Earlier this week Book Riot ran a post featuring the 20 most-loved literary characters. It was a fun post and I certainly saw a few of my favorites there, but as I went to go and share the link via VBC’s Facebook page I stopped myself.
As lovely as the list was, it wasn’t too heavy on the fantasy end of things. Sure, Gandalf and the Harry Potter gang were there, but it leaned much more toward the classics. While I’m a fan of those, too, I thought about who my contemporary favorites are—and who might top your lists.
Where were Rachel Morgan, Chess Putnam and Cat? What about Rose Hathaway and Tris? Were secondary characters like those from Bon Temps exempt?
They were all missing. I think we should fix that.
Hit the comments, fair readers, and tell me who are your most-loved literary characters from speculative fiction novels. It can be from fantasy goodness (Atticus O’Sullivan!), paranormal romance (Naomi West!), young adult (Allie Sekemoto!) and, of course, urban fantasy (Mac 2.0!).
Hawke and Sienna from Nalini Singh Psy/Changelings Series
Sorry I hit enter by accident. Barrons and Mac of course from KMM Fever series. Love love love.
Cassie and Priktin ( Karen Chance, Cassandra Palmer Series)
Barrons and Mac ( KMM, Fever Series)
Kate and Curran (Ilona Andrews, Kate Daniels Series
Allie and Zaviyon ( Devon Monk, Allie Beckstrom series)
Yelena and Valek ( Maria V Snyder, Study Series)
So many more, I would be here for days if I had to name them all 🙂
Curran and Kate (Kate Daniels series, Ilona Andrews)
Cat and Bones (Grave series, Jeniene Frost)
Charlie and Reyes :)(Charile Davidson series, Darynda Jones)
These are three of my favorite too along with Mercy and Adam.
I love that Snape is there. But we need to talk about the H&Hs that keep up awake reading until 3 in the morning. Bones, Cat and Vlad from Night Huntress. Bowen MacReive, Nucking-Futs Nix and Lothaire from IAD. Lucan, Tegan and Andreas from Lara Adrian’s Breed, Jane True and Anyan (GIMME THAT BARGHEST!), Reyes and Charlie, Acheron, Wraith and Reseph from Larissa Ione. Oh, and let’s not even forget Wrath and Beth, Vishous (I’m not even typing that damned ghost’s name), Rehv, Z and Bella and Qhuay.
I agree with the everyone’s favorite characters so far. Now let me add the entire “cast” of The Chicagoland Vampire series to the mix: Merit and Ethan and Lindsey and Luc and Catcher and Mallory and Jeff and Gabriel and so forth. Talk about the only book I’ve read in which I truly enjoy each and every character…even the evil ones. 😉
I love this question! Chess Putnam is definitely on my list. And they haven’t been mentioned yet, so I have throw in Milagro de los Santos and Ian (::fans self::) from Marta Acosta’s Casa Dracula series.
@Candace, I second your vote for Jane & Anyan! (Rawr!)
Rachel Morgan from the Hollows series by Kim Harrison.
I could second a bunch of those already mentioned, but I’ll add Raphael and Elena from the Guild Hunter series and Juliette and Warner (not Adam!) from the Shatter Me trilogy.
Jenks, Pritkin, Oberon, Ascanio and Raphael from Kate Daniels
Oh and Terrible!
Adam and Mercy
The whole cast of the Elantra series — Love that series
Eve and Roarke
Have to agree with Raphael and Elena
Meg and Simon and Monty from Written in Red
Ia from Jean Johnson – Their’s Not to Reason Why
Jane Yellowrock and Beast
Anna and Charles
Octavian (Tavi) from the Furies of Calderon – Jim Butcher
Kate and Curran and cast
1)kate daniel 2) Curran – Kate Daniels Series,
3) mercy thompson 4) Adam hauptman 5) Samuel Cornick – patricia briggs.
