Favorite fictional character

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Originally Posted by classical

The thing about Louis is if he writes about it it is real, he has been there nd done most everything he writes about. If he talks about a cave in the Rockies he hs been to that cave. If he describes a fight he has been through those movements. He was left in the Mojave desert by his family when he was twelve and walked out, he was a middleweight boxer and a tank commander during WWII. I have read every book he has written many times some as many as fifteen times.

My favotite authors are Louis Lamour, Leon Uris, Trevanian, James Clavell, John Jakes, Ludlum, Archer, Clancy, Fredrick Forsythe others escape me at the moment.

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Since I don't much care for the Western genre, I read Lamour's Walking Drum not too long ago. It was good, but formulated. Lamour has a tendency to have his heros get the crap kicked out of them too much for my taste. His "no good deed shall be left unpunished" attitude gets tedious after a while. Not to mention that in Walking Drum, there must be at least a dozen times when the plot takes a turn after Lamour uses the term; "then suddenly!".

I read to escape. Same with movies. I really don't like too close to reality stories. I've lived and am still living my own real life drama. I don't need to hear the drama of others unless it involves monsters, supernatural or fantasy.

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Originally Posted by coopbro

Augustus "Gus" McCrae, from Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove"

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Another Lamour styled Western. What is it about the characters in the Western genre that fascinates people so much? I see these people as being like real life people who are just better at handling themselves than most of us are. Toss a few mutant indians in a flying teepee into the mix and have ole Gus defeat them by entering a parallel universe in order to flank them and maybe I'd get into their characters better.

Seriously though, this is strictly a matter of opinion thread and I appreciate reading about who likes what kind of characters.

I think I am attracted mostly to good guys who do bad things for an ultimate good purpose.

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Originally Posted by rscamaro

I go for more fantasy and Sci-fi characters myself.

Ray Fiest has a character called Pug in quite a few books. He's a rags to riches character that surpasses all expectations.

Orson Scott Card has Ender in his (future) series and Alvin the Maker (alternate universe) series.

Bova, McCaffree, Eddings, Duncan, Heinlein, Hubbard, Bradbury, Azimov, Brooks, Weber, Goodkind, Stascheff, etc.,etc.

I have many favorite characters, generally one from each author or type of story.

...Ron

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I'm familiar with Heinlein, Bradbury ans Asimov, but some of these I will have to look into. For sci-fi characters, I tend to like those in the future who cling to the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX5ytoHYfBc

Always been partial to Tom Clancy and outstanding research that he puts into his novels.

The American economy is the American spirit.

"We choose the bastards,its up to us to choose the right bastards".

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Originally Posted by the mojo

Always been partial to Tom Clancy and outstanding research that he puts into his novels.

The American economy is the American spirit.

"We choose the bastards,its up to us to choose the right bastards".

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There is no doubt that like the genre or not, Tom Clancy is a great writer. Is there a particular character from Clancy's novels that you favor over other fictional characters? I think we all have rooted for Jack Ryan no matter who plays his character in movies. When a character can be played by so many different actors, such as Jack Ryan and James Bond, it is definitely the character development that has been done well.

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Originally Posted by RoBoTeq

I'm familiar with Heinlein, Bradbury ans Asimov, but some of these I will have to look into. For sci-fi characters, I tend to like those in the future who cling to the past.

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Azimov Foundations series would probably be something you would be interested in then I think. There is also a few authors that put together a second foundation series that is very good.

I kind of get the feeling that there are a few members that like Militaria. Just to throw out some good reads for members who like future military stories...

Orson Scott Card has a number of Space Military stories that pretty much have to do with the same character but you won't know that unless you read most of them.

A Classic series is Hammer's Slammers by David Drake, Mostly giant hover tank battalions.

If Space Marines is your thing, then try the Starfist series by Dave Sherman and Dan Cragg.

David Weber wrote a Naval series that I coundn't put down until I read everyone that was out at the time.

...Stories that others might like...

Christopher Stasheff, Starship Troopers trilogy, about a troop of actors that are on the run from the authorities from every planet that they visit. Mostly amusing and a totally different plot than anything that you are likely to read.

Alan Dean Foster, Bunches and bunches of stand alone stories, all of them (+30) that I've read are well thought out and also make you think.

Most people probably will shy away from L. Ron Hubbard, but the original author actually was able to write a good story. The movie may not have been as good as I would have liked it, Battlefield Earth in book form (1,300 pages or so) is a page turner. He wrote another series of 10 books that were really good until about book 7 or so then it became pretty stale and I never finished it.

