is the most powerful force yet discovered in the universe.

Chrono was conceived on the journey to Mars. Children are rarely actually conceived on Mars as the society has no real use for them.