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A mere 13 days till the release of ANGELS' BLOOD and only 7 till ANGELS' PAWN hits the e-shelves!
Today's second awesome giveaway is a signed copy of Red Fire by Deidre Knight!
Here's the blurb:
Eternity has become a prison for Ajax Petrakos. Centuries after he and his Spartan brothers made their bargain for immortality, Ajax struggles to maintain his warrior’s discipline. His only source of strength is his hope that he will soon meet the woman once foretold to him—the other half of his soul, Shay Angel.You can read an excerpt on Deidre's website. The next book in the series, Red Kiss comes out June!Ajax searches for his destined mate on the haunted streets of modern-day Savannah, but he isn’t the first to find her. Shay, the youngest of a powerful demon-hunting clan, can see the monsters that stalk the steamy Southern night—an ability that draws the deadly attention of Ajax’s worst enemy.
As she and Ajax race to solve a chilling prophecy—one that could spell Ajax’s death if they don’t succeed—a fated passion arises, threatening to sweep away everything in its path.
Today's entry question comes from Shari C: I think we all have our favorite hero/heroine, but what about a memorable villain. Who do you think has been the meanest and most evil person that you have read about and why?
I'll go with Iago from Shakespeare's Othello. Iago was just so evil - more so because he made himself appear Othello's friend, then betrayed him.
46 comments:
I'd have to go with the High Mage of Eld, Vadim Maur from CL Wilson's Tairen Soul series. He's just evil and I can't wait to see how he'll die.
Does that sound evil?
Dunno why I had so hard thinking of one, I just tend to like evil characters too much :)
But one that I wanted to see the end of was captain Kennit from Robin Hobbs Liveships books
Hannibal Lechter (shudders).
Margay
No idea why, but villains are never so memorable like the good main or secondary characters.
Aymless - I have to totally agree with you!! I can't wait for the last book to come out and see Vadim suffer!!!! For all the torture he has given to Elfeya and Shan :(
I love good villains who are not evil because he was born to be evil. I love villain with a cause. So it is so hard to name the meanest and most evil person that I have read about.
One hour later.
I still cannot come up with a name.
Voldemort :)
I would have to say everybody that was mean to Acheron from Sherilyn Kenyon's books. I mean collectively, he has been treated the worst of any character I know of.
Deidre
The Lessers in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
I love the Disney Villians, even though they are movies not books, but Ursula and Jafar and Scar are awesome. And of course you can't go wrong with Voldemort.
The Omega and his Lessening Society from JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I get the chills whenever the Omega is on the page and his forelessers all have unique reasons why they are perfectly hate-able.
Though Santano Enrique rates pretty high up there, too...
Oh I totally agree with the person who said Voldemort! Though I must admit that Briony from Atonement also seemed like such an evil villain to me for the absolute longest time until the very end.
I agree with both Margay and Chris. Hannibal Lecter and Lord Voldemort were the two villains that came to mind.
Voldemort, Hannibal Lector and Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel.
I think the trend these days is that the conflict tends to come from within more than a villain, but I can think of a few --
When I think of the BDB, it's not the Omega that comes to mind but V's father, the Bloodletter. *shiver*
Alyssa Day's series so far has a female evil demi-goddess vampire, Anubisa. She's bad....
Lucifer himself in Meljean's Guardian series is one scary dude.
Nalini, the "bad Psy" in your books are collectively very creepy, and the way we don't know exactly who is doing what definitely adds to the series' tension.
The Mahrkagir in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Avatar is... really bad. My vote for worst, I think.
I'll have to go with the Lessors from the Black Dagger Brotherhood as well. When killed poor Wellsie, it made you want to cry...
I definitely agree woth Nicola O. about the Mahrkagir. Talk about evil. *shudder*
And yeah, the Bloodletter was pretty dayum bad. I can't wait to find out exactly how he died.
