The Sergeant's Lady

[lerite]

"Whatever shall I do? I’m powerless against the wiles of my mighty Southron captor." You know a book is good when the heroine can say that and the dialogue tags don't even have to tell you she's laughing when she says it

Comments

[lex_of_green]

Oof. Maybe the popularity of alpha heroes is why I almost never like the main hero in things. I prefer betas even when they're werewolves.

Nightcrawler > Cyclops
Vinnie > Pelyo
DragonMonkey > Frankie
Phouka > Willie Silver (beta as main hero hell yeah!)
Lars > Gil
Simon > Mal (okay I like Mal, but I'd rather kiss Simon)
Andrew > Xander > Angel (do you know enough Buffy for this?)
Tara > Willow > Buffy

Why is this strange?

[lerite]

Looking at the comments on that post, it seems that readers want to see an alpha hero "tamed" by "the right woman," with whom they of course identify. It's a status thing, I guess, being able to control a powerful man? (I always think of a conversation between Harriet and Peter about the word "belong" when I see that.)

Sergeant's Lady, btw, has an alpha in it--as the heroine's abusive husband, who dies early on. Fraser definitely deconstructs the archetype a bit.

Pelyo isn't the romance-style alpha in SoGT; Connor is. Pelyo, like his namesake, used to be an alpha but has decided to be something else.

[lex_of_green]

Heh. I originally typed Vinnie > Connor, actually, but then I changed it because I figured Vinnie and Pelyo worked within a more similar status structure. (Both station employees rather than actual couriers. I see what you mean about romantic alpha though.

Hanging out with a friendly dork (and possibly going on adventures together) sounds like way more fun than controlling a powerful man.

[voey]

...y'know, the whole "Alpha versus Beta" thing has me amused.

Is it wrong to go with whichever one of them is wittier?

[lerite]

If it is, then I don't want to be right.