6) rachel morgan 7) ivy 8) jenks 9)kisten 10) Trent 11) Al – rachel morgan series
12)Raphael 13) Elena – Guild Hunter series
14)Merit 15) Ethan – chicagoland vampire series
16)Jane Yellowrock + Beast – Jane Yellowrock series
17)Meg 18) Simon – written in red by anne bishop
19 Reyes 20) Charlie – Charlie Davidson Series
Chess and” My” Terrible! <3
My list would include:
Kate & Curran from Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels
Mercy Hauptman from Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson
Gin Blanco from Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin
Blayne Thorpe from Shelly Laurenston’s Pride
I completely forgot about Blayne and Jess and the whole gang. Good call!
Cal and Niko leandros…. from the cal leandros series.
Kate Daniels, Curran….Barrons, Mac
ALL the beautiful, sexy, masculine and fantastically brave men and the astounding women they are mated to – and the beautiful, sexy, etc., man one is mated to – of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. J. R. Ward, may you live and write forever!
Acheron and Tory in the Dark Hunter Series
I agree with a lot of the characters already listed. I want to add the following:
Acheron in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunters; All the Argeneau and Notte men in Lynsay Sands’ Argeneau Vampire Series; Mark and Faythe in Rachel Vincent’s Shifter Series; Dorina and Louis-Cesare in Karen Chance’s Dorina Basarab series; and Joanne and David in Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series.
Sookie Stackhouse, the novel version soooo NOT TV.
I know the last couple of books have not been quite as satisfying but I loved her so much. She was such a real, human heroine. My mom’s family is from the South and I loved the way she talked and her manners because I was brought up with Southern manners as well. Oh my god, nobody can walk into my house without being offered something to drink! Yeah, Sookie, hands down.
I copied and pasted from everyone else the ones that I agreed with and added a few more…
Cassie and her Vampire ( Karen Chance, Cassandra Palmer Series) Also enjoy Dorina and Louise-Cesare from Palmer’s Hell’s Daughter (?) series
Kate and Curran (Ilona Andrews, Kate Daniels Series
Allie and Zaviyon ( Devon Monk, Allie Beckstrom series)**
Yelena and Valek ( Maria V Snyder, Study Series)
Cal and Niko leandros…. from the cal leandros series
Mercy and Adam Hauptman from Patricia Briggs’
Mercy Thompson oh and Charles and Ann from her Alpha and Omega series
Gin Blanco and Finn from Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin
Blayne Thorpe, Dee and the whole mash up of shifters from Shelly Laurenston’s series
Jane Yellowrock + Beast – Jane Yellowrock series
The whole cast of the Elantra series
Cat and Bones (Grave series, Jeniene Frost)
Atticus O’Sullivan from the Iron Druid series
Anita Blake, Micah, Nathaniel and company from the Vampire Hunter series
Joanne Walker and Coyote from C.L. Murphy’s The Walker Papers
Jilly Coppercorn from Charles de Lint’s Newford series…
I could go on all night….
Henry Dresden and Maggie from the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher,
Henry Fitzroy, Vicky and all of the other characters from Tanya Huff’s Blood series and the Ashes spin off too.
Ukiah Oregon from Wen Spencer’s Alien series…
I keep looking at the piles of books in my apartment and remembering other favorite characters…
Oh and my most recent faves Dante and Heather from Adrian Phoenix’ Maker’s Song series
Agree with the above. How about Wrath and the BDB? Mikhail and Raven from the Carpathian series, Elena and Raphael from the Guild Hunter series, all the couples from the Psy-Changling series, Acheron, Simi, and the Dark Hunters, Dragos and Pia from the Elder series. My list could gone for quite a while yet!
I was going to list them, but they have all been covered in all the lists above.
I love that Allie Sekemoto is mentioned in your post as I think Kagawa really created an interesting world here with a fangtastic heroine. All the names above are great and I’d like to add the YA cast of the Lux series. I’ve also become a fan of Secret McQueen.
My all time favourite cast and top 3 series will always be Cat & Bones, Kate & Curran and Rachel & Trent & Al. There are no other books I’ve read that often in this genre and where I also root for all the secondary characters.
Almost everyone ever from Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES. But especially Harry, Mister, Carlos, Molly, Nicodemus, and Marcone.
Also, almost everyone ever from Seanan McGuire’s Toby Daye and InCryptid series. Toby, Verity, Tybalt, Sylvester, etc.
Just reading through all the repsonses so far, I’m pretty sure all my top ones are listed, but I’ll list them again anyway!
Kate and Curran
Charlie and Reyes
Merit and Ethan
Dorina and Louis-Casare
The list could go on and on!
Jean Claude, from Anita Blake series.~
the brothers and their shelans from the black dagger brotherhood series love them all
Have I mentioned VBC readers have AMAZING taste? Loving all the favorites you guys have added.
Ok so quite a lot of my favourites are already up there so I’m just going to hit the highlights
Kate & Curran (Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews)
Cat & Bones (Jeaniene Frost)
Alexia Tarabotti (Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger)
Pia & Dragos, Kahlil & Grace (Thea Harrison)
I also love the Witch Central Series by Debora Geary but am not sure who my favourite is, possibly Moira or Aervyn
Well, I see I share my preferences with many of you. My favourites are Mac and Barrons, Cat and Bones, all the BDB boys, and of course the brothers in Larissa Ione’s Demonica and LOD
Most of my favourites have already been mentioned but in my top favourites are also Jess and Rourke from the Jessica McClain (Amanda Carlson) series and Gio and Bea from Elizabeth Hunter’s Elemental Mysteries and Cady and Lon from Jenn Bennet’s Arcadia Bell series. Phenomenal secondary characters in all those too.
So many favourites, so many wonderful characters! Urban fantasy always comes out top for me.
1) Kate Daniels
2) Curran (KD)
3) Raphael (KD)
4) Andrea (KD)
5) Kaldar (Edge)
6) Will (Edge)
7) Mac (Fever)
8) Archer Cross (Hex Hall)
9) Jean Lafitte (Sentinels of New Orleans)
10) Ian (Darkest London)
11) Daisy (Darkest London)
12) Miranda (Darkest London)
13) Archer (Darkest London)
14) Poppy (DL)
15) Winston (DL)
16) Elena (Women of the Otherworld)
17) Clay (WotO)
18) Romeo Marescotti (Juliet)
19) Finnick (Hunger Games)
20) Jackson (Arcana Chronicles)
Aside: I think these are too romance to count, but I would definitely add Adam Black and Gabrielle and Drustan MacKeltar and Gwen, if they count. Series: Highlanders
This is a really tough one! I have so many favorites!
1.)Kate Daniels (Ilona Andrews, Kate Daniels series)
2.)Curran (Ilona Andrews, Kate Daniels series)
3.)Mercedes Thompson (Patricia Briggs, Mercy Thompson series)
4.)Adam Hauptman (Patricia Briggs, Mercy Thompson series)
5.)Charles (Patricia Briggs, Alpha & Omega/Mercy Thompson)
6.)Bran (Patricia Briggs, Alpha & Omega/Mercy Thompson)
7.)Cat and Bones (can’t be listed separately- Jeaniene Frost; Night Huntress)
8.)EVERYONE from Elantra series (Michelle Sagara, Elantra)
9.)Clayton Danvers (Kelley Armstrong, Otherworld)
10.)The cats of Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling world – and their mates!
11.) Guild Director Sara (and handsome husband) from Nalini Singh’s Angels series.
12.) Elena (Kelley Armstrong, Otherworld)
13.)Yelena and Valek ( Maria V Snyder, Study Series)
To be honest, I could go on forever, but I’ll spare you my further listings 😉 So many wonderful characters!!
Okay, here we go..
1. Cat & Bones
2. Megan & Simon (Crimson Series by Trisha Baker)
3. Kate & Curran
4. Elena & Raphael
5. Charlie & Reyes
6. Acheron & Soteria
7. Styxx
8. Dex & Perry
9. Meredith & Ethan
Lothaire
JZB – Fever
Terrible – Downside
Gin Blanco – Elemental Assassin
Finn Lane – Elemental Assassin
Kate – Kate Daniels
Curran – Kate Daniels
Ian – Night Huntress
Bones – Night Huntress
Evy – Dreg City
Jenks – The Hollows
I just have to say everyone from G.A. Akien’s Dragon akin series. If you have not read it you should, it’s fraking hilarious. Plus Molly Harper’s Half Moon Hallow crew.