Robert Strachan
Names: Robert StrachanUncle RobbieRobbieRobbie Strachan
First appears in Book 3: Diamond Mask, chapter 3 (HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, EARTH 9 MAY 2062)
Appearances
What you know
Book 3: Diamond Mask
- Ch 3Robert Strachan, with Viola Strachan and Rowan Grant, researches cerebroenergetics at Edinburgh; their findings could get the E15 shut down over operator safety.
- Ch 4Robert Strachan is Viola's brother, an Edinburgh psychophysics professor and metacreative operant directing the CE Operator Safety Research Project.
- Ch 5Robert Strachan is Viola's older brother, married to Rowan Grant.
- Ch 5Robert, Viola and Rowan were all killed on a day that changed the history of the Galactic Milieu.
- Ch 6Robbie is Dee and Ken's good-natured uncle, who likes whisky and birding and carries binoculars.
- Ch 6Uncle Robbie told the children about the Clearances and that their ancestors, including Jamie MacGregor's, were among the lucky who managed sheep.
- Ch 9Uncle Robbie used to put brandy in his coffee; Dee's thought implies he is now dead or gone.
- Ch 22Robert Strachan, Dee's uncle, was drained and killed by Hydra, as was his wife Rowan Grant, then Dee's mother.
Connections
- family ofViola Strachanbrother
- family ofRowan Grantwife
- family ofDiamond Maskniece
Key moments
- Book 3 · Ch 3Fury checks the Edinburgh research
Fury enters Denis Remillard's office and, via his terminal, reads a restricted précis of the Edinburgh research that threatens the E15. It resolves to replace the files.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Ferry crossing to Islay
Family travels by old ferry from Kennacraig toward Islay. Seasick Dee, coached by Ken, opens her self-redaction power in secret and cures herself.
- Book 3 · Ch 4Adults explain away the coincidence
Viola, Robert and Rowan all realise they thought of Islay and conclude Masha's unsettled post-regen brain accidentally projected it.
- Book 3 · Ch 5Viola settles in Edinburgh
Viola stays with Masha, then rents her own townhouse and works in Psychophysics with Robert Strachan and Rowan Grant for four years until all three are killed.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Probing resumes at Tràigh Nòstaig
During the picnic, the mind-prober returns gently; Dee resists it and hides it from her mother, using her lack of farsight as an excuse.
- Book 3 · Ch 9Funeral in Edinburgh
After police questioning, the family attended the Requiem Mass and burial of the ashes of Mummie, Uncle Robbie and Aunt Rowan. Ken gave Dee an acorn.
- Book 3 · Ch 22Dee relives the murders in the cave
At low tide Dee enters the sea-cave and relives her mother's, uncle's and aunt's murders with full empathy, confronts the Hydra in vision, and finds her inhibitions unchanged as the tide returns.