Ellie Linton
The story's main protagonist and the series' narrator, Ellie also gradually becomes the group's leader. She comes from a sheep and cattle property, presumably somewhere in New South Wales or Victoria, though Marsden has said the story's events could have taken place in any Australian state.
Ellie is the brave, strong leader. She has good ideas and her farm upbringing has given her many skills, notably her driving.
Throughout the series she has an ongoing relationship with Lee, although at the beginning she thinks she has feelings for Homer, which later turns out to be only jealousy of his infatuation with Fi.
A detailed description of her appearance is never given except that she is fairly pale. In The Ellie Chronicles, where she wears a dark wig, she admits that she "always wanted to know what she looked like with dark hair". Whilst mounting horses, Ellie notes that she is the shortest of Homer, Kevin and Fi. Her height nor weight is never specified, but given the work on her farm it is assumed she has a strong build. Another evidence of her being sturdy is when Fi cuts a hole in the fence at the petrol depot. After cutting the hole, she says "We won't get through there." Ellie thinks, "It was clear who she meant by we." The relatively vague description is the case with many of Marsden's characters, both within the Tomorrow series and within many of his other works (See Marsden's other works). Her character is stubborn, and she rarely backs down in an argument or conflict, especially against Homer, whom she has been competing with since a very early age. The group often looked to Ellie to provide ideas whereas Homer was usually the one who had the energy to carry them out. She moves through several stages as a character and progresses into a harder and less forgiving personality as the series progresses. This deterioration of her emotional state accelerates after the discovery of Corrie's grave.
However, she rediscovers her ability to love and care amidst apathy later in the series by her interactions with a group of "feral" children who are living wild on the streets of Stratton.
Corrie Mackenzie
Corrie is Ellie's very best friend, her mate, who she had done everything with since she was a toddler and who she plans on doing everything with when they leave school. Corrie is a plump faced redhead girl, very close to Ellie's age, who used to be severely lacking in confidence. She advanced in leaps and bounds after Kevin become her boyfriend. "... but I still thought he was the best thing that had ever happened in Corrie's life because before she started going round with him she was too quiet and unnoticed. They used to talk a lot at school, and then she'd tell me what a sensitive caring guy he was. Although I couldn't always see that myself, I could see the way she was starting to get much more confident from going with him, and I liked that."
Ellie and Corrie talk a lot and whenever Ellie has a problem she will turn to Corrie for support. Such as when Lee talks to Ellie about he and she. Fi is there to talk to but while she has Corrie, all Ellie can think is "I wished Corrie was there, so I could go and talk to her about". While on their camping trip into Hell they talk about the future and plan to travel overseas together after school. "I had this idea that she'd have a look at everything, come home, do nursing, then go back and work in the country that needed nurses most. I admired her for that. I was more interested in making money."
Corrie's determination also should not be under-estimated. When battling to find a way into Hell, Corrie had been one of the leaders: "Finally Corrie said, 'There might be a chance if we wriggle through here. We might be able to get around the side somewhere.' The gap she'd picked was so narrow we had to take our packs off to get through it, but I was game, so I took Corrie's pack while she wrestled her way into a prickly overgrown hole. Her head disappeared, then her back, then her legs. I heard Kevin say, 'This is crazy', then Corrie said, 'OK, now my pack', so I pushed that through after her. Then, leaving Robyn to look after my pack, I followed."
Then talking about traveling overseas and getting permission from parents Corrie says: "Mmm. My dad's not bad. I've been educating him". I smiled. A lot of people underestimated Corrie. She just quietly worked away on people till she got what she wanted."
At the end of the first novel, Corrie was driven to the Wirrawee hospital by her boyfriend Kevin after being shot in the back. Kevin was subsequently captured. Corrie survived for some time in a comatose state, but died.
Homer Yannos
His appearance is never described totally, but he is "big" and "strong" and of Greek parentage. It is mentioned that Homer has black hair and thick brown eyebrows. He was famous in the Wirrawee district prior to the invasion for his pranks and often dangerous antics, many of which Ellie reflects on during the series; however, when the war comes, he reveals himself as a strong leader.
Homer is known as the school prankster but this all changes when the war starts he changes to become the leader of the group. He helps and encourages the group. The teenagers were very surprised with Homers sudden change in attitude. But Homer knew that he had to start thinking and becoming a leader in order to survive. Homer is logical and intelligent in his ideas and plans.
He guides the group almost single-handedly through the first book and early in the second book. His authority is diminished, however, when the group learns that Homer took a sawn-off shotgun on one of their guerrilla attacks: the group agreed not to take firearms, as being caught with a firearm was incriminating and they would have been, in Ellie's words, "put against a tree and shot". The incident was a cause of much friction between Homer and Ellie. The ensuing argument between Homer and Ellie was in many ways a true revealer to the characters, not only Homer and Ellie. The diminished respect for Homer does not seem to hurt the group too much however, as Ellie and Robyn are beginning to step up into leadership roles together with Homer.
As the series progresses, however, Homer proves himself again to be an intelligent and integral part of the group.
Homer throughout all of the books has strong feelings towards Fi but takes quite some time before he acts upon them.
