Ladies first: (All ten of whom are smart, stubborn, strong-willed, independent, and full of spunk...which is why I like them!)
- Mercy Thompson (Shapeshifter & car mechanic extraordinaire...who actually only has one tattoo: a coyote paw.)
- Kiera (artist & amateur detective from Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby Series)
- Raederle of An (from Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master of Hed series...my all-time favorite fantasy trilogy!)
- Mina Harker (No one in Bram Stoker's Dracula is tougher than Mina!)
- Lacey Flint (Sharon Bolton's complicated detective constable)
- Menolly (daughter of Yanus Sea-Holder, apprentice harper, and owner of nine small dragons)
- Laura Ingalls Wilder (Who's both character and author.)
- Kit Tyler (from Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond)
- Lisbeth Salander (Probably the toughest girl of the bunch...and yet it was her vulnerability that really made me like her. Created by Stieg Larsson, of course.)
- Nancy Drew (Need I say more?)
Now for my favorite leading men:
- Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin (He tops my list!)
- Gabriel Allon (Daniel Silva's complicated Israeli artist & assassin)
- Morgan of Hed (Did I mention already that Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master of Hed Series is my all-time favorite fantasy series?)
- Harry Potter (Who needs no other introduction!)
- John Charming & John Taylor (This is a tie for me between Elliott James' exiled Knight Templar and Simon R. Green's hero of the Nightside who can find just about anything. They're both awesome!)
- Joe Harmon (from Nevil Shute's classic novel.)
- Francisco D'Anconia (my favorite character from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, although Dagny is a close second and almost made my first list of favorite female characters)
- Agent Aloysius Pendergast (Preston & Child's enigmatic and one-of-a-kind FBI agent)
- Alex Verus (Benedict Jacka's mage who can see into the future)
- Kaspar Krone (the only clown I've ever liked and hero of Peter Hoeg's The Quiet Girl)
Honorable mention: All of Louis L'Amour's reluctant heroes...especially if their last name happens to be Sackett.
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So, there you have it. My favorite fictional characters, male and female. It was hard narrowing it down to ten each, because there are a lot of great book characters out there, which means many characters that I love didn't make the list. But if I'd tried to list them all, this post would have been way too long.
Who are some of your all-time favorite book characters?
Happy Reading!