...Ron

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Originally Posted by RoBoTeq

There is no doubt that like the genre or not, Tom Clancy is a great writer. Is there a particular character from Clancy's novels that you favor over other fictional characters? I think we all have rooted for Jack Ryan no matter who plays his character in movies. When a character can be played by so many different actors, such as Jack Ryan and James Bond, it is definitely the character development that has been done well.

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John Clark and Domingo (forgot his last name), the spooks, interested me. They did the dirty work, did not enjoy it that much, and kept a good attitude about their lives away from work.

Recently, we see Jack Ryan Jr (son) getting into the game... couple of interesting books there.

I read for entertainment also... it is adventure from the sidelines, a way to balance the drag of work.

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Originally Posted by rscamaro

Azimov Foundations series would probably be something you would be interested in then I think. There is also a few authors that put together a second foundation series that is very good.

I kind of get the feeling that there are a few members that like Militaria. Just to throw out some good reads for members who like future military stories...

Orson Scott Card has a number of Space Military stories that pretty much have to do with the same character but you won't know that unless you read most of them.

A Classic series is Hammer's Slammers by David Drake, Mostly giant hover tank battalions.

If Space Marines is your thing, then try the Starfist series by Dave Sherman and Dan Cragg.

David Weber wrote a Naval series that I coundn't put down until I read everyone that was out at the time.

...Stories that others might like...

Christopher Stasheff, Starship Troopers trilogy, about a troop of actors that are on the run from the authorities from every planet that they visit. Mostly amusing and a totally different plot than anything that you are likely to read.

Alan Dean Foster, Bunches and bunches of stand alone stories, all of them (+30) that I've read are well thought out and also make you think.

Most people probably will shy away from L. Ron Hubbard, but the original author actually was able to write a good story. The movie may not have been as good as I would have liked it, Battlefield Earth in book form (1,300 pages or so) is a page turner. He wrote another series of 10 books that were really good until about book 7 or so then it became pretty stale and I never finished it.

...Ron

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Nope, not much on military stories unless they have to do with alien bug menaces or ancient myth chasing. I like Asimov's robot stories, but I don't particularly find his characters any more extraordinary than average people performing above average feats. Characters such as Odd Thomas and Roland Deschain and even Christopher Farnsworth's Nathaniel Cade in Blood Oath are all such extraordinary characters, but with a lot of the same emotions that we so called normal folk have. Odd is a young fry cook who is just about the most polite young man anyone could ever imagine, especially for someone who has preminitions and communicates with dead people. Roland's life has been so damaged by outside forces it's a wonder he is able to stay sane. Roland does extraordinarily good deeds while at the same time allowing for others who fight with him to die off when he could have chosen to save them. Cade is...well...a reluctant vampire who sort of has to do good because of a curse put on him. These characters are all extremely complicated in ways that we may be able to relate to on some level, but can never experience on any level.

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Originally Posted by ga-hvac-tech

John Clark and Domingo (forgot his last name), the spooks, interested me. They did the dirty work, did not enjoy it that much, and kept a good attitude about their lives away from work.

Recently, we see Jack Ryan Jr (son) getting into the game... couple of interesting books there.

I read for entertainment also... it is adventure from the sidelines, a way to balance the drag of work.

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I must admit that most of my novel reading and my movie watching is for escaping reality while still invigorating my brain cells. I don't much like real life drama unless it has to do with something historical I am studying.

For the spy types, I like characters like Nathaniel Cade. In Cade, we have an ultimate spy who can battle the forces of evil for the U.S. president while working with regular types of spy personnel who aren't vampires under a curse to be a virtual slave for the president.

Al Bundy, of course. Kenny Powers comes in close second.

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Originally Posted by rscamaro

David Weber wrote a Naval series that I coundn't put down until I read everyone that was out at the time.

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The Honor Harrington series is what he is best known for, 13 books, with a 14th due next year.

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Originally Posted by 2sac

Al Bundy, of course. Kenny Powers comes in close second.

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For a moment, I had to think about Al Bundy not being a real person since he has been mentor of mine.....:angel:

I have trouble relating to TV and movie characters in depth unless I have read a novel in which the author gets into their heads. With characters played by actors, we can "see" how they behave, but we cannot really understand the full reason why they behave the way they do.

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Originally Posted by mark beiser

The Honor Harrington series is what he is best known for, 13 books, with a 14th due next year.

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I was not familiar with Honor Harrington until I just read her fictional biography. She sounds like quite an intriging character.