Fictional bureaucrats often serve as convenient hate sinks, providing the author with characters whose occupation is generally considered fair game for scorn.1 Obstructive bureaucrats abound in fiction, perhaps because they are not infrequently encountered in real life. But not all writers settle for such easy targets. Indeed, some writers have gone so far as to make a bureaucrat or two into sympathetic figures.
Don’t believe me? Consider these five….
Mr. Kiku from The Star Beast by Robert Heinlein (1954)
Earth is a very minor world in a galaxy excessively supplied with Great Powers. It is Permanent Undersecretary for Spacial Affairs Henry Gladstone Kiku’s lamentable task to spend his days resolving endless space-related crises only for new ones to appear. He is dedicated, hard-working and professional enough not to permit his personal quirks—a terror of snakes that make the medusoid Rargyllians figures of horror to him—interfere with his duties.
Ftaelm, the very Rargyllian who makes Kiku’s phobia relevant, is but an intermediary for the Hroshii, a powerful race heretofore mercifully unknown to humans, but all too well known to Rargyllians. The Hroshii are convinced that a lost Hroshii princess has somehow found her way to Earth. They want her back. If they don’t get her back, too bad for any organisms on Earth who had plans to keep on living. It’s up to Kiku to track down the errant princess or doom his people.
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Nathan Hale Swift from The Whenabouts of Burr by Michael Kurland (1975)
Nate Swift is a Bureau of Weights and Measures Field Observer. One might expect, therefore, that his career will consist of ensuring nobody has their thumb on any scales and that all tailors’ measuring tapes are honest. Heady stuff. Thanks to a minor Presidential quirk—that paranoid President Gosport sees his political enemies’ machinations in every crisis—Swift’s career takes an unexpected turn.
Someone has stolen the original American Constitution and replaced it with a near duplicate. The only difference is that it bears Aaron Burr’s signature instead of Hamilton’s. Gosport is determined to recover the original before rivals in his own Republican party—or worse, Democratic party foes—discover the theft and use it against him. Many Presidents would turn to the FBI at this juncture, but Gosport distrusts the FBI even more than he does the Republicans and Democrats. The solution? Assign the task to a seeming paper pusher from a bureau too obscure and boring to be on anyone’s radar and hope for the best. Which is how Swift finds himself on the trail of the stolen Constitution…
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James Lester from Primeval, created by Adrian Hodges and Tim Haines (2007-2011)
James Lester has a clear idea of his proper role at the Anomaly Research Centre: providing effective leadership and lashings of scathing sarcasm to cowering underlings. He’s not at all a lovable boss, but although he would never admit it, he is protective of his subordinates and extremely adept at weaponizing paperwork against his enemies. Since he sees his subordinates as extensions of himself, it follows that their enemies are his as well.
The Anomaly Research Centre is charged with containing the effects of space-time anomalies linking our period to other epochs. The half-worm in Lester’s partially-eaten apple is that while Lester is bright, some of his staff are actual geniuses who are not inclined to follow the lead of a non-academic. History itself depends on teamwork, but Lester is stuck herding cats.
***
Aiah from Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams (1995)
Aiah is a low-level functionary in Jaspeer’s Plasm Authority. Roughly speaking, she works for this world’s electric company, plasm being geomantic energy. Hardly a position to command respect, save when one considers that Aiah is a member of a despised ethnicity, the Barkazil. Convincing her coworkers to trust her with even minimal responsibility is a victory of sorts.
Fate hands Aiah a treasure in plasm. In another person’s hands, this would be the first step towards the sort of Simple Plan that ends with the protagonists as dead as a Coen Brothers’ criminal. Aiah, however, is not just hardworking and ambitious. She is cunning as well, which means not only will she leap on the chance to escape her circumstances, and not only can she find someone willing to assist her with her windfall—she has every chance of surviving the transaction.
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Ivan Vorpatril from Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold (2012)
Ivan Vorpatril has the misfortune to be but a few convenient deaths away from Barrayar’s throne. Barrayar is a world where dynastic ambiguities are sometimes clarified with gunfire and beheadings. Ivan has been very careful to appear an unambitious, harmless fool not worth the bother of a midnight arrest and quiet execution. Ivan is, however, a capable bureaucrat, which he hopes to parlay into a long, boring career followed by a long, boring retirement.
Ivan is also a soft touch. When he discovers that Nanj, the beautiful young woman he was assigned to investigate, is being pursued by brutal thugs, he offers her refuge in his quarters. Faced with dire consequences for aiding her, he figures out an expedient solution. With the aid of a handy box of breakfast groats, he’ll marry her and envelop her in his cloak of diplomatic immunity and Barrayaran nobility.
Complications ensue. Marriage was an expedient, to be reversed by an annulment after the crisis was past. Annulment turns out to be unexpectedly difficult. Then his new in-laws soon arrive seeking refuge. His Cetagandan in-laws. Or as they are regarded on Barrayar, his war-criminal in-laws. Who, as it happens, are in search of treasure they are convinced Ivan can help them find.
