Steampunk Fairy Tales: Volume 3 now available!

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Character-Driven Fantasy Stories

I love character-driven stories. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy an engaging, intriguing plot, but to be one of my favorite books, the characters have to be so dynamic, funny, and/or loveable that I’d happily watch them buy groceries. These are the books that I come back to every few years, because no matter how familiar I am with the story, the characters feel like old friends.

These are also the books that inspired me to write. If I can create characters that are half as funny as David Edding’s Silk, charmingly eccentric as Barbara Hambly’s Antryg, or as genuine as Andrew Smith’s Austin, I’ll consider myself lucky.

Unfortunately, I feel like some of my favorite books don’t quite have the recognition they deserve. For any of you lovers of character-driven fantasy books, I’m compiling a list of my favorites. To make this list, it has to be the sort of book, where, already knowing how the plot, relationships, and quests will end, I read and re-read just for the joy of watching the characters.

As I write articles, I’ll add them here, to my ongoing list of favorite character-driven books, video games, and series.


Articles that are part of the Character-Driven Fantasy Stories collection:

 
Random Articles

Opening Lines of Fantasy Books
The following is a collection of opening lines to fantasy stories. I like to read first lines for inspiration, so I hope this collection will help you. Read on

 


The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley
What does political intrigue, brutal murder, and a bully all have in common? As you might expect, they all play heavily in The Emperor’s Blades. Aside from that, they’re all elements of fiction that I generally dislike. And yet I liked The Emperor’s Blades. Not despite these elements, but rather, for the most part, because of them. Read on