Lee
Lee is an introverted, part-Thai part Vietnamese Asian Australian. He plays the violin, is the tallest in the group and has, in Ellie's opinion, the nicest eyes in Wirrawee. Lee is Ellie's primary love interest, although their relationship was a highly turbulent one. In the beginning of book 3, all of the main characters suffered psychologically in various ways. e.g Robyn became an insomniac and Homer's temper became almost uncontrollable. Lee acquired a nervous twitch and became impotent with Ellie eventually writing that 'And when we made love, even though he said he enjoyed it and he'd start off all excited, his body wouldn't do what he wanted it to do'. Like Ellie, he becomes cold, broody and more violent, starting with his knife murder of an unconscious enemy soldier who was wounded in a fight with Homer and Ellie after chasing Fi. Things get tough for Lee when he learns of his parents' deaths -- this seems to make him more violent than ever. He also seems to find some salvation in the feral kids. In one stage, Lee is found to be going off with a girl from the side of the enemy. Ellie saves his life, after realising it was a plan to trap him. The apparent relationship with the enemy girl causes big cracks to form between Ellie and Lee, they go for a very long time without communicating with each other on a personal level. Lee tries to make it up to Ellie but it is all in vain.
Lee is left with the burden of caring for his siblings due to the loss of his parents. This places strain on his plans as he now has a new set of priorities.
As the series wears on, Lee appears to be beginning to find pleasure or at least some form of satisfaction in the killing of enemy soldiers, which would seem to be as a result of his parents' deaths at their hands. Lee becomes more violent after Ellie pushes him away, and to an extent so does Ellie. It would seem that both needed the other's calming influence to remain psychologically stable. However, their relationship recovers to a certain extent later.
Robyn Mathers
Robyn is a devout Christian and it is clear she is also a very close friend of Ellie's. She is athletic and good at sports, and she is also noted to be very aggressive at them. Of all the characters, Ellie says that with regard to the war Robyn seemed "least affected by it", and Ellie wonders whether her faith had anything to do with this. Robyn is incredibly brave and strong and really shines in 'Tomorrow, When The War Began' during an unfortunate incident early on involving Lee. Ellie writes that she thinks Robyn deserves a medal for her bravery that night.
Robyn refuses to fire a gun or kill people directly, which creates uncertainty in Ellie's mind about the morality of what they are doing. After Robyn is handed a gun and she puts it down, during a potentially explosive situation, Ellie writes: "...was she right or wrong? If she was right, that made me wrong."
Robyn dies as a martyr when she sacrifices her life to kill Major Harvey with several grenades, allowing the rest of the group to escape to safety in New Zealand.
Fiona Maxwell
Fiona, or Fi, is pretty, "posh" and knows virtually nothing about camping or living in the bush, but is neither spoiled nor unkind. Fiona is a child of privilege, with both parents practicing as solicitors, with whom she lives on the "upper class" part of Wirrawee. Fi is described as pretty and fair, with blonde hair. She is a ballerina, and has a slim build; her height is never specified, but she is described as "leggy".
She and Homer start a romantic relationship in the first book but it soon cools off as the war intensifies. This is also because Homer is supposedly not into long term relationships. In 'The Other Side of Dawn' however the pair rekindle their relationship.
As time goes on and Corrie and Robyn die, and Lee gets lost inside himself, Fi steps in as Ellie's major emotional support. Ellie comes to depend on her very much, just as Fi depends on Ellie in a different way. At the end of "The Third Day, the Frost" [1] when they are recovering in New Zealand, Ellie writes of Fi "Even now I get terrified if she leaves the room for a few seconds and I don't know where she has gone." At the end of book 3, during the air raid on the prison, Fi is hit by debris and gets a scar down her face 'that she'll remember every time she looks in the mirror'.
Again and again, through the rest of the series we see Ellie turn to Fi for support, though none more than at the end of "Burning for Revenge" when Ellie struggles back, seriously injured, from rescuing Lee and again as she sits with the dead child in "The Night is For Hunting". Although during "The Night is For Hunting" Fi tells Ellie that she has "been terrible lately" and that she has "changed so much" and that she "wants the old Ellie back". Fi was a conscientious student, often getting acclaim for at school, and she, like her parents, is quite religious.
Kevin Holmes
Kevin is Corrie's boyfriend, and he grew up on a property. He is the only one of the characters to have his "P's" (An Australian colloquialism for a Provisional Licence, which you are eligible for after lessons 17 years and up.), but most of the driving required is done by Ellie, or, on rare occasions, Homer.
His defining trait is that he had some form of nervous breakdown in reaction to the trauma of the war. This was a key plot point for most of the fifth book. After this, there was always an underlying tension between Kevin and the others, especially between Kevin and Ellie, and Kevin and Lee. At the end of the series, he moves to New Zealand.
Kevin is aggressive and big-talking though he backs down often in the face of danger. Like the others, he is angered by the invaders presence in his country and, during a heated exchange about the morality of the invasion and of fighting back, he announces "I hate them...I just hate them and if I had a nuclear bomb I'd drop it right down their throats."
Chris Lang
Chris joined the group when they found him hiding at his parents' house. Chris was a lightly built boy with intense light blue eyes,light brown hair and apparently a lot of nervous habits. He wasn't interested in Commemoration Day because activities such as wood chopping competitions were held there and that kind of activity did not interest him. He is interested more in things like the Grateful Dead, Hieronymus Bosch, and computers. He was also well known in his town for using many illegal substances apparently his motto was 'If it grows, smoke it'.
He writes a lot of poetry, some of which Ellie reads. However his detachment from his surroundings placed an emotional barrier between him and the rest of the group. He asks to be left alone in Hell, to which the group agrees. When they return Chris is missing, and later it is discovered that a drunken Chris, attempting to drive into town to loot alcohol, rolled one of the group's Utes, and was killed. Ellie often wonders if it was the group's or her fault from leaving him alone and not trying hard to befriend him.
Descriptions taken from
Wikipedia.