Top Ten Tuesday (September 1) – Top Ten Characters you just didn’t click with

Steph P. Bianchini September 1, 2015 7 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish, where each week bloggers are given a new Top Ten Theme to blog about. This is time is the case of a special kind of characters – the ones you aren’t drawn to for whatever reason but that have things in them you somehow like/ consider (otherwise I don’t see the point of this exercise).

Here’s my pick of the week – I’m sure I can come out with more, but these ones are off the top of my head (a few because I’ve read and/or heard of them recently in a way or another).

• Daenerys Targaryen, A Game of Thrones and following, GRRM. Why: For somebody that wants to be a political leader, she’s naively dangerous, and it shows. Too bad that others pay the price. (Incidentally, I’m quite fond of Cersei Lannister, but this is for another list)

• Quinn Dexter, The Night’s Dawn Trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton. Why: He’s the bad guy, fine, but he’s just too bad to be believable. At the end, he looks pathetic instead of fearsome. 

• Adso of Melk, The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco. Why: I know it’s supposed to be a coming-of-age novel – among all the other things – but this youngster is a bit annoying. I started feeling some sympathy for him only toward the end – but, by then, transition to adulthood was made.
• Ender Wiggin, Ender’s Game, OSC. Why: Nothing personal, really. Probably because I perversely liked more his brother, the sociopath Peter. (I know, I should see a shrink).
• Georgia Mason, Newsflesh Trilogy, Mira Grant. Why: Georgia has all of the sharp intelligence of her brother Shaun, but nothing of his humour and charm. Sorry, George, I still prefer the original end of Feed (and not Fed, the alternative one written by the author for the first book of the series). 
• Amuro Ray and his good guy colleagues, Gundam, Manga Series (I know this is a bit off-topic, but I can’t help, since I often thought about it). Why: Gundam is one of the examples where bad guys are so much more interesting than their counterparts to constitute a phenomenon almost embarrassing. I am not the only one here to think this way (so, maybe, the Gundam’s creators should see a shrink too).
• Jernau Morat Gurgeh, The Player of Games, Iain Banks. Why: I simply *loved* this book, but Gurgeh is the last person in the universe anybody can emphatise with. 
• Severian The Torturer, The Book Of The New Sun, Gene Wolf. Why: Somehow for the reasons I put Gurgeh in this same list. I admire them for their acumen and skills, but at emotional level I can’t relate.
• Dorian Gray, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde. Why: This was an easy one. Who can even notice Dorian with Lord Henry Wotton around?
• Pretty much anybody in The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins. Why: Not my cup of tea, but I knew it in advance. Just wanted to give it a try to prove myself right 🙂

I look forward to reading all your lists – for more characters to analyse!