So I haven't done much reading the past few weeks. Been busy, and yes, you can also blame Doctor Who. Of course, Doctor Who also led me to this blog topic. How does a reader relate to characters?
Science Fiction and Fantasy are a special breed - but in all honesty, a novel contains three main things, regardless of genre: Characters, Plot and Setting. Everything else hangs on these things.
What brought me to characters from Doctor Who is the character of River Song. She certainly brings out opinons from viewers - some (like me) love her, some hate her. With TV it's a little different, because you can base your feelings for a character a bit on the actor's portrayl. Doctor Who does this very well, because you have a main character which has been played by 11 different actors. People tend to like a certain actor better than others, and a lot of that depends on who you first saw playing the role, because they tend to define the character for you. A new actor comes in and plays things just a bit differently and you say, that's different - Doctor Who is built around change. You know, if you watch the show, that the doctor will change again and again. But some people can't let go of a certain "doctor."
In a book, you don't have to worry about that. The character is who the character is, and you, the reader, get to define that character based on the information in the book. Descriptions, dialouge, internal thoughts other character's views of the character all build the character in your mind as you read. And you get attached.
I've cried over books because of what happens to the characters. Some people have been known to throw books or stop reading them because of something that happens to a character that they love. Characters can drain you emotionally. You love them, hate them, fall in love with them, laugh at them, laugh with them. At least, with the goods ones you do. And characters are really what make us love a book. Rarely does one hear about how great the plot of the book was without some mention of the characters. Rarely does one praise a setting by itself - even if you do, you tend not to care for the book unless the characters made a good impression on you.
We want our characters to be real people, but at the same time, they have to be somewhat larger than life. Important things happen to our characters, regardless of the scope of the novel. They might be saving the world or just saving their own lives, but if the reader doesn't care about the characters, they aren't going to care about the novel.
On the other hand, a great character can let you get away with a lot. This is very apparent in Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy series, and sometimes even in Epic Fantasy series - if you like a character, you're going to keep reading, and if the author isn't giving you the best (or at least something good) it might even take you a while to notice it. This happened to me in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I loved her character, and it took me a while to notice that the rest of the book wasn't really holding together. (I gave up at
Danse Macabre
if anyone cares - because the lack of forward motion, and typos, made me realize that I had spent my hard earned money on something that neither the author NOR the publisher cared about. Many people, who also love the Anita Blake Character gave up before or after that point, and some still love the character so much it just doesn't matter to them.)
You can't have a good novel without characters that evoke some emotion from the reader. Of course, people differ on this point- for instance I could never get into Wizards First Rule, because I didn't find the characters interesting - obviously many, many people have picked up the book and followed the main characters through so many more adventures. But those characters just weren't for me. Some of my most beloved characters aren't for others, either. People get very defensive about their favorite characters (thus the ultimate "hatred" many have for the Star Wars prequels.) For instance, I stopped reading the Star Wars: New Jedi Order books when I found out what eventually happened to my favorite characters, because it was stupid, and
MY characters wouldn't never have done that.
Often, sucess or failure rides on the characters - take Sherlock Holmes for instance - sometimes people get it right, and sometimes they don't - I mean, this character is so beloved that his author had to "bring him back from the dead" because of public outcry.
So, who are your favorite literary characters? Currently my favorites are: Sherlock Holmes (in many incarnations), Oberon from Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles, and Mat & Perin from The Wheel of Time.
and actually read it. It was very confusing, and read much more like 4 separate short stories put together. I was OK actually until the end of the third one, though I could have done without some of the repetition (re: Discworld (spoiler, it's a Disc), Turtle (spoiler, there are elephants on its back), Death (spoiler, he always shows up in person for Wizards).)
