1st Place winner in "favorite character" contest
For the next three days, I'll be posting the winning entries for the "Who is your favorite character and why" contest. And don't forget, you all have until this Friday, January 23, to send in your entries for the "Name that Bordello"contest. (I'll announce the winner on Monday.) See my blog for Monday, January 12, for all the contest details and the uber-cool prize.
Today's post is the entry from Emily Haas, the 1st Place winner. Her favorite characters were A'Zahra Nuru, Phaelan, and Prince Chigaru. I thought she wrote a wonderful, in-depth character analysis, and she brought up some points that even I hadn't thought of. Bravo! Emily wins a t-shirt with the cover of The Trouble with Demons.
Here's Emily's entry . . .
You asked us awhile back to write to you about who our favorite character in your novels is and why. I've been struggling for an answer, because there are several characters that I really like for vastly different reasons. I've been going back and forth between three, trying to rank them in my mind. So I think that what I'm going to do is tell you who eventually won and then let you know about the runners up and why I like them too (but in far fewer words).
The Winner: Primari A'Zahra Nuru. I know she's a minor character, but she's also ultimately the one who intrigues me the most. For starters, even though she operates within her culture, she's held out to be more trustworthy and more "above the level" than her countrymen.
Considering her position (or former position), that's extremely surprising. All the other high-ranking goblins have done whatever it took -- betraying alliances, playing both ends against the middle, dark magic, murder -- to get to positions of power. Yet she's the one who helps people get away from that lifestyle. It makes me wonder if she's always been this way or if perhaps she "pulled a Tam" long before Tam did and started making changes in her life. If she's always been this way, I'm curious as to why -- what about her life experiences put her in a different mindset? If she changed, I'd like to know the why there as well -- what was the trigger event that made her re-evaluate things?
The other thing that I love about her is how she's orchestrating to put Chigaru on the throne over his brother. She's essentially committing treason, but (like Tam said) she's aware that Chigaru is a far better alternative than his brother and is willing to risk her neck for the benefit of her people. It's extremely admirable to me, especially considering that she was given some money to just go away and live out the rest of her life peacefully. It would be easy for her to just stay out of things, but she doesn't.
The final thing that I love about her character is that, despite all the glowing accolades I mentioned above, she's far from perfect. She still operates within her culture, seeing things from a goblin perspective when determining whether what has happened was right or not. She's also known to have a blind spot where Chigaru is concerned, and while that loyalty is touching, she allows trouble to occur by not seeing him for who he actually is (instead seeing a kinder, gentler, and perhaps unrealistic version of who he is).
My runners up: Phaelan Benares is also in my top three, mainly because he makes me laugh out loud when I read. I like that, although he's a pirate and he thinks he's all suave and debonair, he really isn't. For example, when Raine says that chivalry takes a little break when it gets around Phaelan or when it's mentioned that it's okay to run away as long as you don't get caught. It's like Phaelan really wants to come across as the swashbuckling hero-type, but he doesn't. That's what makes him so wonderful as a character.
The other runner up is Prince Chigaru. The reason I love him is that he is the grayest of the gray characters. I don't know where to put him (Is he a good guy? A bad guy? It depends what day you catch him on?) He seems to think he's a good guy -- at least for a goblin -- but he's so Machiavellian that he'll never fully make it. But he isn't evil; his heart, at least, appears to be in the right place. So he just fascinates me all around.
This is not to say that I don't love the other characters in the novels, too. I'm a big fan of nearly all of them. It was really hard to pick out my favorites. But the above three are the ones that really stand out to me and spark my attention the most.
~Emily
Tomorrow I'll post Susy Pinnington's 2nd Place winning entry on Phaelan.
Today's post is the entry from Emily Haas, the 1st Place winner. Her favorite characters were A'Zahra Nuru, Phaelan, and Prince Chigaru. I thought she wrote a wonderful, in-depth character analysis, and she brought up some points that even I hadn't thought of. Bravo! Emily wins a t-shirt with the cover of The Trouble with Demons.
Here's Emily's entry . . .
You asked us awhile back to write to you about who our favorite character in your novels is and why. I've been struggling for an answer, because there are several characters that I really like for vastly different reasons. I've been going back and forth between three, trying to rank them in my mind. So I think that what I'm going to do is tell you who eventually won and then let you know about the runners up and why I like them too (but in far fewer words).
The Winner: Primari A'Zahra Nuru. I know she's a minor character, but she's also ultimately the one who intrigues me the most. For starters, even though she operates within her culture, she's held out to be more trustworthy and more "above the level" than her countrymen.
Considering her position (or former position), that's extremely surprising. All the other high-ranking goblins have done whatever it took -- betraying alliances, playing both ends against the middle, dark magic, murder -- to get to positions of power. Yet she's the one who helps people get away from that lifestyle. It makes me wonder if she's always been this way or if perhaps she "pulled a Tam" long before Tam did and started making changes in her life. If she's always been this way, I'm curious as to why -- what about her life experiences put her in a different mindset? If she changed, I'd like to know the why there as well -- what was the trigger event that made her re-evaluate things?
The other thing that I love about her is how she's orchestrating to put Chigaru on the throne over his brother. She's essentially committing treason, but (like Tam said) she's aware that Chigaru is a far better alternative than his brother and is willing to risk her neck for the benefit of her people. It's extremely admirable to me, especially considering that she was given some money to just go away and live out the rest of her life peacefully. It would be easy for her to just stay out of things, but she doesn't.
The final thing that I love about her character is that, despite all the glowing accolades I mentioned above, she's far from perfect. She still operates within her culture, seeing things from a goblin perspective when determining whether what has happened was right or not. She's also known to have a blind spot where Chigaru is concerned, and while that loyalty is touching, she allows trouble to occur by not seeing him for who he actually is (instead seeing a kinder, gentler, and perhaps unrealistic version of who he is).
My runners up: Phaelan Benares is also in my top three, mainly because he makes me laugh out loud when I read. I like that, although he's a pirate and he thinks he's all suave and debonair, he really isn't. For example, when Raine says that chivalry takes a little break when it gets around Phaelan or when it's mentioned that it's okay to run away as long as you don't get caught. It's like Phaelan really wants to come across as the swashbuckling hero-type, but he doesn't. That's what makes him so wonderful as a character.
The other runner up is Prince Chigaru. The reason I love him is that he is the grayest of the gray characters. I don't know where to put him (Is he a good guy? A bad guy? It depends what day you catch him on?) He seems to think he's a good guy -- at least for a goblin -- but he's so Machiavellian that he'll never fully make it. But he isn't evil; his heart, at least, appears to be in the right place. So he just fascinates me all around.
This is not to say that I don't love the other characters in the novels, too. I'm a big fan of nearly all of them. It was really hard to pick out my favorites. But the above three are the ones that really stand out to me and spark my attention the most.
~Emily
Tomorrow I'll post Susy Pinnington's 2nd Place winning entry on Phaelan.
posted by Lisa Shearin at
7:45 AM
1 Comments:
Excellent entry! What a wonderful observation on A'Zahra Nuru - I am glad Emily chose her as the winner!
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