Ten Favorite Fictional Characters

 

Just like real people, we have our favorite fictional people. Characters that resonate with us, just like real people do.

So I thought I’d share with you ten of my favorite fictional characters that are not of my own creation.

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin

I was introduced to Rex Stout’s detective team in the summer of 1980. I fell in love with Wolfe and Archie immediately. There are few books that I reread. The Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin mysteries are among those that I do.

My own Justinia and Harry Wright mysteries were inspired by Stout’s characters.

Wolfe and Archie are the timeless dynamic duo.

DCI Tom Barnaby and DS Gavin Troy

Like Wolfe and Goodwin, what makes DCI Tom Barnaby and DS Gavin Troy of Midsomer Murders exceptional is the relationship and repartee between the two.

There are certain pairings that just work. The chemistry between the characters makes us laugh or cry. We see them as real. And that’s how it is with Barnaby and Troy. They are real.

Alan Snyder (TV series Colony)

In my opinion, Alan Snyder is the consummate “bad guy”. And it is not so much that he is bad, as that he is completely and totally focused on promoting Alan Snyder.

He does some good things. He does a lot of bad things. But mostly he does what will benefit himself. Regardless of the outcome for others.

If you haven’t seen Colony, give it a watch. The show only lasted three seasons. But I think it is a great SF alien apocalypse story. Unfortunately, the acting is only so-so, save for Snyder’s character. But the show is totally worth watching. A fabulous story and a great bad guy.

Solomon Kane

Robert E Howard’s 16th and 17th century. Puritan adventurer is a masterful creation.

Kane is a Christian Puritan, but isn’t overly religious. Although he does have his own very strong moral code.

He is a wanderer. He is the consummate knight errant.

In many ways, he combines the action of Conan with the introspection of Kull.

And although Conan is far more popular, I think Solomon Kane is the superior character.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson

Holmes and Watson. I first met them sometime during my elementary school years. Sixty or more years ago. And I still find the duo interesting enough to make my favorite list.

The inimitable Holmes and the faithful Watson. Their world is a man’s world. So much so, that every modern re-creation infuses women into the story and gives them a place that Holmes and Watson would never have wanted. They were two men very much at ease with each other. Comrades. And in my opinion, that’s what makes the stories work and makes them so memorable.

Rona (Church Mouse)

RH Hale’s Church Mouse is a towering modern gothic novel of incredible power.

It is the story of Rona, who becomes a servant to vampires.

In some ways, Church Mouse is one long character study. But what an exciting and terrifying study it is.

If you haven’t read Church Mouse, you really need to do so. Even if you don’t like vampires, you’ll love Rona.

Church Mouse on Amazon.

Peter (Don’t Dream It’s Over)

Matthew Cormack’s Don’t Dream It’s Over is one of the great novels you’ve probably never heard of. Like Church Mouse above.

Also like Church Mouse, Don’t Dream It’s Over is a very long and fascinating character study.

The world as we know it has come to an end. But Peter survived. From his pen we learn what the new world is like. What hopes and dreams remain. And we learn about Peter himself. He is the unlikely hero. The person all of us would like to be.

Even if you don’t like post-apocalyptic novels, you have to read Don’t Dream It’s Over. It truly is a great novel.

Don’t Dream It’s Over on Amazon.

Doc Bannister and Eudora Durant

Caleb Pirtle’s series The Boomtown Saga is a magnificent historical novel series. It is literary mystery at its finest.

The books revolve around the intertwining stories of con-artist Doc Bannister and widow Eudora Durant.

These are two of the finest characters I’ve ever met. They are real people who come alive when you open the book. So real in fact, that I may have fallen in love with Eudora.

The Boomtown Saga will transport you back in time and introduce you to two of the most intriguing people you will ever meet. Real or otherwise.

The Boomtown Saga on Amazon.

Philip Marlowe

I came to Raymond Chandler’s fiction late in life. And I’m glad I did. I’m able to much better appreciate his picturesque prose, Chandlerisms, and the introspection and observations of PI Philip Marlowe.

In many ways, Marlowe is larger than life. And that is okay. It’s his keen observations about life, his feelings for or against people, that make him such an intriguing character.

Dracula

Almost all contemporary vampires are actually spinoffs of the silent film Nosferatu. And when compared to Stoker’s Dracula are very limited creatures.

Bram Stoker’s vampire is a creature of immense paranormal power.

He can walk about in daylight, although his power is diminished.

He can shapeshift to a variety of creatures and can even assume the shape of fog.

He can change his appearance.

His power of mental telepathy and control of people from afar is phenomenal.

