Category Archives: Augustus Dechantagne

Voyage of the Minotaur: Augie

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Spoiler Alert

Augustus P. Dechantagne is the same happy-go-lucky devil-may-care fellow that we’ve come to love in Brechalon, but in The Voyage of the Minotaur this is complicated by his expansive womanizing (even when he meets the frightening sorceress Zurfina, he’s not afraid to “hit that”), and the posibility that he might be a serial killer.

Augie is seldom the focal point of the action, but he is almost always there– chasing cultists on the tropical island of Enclep or fighting a lizzie army in Birmisia.  Ultimately though, it is Augie’s failings, especially with the natives, that are his achilles heel and almost spell the end to the colony.

I love all my characters, Augie included.  He would be a guy that I would enjoy knowing– casually.  I would never want to rely on him though.

Brechalon: Augie and Company

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Spoiler Alert

Augie Dechantagne
Augustus P. Dechantagne is the third of the Dechantagne siblings in the Senta and the Steel Dragon saga and is probably the least important.  He is least important to the story and he is least important in his own life.  Augie is a happy go lucky rake– the kind of guy that everybody loves and who can get away with anything.

Augie plays a big part in Book 0 and Book 1, particularly the latter.  When we meet him in Book 1, he is in Birmisia.  This is important because as a result of his knowledge, his family decides to build a colony there.  Augie is a lieutenant in the artillery, so he is obviously intelligent, but being in the son of a wealthy family, he is generally unambitious (the exact opposite of sister Iolanathe) and is never serious about anything (the exact opposite of brother Terrence).

Lt. Arthur McTeague
McTeague was created for Book 0, and he doesn’t appear again in the series.  He is Augie’s co-commander and friend.  We don’t learn much about McTeague, other than he is a likeable friendly guy, like Augie.  The name Arthur comes from my own family– a cousin and a grandfather, both of whom I am very fond.  McTeague comes from the book McTeague by Frank Norris, about a sociopathic dentist.  I read it in college and liked it.

Colour Sergeant Bourne
I needed a sergeant for my two lieutenants, and who better than Colour Sergeant Bourne.  He is named of course, for the character (based on a real person) in the movie Zulu.  This is especially fitting, since Zulu is not only one of my favorite movies of all time, but was an inspiration for the combat scenes in Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur.

Characters: Augustus Dechantagne

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I created Augie to be a mirror to his brother.  He’s someone that nobody expects to be competent, and he often isn’t, but he might have been had he ever been given the chance to grow up that way.  One of Augie’s great failures– not correctly translating the aboriginies’ language results in one of the major plot points.  On the other hand, in battle, both against armed cultists in the jungle and thousands of lizard men in Birmisia, he proves quite heroic.  Augie was fun to write in that his natural state is easy-going and pleasant, making him quite the counter to his two siblings who are serious and wrapped up in their own torments.

Augie owes a lot to Michael Caine’s character in Zulu, something I pointed to when I went back and wrote book 0, and had him accompanied by Colour Sergeant Bourne.