Reflection on Character: Malian of Night

USA

Recently I was asked, ‘what makes Malian, your main character in The Heir of Night, unique in epic fantasy? And what makes a hero, anyway?’ (No, this didn’t arise out of the “Heroes” Mind Meld on Sf Signal—but it could have done!)

UK/AU/NZ mass market paperback

My initial response was ‘aargh, the pressure’—not just of an example, but of encapsulating what is often the slow delicate process of character evolution. And Malian’s character did evolve over many years, from long before I first put...