All cheap and debonair

[sovay]

Talk to me about supporting characters. When you're supposed to fall for the heroine, and instead it's the second spear-carrier from the left who turns out to have the thorniest moral dilemma or the most fascinating backstory. This happens to me all the time; I can't be the only one. So who are your scene-stealers? Movies, books, operas—your own work—which character roles do you remember long after you've forgotten who played the protagonist?

(This post brought to you courtesy of Eleanor Cameron and L.M. Montgomery.)

Comments

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Books:

--Crack from Martha Wells' excellent "Death of a Necromancer"
--Jessica Sorrow from Simon Green's Nightside books
--Bobbi Yee from Elizabeth Bear's "Hammered"

TV:
The only one who springs readily to mind is Angelo from "The Pretender". C'mon! He lived in the crawlspace! There had to be a great backstory there!

[sovay]

I haven't read or seen any of these! Clearly I need to expand my horizons. What do you recommend first?

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Depends on your mood. More dystopian cyberness, Hammered. Need to steep in myth and atmosphere, Something from the Nightside. And if you're looking for a sort of Les-Mis-meets-Cthulhu type of deal, Necromancer. All are excellent.

[sovay]

And if you're looking for a sort of Les-Mis-meets-Cthulhu type of deal, Necromancer.

Okay. I think I might have to read that just to believe it. Awesome.

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

I put it this way: it's the type of book where I am genuinely afraid to read the sequels, in case they do not live up to the quality of the first one.