Crushing

by Allison Pang

I have to admit I crush on book heroes a lot. Probably more than I should. I could say that I like'em broken and brooding for the most part. (Even better if they outwardly project something far more lighthearted and we have to layer down to find out who they are.) But sometimes it's not as easy as that for me. There has to be growth in the character beyond the initial setup - give my imagination something to work with as far as what makes him tick. Where's he gonna go from here?

So let's start with Herald Mage Vanyel, shall we? I was 15 when these came out - part of the Mercedes Lackey Valdemar series. (Which I adored for many reasons - so many of her characters were young and trying to find themselves - very easy to identify with at that time.) But beautiful, emo Vanyel Ashkevron. *sighs* Though he starts out very much like a typical teenager (albeit with a magical horse), by the end of the trilogy he's gone through terrible tragedy, lost loves, political intrigue - you name it. Plus, he was gay - and that was damn near unheard of back in the late 80's, particularly in mainstream fantasy. (Also, also? Had a guy in my high school that looked JUST LIKE THIS COVER, sans the long hair. Helllooo? Hot as balls.)  I'm also a sucker for sad/sacrificial endings, and I was practically bawling by the end of it, so...yeah.

Jaime Fraser from Outlander -I'm not even putting a picture up there because I'm always a bit conflicted - nothing ever matches what's in my head. However...he's a red-headed Scot, he's tall, he's broad and he's verra bonny.  He's got just enough alpha in him to let us know he knows his own mind, but he's flexible too -  and uses his wits far more than his brawn.  And yes, the tragic past never hurts. :) Plus, he's hot as balls.

Daemon Sadi from the Black Jewels series- Normally I don't go for the thousand year old hero who's never known love. I sorta detest that trope, really - but I buy it here. There's a difference between waiting for someone you know is coming (i.e. Witch) vs. moaning about how much you're unworthy of love.  He's definitely a bit more of an alpha...but reasons are given for this (and this is important to me - I also detest the fuckbrute for fuckbrute's sake sort of hero.) As time passes, he heals and grows into a better man. Otherwise, check for broody. Check for tragic past. Check for hot as balls.

Tooya  from Ayashi no Ceres.Won't mean much unless you're a manga fan, but this guy hits all my buttons - broody, broken, can't remember his past, later finds out he's not even really a person but still manages to fall in love and makes the ultimate sacrifice to save her.

Also? Hot as balls.

Actually, I was obsessed enough about this particular manga/anime that it spurred on my cel collecting fetish. This is only a small sample of what I have. -> I haven't updated the collection in like 5 years, but I sorta shudder at how much I've spent over the years on it...

Anyway, I could probably go on and on (particularly with the anime/manga side of things - something about the pictures/word combo just really floats my boat), but I do sort of have to mention one last guy.

Yeah - that would be Goliath from Gargoyles. Yes, I know it's not from a book, but sadly enough I actually used to schedule my college courses around the show so I could make sure I was around to watch it.

(Okay, I admit that's a bit on the pathetic side, but fangirling is okay, right? Right.)

Anyway - dark, broody, tragic past, blah blah blah - you get the picture.

Loincloth? Totally hot as balls.

Secret Literary Crush: I Dig Sorcerers

By Laura Bickle

Okay. I’m not much given to crushes. But waaaay back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I was a teenager. And I had a very teenage crush on a literary character. It was a very young crush in a lot of ways. The object of my crush was older, powerful, supernatural, and pretty darn much unobtainable. He was also one of those bad boy types. You know, the kind with a Dark Side. An outsider. And all the cool accoutrements: the dark clothes, the cape, the sword, the smoldering cold glare.

I know. You roll your eyes.

In my defense, I was sixteen. And I played a lot of D&D.

But my most significant literary crush was Gerald Tarrant. From C.S. Friedman’s COLDFIRE trilogy. The Neocount of Merentha, the Prophet of the Church for Human Unification on Erna. He was a sorcerer who was cast out of the Church.

Predictably, this symbolic send-off to hell pissed him off. And he harnessed this formless uncontrollable energy, the Fae, to bend to his will. He went further - he reached into the dark energy that was Dark Fae, made a terrible bargain for immortality. He slaughtered his own family, becoming the Hunter of terrible legend. He began as a vampire, feeding on blood. But he grew to feed on fear, and that became the one thing that sustains him through the centuries.

What does the Hunter do in his spare time? He hunts women like wild game in his dark forest. He’s cold, calculating. With little that remains of human emotion. And that would be the perspective I'd expect of a guy who's been alive for a thousand years or so. He eventually rousts himself out of his forest fortress to help a priest from the aforementioned Church save the world - but only because it serves his purposes.

Not much material there for a successful relationship in real life. And to be certain, I quickly sorted out the difference between fantasy and reality where romance was concerned.

But on the page, in that suspended reality, I felt some sympathy for the Hunter. He was the master of his own destiny, a figure really beyond tragedy and time. And that really speaks to Friedman’s power as a writer to bring him to life on the page, to make me feel for such an inhuman creature.