Sunday Six ÷ 2

Secondary characters that rock!

I love a good read. The hero and heroine have to be characters to whom I relate well. However, a book with dynamite secondary characters is a real treat because there are just more people to which I’m drawn. I want to know what happens to all of them.

One of the most memorable secondary characters I’ve read recently was Jules Cassidy in Suzanne Brockmann’s Hot Target. I’m slowly working my way through her books, so I know he shows up in more than one of them. However, in Hot Target, he is fantastic. I was every bit as interested in the scenes from his POV as I was the scenes from the hero and heroine’s POV. Jules is a gay FBI agent. He has a lot of issues to deal with in Hot Target – his mission, his ex-lover for whom he still has feelings, and the heroine’s not-quite-out-of-the-closet-yet brother for whom he’s developing feelings. Jules is handled in such a real way that you find yourself wanting to read more about him, rooting for his happiness just as much as that of the hero and heroine. Wow. Very well done.

Another secondary character I loved was Bean in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. Bean is Ender’s second in command in a childhood army being trained to wipe out the buggers before they wipe out humanity. Bean is the youngest soldier and the one most guided by logic. He doesn’t let emotion of any kind rule, unlike Ender whose emotions temper his logic to make him the obvious leader. Apparently, Card liked Bean a lot, too. He wrote a parallel book – Ender’s Shadow – which told the same story as Ender’s Game but completely from Bean’s POV. Talk about an interesting study in your characters. Amazing.

How about Acheron from Sherilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter Series? I love those books, by the way. She has created an amazing world, and at the center of it is Acheron, a mysterious god-like man who is in charge of the Dark Hunters. He has unusual powers and even his friends speculate about what he really is. It isn’t any wonder that Kenyon’s legions of devoted fans desperately want Kenyon to write Acheron’s novel. Holy hell. I’d buy it hard-cover the day it came out! I think all of her readers are in love with him. And frankly, check him out. What’s not to love?

I’ve been thinking about secondary characters all day, but frankly, these are the ones that most intrigue me. Therefore, for now, we’ll call this the Sunday Six ÷ 2!!!

I can’t wait to read what the rest of the group posts.

Macy