His strength is supernatural.

Dracula is a predator of almost unlimited power and abilities and that makes him a true force to be reckoned with.

He is the perfect bad guy because he’s almost indestructible.

And maybe that’s why modern film, TV, and fiction opt to cast their vampires in the form of Nosferatu instead of Stoker’s Dracula.

Dracula, though, is truly better. He’s much more terrifying.

Those are ten of my favorite fictional characters. Drop your 10 in the comments section below.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

Reading is Still the Best

I’m a reader turned writer, who still reads. Why? Because fiction is still my favorite form of entertainment. Not movies. Not computer games. Not TV. Not sports. It is a good book or short story. And because I like reading good stories, I started writing stories I would like to read. Consequently, I’m under no delusion that everyone will like what I write. I do know I will. And hopefully others will too.

So what do I like to read? I took a look through the BISAC subject heading list and came up with the following 10 genres/categories and listed a few favorites to go with each. The list is not exhaustive and the moment I post this, I’ll probably remember a delightful tale I forgot to include.

Action & Adventure

This is a broad category. I prefer my action/adventure to be a bit dark and touched with the fantastic or the supernatural.

H Rider Haggard so often fits the bill. King Solomon’s Mines is difficult to beat.

Robert E Howard in his short life wrote in a wide array of genres/categories. Some of my favorite stories feature his character Solomon Kane. Dark tales, touched with the supernatural, and with plenty of action.

Alternative History

I’m actually new to the genre, having come to it via steampunk. I haven’t read many alternative history stories and those I have read haven’t been overly memorable. The one I’ve enjoyed the most is Sydney Padua’s The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.

However, the one story that does stick in my mind is not something I read. It’s the original Star Trek episode “Bread and Circuses”. A very fine alternative history story indeed.

Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic

I admit I’m fussy when it comes to this genre. What I like is the cozy catastrophe, that sub-sub-genre which focuses on the aftermath of the disaster and what the survivors end up doing.

There are some notable classics here, such as The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and The Earth Abides by George R Stewart. Terry Nation’s book Survivors is disturbingly dark.

Fantasy

A very broad genre this, with many sub-genres. I confess I don’t read much fantasy anymore. I got burned out on all the magic and uninspired Tolkien rip-offs.

Generally I like my fantasy dark, sliding off into the horror genre, with a touch of the supernatural.

My all time favorite here is the gothic novel Dracula. However, I very much enjoyed Artemis Fowl. Very imaginative.

Ghost

Who doesn’t enjoy a good ghost story? One of the best I’ve read of late is Crispian Thurlborn’s A Bump in the Night. Very funny and philosophical.

Generally, though, I prefer my ghost stories over in the horror genre. One of the best is Robert E Howard’s “Pigeons from Hell” and he even includes a zuvembie, another name for a zombie.

Horror

I love a good psychological horror story with supernatural overtones. Slasher stories stay away. Can’t stand them.

Ben Willoughby’s recent contribution Raw Head is a well-done riff off of an old Southern legend.

One of my favorite stories is T.E.D. Klein’s “The Events at Poroth Farm” and the novel expanding on the story The Ceremonies.

Robert E Howard’s story “Black Canaan” is superb, as are so very many of his other tales. And many of H P Lovecraft’s stories are well worth re-reading, such as “The Transition of Juan Romero”, “The Call of Cthulhu”, and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”.

My interest in horror goes all the way back to my elementary school years and a slim paperback of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales. Add to that Conrad Aiken’s “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” and Saki’s “Sredni Vashtar” and I was hooked.

Mystery & Detective

I’m very fussy when it comes to mysteries. In fact, I don’t like mysteries per se because I’m not all that fond of puzzles. What I like are detective stories, preferably private detective stories, with a little bit of mystery tossed in.

I suppose Dupin and Holmes are to blame for this bias on my part. After all, they are very often more interesting than the mysteries they solve! Quite honestly, some of Holmes’ adventures are not very good and how Poe could bore us with “Marie Roget” is a question worth asking. Nevertheless, Dupin and Holmes live on. They are eternal.

My favorite private detective is Nero Wolfe, created by Rex Stout. Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are my dynamic duo.

Noir

Cornell Woolrich is perhaps the noir writer par excellence. Rear Window is a modern classic. I don’t read a lot of noir. But if I do, Woolrich is first in line.

Science Fiction

Like fantasy, like mystery, the science fiction genre is huge, with many, many sub-genres. I tend to prefer space operas and harder sci-fi as opposed to science fantasy.