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Normally, this is where I acknowledge that everyone has their own favourite whatever I am talking about. Bureaucrats are pretty unpopular, though. Do you have favourite fictional bureaucrats? Let me know in the comments.
Originally published August 2021.
In the words of Wikipedia editor TexasAndroid, prolific book reviewer and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll is of “questionable notability.” His work has appeared in Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews and the Aurora finalist Young People Read Old SFF (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis). He is a four-time finalist for the Best Fan Writer Hugo Award and is surprisingly flammable.
[1]The exceptions being librarians (functionaries of whom writers and readers may have fond memories) and sometimes teachers.
Divver-Sehin “Warts” Tho, a low-level functionary in the Pendiian Bureau of Regret, who runs away to join the [human] circus in Barry Longyear’s “City of Baraboo.”
Lucsl and Dulmer at the Department of Temporal Investigations.
Unfortunately Ivan has outed himself as being actually competent – when he wants to be.
Cousin Gregor still wants him over at the other end of the universe, which is just fine with Ivan though as he slowly slips down the Barrayaran order of succession.
Keith Laumer’s Retief is a diplomat in the Terran diplomatic corps. He’s usually untangling the unintended consequences of good intentioned (but clueless) policies of his bosses. He’s competent, smart, daring, and knows the law.
It’s all thinly disguised commentary on the Cold War, and the stories are usually hilarious.
“Still Life” by Eric Frank Russell is a short story entirely about a bureaucracy. One of the bureaucrats has a commendable goal in mind, and the story is about the way he gets it accomplished — hoisting bureaucracy on its own petard. I dunno if I’d say he’s “sympathetic” but I didn’t hate him.
No list of sympathetic bureaucrats would be complete without Chrisjen Avasarala, from The Expanse series. Cynical, abrasive, and yet utterly dedicated to taking care of people instead of trying to advance her own agendas. Or perhaps it would be better to say that she is totally focused on advancing her agenda, but its main goal is taking care of people in a way that most politicians’ and bureaucrats’ agendas are not.
I *might* have written one or two books that didn’t feature a bureaucrat-protagonist, but I can’t think which ones off the top of my head!
Star Beast, which I have owned since it first came out when I was young (I think I remember that far back but I have the book itself as proof), has always been my personal favorite of Heinlein’s juvenalia. RAH was the first I think to realize that deliberately writing GOOD sf for kids created an audience for the ages. I am s-o-o-o glad to have met him then and especially this particular book which, as with all of RAH’s earlier works, can be outrageously funny wven when consequences are dire. The final scenes where the “Beast” Princess is throwing a tantrum at not being allowed to keep her human pets when she has to go “home” lest her people destroy Earth are incredibly funny. Many, many years later as ET prepares to go home and says farewell to his human friends, I thought of these scenes and wondered if ET ever returns and what happens then compared to what might have happened if those kids had simply gone with ET. Heinlein well deserved to be a Founding Father of SciFi!
Isaac Asimov had a short story (“The Dead Past”) in which a bureaucrat tries to suppress a device that can look into the past for what turns out to be an excellent reason. Another of his (“Blind Alley”) has a bureaucrat conniving at the escape of all of the members of an alien species that is dying out under human domination.
Hermes Conrad saved a defective bending unit from being destroyed at the time of manufacture, prioritising sentiment over the regs.
Hmm.
Moist von Lipwig, of Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal and Making Money is a conman press-ganged into a role as a bureaucrat.
Your mention of Walter Jon Williams “Metropolitan” prompts me to share some good news. Williams recently announced on his blog that he has decided to finish this series. The first two books in the series (“Metropolitan” and “City On Fire”) were published years ago. Then the editor handling them was fired and Williams’ contract was cancelled. Now Williams has decided that the time has come to finish the story. No number of books or titles have been announced.
Linus Baker, case worker for a government agency in charge of controlling magical orphans in TJ Klune’s House in the Cerulean Sea is the very epitome of the beleaguered but somehow still caring bureaucrat.
Omg, how did I not know two of my favorite actors are in Primeval? I will watch anything with Ben Miller in it. And this appears to be an iconic Ben Miller character. Thank you James!
Michael Swanwick’s Stations of the Tide has ‘the bureaucrat’ as the nameless main character.
Like #5 above I’m not sure how sympathetic they are – but they are definitely nicer than the villain.
There are a few in the Discworld novels.
Drumknott, private secretary to the Patrician, being one and Ponder Stibbons another.
How about Chrisjen Avasarala from the Expanse novels and TV show. Earth bureaucrat extraordinaire?
Any of a half-dozen Manticore bureaucrats in the Honorverse doing their jobs in times of war? Dame Estelle Matsuoko, Pat Givens, James Webster, and many more.
