Who is your favorite character from sci-fi and fantasy?

[Al "Tank"]

Margaret wrote: "Mike the computer from Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has always been a favorite of mine."

I kinda preferred Mannie. Cool guy.

[Peggy]

Not sure about current favorites, but Valentine, from Robert Silverburg's Lord Valentine's Castle, was my first fantasy crush.

[Bee]

Lol, Lord Valentine was awesome wasn't he? Nice reminder!

[Kate]

Alfred Bester - Babylon 5
Susan Ivanova - Babylon 5
Michael Garibaldi - Babylon 5
Saul Dagenham - The Stars My Destination
Olivia Presteign - The Stars My Destination
Bunny - The Stars My Destination
Feanor - The Silmarillion
Maedhros - The Silmarillion
Hiro Protagonist - Snowcrash
Ellen Ripley - Aliens
Lee Scoresby - His Dark Materials/The Subtle Knife
Iorek - His Dark Materials
Lord Asrael - His Dark Materials
Steerpike - Gormenghast
Ellen - The Silver Crown
Mina Harker - Dracula (novel)
Ed - Cowboy Bebop

[Bee]

Hir Protagonist, what a champion!

[Bill]

Kate wrote: "Alfred Bester - Babylon 5..."

Bester was a great villain in the TV series, but I didn't really 'like' that character until I read the Psi Core Trilogy which is about Bester's life and how he got the be what he became. One can forgive.

But I think my favorite Bab 5 character was Delenn.

[Al "Tank"]

Kernos wrote: "Kate wrote: "But I think my favorite Bab 5 character was Delenn. "

I think every straight male on the planet fell in love with Mira Furlan every time she smiled. I certainly did.

[[deleted user]]

Y'know, I think my all time favorite character is Wedge Antilles from Star Wars OT and EU.

Orphaned Everyman with no magic or smuggler swagger or hairy sidekick. Just a guy who can fly an X Wing and blow up stuff.

[Al "Tank"]

Ala wrote: "Y'know, I think my all time favorite character is Wedge Antilles from Star Wars OT and EU.

Orphaned Everyman with no magic or smuggler swagger or hairy sidekick. Just a guy who can fly an X Wing a..."

Sounds like you're a fan of "everyman". Something to be said for someone who can do his job well without an "edge" of some kind.

He was supposedly good at shooting "womp rats" back home on Tatoween (sp?) as well.

Carrie Fisher was good in RoJ, but I suspect her sparce clothing had something to do with my appreciation of her "acting".
------------------
BTW, I used to live outside Bonney Lake, neighbor. Saw the first Star Wars movie in downtown Tacoma. The audience went wild when Darth Vader's fighter got blown away.

Live an hour away from the coast now.

[[deleted user]]

Luke was the womprat killer :P

I grew up in Huntington beach, CA. That's where I saw RotJ and fell in lust with metal bikinis.

[Al "Tank"]

Ala wrote: "Luke was the womprat killer :P

I grew up in Huntington beach, CA. That's where I saw RotJ and fell in lust with metal bikinis."

Luke to Wedge: "... just like shooting womprats back home." I assumed from that communication that both boys had engaged in womprat genocide together.

I tried that with gophers on my first ranch, but they could always breed faster than I could shoot them. I constantly worried that a horse would break a leg in one of their holes, but it never happened.

[[deleted user]]

Nah, Luke was from Tatooine. Wedge is a Corellian like Han. It gets explained in the Expanded Universe books and stuff.

I'm such a geek.

Also, only thing I ever shot at that was alive was a neighborhood kid who annoyed me. And that was with a bb gun, so it doesn't count. But he was very womprat-like.

[Al "Tank"]

Ala wrote: "Nah, Luke was from Tatooine. Wedge is a Corellian like Han. It gets explained in the Expanded Universe books and stuff.

I'm such a geek.

Also, only thing I ever shot at that was alive was a neigh..."

Al slinks off into a corner to nurse his shattered ego, study up on Starwars stuff, and plot his revenge.

[Bill]

Emerald and Raanung, telepathic cats of Phyllis Gotlieb, Emperor, Swords, Pentacles,
Harry Dresden,
Sookie Stackhouse,
Anita Blake,
Gillian Baskin of the Uplift Wars books by David Brin

[Stewart]

I'm going to show my "tooth-length" with this one...
My favorite character would be Misk, a priest-king that partly narrated the 'Gor' novels by John Norman.

[Stewart]

Ronald wrote: "Stewart wrote: "I'm going to show my "tooth-length" with this one...
My favorite character would be Misk, a priest-king that partly narrated the 'Gor' novels by John Norman."

Huh. Never heard of h..."

Misk was like an enigmatic presence in the novels. At the beginnings of chapters, he would make commentary on the meanings attached to being associated with a civilization that used slavery as a tool for dominance. He also was the supposed chronicler of the GOR saga, and one of the few members of the alien race that dominated GOR to actually interface with humans. It seemed to be a vehicle for John Norman to project his personality into the stories...