The Player of Games by Iain Banks and Men, Martians, and Machines by Eric Frank Russell are favorites. So is Groff Conklin’s superb collection of short stories Omnibus of Science Fiction, which contains one of the finest stories H P Lovecraft ever wrote “The Colour Out Of Space”.

Sea Stories

“I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by…”

Masefield had it right. The lure of the sea and a tall ship, sails filled with the wind. The list of classics is endless. Yet, as much as I love sailing ships, I haven’t read any sea yarns for quite awhile.

The ones that stick in my mind are The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Poe, and Conrad’s The Secret Sharer and The Nigger of the Narcissus.

Of course there are many more great stories I didn’t list. Share your favorites. I’m always on the lookout for a good story or book to read.

The Wonderful Machine Age - His Master’s Voice

Who isn’t familiar with the picture of the dog focused on the phonograph horn listening to the voice of his deceased master? Such is the power of sound, especially familiar sounds.

While typing this post, I was listening to the incredibly beautiful work of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, entitled “The Solent”. Prior to 1877 such would not have been possible. For in that year, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and within decades home entertainment was revolutionized. The piano in the parlor began to collect dust and piano lessons began to become a thing of the past.

Edison’s machine used a needle to record little hills and valleys in a wax cylinder, which when played back produced sound. In 1887, Emile Berliner patented the gramophone which used a flat disc. The needle followed a track with moved side to side instead of up and down.

Below is Edison's phonograph from 1899.

Eventually Berliner’s gramophone won the commercial battle because the process of producing records instead of cylinders was cheaper. A record cost 20¢, whereas a cylinder cost 50¢. For the cost of 2 cylinders, I could buy 5 records. Pretty simple math and the cylinder became a footnote in history. Ironically enough, Edison had already contemplated the disc but favored the cylinder because it was scientifically more perfect. I guess even geniuses make mistakes. And that’s why many of us grew up collecting records instead of cylinders.

Below is picture of a wind-up gramophone.

Edison’s phonograph was the first machine to both record and playback sound. However, an earlier machine, the phonautograph, invented in 1857, made a visual image of the voice for study by doctors and scientists. The image could not be played back. At least not until 2008 when, with the help of optical scanning and computers, the pictures were turned into digital audio files and listened to for the first time. The oldest recordings of the human voice.

Just as Bell had competition for the telephone, so did Edison with the phonograph. That competition came in the form of Charles Cros’ paleophone. Cros, who was a poet and amateur inventor, came up with the idea to use photoengraving to transfer the phonautograph image to a disc or cylinder for playback. He wrote a letter describing his idea and deposited it with the French Academy of Science on 30 April 1877. Cros’ idea became public on 10 October 1877, however by then he had improved upon his original concept by inventing a way to capture and record sound using an acid-etch method.

Learning of Edison’s machine, Cros had his April letter opened and claimed scientific priority over Edison.

Cros’ method became standard procedure to produce the metal masters from which the flat records could be pressed. Unfortunately, he died in 1888 and could not enjoy his triumph over Edison. Today, no one’s even acquainted with the name of Charles Cros.

The phonograph, or gramophone, is perhaps one of the most iconic inventions of The Machine Age. Rivaled only by the telephone and the automobile. It appeared at the age’s beginning and was going strong when the age faded away. Today, the phonograph has morphed into the ubiquitous iPod.

There was a gramophone on board the Graf Zeppelin on its round the world flight in August 1929. Brought on board by millionaire Bill Leeds, Commander Hugo Eckener had it promptly removed. Leeds retrieved the machine and told Eckener if weight was the problem he’d leave behind his luggage.

Bram Stoker, in his novel Dracula, had Doctor Seward record his diary on a phonograph. Seward, however, was worried the count might be able to melt the wax cylinders with his mysterious powers and destroy Seward’s recordings of the vampire’s machinations. That is perhaps the first literary example of the dictaphone, which has also gone digital.

Of equal lineage with the phonograph is the tape recorder. We don’t really use them anymore but we do use digital versions to record our voices.

The tape recorder was invented in 1886 by Alexander Graham Bell’s Volta Laboratory. The machine used a strip of paper coated with beeswax. Magnetic recording was first conceived of in 1877 and demonstrated in 1898, first using wire and later tape.

Below is an early magnetic wire recorder from 1898.

Magnetic Wire Recorder 1898

The record player and tape recorder were everywhere in the 20th century — even more widespread than the TV. I think retro-futurist writers with a little imagination can easily come up with something true to form and yet truly fantastic. Bram Stoker did so simply by including a phonograph in his novel. Now what if that record player or tape recorder could fit inside a small brown box about the size of a deck of cards?