A.J. Maguire

Tag: Reading

  • Top 5 Villains (Literary Version)

    Since I compiled my list of heroes last week, I thought it only fair to dive into the villains this week.  These are the people I just love to hate.  And in actuality, the villain is what makes or breaks a story for me.  We can go into a huge conversation about the difference between an antagonist and a villain, but I’ll just define it in simple terms so I can get to my list.

    A villain has no redeeming qualities.  An antagonist has a glimmer of the redeemable in him — though he likely continues to make the wrong choices.

    It took me all week to compile this list.  I even had to have help from some Facebook friends.  But here we go!

    1) Professor Umbridge from the Harry Potter series.  This woman just got under my skin.  It was the first villain I’ve read about where I actually wanted to reach into the pages of my book and strangle her.

    2) Iago from Othello.  He gets points for exploiting the human tendency toward jealousy.

    3) Black Jack Randall from the Outlander series.  I picked him because he’s … well … politely sadistic.

    4) Professor James Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes.  This one a friend pointed out to me and I have to agree.  It’s been about 6 months since I read any of my Doyle, but yeah … he had to make a character that could put Holmes through a ringer.

    5) Sauron from Lord of the Rings.  I mean … c’mon.  Dude didn’t have a body and he still tried to take over Middle Earth.

    I do have some honorable mentions!  The first is Dorian Grey, who I think falls more under the “antagonist” category because he starts out just fine and then progresses into evil-bastard via the choices he makes.  The second two are from movies, and since this is supposed to be the literary version I can’t put them up here.

    1)  Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.  Before you laugh, remember that this crazy lady cursed a baby, spent 16 years hunting a child, and then plotted to hold a man hostage so that he could save the day when he was a decrepit old man.  That, and, well, she turned into a frigging dragon.

    2) Guy de Lusignan from Kingdom of Heaven.  My friend at work suggested this one and my immediate response was to coo.  Because, I mean, did you see the movie?

    That’s my list of villains!  If you’ve got any that you think could beat my villains into powdery-doom, I’m happy to hear about them.

  • Top 5 Heroes (Literature Version)

    Let me start off  by saying that this is not an exhaustive list.  I read every day — to some extent anyway — and therefore my choice of who makes the best hero is likely going to change over time.

    Hero – a man of distinguished courage and ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.  (Author’s addition — someone with the oomph to carry a story for 300 pages or more.)

    Coming in first place is James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser (AKA Jamie) from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  Taking away the swoon factor of a giant red-headed, sword-and-musket-wielding Highlander, Jamie has this vulnerable quality that just makes me want to give him a big hug.  He’s got bravado and gumption, and I’m pretty sure he’s just as bad at strategy as I am because he sort of just does things.  (Like march into an angry mob and try to save an accused witch from being killed.)

    Second place goes to Kelsier from Brandon Sanderson’s Mistorborn – The Final Empire.  No, I didn’t pick Vin or Elund (the two you might expect me to pick from that book) because they irritated me at some point or another.  Vin because she got a little whiny about where she came from and Elund because … yeah … he didn’t get all that much page-time in the book.  But Kelsier … Kelsier was my favorite.  And my coworkers can attest to the fact that I fairly squealed and spun in my chair a few times during the battle moments there at the end.  (I don’t want to spoil it, but I’m a girl and even I was impressed with the magic fight.)

    The number 3 position goes to Nathaniel Bonner from Sara Donati’s Into the Wild.  Sweet, holy bananas!  What I wouldn’t give for that man to comment about my boots.  There’s nothing particularly extraordinary about Nathaniel, he can’t use magic and he doesn’t use a sword, but he is super smart and I’m pretty sure he makes up for the no-sword thing with the tomahawk.

    Coming in at the fourth position is William Harindale.  I know, I know, he’s 17 or so, but the boy has “hero” written all over him.  He stars in Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices series and he’s the first character to make me cry in a long time.  (No, I’m not going to tell you which part made me weepy. )

    I had a hard time coming up with a fifth hero.  I almost bent the rules and dove into film and TV heroes, which would have given me people like James T. Kirk and Han Solo to pick from, but I’ve decided that film heroes deserve their own segment.  Heck, Star Trek deserves its own segment of Captains to fight between.  So!  I chose for the final hero … Harry Potter.

    Yes, yes, good old Harry Potter.  But there’s a reason why everyone loved him enough to stick with him for 7 books.  Young, fresh, tragic, lost, and pit up against insurmountable odds … Yeah.  Harry counts as one of my top 5.

    That’s it!  That’s my top 5.  Who are yours?

  • The Between

    Before school starts next week and I get bogged down with more work than any one person should ever take on — e.g. school, full time work, mother of a four year old child, editing, and writing — I wanted to take a moment to cheer on a friend of mine.  Her first novel came out on Friday (yes, she picked Friday the 13th on purpose, but if you read the book you’ll totally understand) and I am super-pleased for her.  In fact, I’m throwing confetti for her …

    OK, so I’m not really throwing confetti.  I have a four year old and that’s plenty of mess to clean up after.  But I am stoked that she’s taken this step and is published.  I’m even more stoked that she’s published this particular work.  I had the privilege of reading an earlier draft of it and absolutely fell in love with the story.  I’m going to be a brat and wait to write a full review on GoodReads until I’ve read this shiny-new-Kindle version, but I’m sure I’ll love it as much as I loved it the first time around.

    But while I’m at it … I’m going to flaunt the book at all of you dear, dear friends.  You should read The Between by LJ Cohen.  You can find several different formats of the book HERE!