[Stewart]

Stewart wrote: "Ronald wrote: "Stewart wrote: "I'm going to show my "tooth-length" with this one...
My favorite character would be Misk, a priest-king that partly narrated the 'Gor' novels by John Norman."

Huh. N..."

The GOR novels encompassed about 20-30 volumes. It seemed to celebrate the feudalistic, slave-owning, Male oriented planet of GOR, into which the hero/protagonist was transported by means esoteric and mysterious. The first novel was "Tarnsman of Gor (Gor, #1)

Tarnsman of Gor (Gor #1)
by John Norman
3.24 · rating details · 566 ratings · 76 reviews
Tarl Cabot has always believed himself to be a citizen of earth. He has no inkling that his destiny is far greater than the small planet he has inhabited for the first twenty-odd years of his life. One frosty winter night in the New England woods, he finds himself transported to the planet of Gor, also known as counter-earth, where everything is dramatically different from...more
Paperback, 219 pages
Published May 5th 1972 by Ballantine Books (first published 1967)
ISBN 0809556154 (ISBN13: 9780809556151)
edition languageEnglish
original titleTarnsman of Gor (Gor, #1)
seriesGor #1

[Stewart]

I know the passage, Ronald...It does kind of drag you in!...:)

[Trike]

Ronald wrote: "While Terry Brooks hasn't deviated from his formula much over the years, I absolutely loved the original Shannarra books."

Meaning you love Lord of the Rings, too. Since, you know, Xerox copy and all. :p

[Al "Tank"]

Stewart wrote: "Stewart wrote: "Ronald wrote: "Stewart wrote: "I'm going to show my "tooth-length" with this one...
My favorite character would be Misk, a priest-king that partly narrated the 'Gor' novels by John ..."

Tarnsman was a fair dinkum book, but as he wrote the follow-on books, Norman devolved into long, preaching diatribes with paragraphs than actually spanned several pages. His plots started to slow down as well. He was basically trading on sex and a lot of filler.

His plots were good enough, but too thin to fill up enough pages to make a complete novel without the "filler".

I finally sold off my collection to make room for better fare in my shelves.

[Stewart]

I agree, Al...It went from interesting premise to some sort of low-brow porn. Escapism.

[Christopher]

In Sci-Fi, my favorite all time is Darth Vader!!!

[Hamza]

THE GOOD GUYS:-

Roland Gunslinger and Eddie-The Dark tower
Kelsier,Elend and Breeze-Mistborn
Kvothe-Kingkiller Chronicles
Dumbledore-Harry Potter
Dalinar Kohlin and Kaladin-The Way of Kings
Stu Redman-The Stand
Grubbs Grady-Demonata
Darren Shan-Cirque du Freak
Arlen,Jardir and Rojer-The Demon Cycle
Anomander Rake,Ganoes Paran,Crokus,Apsalar,(All the Bridgeburners),Onearm-Malazan Book Of the Fallen
Shadow-American Gods

(SOME BAD GUYS TOO!!!)

The Man in Black and Mordred-The Dark Tower
Lord Ruler-Mistborn
The Chandrian-Kingkiller Chronicles
Lord Loss-Demonata

[Pixelina]

Pratchett got quite a few but I think I love Death the most.
Also loved to read about Mara in the Empire books by Feist and Wurts
Daughter of the Empire

[Angelof]

I like Binabik from Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. I only read book one, The Dragonbone Chair so far but Binabik is an interesting character.

[R.]

Just in the order I thought of them not in order of preference. There are more, but this is a good start for my list.

Lorenzo Smythe from "Double Star"
Wash from "Firefly"
Kaylee Frye from "Firefly"
Jame Retief from a bunch of Keith Laumer novels
Carson Napier from the Edgar Rice Burroughs Venus series
Kryton from "Red Dwarf"
The Woman and The Man from the Twilight Zone episode "Two"
Woman from the Twilight Zone episode "The Invaders"
Wendell Earth from several Isaac Asimov stories
Fsha-Fsha from "Galactic Odyssey"
Hewey, Dewey, and Louie from "Silent Running"

[Jonathan]

Oh wow. It'd be impossible to write down my favorite characters. I do remember liking pretty much all of the major characters from Snow Crash and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (vastly different, but there you go). Neal Stephenson has a knack for characterization.

[F.F.]

It is real fun to read everyone's favorites.

Kellen Wayfield, from my own book Cost of Haven

Garion, The Belgariad

BILBO BAGGINS!

Beowulf

Sam from Villains by Necessity

Samwise Gamgee

[Kevis]

Anakin Skywalker. Well, at least in the books.

[D.J.]

My all-time favorite would have to be Samwise Gamgee. The more I read the Lord of the Rings the more he stands out, even amidst all of the wonderful characters of those novels.

If there had been a book describing Samwise's home life or gardening activities, I would read it. He's such a delightful person with a spirit that far exceeds his small stature.

"Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam..."

