This is part of my most recent book review: “The bad guys are really bad and the good guys are unaware.”
At first, I didn’t know what to make of the statement and I’m not much closer to figuring it out. It makes me smile, so I know it isn’t an insult. That being said, I’m not sure my heroes are taking it in stride. Though, the truth is that they are rather unaware throughout the book. It isn’t that they’re stupid or oblivious, but they really stepped into the villains’ plans at the eleventh hour. They’re scrambling to get some type of advantage before the big ending. Yes, Luke is an untested hero who truly has no idea what he’s doing and not much of a mind for strategy. I guess this comes off as stupid at times, but we all have stupid moments.
This quote got me thinking about heroes and how there are so many that appear to know exactly what is going on. The villain stole a magic item? The hero or an ally knows what ritual they are going to do at what time and in which city. I guess this is an aspect of heroes with more experience than mine, but I have to admit that it does get a little tiring when the heroes never a ‘what is that evil bastard up to’ moment. I definitely couldn’t let Luke, Nimby, Fritz, or Aedyn know what is going on. Nimby, Fritz, and Aedyn aren’t adventurers and rather specific in their knowledge. Luke is fresh-faced and working off young bravado, so having him discern the Lich’s plans feels rather stretched. It’d make it hard to believe he was inexperienced.
So, what do people think of heroes that seem to be blindly reacting to the villain for most of a book instead of being proactive? For that matter, is there such a thing as too perfect a hero?
Legends of Windemere 
There certainly is. Heroes must struggle with decisions on how to handle situations– if they come into the book knowing–so will I. Automatic indifference and guaranteed low star on my part . It’s the Heroes that grow and use wit over planning that gain my love
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I never thought about how a hero coming in with all the knowledge also gives it to the reader. I can imagine it’d be worse if the hero knows and the reader is kept in the dark somehow. The evil wizard is casting an ancient spell that has been lost for centuries? Don’t worry, the heroic knights knows exactly how to block the attack and send it back at the baddie. Easiest way for me to start rooting for the villain or for the hero to get an inopportune leg cramp. *makes a note to give Luke an inopportune leg cramp at some point*
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Most definitely. I also hate it just as much when the hero tells the reader exactly what he is going to do through narration before doing it. Example of crappy writing “And then Kimble thought: if I just swing on this rope I can swipe the keys from the guard on the way by.” and then lo and behold. Kimble swings on said rope and swipes the keys. Why thank you for telling me that twice in case I was too frigging dumb to get it the first time.
example of good writing: Kimble looked at his options, which were few and each presented their own dangers.
Deciding he had no choice, he swung on the rope and swiftly snatched the keys from the guard.
Okay–so this isn’t a real book or anything, but this is my opinion, action is more fun for me to read than description.
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I hate to admit that I did that for a while after it was suggested by another author. There might be a few remnants. I like one variation of that where you have the character think about what they’re going to do, all nicely planned and it goes horribly wrong within the first sentence of action.
For example, Kimble (he has it coming) decides to jump for the rope, swinging over the chasm, and slicing his enemy’s head off. Then he jump for the rope and swings too high for an attack. It brings that ‘now what?’ factor in. That might just be me though.
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I completely agree with that assessment. I don’t mind when there is an unexpected moment after careful planning, I just don’t want my character to let me know when he used the bathroom and what leave he used to wipe his bum for no apparent reason. I do like it a bit when the author leads you one direction for a while and then has something unexpected change the path the hero would have taken. Of course, there have also been authors who floundered with this and changed the character so much in the second half of the book that it didn’t even resemble the first half.
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That’s always a fear of mine that the character takes a wrong turn halfway through the book. I try to make sure every emotion and decision stays true to the character or works toward a gradual evolution, but as the author, I feel biased when I look the scenes over. As for the bathroom and leaf part, I’ve always wondered what traveling adventurers do about that problem. It feels like it’d be a problem that someone would address at one point.
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It really should. What if that cripples the bad guy? Allergic reaction to plant used to wipe arse?
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I’d be terrified of any fantasy world’s version of poison ivy.
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Dragonweed! Lol
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Perfect. 🙂
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