Great characters make great stories: Who are your favorite characters in SF?

[Fumesucker]

It's hard to write a great story without great characters, all the books that I recall really enjoying have had really memorable characters.

In no particular order here are a few of mine, followed by the author who created the character.

Miles Vorkosigan, Lois McMaster Bujold

Lazarus Long, RA Heinlein

Pham Nuwen, Vernor Vinge

Dominic Flandry, Poul Anderson

Diziet Sma, Ian M Banks

Bobby Shaftoe, Neal Stephenson

Barlennan, Hal Clement

Carrot Ironfoundersson, Terry Pratchett

Louis Wu, Larry Niven

Bink, Piers Anthony

Gwendolyn Ingolfsson, SM Stirling


What characters do you find compelling in SF?

[phantom power]

1. Cirocco Jones, Captain of the DSV Ringmaster

[Fumesucker]

2. Varley is a good author and I read the Titan series..

But it's been a long time and a lot of water under the bride, I'd forgotten Cirocco Jones.

The Varley story that sticks out most in my mind is "Bagatelle", about a bomb disposal expert on the Moon.

Ever read "The Ophiuchi Hotline"? That one was quite interesting with a bizarre backstory.

[phantom power]

9. Ophiuchi Hotline was a cool book.

I liked the vacuum-dwelling symbionts. It was sort of a strange ultimatum: "define for yourselves what it means to be human or we're gonna wipe you out."

Errr... OK?

[Dr. Strange]

3. These two are my favorite.

Leto Atreides II, Frank Herbert
Repairman Jack, F. Paul Wilson

[Fumesucker]

4. I haven't read anything by F Paul Wilson..

Thanks, I'll have to give him a shot.

Repairman Jack sounds a bit like Micheal Westen in the show "Burn Notice", one of the few TV shows I enjoy these days.

I think my favorite Herbert character is probably Jorj X McKie, Saboteur Extraordinary.

[Dr. Strange]

5. The Repairman Jack series lies in the intersection of scifi and horror.

He wrote some scifi stuff, back in the 80s, I think. But he's really been going to town with Jack.

[Fumesucker]

7. Wilson will be on my list the next time I go to the used bookstore..

Always on the lookout for a new-to-me author..

Thanks

[YankeyMCC]

6. Lije Baley - Robot novels

Lemar Poynets - Foundation
Aenea - Hyperion Cantos
Arthur Dent HHGTG
Illia Volyova - Revelation Space

[Fumesucker]

8. Lije Baley.. Definitely..

I haven't read Alastair Reynolds either, sounds like something up my particular alley though, another one for the used bookstore, thanks..

[YankeyMCC]

12. Just to give you a little tase of Ilia here's one of my favorite quotes:

"Believe me, when you're dealing with infectious alien mind parasites, I always find primitive is best." Ilia Volyova, "Revelation Space" Alistair Reynolds

[phantom power]

10. Smilla Jasperon

Is Smilla's Sense of Snow a science fiction novel? I would say yes.

[Fumesucker]

11. I'd never heard of it..

According to the Amazon reviewers it's kind of on the edge of SF, no one actually said that but I'm reading between the lines of the reviews a bit.

I guess SF is sort of like porn, you know it when you read it. :)

It does sound like an interesting book though, another one to look for at the used bookstore I guess..

My reading list is lengthening thanks to this thread.

[phantom power]

13. Peter Hoeg had sort of a 1-hit wonder with "Smilla"

His subsequent books were disappointments. I re-read "Smilla" recently, which reminded me that it really was fucking awesome.

I've always wondered what it would be like reading it in the original Danish. The English translation reads beautifully.

[SidDithers]

14. One of my favourite books...

time to pull it out and re-read, again :)

Thanks for the reminder.

Sid

[Touchdown]

15. George McFly!

"No Biff! You get your damn hands off her! Do you really think I should swear?":rofl:

[Swede]

16. Gully Foyle - Alfred Bester.

Paul Atreides - Frank Herbert

[phantom power]

17. Ooh, good one.

:thumbsup:

quant suff!
quant suff!

[Fumesucker]

18. I agree, Gully Foyle is a good one.. n/t

[kentauros]

19. James Bolivar diGriz

The Stainless Steel Rat, Harry Harrison :)

[Fumesucker]

20. Oh yes, I remember Slippery Jim..

I'm kind of fond of Jason dinAlt also..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathworld

Deathworld would make a great movie, IMO.. Provided of course that Hollyweird didn't do a "Starship Troopers" to it..

The same could be said of the Stainless Steel Rat as well.

[kentauros]

21. Oh yeah, Deathworld was great!

Such a cool premise, even the plants are telepathic :D

I think someone made a cheap "B" movie of Stainless Steel Rat, but it really needs a big budget. 32,000 years in the future is nothing to sneeze at. And Earth gets to be called what it is: Dirt :P

Harry Harrison did have one success with Hollywood, namely Soylent Green, from his book "Make Room! Make Room!" So we could still see one of these brought to the screen again...

[Fumesucker]

22. And the really cool part about Deathworld..

It was really a novel that was positive about the idea of environmentalism.

Deathworld was almost Swiftean satire but you didn't figure that out until you got close to the end.

[phantom power]

23. I liked the exploration crew in Flight of the Dragonfly.

They were not fantastic characters in the literary sense, but I still liked them. I liked all the flouven too.