Dragaera

Avoiding Jordan (Was: Re: POTD question...)

Fri Jan 24 07:22:11 PST 2003

> >Which supports the point that I can't seem to manage to express (but 
> >I'll flail at it anyway): That having a character that I think is
cool 
> >or I can relate to is important to my enjoyment of fiction. 
> 
> I'd respond to this with, "Well, duh!" if I didn't know so many people
who 
> seemed to feel that wasn't important. So I'll just say, "Me, too." 

I do think there is an interaction with the length of the work. It's
possible to have a shorter work that is interesting and enjoyable
without a strong character, but if a novel that's tolerably long or
especially a series doesn't have a good character (or more) the best
plot or setting in the world can't save it. When I heard that Zelazny
had died, I was really broken up by it. In addition to the distress at
the overall loss that the genre suffered was the specific distress of
knowing that I would never learn anything else about Corwin. I still get
a little sad when I think about it.

Ken 

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