The Strength...
I'm beginning to think that in the fantasy genre, the strength of the book is equal to the strength of the main character. Not that I love reading about muscle bound men and women. On the contrary, those strengths bother me somewhat because they aren't normal. Maybe we see athletes pump iron and call out their opponents and for some people it's impressive, but my tastes go beyond that because if there isn't an inner-strength in that character they are superficial.
And you can't have inner strength without struggles.
I guess I'm writing about this because of my anticipation of the SPFBO blog-off and worried that my poor little Erika, who makes a big mistake in her first battle within the first few pages, might show herself foolish in among the Thor-types she's playing against.
Well yeah, she is foolish. And her sisters are even more flighty. But really you have to understand they were raised by a widowed king who spoiled them rotten in a kingdom where women weren't heirs to the throne but only pretty faces to attract men who might be able to handle the Crown. Erika and her twin sisters were rivals for their father's attention, and Erika was torn with guilt having been the baby who killed her mother during labor. A mother that her twin sisters knew well.
So there's an obvious note of dysfunction here, something I'm pretty familiar with personally. You'll find some social and emotional dysfunction in all my work because, well because life has been like that to me.
So I suppose defending my poor weak characters who overcome some obstacles, like their own inadequacies, by book 3, and in Erika's case book 2, is something I must do. I mean, making mistakes, poor choices and banging their heads against the wall early in life might someday help them bang against the skura, the mountain giants, or the dragons, right?
As an added note, I think the suspense of staying with the book, or the series, is a tribute to the reader. Trust the author to know they will pull that incompetent, bungling, sometimes moody character out of their shell. In order for there to be a character arc, starting at the bottom means there's a hole to dig out of, and if the author knows what he's doing, you'll get to witness each step of the way and get to cheer the poor soul on.
I remember someone writing as a review for Ian in Ian's Realm, that they were "praying for him." Now there's a faithful reader!