[[deleted user]]

Mina wrote: "I read the Chinese translation so I didn't even know how to spell her name in English. She is the Japanese woman from Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. She was born in a nuclear dissertation area i..."

I don't recall her name, but I know who you are talking about. Coincidentally, Takashi Kovacs is my favorite :-)

[Mark]

Severian from the New Sun books.
Sekenre from the works of Darrell Schweitzer.
Jack from the Book of Words.
Jaric from the Cycle of Fire.

I am also rather partial to Ben Reich from Demolished Man :)

[Olga]

Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. He has no competition for my favorite SciFi hero.

[Julia]

Olga, to me Miles' primary competition is his Dad Shards of Honour, his Mom Cordelia's Honor and his cousin Ivan Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, who are each/ all in lots of other books, too. Though if you haven't read the Vorkoverse before, beginning with Captain Vorpatril's Alliance may not be optimum.

[Stefan]

Bee wrote: "Lol, Lord Valentine was awesome wasn't he? Nice reminder!"

How true great books!

[Stefan]

Olga wrote: "Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. He has no competition for my favorite SciFi hero."

Yeah really enjoyed this series!

[Jenelle]

Gracious... how to even begin?

Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings comes instantly to mind (along with many other characters from that trilogy)
Haplo from the Death Gate Cycle is one of my all time favorites
Bean from the Ender's Shadow series
Edmund Pevensie from Chronicles of Narnia
Cimorene from the Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Flewder Flam (not sure I'm spelling that right) from the Chronicles of Prydain


Just to name a very few who have stood out through that come immediately to mind... though I'm sure there are hundreds that I am forgetting right now (and you are probably grateful for that, as you most likely don't want to read a list of hundreds of characters) LOL

[Stephen]

Currently, Caine/Hari Michaelson in Matthew Stover's Heroes Die and the follow on books.

[D.J.]

Jenelle wrote: "Edmund Pevensie from Chronicles of Narnia"

Really? Edmund? That's odd. Mine were always Aslan and Lucy. Was there a particular book where Edmund stood out to you? Dawn Treader or Prince Caspian, perhaps?

[Jenelle]

D.J. wrote: "Jenelle wrote: "Edmund Pevensie from Chronicles of Narnia"

Really? Edmund? That's odd. Mine were always Aslan and Lucy. Was there a particular book where Edmund stood out to you? Dawn Treader or P..."

:) yep, I do love Aslan and Lucy... (Its hard to pick a favorite from that series in general) But I've always identified with Edmund's redemption story, and I'm sort of a sucker for a redemption story. I love the profound nature of his rel. with Aslan, and also how completely he turns around 180 after that. I love that in Prince Caspian, he's the only one to side with Lucy and believe she saw Aslan.

[Micah]

Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five
Joe Chip, Philip K. Dick's Ubik
Rick Deckard, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (and NOT from Scott's Blade Runner movie; the real Deckard is a totally different person.)
...and for the complete underdog...
Samuil Petrovitch from Simon Morden's excellent but sadly underknown Samuil Petrovitch trilogy (Equations of Life, Degrees of Freedom and Theories of Flight). I liked this guy. He was smart and capable. So often authors don't let their characters be those things.

[John-Justice]

Ronald Bilius Weasley

[Sharon]

Mine have tended to shift a bit over the years, but currently for sci-fi: Miles Vorkosigan and Miles' mother, Cordelia and Honor Harrington; for fantasy I would have to say Ista, from Paladin of Souls and Aerin from The Hero and the Crown.

[Richard]

Jenelle wrote: "Gracious... how to even begin?

Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings comes instantly to mind (along with many other characters from that trilogy)
Haplo from the Death Gate Cycle is one of my all t..."

Sam Gamgee is also one of my very favorites, and clearly, Tolkien's too. The last chapter of LOTR made it appear to me that Sam's story was the main thread all along. I wish he'd written a spin-off for Sam's descendants as the ages changed again. Now I have to amend this post, adding Sam Vimes, with or without plume, to my list.

[Carolyn F.]

Olga wrote: "Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. He has no competition for my favorite SciFi hero."

Love him too Olga

[Judy]

Carolyn F. wrote: "Olga wrote: "Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. He has no competition for my favorite SciFi hero."

My favorite also!

[Steve]

James Bolivar DiGriz, alias "Slippery Jim" and/from "The Stainless Steel Rat"

I love the narration in that book, read it when I was a kid.

[Ken]

Wolf! From The Talisman...and Jack for that matter.

[Richard]

Thank you, Ken, for reminding me of that great book and those characters. They stayed with me for years after I read it, and it might actually be my favorite King. I seem to remember that some of it showed up in Hearts in Atlantis also, but I may be dreaming again...

[Hans]

Cassandra Kresnov created by Joel Shepherd.
Takeshi Kovacs created by Richard K. Morgan.
John 'Black Jack' Geary created by Jack Campbell.
'The Raven' Hirad Coldheart created by James Barclay.
Almost forgot to mention,
Macy Minnot (my favorite underdog heroine)Created by Paul McAuley.