Comments on: Villains (part one) (15/3/2015)

By: Mango Heroics

Mango Heroics — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 01:27:04 +0000

Thanks for the delicious teasing almost-spoilers. I’m in the middle of a very busy term at school, so I have far less time to read these days. Maybe it will come to pass that Splintered and Silver are read back to back. Not too bad an outcome.
I think that every book gets better because you pay attention.
I also think that Michael deserves to win for the Zafir-Cersei comment. The Gods of Random are just.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 11:54:21 +0000

Despite the Gods of Random trying very hard to have me win a copy of my own book from the comments section here, they have eventually settled on Michael, so a copy of th Royalist will be coming soon.

Mango… all I will say is that… stuff happens (ok, they’re both still around in The Silver Kings. Sort of). But without spoiling the second and third volumes of the story, I’m not sure what I can say without spoilers. Chay-Liang has a new friend in The Splintered Gods, Red Lin Feyn, whom I rather enjoyed.

The Silver Kings comes out on 18th of June. I think it might actually be significatly the best of the three books, but then I always think that the last thing I did was my best work…

By: KADbIK

KADbIK — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 12:44:19 +0000

Well, I’m still waiting for the whole trilogy out to read all books in a row, but after all this praising comments it’s more and more difficult to be patient

By: Mango Heroics

Mango Heroics — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 03:20:43 +0000

I’m willing to discuss ANYTHING about those 2. Not having read The Splintered Gods yet, I’m still hoping for a hook up. But yes, the enchantress is an antagonist as well. Bellepheros is in some sense caught in the middle?

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 07:52:36 +0000

Zafir realises that almost none of the above works for Dragon Queen… What about Bellepheros and Chay-Liang would you like to discuss? I suppose that to Zafir Chay-Liang is an antagonist.

By: Mango Heroics

Mango Heroics — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 15:30:42 +0000

I agree with Michael about Zafir (and Cersei). I was lucky to read Dragon Queen before the earlier novels, so I met the stronger Zafir first. I might add that she was involved with 2 of my favorite secondary characters (who are not addressed in the essay). I think we should next discuss the roles of Bellepheros & Chay-Liang in the story arc of this heroine.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 07:09:31 +0000

Michael, thank you

By: Michael P

Michael P — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:24:31 +0000

I find it interesting, because Zafir, in my eyes, started out almost as a cookie-cutter copy of Cersei Lannister (from Song of Ice & Fire for those not in the know). The two of them could have been split at birth, for all that their desires, means to gain power, and thought processes were so similar. But the big, fantastic thing is that you took Zafir and gave her that strength and self-hating vulnerability that turned her from beautiful but boring into the viewpoint we see in Dragon Queen, and it is most certainly the best character growth I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 21:01:23 +0000

Adam, when Zafir says “villain” here, what she actually means is antagonist. Your “hero” can be as pure or vile as you like – the “villain” here just means whoever is the main face of whatever opposition stands in your character’s way. I’ve read Prince of Thorns and I don’t remember the antagonists at all, but in a way that makes Zafir’s point – it was Jorg’s story.

By: Adam Selby-Martin

Adam Selby-Martin — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 20:47:09 +0000

What happens when the main character of a book *is* essentially also the villain, or at least a very-anti-hero. I’m thinking of Jorg in the Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence.