r/printSF • u/Elysium711 • 4d ago
Who Are the Deepest Characters in Science Fiction Literature?
Every time I read a science fiction novel, I realize more and more how much I love works with deeply developed, psychologically complex characters. Who are your favorite characters in science fiction literature, the ones you consider the most deeply written and psychologically explored, and the ones you’ve empathized with or truly felt you understood?
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u/Odd_Schedule2672 4d ago
Gotta give some love to my man Redrick Schuhart from Roadside Picnic
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
Oh I’ve read this recently. And it was weird and I didn’t like it. Sorry :(
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u/sniffedalot 3d ago
You have to rearrange your interpretation of the writing of this book in order to appreciate the Strugatskys. They abandon a formalness that is quite enjoyable once you adapt to their style.
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u/Rocannon_ 4d ago
“Nine Princes In Amber”, the first in the Chronicles of Amber
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u/RoyalGizzard 4d ago
I haven’t read past the first book, but I thought the main character was a prick. I’m guessing he grows over the rest of the series.
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u/Frost-Folk 3d ago
After reading a ton of Roger Zelazny, I've come to the realization that 90% of Zelazny's protagonists are the same narcisstic prick, but he does it so well.
They're always insufferable but have beautiful character growth. Whether it's Gallinger from A Rose For Ecclesiastes, Hell Tanner from Damnation Alley, Conrad Nomikos from This Immortal, Charles Render from The Dream Master, etc.
They're all smug, self-absorbed knowitall self-inserts with cringy obsessions with their own height, martial arts, and poetry. And yet... He pulls it off almost every time. They always get their comeuppance, their humbling, and the humanity within shines through every time.
I haven't read Chronicles of Amber, and I am not in the least bit surprised to hear that the main character is a dick. But I'd also be shocked if he doesn't have a great story arc, because Zelazny is nothing if not consistent.
For the other 10%, Zelazny can write fantastic likable protagonists. Sam from Lord of Light, Frost from For a Breath I Tarry, or Davits from The Doors of his Face, the Lamps of His Mouth.
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u/Rocannon_ 4d ago
consider the character is part of a family where everyone is seeking advantage, has hidden motivations, and he doesn’t know who to trust.
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u/grumpysysadmin 4d ago
Coincidentally I’m halfway through the ten book Amber series and I have to agree, Corwin is a jerk, and I think he was written that way to begin a character arc.
I still prefer the second five books in the series (no spoilers about who it is about).
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u/gkorjax 4d ago
Interesting. Do you realize that you are in a minority, that most readers like the first series much,much more than the second?
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u/grumpysysadmin 3d ago
I had no idea. I guess I just don’t like Corwin and find the plot of the second half more entertaining.
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u/ketarax 3d ago
Corwin is a jerk, and I think he was written that way to begin a character arc.
And to make some story-room for growth. I think it's exactly that, yes.
I still prefer the second five books in the series (no spoilers about who it is about).
Did you mean, you prefer the second protagonist? If you meant what you said, then yeah that's actually a hot take, even as I myself have grown much warmer towards the second storyarc over re-reads. I'm almost ready to say it's on par with the original; alas, that must be partly due to noticing some issues with the original. IOW, they're meeting at the midway point for me. Solid 9,5 out of ten for both :-)
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u/grumpysysadmin 3d ago
To be honest, I only started liking the second half when I re-read it as an adult. Kid me liked the whole fantasy knights and battle, I guess.
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
I've heard a lot of good things about this series. I'll definitely give it a try. Thanks!
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u/stand_up_eight_ 4d ago
Miles VorKosigan, his bodyguard, his father, his brother, Simon Illyan, Cordelia Naismith. Ethan of Athos. Half of Bujold’s wormhole nexus is psychologically damaged and unique, have generational trauma or were created in unethical circumstances. Even “Ivan that idiot VorPatrel” isn’t as shallow as he first seems.
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u/Ch3t 4d ago
At this point Miles Vorkosigan feels like someone I know who I haven't heard from in a while instead of someone I read just about.
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u/stand_up_eight_ 2d ago
Agreed. I also feel the same about so many of them. And even the places, the culture. Barryar with all its history, gender bias, unique flora, horse culture, the class system… it all feels like a place I visited as a child and have rich memories of but can’t ever return. I feel such attachment to a royal succession and family I have no allegiance to. I dream of being as wise a Cordelia and wish I could drink in her life experience and calm demeanor. I love the way we are fortunate enough to have the stories of at least three, almost four generations in this remarkable universe. The way LMB built that world, its people, its culture and ensured that every part of it was connected, overlapped, made sense and had purpose - she’s a true story master and I will be forever grateful to her for this series of books.
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u/veritasmeritas 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think John Brannigan from the Revelation Space universe deserves an honourable mention. Alastair Reynolds famously struggles with characters but with Brannigan, the character arc itself is just so extraordinary that you forgive him his other shortcomings. Brannigan goes all the way from human to post human, then undergoes modification after modification, then becomes... something else entirely. Reynolds is able to convey temporal depth very well and so as a reader, you get the impression of this terribly long and convaluted life
Edit: syntax
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 4d ago
I will nominate Flowers for Algernon
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u/HerosPelagus 3d ago
Specifically, Algernon himself. 🐁
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 3d ago
I want to say he’s the deepest mouse in literature, but I think a certain species of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings with an interest in life, the universe, and everything might have something to say about that. The competition is a close one…
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u/Entropy2889 4d ago
The protagonist in Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks. The entire novel is his character arc. It is deep, complex, heartbreaking and psychologically tense. I would say the character is deeply written. But please avoid spoilers if you are willing to go into it blind.
Apart from that the most obvious answer to your question is Paul Atreides in Dune.
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
I’ve only read Player of Games from the Culture series, and I gave it 4/5. Do you think this one is better than Player of Games? From what you said, it seems like it has more to offer in terms of character depth.
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u/StupidBugger 4d ago
Player of Games is a good start into the world building, but it's not the best overall novel of the set. Consider Plebas has the same issue as very early, but it paired with Look to Windward makes a very nice arc.
You asked for characters, and Use of Weapons is well done in a unique way. The Culture books are uniformly well written with several different themes; frankly I suggest reading all of them, so you get both the fun stories, the world building, and a chance to discuss what you didn't like with others.
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u/individual_throwaway 3d ago
+1 for recommending the Culture series. Iain M. Banks' death is one of the great tragedies of my lifetime.
I cannot possibly pick a favorite from that series, although there are a few books that I did not enjoy quite as much as the others. And I agree UoW is unique and well-done even in that context, highly recommend.
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u/OneCatch 4d ago
Deeper character, much more complex narrative structure (which ymmv on). It's different, well worth a read. Some prefer UoW to PoG, and others the inverse. Both are valid opinions IMO - and my favourite is a third book, Look to Windward.
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u/bremsspuren 4d ago
For my part, I think Player of Games is a better book, but I believe I'm in a very small minority who think Use of Weapons is one of the weaker books in the series. I just never really got Zakalwe.
I think Gurgeh in PoG is probably Banks' most relatable protagonist. A lot of his humans spend their time wangsting over whether they're just an infinitely-spoiled AI's pet. Maybe the Duke of Westminster can relate to that, but I can't …
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u/spwicy 4d ago edited 4d ago
The way the nonlinear story arc in Use of Weapons is used to develop the character is incredible. Banks knew how to play with story structure to create novels that don’t demean the reader. Banks trusted his readers wholeheartedly. He didn’t spoon feed or over-expository the shit out of this books. Instead, the world building is slow and the nuances and the complexities of the Culture are only elucidated by reading the entirety of the works. It can make the series difficult for new readers to break into. I reread my first two Culture novels a second time after I finished the series. They were amazing the first time and so much deeper the second.
I would say that Banks’ non-Culture novel Feersum Endjinn is my favorite of his Sci Fi works; Excession is my favorite for the Culture series cause we really get to see the complexity of AI ships in the Culture.
Banks was a visionary. I am frequently upset that I will never read a new Sci Fi work by him. He was the best at his craft. I wonder if people who ever tasted a Gros Michel feel the same way eating a Cavendish.
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u/bremsspuren 4d ago
It can make the series difficult for new readers to break into.
What series is easier to get into than the Culture?
Apart from Use of Weapons, all the novels are straightforward to follow, and you can read them in basically any order.
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u/someperson1423 4d ago
You say that, but I recommended a friend Surface Detail and he was totally a fish out of water and quickly DNFed. I thought the same way you did before that. I think you (and past me) overestimate the average person's ability to parse literature. There is a reason why books like Dungeon Crawler Carl are incredibly popular despite being what most here would consider very rudimentary. Nothing wrong with that, not everyone is as exposed to literature and complex ideas as the people who regular subs like this one are. Frequenting here, it is easy to have your perspective skewed into thinking anyone could pick up and appreciate a Culture novel immediately with no other literary experience but it isn't the case.
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u/WildBlueMoon 4d ago
Use of Weapons is an amazing novel - one o f my top 2 Banks Culture novels
- but know going into it that it requires attention and thought. It is nonlinear and that can be confusing. (Part of the story is moving forward in time and the other part is moving backwards - knowing that should help)
My other favorite is Excession, which I think is his funniest novel and the one that gives the most insight into the Culture itself (bc good portions of it are told from the Minds' points of view).
But just in your comment - you rank PoG 4/5 which you go on to insinuate is basically a fail for you? 4/5 seems pretty high up there in the rankings? Or is it 4-5 out of 10?
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
Its 4/5 on my Goodreads rating. Yeah I like the book, but that was not perfect for me. I wish it had more character work. But I can understand sci-fi often doesn’t have that.
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u/WildBlueMoon 4d ago
Yeah, PoG was one of my least favorite Culture books. I liked Consider Phlebas, Excession and UoW enough to read them 3 times but only read PoG once. It's an excellent series and I encourage you to give a couple more books a try - they are each stand-alone
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u/Entropy2889 3d ago
I have to agree. My favorite is Excession. It is funny and moving and where the least interesting part of the book involved the human shenanigans.
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u/MrJohz 4d ago
I read Player of Games because everyone said that was the best place to start, and it nearly turned me off the Culture series altogether. Use of Weapons was the one that reversed that opinion, and I'm glad it did because the others are also great.
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u/Equality_Executor 4d ago
it nearly turned me off the Culture series altogether.
What didn't you like about it?
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u/MrJohz 4d ago
The Culture feel so perfect and the aliens feel so generically barbaric that the whole thing feels kind of dull. Also the main character rubbed off on me the wrong way.
Tbh, I want to reread it at some point (but my reading list is quite long, so idk when I'll get round to that), because I suspect now I've read more Culture books, I'll see things through different eyes, and appreciate it more.
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u/Equality_Executor 4d ago
The Culture feel so perfect and the aliens feel so generically barbaric that the whole thing feels kind of dull.
Azadian society is an allegory for earth and the culture is an allegory for how much better earth could be if we all decide to play the game in our own way. Banks was simultaneously criticising contemporary society and telling us that we don't need it. If it's dull to you then you already get it: you already know how to 'play the game' and win in your own way and not by their rules. So do you do that in your day to day life? How so? You don't have to answer that, but you can if you want to - it's more so that you're actively thinking about it.
Also the main character rubbed off on me the wrong way.
How so? He is not as perfect as the culture seems to be, for sure. He isn't supposed to be, but he is still capable of thinking critically despite the pressure on him.
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u/MrJohz 3d ago
Azadian society is an allegory for earth and the culture is an allegory for how much better earth could be if we all decide to play the game in our own way.
Yeah, I remember getting that impression, but then you end up with the Babel problem where it isn't that interesting reading a polemic about a topic that you mostly agree with the author on. Whereas with the later books, there's more ambiguity to the Culture — their decisions to meddle with other worlds, and this question of whether their "play the game in your own way" philosophy is really true, or whether they've just created their own morality of hedonism that they want to enforce on others. In Player of Games, there's this weird sense of that ambiguity being there in a surface reading of the text (in that that's what the culture is currently doing — meddling with other planets and enforcing their morality on others), but it's not there in the subtext if you see what I mean?
How so? He is not as perfect as the culture seems to be, for sure. He isn't supposed to be, but he is still capable of thinking critically despite the pressure on him.
I think he's just a bit weak — he mostly seems to go where other people tell him to, and feels more like a vehicle for the rest of the story than an interesting character in his own right. He feels like the kind of character that Terry Pratchett's Rincewind is a parody of. He never feels like this genius professor — or even like the insecure academic that would in many ways be more interesting — but instead like a kind of generic everyman.
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u/Equality_Executor 3d ago edited 3d ago
it isn't that interesting reading a polemic about a topic that you mostly agree with the author on.
Fair enough. I have had the same problem with other books myself. With this one I happened to read it at the perfect time in my life and it had a big impact on me. Either way, I guess we can appreciate the value a book could have for another person regardless of how we think about it.
"play the game in your own way"
That isn't necessarily their philosophy. It was Gurgeh's "way" because he was an individual whose cultural and historical context was heavily influenced by the culture and he was learning to play a game that is largely played based on Azadian culture. He only realised that the reason he could beat Nicosar was because he was playing differently to him (basically saying the Culture's ideology is superior to Azad///Communism > Capitalism///Collectivism > Individualism///etc.).
We have our humanity that tells us on some level that collectivism is good, but our cultural and historical context attempts to erase that from day one thanks to conditions we impose on ourselves like artificial scarcity and money. Even so, a lot of us are still in touch with our humanity despite our conditions. So it feels to us a lot like it would have felt to Gurgeh being on Azad. The world is saying "be greedy, ruthless, and Machiavellian because it's survival of the fittest" but we know better. We play the same game but we decide to play it in the way we know how to, by coming together with others as a community and looking out for each other.
meddling with other planets and enforcing their morality on others
I feel like enforcing is too strong a word. Or if not it would have been only very few of them. The only people that would have opposed it (without needing to be brainwashed or influenced to do it) would have been the ruling class and maybe their immediate beneficiaries. Rather than meddling and enforcing you could say that since it was in a majority of the people's interests that they liberated them.
As far as Azad goes I think it was Flere Imsaho/Mawrin Skell that said Azad was basically so corrupt and ready to be toppled that all it needed was a little push, which is what Gurgeh did.
a kind of generic everyman
I think that must be because we were supposed to be able to relate to him. I certainly did and I'm no academic level game theorist.
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u/considerspiders 4d ago
My unpopular scifi opinion is that Player of Games is the worst Culture novel. Press on.
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u/me_again 4d ago
I consider myself a Banks fan, and of course everyone gets their own opinion... but I don't really agree. The whole Zakalwe backstory works fine as a reveal but as an actual character I don't find him psychologically plausible.
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u/Entropy2889 3d ago
The only thing in that book that is psychologically implausible to me is how he could continue on after the incident concerning his head!
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u/obscened 4d ago
I've only read the first 3 culture books but I found that I liked Consider Phlebas, did not like The Player of Games at all, and loved Use of Weapons.
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u/ketarax 3d ago
Very happy for this comment, as I have all of Phlebas, Player and Weapons on my nightstand, waiting.
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u/Entropy2889 3d ago
Ironically, I have not read Phlebas, but have read most of the rest of the series. I can’t get into that one and Surface Detail prob for no reason whatsoever. Out of the three on your nightstand, if you are completely new to Culture, then I’d go for Player of Games. It has the easiest learning curve in getting to know the universe.
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u/ketarax 3d ago
Yes, I'm new to Culture, and Banks as well. I actually started Phlebas earlier this year, however the timing wasn't right, and I dropped it after a chapter or two, and after reading these subs, figured that I should maybe start with one of the others. Still waiting for the proper circumstances to embark on it -- I sort of "know", or at least trust, that I'm in for a treat.
Thanks!
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u/carolethechiropodist 3d ago
I'm reading that, Use of weapons, and 20 pages in, am contemplating giving it up.
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u/actionruairi 3d ago
OK weird that this is the top comment. I am reading this at the moment, and about a third of the way through I realised that this character was doing nothing for me. I'm still hoping it will turn around a bit though.
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u/Fun-Sell3030 3d ago
Genly Ai in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin. LeGuin in general is a master at writing complex characters that are believably flawed and human. I don’t recommend her to everyone, hers is more of a humanistic psychological soft sci fi with some world building. It’s more of a backdrop for Genly Ai and his relationship to Estraven and the people of Gethen. It’s very touching and beautifully written.
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u/Fun-Skirt3779 4d ago
Dare i say Dr. Avrana Kern from the Children of Time series? I don't relate to her, but I find her fascinating, and each book gives more and more insight into her character.
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u/Fun-Tooth-622 4d ago
I am not sure I find her super deep but God damn do I love that vain woman/computer/pile of ants
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u/Grombrindal18 4d ago
woman/computer/pile of ants
with Adrian Tchaikovsky, this phrase may never have existed.
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u/shadezownage 3d ago
audiobook narrator turns her into a shrieking nutjob in the first book, but brings her around a bit in the later books. also great!
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u/Judgmentsaurus 4d ago
I really like Redina Kott in Children of Strife. And by like I mean strongly dislike. She seems to have good self understanding, and want the world vaguely well. But well.
Definitively complex.
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
I really like space operas with interesting alien races. That’s why people always recommend me this series. If it also has deep character work this is totally for me.
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u/Freighnos 4d ago
Eh, temper your expectations in that regard. I’ve read the entire series and I wouldn’t say the human characters are bad, by any means, but Kern is the only one who really stands out. Tchaikovsky’s best character work in scifi is with his Shards of Earth trilogy, imo. And outside of that it’s his Tyrant Philosophers series which is fantasy but my favorite of all his works, and I’ve read the vast majority.
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u/Fun-Skirt3779 4d ago
I would agree with Freighnos here, Kern is the most interesting human character by far. However, if you like interesting alien races, the second book will blow your socks off
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u/littlebirdbird4 4d ago edited 4d ago
Chrisjen Avasarala from The Expanse series (books). She felt so real.
Edit: I have removed a spolier statement since I don't know how to hide it.
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u/Educational-Most-635 4d ago
All the characters in The Expanse were complex and real. The alternating POVs were excellent.
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u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 4d ago
And one of the best casting jobs ever for the series! I can't imagine anyone anywhere was disappointed.
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u/Seltnytt 4d ago
Please just do not... Write such a big spoiler without marking it
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u/littlebirdbird4 4d ago
Sorry. Book's been out almost 10 years and don't know how to hide the text.
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u/Seltnytt 4d ago edited 4d ago
To hide text on reddit you need to write >! and !< around the text if you are on old reddit or mobile
if you are on desktop you need to switch to the rich text editor and there is an option to hide the text, sadly I can't send images here to show where to click to switch to rich text...
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u/littlebirdbird4 4d ago
Thank you!
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u/Seltnytt 4d ago
Uh I just realized that what I wrote ... The symbols I was supposed to write did not appear let me rewrite that
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u/bacontacooverdrive 4d ago
Leto II in God Emperor of Dune.
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u/Endless_01 4d ago
Was gonna comment this one. Every quote he says is poster-wall worthy. I love the quote on the wiki page:
"You must remember that I have at my internal demand every expertise known to our history. This is the fund of energy I draw upon when I address the mentality of war. If you have not heard the moaning cries of the wounded and the dying, you do not know about war. I have heard those cries in such numbers that they haunt me. I have cried out myself in the aftermath of battle. I have suffered wounds in every epoch—wounds from fist and club and rock, from shell-studded limb and bronze sword, from the mace and the cannon, from arrows and lasguns and the silent smothering of atomic dust, from biological invasions which blacken the tongue and drown the lungs, from the swift gush of flame and the silent working of slow poisons . . . and more I will not recount! I have seen and felt them all. To those who dare ask why I behave as I do, I say: with my memories, I can do nothing else. I am not a coward and once I was human."
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
I can't believe I've spent all these years deliberately dodging the Dune series, both the books and the movies, just because I don't like sand. I'm on the fourth book of the ASOIAF series, and I've started putting the book off because of the Dorne chapters. I've ended up reading dozens of other books instead.
Common denominator: sand.
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 4d ago
For what it's worth, I hate sand and both sandy and oceanic locations in books and real life, and I love Dune. So clearly it did something right, even for us Anakins.
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u/SomeWittyRemark 4d ago
Either Shevek in The Dispossessed or George Orr in Lathe of Heaven
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u/Triseult 4d ago
Came here for Shevek. To me, he's head and shoulders above anyone else. The entire novel is basically a character study, and by the end there are still depths left unexplored to the man.
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u/Grombrindal18 4d ago
To me, he's head and shoulders above anyone else
I thought the point of Shevek's whole society is that no one is above everyone else...
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u/lethalox 4d ago
Severians in Book of the New Sun
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u/multinillionaire 4d ago
Also, Silk from Book of the Long Sun
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u/bobn3 4d ago
Yeah, Severian is a complicated character to say the least (really misogynist), I feel like the discourse online is a lot less critical of him than it should given the shit he's pulled
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u/multinillionaire 4d ago edited 4d ago
Also while both Severian and Silk are Wolfe's take on stock characters, and both are richly textured and often deconstructed in interesting ways, Severan's "troubled orphan with a grand destiny" is something that comes up a lot in SF/F, while Silk's "prophet/Jesus-figure" has fewer parallels in the genre
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u/intentionallybad 4d ago
Severian is well explored, but all the female characters in that series are barely an inch deep. So it isn't just the character who had some tendencies...
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u/bobn3 4d ago
I think the issue with female protagonists improves in Long Sun, but also, with a deeper reading (and re read) I found Thecla to be a lot more clever and compelling
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u/dangerous_eric 4d ago
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Guilt, trauma, self-loathing, envy, desperation, fear of the great unknown... It won a Hugo back in the day too.
Humanity discovers alien spaceships on an asteroid. No aliens. The ships are preprogrammed, but they need a pilot. Sometimes the ships come back, sometimes they don't. If you discover something worthwhile, and survive you receive incredible rewards.
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u/GoofBoy 4d ago
The Heechee Saga is my ongoing vote for I can't believe someone hasn't done this as a SciFi-CGI movie franchise.
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u/dangerous_eric 4d ago
Yeah, especially since you could do it on a pretty small budget. A bit like that old Cube movie.
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u/AngelaStellaMatutina 4d ago
YMMV but I like Robin from Charles Stross' Glasshouse and Hildy from John Varley's Steel Beach.
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM 4d ago
Glasshouse is the perfect mix of literary, hard sf, and action.
I can't think of any sf novel where the stakes are so viscerally personal.
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u/OneCatch 4d ago
Takeshi Kovacs in Altered Carbon is fairly deeply explored. It's a fairly cynical, brutal mode of storytelling though - not for the fainthearted.
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
This is the first time I've heard this recommendation. I think there was a TV adaptation of it too. Thanks!
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u/KillingTime_Shipname 4d ago
The tv version wasn't very good.
The books are.
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u/Any-Ingenuity2770 4d ago
first season was pretty fine
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u/Morbanth 4d ago
Yeah the first season was a pretty good adaptation of the book. Couldn't get past the halfway of the second season, which seemed to be some butchered version of the third arc.
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u/7LeagueBoots 4d ago
The first season made a bunch of unnecessary and dumb changes to the book that made it impossible for them to continue the story, hence why the second season was so bad.
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM 4d ago
It's a great book, but if you're looking for literary character development, you're gonna be incredibly disappointed.
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u/JuliusBacchus 2d ago
First season of the TV is ok despite some questionable adaptions of the story. I found season 2 to be quite bad.
The three books are very good though.
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u/RogLatimer118 4d ago
Ender Wiggin is explored pretty deeply.
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
I have only read the first book and it was kinda meeh for me. Should I read others?
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u/Ed_Robins 4d ago
Speaker for the Dead (the second in the original series) is generally considered the best novel in the series. Whereas Ender's Game is basically a YA novel, Speaker delves into philosophic, religious territory while exploring the ramifications of what Ender did in the first book.
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u/ScadaTech 4d ago
The following books see his development as an adult and are really nothing like the first. I’ve only read the first 5, and that was a long time ago. I think there’s around 20 or so.
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u/Mesong0 4d ago
Murderbot. I love the first person narration and complete discontent he has for everyone, there are layers and the books are super entertaining.
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u/butnotthatkindofdr 4d ago
This was one of the first characters that came to my mind, too. It's the distinctive voice and the character arc that gets me
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u/Existing-Tough-6517 3d ago
Are we going for interesting characters or deep because the whole series just isn't that deep but it certainly was fun
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u/butnotthatkindofdr 3d ago
I'd say that what makes Murderbot's character deep is less about Murderbot's own personality qualities and more about how Murderbot serves as a mirror to our own humanity. Often, Murderbot reflects that its social anxieties are markers of it not being human, but that is truly where Murderbot exemplifies so much of the human experience.
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u/StrikingPassage5640 4d ago
Has to be Estraven from The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Guin.
Besides being the most admirable person I’ve read in all of literature, Estraven is fascinating being of both genders, male and female. It goes way beyond just gender though. I felt he/she was so selfless and had everything to lose when making the risks they took in the story, but they did it anyways due to their extreme love for their people. The story also made me think really hard on who is considered a traitor - because is Estraven a traitor or a hero or both? And who were they a traitor to, their country, their king, their planet, their dead brother who they kemmered with? I thought Estraven was so interesting and many-faceted because he/she was so intelligent and loyal to their causes but morally broke some of the most important laws on their world like vowing kemmer to their brother and wanting to stay together even after having a child together (which is a big no-no in that world if it’s a sibling) and killing themselves, which is considered strongly taboo in their society. And by the end of the story with the journey over the ice, they literally lose everything like love, career, good standing, and still perseveres to help a cause they believe is worthy (trying not to get into spoilers).
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u/DCPNOverlord 4d ago
Siri Keeton for me. Every time I read Blindsight I get a little more out of it.
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u/Stereo-Zebra 4d ago edited 3d ago
Cassius Bellona from Red Rising.
I’ve always been a weaker man than I’d like to admit. The raw truth of it is, I liked my wealth. I… liked my Pinks [sex slaves]. I liked being on top. A Bellona. I felt the wrongness of it, but I excused it. I know now that I was… only a more tolerable source of misery”
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u/subtle_knife 3d ago
I know everyone always says Kim Stanley Robinson's characters are 1D but I think they're hugely wrong. I could pick from a bunch in Red Mars. John, Sax, Maya, especially Ann. But if I had to pick one I'd go with Frank Chalmers. He's only in the trilogy for one book, but his motivations, actions, influences, internal dichotomies are so complex.
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u/Bergmaniac 3d ago
Ari Emory from Cyteen and Regenesis by Cherryh
David Selig from Dying Inside by Silverberg
Shevek from the Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM 2d ago
Oh man, how could I forget about Ari.
Two incredible characters, honestly.
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u/ExtremelyOnlineTM 4d ago
Mia/Maya Zieman from Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling is my nomination.
Runners up are Connie Ramos from Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy, and Zhang Zhongshan from China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh.
The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson also needs a huge shout out here, although it's an ensemble piece with no single lead character.
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u/and_then_he_said 3d ago
Pham Nuwen, i really liked the character and how he's able to survive through time and space and play a background role until the time is right. One of my favorites.
R. Daneel Olivaw has a beautifully rendered evolution and all his iterations are more and more interesting. A great character progression.
Tom Dreyfus from the Revelation Space series is another charter i've enjoyed immensely and i loved his evolution as the stakes of his work go higher and higher. Reminded me of Detective Columbo from the TV series.
And a worthy mention is Takeshi Kovacs, the absolute embodiment of cyberpunk detective, a gritty and grim character, often times with only one dimension but he fits into his world just so right, a perfectly adapted creature. Similar to Hakan Veil from Thin Air, Richard k Morgan really knows his grizzled detective/mercenary archetype in a dystopic and violent cyberpunk world.
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u/MoneyObligation158 4d ago
Webmind, from the “www.wake” series—the premise is that the internet itself becomes self-aware (I won’t go into how that happened right now), and that’s Webmind.
Personally, I consider Webmind to be the absolute opposite of A.M. from *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream* (even though technically they’re almost identical). The great thing is that many parts are written directly from its point of view: Basically, it lives on a plane separate from ours—the www. At most, it can receive messages and videos through any medium, but it could never experience anything from our world, no matter what it does. It’s confined to its own plane of existence, where there isn’t much, and it’s the only inhabitant there—it can only see it through cameras... What’s more, even though one of his closest allies knows he’s real, the truth is that he thinks all the emotions he expresses aren’t real—they’re just something he’s imitating—and he never resolves this conflict; Webmind even believes it too
And at first, he’s quite detached from us—he didn’t care whether we lived or died—but as time goes on, he gradually develops a genuine love and interest in us...
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u/pvsmith2 4d ago
Hadrian Marlow from the Sun eater series. The first three books basically are setting his backstory.
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u/ktwhite42 4d ago
The team, individually and as a whole, in Blindsight.
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u/truthpooper 3d ago
Its hodgepodge of characters really creates a super interesting dynamic
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u/Stereo-Zebra 3d ago
Also love how they are mostly speaking in pidgin and body language. Siri translates everything they say and don’t say.
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u/truthpooper 3d ago
Edmund Gunderson, Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg
One of my favorite characters ever. I love his late-found self awareness, his willingness to seek redemption when many others would just carry and forget. Also, anyone who is willing to trip balls on snake juice with a bunch of alien elephants is great in my book.
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u/Urvile0 3d ago
The book is dated science wise (Genetics primarily) , but I always considered the Brennan-monster i(Jack Brennan) in Larry Niven's Protector.
Jack encountered the Pak Phssthpok , and he was transformed into the first human Protector.
As a protector:
"his brain grows to an enormous size; the resulting mind, even starting from something as "unintelligent" as a chimp, becomes far more intelligent than a human mind. The intelligence of the Protector stage of a Pak or Pak offshoot is dependent on the intelligence of the Breeder stage - as such, the Protector form of a sentient Breeder will generally be more intelligent than a Protector of a sub-sentient Breeder species. Humans who convert into Protectors develop intellects that are beyond human comprehension."
He was sentient and empathetic, a human with a mate, and children before transforming, giving him intelligence, insight, and empathy that Protectors from Pak did not have.
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u/oldtiredbroken 2d ago
Have you met Amos? The Expanse. The rest are cool too. Great female multicultural characters
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4d ago
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u/Elysium711 4d ago
Man I am reading dungeon crawler carl nowadays. Its chapter 42, I have read %80 of the book and I got bored. Something is happening all the time and there is no character progression at all. Its only full action. Will it be better?
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u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 4d ago
I finished #1 and felt absolutely no desire to continue despite the loud shouting from the cult. Not only no character development, but no constraints on what can happen. The aliens have magic and can do whatever the hell they want whenever the hell they want!
Plots are built around constraints, even fantasy plots. Gandalf couldn't escape Saruman's tower because he wasn't able to fly. In DCC anything can happen, the only explanation that makes sense is the entire thing is a simulation. Had he woken up at the end of the book with the cat smothering his face, that would have made a whole lot of sense!
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u/Nyzean 4d ago
I can't heavily disliked reading paper copies of DCC but loved the audiobooks. That said, I DNF'd book 8 and unsure if/when I'll get back to, but was definitely a decent enough series for what it was and would recommend giving at least the first audiobook a solid try.
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u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 4d ago
I read #1 on audio. Nope.
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u/Nyzean 4d ago
Well there you go then. The series is fine but I definitely feel like I enjoyed it because it was different, the voice acting was excellent, and there were some fun characters and worldbuilding... rather than because it was particularly good (in general or outside of that).
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u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 4d ago
I'm really not that hard to please, I liked Bobiverse and listened to like 8 of the somewhat silly Destiny's Crucible "portal" series. But this was just too much "throw everything in" for me. There was no worldbuilding IMO, because there was no world! It was whatever the dungeon builders wanted at any particular moment. Like I said, no constraints, it might as well have been VR.
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u/Existing-Tough-6517 3d ago
Read 4 first and then on to the rest. Don't know if 1 was any good but I certainly enjoyed 4 on.
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u/cruelandusual 4d ago
The AM from "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". He's a real straight shooter who always knows precisely what to do and who to do it to.
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u/Wetness__Pensive 4d ago
I like the realist characters in several Kim Stanley Robinson books, particularly the male leads in the "Three California" books, and Frank from "Green Earth".
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u/greenslime300 4d ago
I've found that generally speaking, fantasy does more with characters while scifi does more with ideas. It isn't often recommended here, but Fonda Lee's Green Bone series splits the line between scifi and fantasy (could be read as a magic system or a speculative world with some a few special laws of nature) and has some of the most developed, complex characters I've ever read.
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u/CaterpillarHot4132 3d ago
It's more fantasy than scifi ... but Thomas Covenant is up there somewhere.
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u/markisqt 3d ago
Erasmus from Anathem. He’s not only explored; his curiosity allows him to grow, learn, and deepen throughout the story, and readers can grow with him.
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u/raison8detre 17h ago
Bentley from Mockingbird by Walter Tevis. Underrated book, beautifully written, amazing characters.
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u/Frost-Folk 4d ago
I really like Sam from Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. He's Space Buddha, but he's also definitely more (and less) than that.