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Having read several thousand novels over the course of my life, I can't say there are as many characters I'd like to meet. Not all of the characters are ones that I liked, but all had their own personal gravity that inescapably draws the minds eye to them. It goes without saying that most of the people who form the emotional topography of Lois Bujold's books are high on the list of people I'd like to meet, and while Miles and Cordelia have appeal that can't be understated in any way, and Ivan, Piotr, Mark and Cavilo are all signifigant, i think in all that universe the person their I'd like to meet most is Aral. Why, perhaps its because we see him almost exclusively from the worshipful eyes of people who see all his warts and wounds and still bloom in his warm regard.
In epic fantasy there are so many larger than life characters that it has become nearly as much of a cliche to create smaller, weaker heros with pluck and luck to counter what they don't have in brash and brawn. Still, there are a couple of the world beater class I'd enjoy meeting, Marcos the Black from Ray Feist's Midkimea
has such a twisted mind I don't think I could resist the urge to try and burrow into it. He'd probably turn me into a goat or something, but I'd adore the opportunity anyway.
What I refer to as middle fantasy is even richer with fascinating people. Mercedes Lackey created Valdermar, and it and it neighbors are home to quite a few people worth the time to enjoy a few drinks with, Kerowyn was always a fun person to follow the life of. Vanyel despite needing the occasional slap certainly qualifies as well. I think if i could pick only one person from the world I'd want to meet the adept Ma'ar (who's name I've probably butchered). Dianne Wynne Jones made me love fantasy again when I read Deep Secret, I probably hadn't read a single fantasy in over a year before that book and with it the balance of what I read took another of those periodic tacks that have less to do with what's popular than with what is good. Deep Secret introduces one after another of Simon's brothers, in-laws and coworkers and each of them has that genuine it that makes you take notice. Robin Hobb writes probably the darkest fantasy I read for fun and makes the bloody minded perseverance of her characters an unspoken but palpable motive force of her works.
Urban fantasy has its own fun, and quirky characters which I adore. C.E. Murphy wrote about the first cabbie who was drawn as a real person and not a cardboard cutout since Taxi, and I can never wait to see what he'll do or say next. Laura Resnick's Disappearing Nightly stars a prima donna cast of an off Broadway play that has you gobbling pages half hoping something unpleasant will eat them, and half hoping they'll live to be a wiser head some, distant, day. Dave Freer and Eric Flint have one of the most effective social satires of the genre with Pyramid Scheme and the follow on Pyramid Power and while cheerfully assassinating the character of government agencies and agents, mangling mythology with a thoroughness rivaled only by the cartoon Fractured Fairytales, and setting a breakneck pace put characters in front of you that are fully drawn and deftly executed. Cal and Nik Leandros are brothers with the type of relationship that will instantly click with anyone lucky enough to have a relationship that close. Rob Thurman takes this foundation and uses it to build the two separately and together and a world that is nearly intense enough to rival them. Richard Kadrey's regard for the conventions of fantasy are best described as scant, but Butcher Bird takes us on a hell ride with the gritty and gripping Spyder Lee. Spyder's probably not the guy most of us would pick to perform emergency surgery on us, but he's not boring.
All in all, for me it doesn't matter if the character is a good guy, a bad girl, or somewhere in between, they just have to feel like someone who is genuine and if I couldn't imagine meeting them here in our world, they need to be a real product of the universe they life in, and not someone from the here and now shoved into a world that just makes them look absurd.
In epic fantasy there are so many larger than life characters that it has become nearly as much of a cliche to create smaller, weaker heros with pluck and luck to counter what they don't have in brash and brawn. Still, there are a couple of the world beater class I'd enjoy meeting, Marcos the Black from Ray Feist's Midkimea
has such a twisted mind I don't think I could resist the urge to try and burrow into it. He'd probably turn me into a goat or something, but I'd adore the opportunity anyway.
What I refer to as middle fantasy is even richer with fascinating people. Mercedes Lackey created Valdermar, and it and it neighbors are home to quite a few people worth the time to enjoy a few drinks with, Kerowyn was always a fun person to follow the life of. Vanyel despite needing the occasional slap certainly qualifies as well. I think if i could pick only one person from the world I'd want to meet the adept Ma'ar (who's name I've probably butchered). Dianne Wynne Jones made me love fantasy again when I read Deep Secret, I probably hadn't read a single fantasy in over a year before that book and with it the balance of what I read took another of those periodic tacks that have less to do with what's popular than with what is good. Deep Secret introduces one after another of Simon's brothers, in-laws and coworkers and each of them has that genuine it that makes you take notice. Robin Hobb writes probably the darkest fantasy I read for fun and makes the bloody minded perseverance of her characters an unspoken but palpable motive force of her works.
Urban fantasy has its own fun, and quirky characters which I adore. C.E. Murphy wrote about the first cabbie who was drawn as a real person and not a cardboard cutout since Taxi, and I can never wait to see what he'll do or say next. Laura Resnick's Disappearing Nightly stars a prima donna cast of an off Broadway play that has you gobbling pages half hoping something unpleasant will eat them, and half hoping they'll live to be a wiser head some, distant, day. Dave Freer and Eric Flint have one of the most effective social satires of the genre with Pyramid Scheme and the follow on Pyramid Power and while cheerfully assassinating the character of government agencies and agents, mangling mythology with a thoroughness rivaled only by the cartoon Fractured Fairytales, and setting a breakneck pace put characters in front of you that are fully drawn and deftly executed. Cal and Nik Leandros are brothers with the type of relationship that will instantly click with anyone lucky enough to have a relationship that close. Rob Thurman takes this foundation and uses it to build the two separately and together and a world that is nearly intense enough to rival them. Richard Kadrey's regard for the conventions of fantasy are best described as scant, but Butcher Bird takes us on a hell ride with the gritty and gripping Spyder Lee. Spyder's probably not the guy most of us would pick to perform emergency surgery on us, but he's not boring.
All in all, for me it doesn't matter if the character is a good guy, a bad girl, or somewhere in between, they just have to feel like someone who is genuine and if I couldn't imagine meeting them here in our world, they need to be a real product of the universe they life in, and not someone from the here and now shoved into a world that just makes them look absurd.
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Thanks for the puzzler!
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