Guest Post: Ilana C. Myer’s Top 5 Totally Involving Fantasy Protagonists

FitzChivalry Farseer (Assassin’s Apprentice, by Robin Hobb)
Trauma and hope are braided strands throughout the saga of FitzChivalry Farseer. The series begins with his childhood in Assassin Apprentice and has continued for eight books and counting. Abandoned as a child, trained as an assassin for the king, Fitz is complex from the start. He is sensitive and caring, but must smother those impulses as he learns to kill. He is of noble birth but bastard-born, high and low commingling. Fitz’s deep desire for connection—so often thwarted—and his tendency to be mauled by Robin Hobb’s merciless plots make these books a thunderingly emotional read. The series is written in the first person and thus we are brought under the spell, immediately, of Fitz’s engaging voice.

Seoman “Simon” Snowlock (The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, by Tad Williams: The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell, To Green Angel Tower)
Several fantasy trilogies (including Star Wars!) begin with the same premise as Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: A boy of obscure origin departs his home on a quest and becomes a hero. The success of this trope hinges on its execution, and there is something special about what Tad Williams does with it via his protagonist Simon, who begins as a castle servant. While the trilogy offers everything epic fantasy readers love—fight scenes, scope, and a magnificent world—at its heart is Simon’s struggle with the fundamental questions of existence. Reality in Osten Ard is a dreadful one, and Simon comes of age in its shadow. He is desperate to find meaning in a world that is falling apart. As Simon grows into adulthood and acquires capability and wisdom, that maturity feels fully earned. Michael Whelan’s cover art pays tribute to this, depicting the changes in Simon from one book to the next.

Aerin-sol, Dragon-killer (The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley)
The story of Aerin-sol, Dragon-killer, is iconic in the fantasy genre. In that way the title is truly appropriate, since it denotes a legend in the making. What makes Robin McKinley’s masterpiece stand out, aside from the exquisite writing, is the fiery protagonist at its center, and the complicated range of emotions that make the novel grueling in the best possible way. The tale begins with the melancholy intensity of Aerin’s outsider status and the atmosphere of Damar, a land with a shadow over it. These bittersweet elements turn to nightmare as The Hero and the Crown becomes the mythic journey of a young woman in search of herself. It is Aerin’s multi-faceted personality—her dignity, humor, and determination—that are more memorable even than the fearsome dragons and demons she faces along the way.

Dianora di Tigana/di Certando (Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay)
While Tigana is an epic that encompasses several extraordinary characters, the standout protagonist is Dianora di Tigana, otherwise known as Dianora di Certando—for in this book, identity is of the essence and a subject of anguished struggle. And none is more anguished than Dianora, torn between love of her home and the love of the man who has destroyed it. In the course of fashioning herself into the perfect weapon to be used against Brandin of Ygrath, Dianora has, fatally, grown closer to him than to anyone in her life. The world-changing forces that move through and around Dianora, who must respond to them and shape them as best she can, are a recipe for heartbreak. There are few characters in literature that have left so indelible a mark.

Tenar/Arha (The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. LeGuin)
Trapped in the Labyrinth where she is at once prisoner and a reigning priestess, Arha, the Eaten One—who was born Tenar—has been consecrated to dark gods. That Labyrinth—a marvelous and terrifying place of dark tunnels and crystal caves—is an apt analogy for the soul of Tenar, which hangs in the balance in Ursula LeGuin’s masterful novel. By turns cruel and relenting, arrogant and vulnerable, Arha and Tenar, this is a protagonist of stunning complexity. Though the wizard Ged is ostensibly her rescuer, it is Tenar who is ultimately the agent of her own destiny as she climbs, desperately and at the cost of everything she knows, towards the light beyond the maze.
Ilana C. Myer has written about books for the Globe and Mail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, and the Huffington Post. Her first novel, Last Song Before Night, is available now from Tor Books