Comments on: Favorite fictional characters

By: Darice

Darice — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 06:49:06 +0000

Once you read Gaudy Night, then there’s Busman’s Honeymoon — which is all about negotiating marriage between the intelligent.

I’m a Sayers pusher. *stands on street corner, handing out paperbacks*

I haven’t read King’s modern series either. And you know, I just cleaned off my bookshelves in the past year. I wonder if I even still have Beekeeper’s. Hmmmm. Ah well, if I don’t have it the library will.

By: Girl Detective

Girl Detective — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:40:40 +0000

Darice, my experience of Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell books was what you described: Liked the first three lots, read the fourth and then stopped, and have been thinking about re-reading the first again. (I own her three of the Kate Martinelli books, but have not yet dived in. First one is about a dead kid. Too scary.)

Also, when I was at the library yesterday, I saw a poster of recommended books by professors at the U of MN, and one of them was Gaudy Night! They only had a combo book on the shelf (3 of the Wimsey novels) so I didn’t check it out, but GN has definitely moved to the forefront of my consciousness now.

By: Darice

Darice — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 04:53:08 +0000

I have read the first three King novels, and greatly enjoyed them. (Like you, I abandoned ship on the later ones — I think I made it through The Moor and gave up.) I might reread the first one again; it’s been long enough that I’ve forgotten the details, but I did enjoy it.

By: Girl Detective

Girl Detective — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 20:34:15 +0000

Darice, I hesitate to add other suggestions to your staggering list, since I know the feeling of “oh, cool, oh crap,” but did you (or any of the folks who mentioned Holmes) read the Laurie R. King novels The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, and A Letter of Mary? They have a strong, educated female protagonist. I didn’t like the later novels in the series so much, but I very much enjoyed the first three and their feminist extension of the Holmes mythos.

By: Darice

Darice — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 04:02:18 +0000

Ooooooh, Trixie Belden! I love her!

I haven’t read Sandman Mystery Theatre but I think now I want to. *adds it to the staggering list*

Strong Poison is the introduction of Harriet, but my favorite is Gaudy Night which (in addition to being a mystery) is about women, academia, the tradeoffs between the thinking life and the married/family life (for women) and whether a balance can be achieved. It’s marvelous. A bit dated, of course, but still marvelous.

By: Girl Detective

Girl Detective — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 01:30:24 +0000

My sister Ruthie says that the character she mentioned in comment #3, Switters, is from Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins.

By: G. Grod

G. Grod — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 15:15:49 +0000

It's the "favorite" part that makes it hard to narrow down. "Favorite," how? I suppose I could tell you where they come from, since my brother won't read this and he's the only person who would know all of them. As Erik recognized, Randy Waterhouse and Bobby Shaftoe come from Cryptonomicon. It's a really close choice between Randy and Daniel Waterhouse (of The Baroque Cycle), but I did want to limit Stephenson to three characters. The third was Sangamon Taylor, the protagonist of Zodiac. Miles Vorkosigan is a fantastic character for the first half dozen or so of his series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Gandalf is self-evident, as should be Athos. My nods to actual classic literature are Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights) and Jake Barnes (The Sun Also Rises). And if anyone out there recognized Ingold Inglorion from Barbara Hambly's Darwath Trilogy (The Time of the Dark, The Walls of Air, and The Armies of Daylight), well, I guess I'm not the only 80's fantasy geek around. And if you were to tell me you knew I meant Felix from Armor (and arguably Vampire$), I'd call you a liar. Unfortunately, to explain WHY these are favorite characters, I'd need a lot more time.

By: Girl Detective

Girl Detective — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 23:29:25 +0000

I have edited Emily’s comment to add titles and authors (since I didn’t know all of them, even one–The Giver–that I should have). For those others of you who didn’t (ahem, G. Grod and Ruthie) please add them, not only for my own edification, but for that of the other readers. Won’t you please think of the readers?

By: carolyn

carolyn — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 22:39:08 +0000

good choice. i think pat barker’s a genius. did you read her latest book? LOVED it.

mine is Kim, from the eponymous Kipling novel, which I happen to have written my master’s thesis on.

By: emily

emily — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 20:38:03 +0000

You probably knew these but: - Christopher Chant-Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones - Jamie Hamilton-Homeward Bounders, DWJ - Janet Chant-Charmed Life, DWJ - Tom Long-Tom's Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce - Pauline Fossil-Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfield - Polly Whittaker-Fire and Hemlock, DWJ - Tannaqui Weaver-Spellcoats, DWJ - Alice - Christoper Robin - Dinah Slade-The Rich are Different, Susan Howatch - Margaret Thursday-Thursday's Child and Far to Go, Noel Streatfield - Jonas-The Giver, Lois Lowry - Bilbo Baggins