For me, one of the evilest villains is Vadim Maur. I love CL Wilson's fantasy series.
I don't know why, but Skylar kept popping into my head... o.O
The only one that came to mind was Jason Phelps from Dawn's Awakening by Lora Leigh.
I have to say that the villians from the Lord of the Rings books are pretty aweful. The Nazguls gave me the chills everytime, and Sauron and the ring, and the power they held to create even more darkness and villians was definitely shudder-worthy.
I'm also have to go with Hannibal Lechter!
Hmmm. Tricky question :) A friend of mine said once that it's not that villians that are just simply evil who are the worst (as they simply being true to their nature), it's those villians who know right from wrong but are evil because of petty emotions like jealously and greed...and vengeance. I think Iago fits the bill perfectly. Voldemort is another good example too :)
My personal worst villian - Darth Vader...I know, he's not in a book and he redeemed himself but still...
An author who writes really evil villians is Shannon McKenna and Tara Janzen.
Hannibal Lechter
For some reason, I'm having a really hard time finding a villain from a book. I love villains that you can sympathize with or that make you really think about the motivation for their actions.
I can only think of one villain and it's Sylar from Heroes. He kept on making me second-guess him in season two but I can't hate him when he's being evil.
I can't remember her name but the evil witch from the Immortals Series... she skins him alive and then heals him over and over again. I can't wait until she gets it.
Mmmmm...Wow, for some reason it's really hard to think of one. When I try to think of a villian, the only name popping into my head is Emperor Jagang from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. I can think of plenty of tv/movie villians but no book ones right now.
I agree with a lot of the other comments: Voldemort, the Lessers in J.R. Ward's books,... I really like the characters that mix both good and evil and you wonder if they can ever really be redeemed.
The Lessers from J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood. I have to skip over some of the parts told from the villains' point of view in that series. They are just totally evil.
I'd say Peter Whitney from Christine Feehan's Ghost Walker series. At the beginning of the first book, I came to see him as being a somewhat caring parent. However, as each book comes out, you see how diabolical and inhumane he truly is.
Edgler Vess from Dean Koontz's Intensity is hands down the most evil villian I've read about!
I can't think of a name, but Anne Stuart always have great villians.
Shannon McKenna writes some really bad baddies.
Someone mentioned Disney and so now all I can think of is Cruella De Vil!
I am horrible when it comes to names. I never remember heros or villains!
I think the one that sticks with me is Artemis from Sherrilyn Kenyon. The one that she lets them hurt Acheron just to protect herself.
Marsilia, the bitch vampire from Patrica Briggs' Mercy Thompson series.
This evil character plays good guy, sometimes, in the Anita Blake series: Olaf.
He's got that weird, serial killer obsession with Anita and it is WAY too creepy. I got goosebumps reading about this last appearance in The Harlequin.
Definitely Olaf.
I'd have to say there aren't a lot of memorable villains out there for me. But Voldemort of course would definitely be one. Another is Saint Dane from a series I used to read when I was younger by DJ MacHale. The series and villain is probably not well known but Saint Dane is definitely evil.
I will have to go with the Lessers" brom J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
Also any of the villians from Anne Stuart's books.
Terri W.
There are a lot of really great villains. I'd have to go with Bloodletter from the Brotherhood. Other than him, I don't really recall any bad guys that I couldn't sympathize with.
I also shudder just thinking about Hannibal Lechter. And CL Wilson's High Mage,I hope he's made to suffer before he dies after all that torture he's done.
I agree that Vadim Maur is one nasty villian. Another one that sticks in my mind is the villian from "Pillars of the Earth" I can't remember his name but man, he was persistent!
CY
The Rogue vampires in Lara Adrian's Breed novels.
It's a toss-up for me. For a villian that could be real, it'd be Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes, brilliant but evil.
Otherwise, from a more fantasy perspective, Enrique from your series, Neferet from House of Night, or Stryker from Dark-Hunters.
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