Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Rock Star Characters & The Almost Awesome

I'm of two minds when it comes to fictional characters I wish I'd created -- those who rock and those who need more time on the drum-kit.

The rock stars are characters so wonderfully written I eat, sleep, and breathe their world, motivations, and emotions long after the book is done. Someone mentions the author, the story, or even the one of the cast and I am instantly transported back into the magic I first felt upon discovery. I've a lot of those -- thankyouveddymuch, great authors -- but my top three are: 
  1. Katherine from Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew
  2. D'Artagnan from Dumas père's D'Artagnan Romances
  3. Cuchulain from Lllywelyn's Red Branch


Conversely, there are characters who surfaced with a great potential yet something was missing -- usually time on the page because they were secondary or tertiary characters (I'll refrain from mentioning characters who suffered from lackluster writing). These are the characters to whom I would devote entire books with full GMC personality and plot enhancements because I want to spend lots more quality time with them. My top three Could'a Been Contenda's are: 
  1. Cernunnos from Llywelyn's Epona: The Horse Goddess
  2. Ancaladar the Dragon from Lackey/Mallory's Obsidian Mountain trilogy 
  3. Captain Hook from Barrie's Peter & Wendy
Who are your rock stars, readers, and who do you think is one solo away from stardom?

4 comments:

  1. Red branch was such a good book. I loved it...of course Cuchulain kicks an immense amount of ass as a legendary figure.

    Ahhhh celtic mythology.

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    1. Yay! Another Llywelyn fan!

      It probably would have been helpful for me to figure out how to pronounce his name before I committed to the book. As it was ... American phonetics really aren't that accurate with Celtic names. Go. Figure.

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  2. Wasn't there a Captain Hook story? seems like there was...

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    1. Yep, written, not by Barrie, but James Hart about 100 years later. Hart also wrote the screenplay for the Hook movie(starring Dustin Hoffman).

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