Lord Dobraine Taborwin of Carhien in the Wheel of Time…
If fantasy’s getting a look in, Cliopher “Kip” Mdang from Victoria Goddard’s The Hands of The Emperor: head of the Imperial Bureaucratic Service of Zunidh, who looks upon a government that does not do well by its citizens and decides to fix it. This being a fantasy, he makes quite a lot of progress towards that goal.
Major O’Mara from the Sector General series of novels. A right royal pain who seemed to do the right thing, even if nobody wanted it done.
This being a science fiction list, not fantasy, I suppose Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities trilogy isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, but I have to give poor put-upon Governor Turyin Mulaghesh a shout-out. One of the most sympathetic bureaucrats I can think of, for all that when we first meet her, she’s involved in prosecuting a thought crime, more or less (and, as we learn, with some arguable justification). When we first meet her she’s also facepalming repeatedly at the stupidity surrounding her, which is hard not to relate to.
We should always remember Vir Cotto from Babylon 5, the Centauri ambassador’s aide and conscience.
I thought Mr. Kiku would lead the list.
Poul Anderson had a couple of civil servants who were “contemporaries” of Flandry, but more diplomatic service/civil inspector general types than intelligence, although they tend to get involved in the action – Chunderban Desai and John Ridenour.
Very happy to hear this! I just reread Metropolitan & its sequel and was disheartened that there wouldn’t be more.
Also very happy to see that I’m not alone in having Mr. Kiku, Chrisjen Avasarala, Moist Von Lipwig, and Ivan Vorpatril as some of my favorite characters ever.
And what about The Witness for the Dead, Thara Celehar?
Morozov from Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, and his “charming understatement.”
The gang from “The Laundry” of Charlie Stross would be high on my list. A favorite personal moment would be discussing the concept of “Residual Human Resources” with Aliette de Bodard at the last Baltimore World Fantasy Convention. And yeah, I’m a U.S. federal employee.
I’ve always loved Bujold’s description of Ivan being bureaucratic:
“Ivan had developed a personal metaphor for this first task (after the coffee) of the day. It was like opening one’s door to find that an overnight delivery service had left a large pile of boxes on one’s porch, all marked “miscellaneous”. In reality, they were all marked “Urgent!”, but if everything was urgent, in Ivan’s view they might as well all be labeled miscellaneous.
Each box contained one of the following: live, venomous, agitated snakes on the verge of escape; quiescent venomous snakes; nonvenomous garden snakes; dead snakes; or things that looked like snakes but weren’t, such as large, sluggish worms. It was Ivan’s morning duty to open each box, identify the species, vigor, mood, and fang-count of the writhing things inside, and sort them by genuine urgency.”
As for the suggestion of Chrisjen Avasarala, I get the impression that she’s less of a “bureaucrat” and more of a politician.
hmph. does jorj x mckie, sabotuer extrordinaire, BuSab count? he’s even a lawyer
also consider dr. Liet-kynes, imperial planetologist
Hobart Floyt from Brian Daley’s _Terran Inheritance_ series gets my vote for favorite (_Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds_, _Jinx on a Terran Inheritance_, and _Fall of the White Ship Avatar_)… Best sci-fi case study for a fun mid-life crisis I can remember. And a role model, at least a little. But we can’t forget the OG sci-fi bureaucrat… Screwtape from CS Lewis’ _Screwtape Letters_.
Sam Lowry from “Brazil” gets an honorable mention, if we count films.
Surprised no one has yet mentioned the gender-neutral alien bureaucrat Cuna from Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward/Cytoverse sci-fi novel series (first introduced in book #2, Starsight)! They believe that they– along with the entire multi-species “Superiority” they are part of, as is the Superiority’s propaganda– are, well, a superior being than other ‘aggressive’ species (including humans), but Cuna is surprisingly likeable despite their profession and internalized cultural preconceptions/prejudices, and they do always try to do what they believe is the right thing for others, even if they aren’t always tactful about it. :)
Bren Cameron of CJ Cherryh’s Foreigner universe.
Retrieval Artist Miles Flint encountered several folks in various Port Authorities (the Moon’s Armstrong Base, particularly) or Customs & Immigration bureaus who provided surprisingly timely assistance (or lack of assistance to the adversary of moment) over the course of his varied adventures. Not to mention his fraught relationship with police detective Noelle DeRicci….
Jaime Retief was the first name to pop in my head, so I was glad to see him in the comments, if not the list proper.
Jorj X. McKie, of the Bureau of Sabotage, is perhaps the fictional bureaucrat responsible for saving the most lives ever. He’s one of Frank Hebert’s greatest inventions. Lewis Orne is another of Frank Hebert’s great characters that might be seen as a bureaucrat, similar in style to Jaime Retief.
Orson Scott Card has some good things to say about bureaucrats in Songmaster.