To paraphrase Elizabeth Bowen, there has to be one character the reader can 'love' (aka root for?) passionately but in no way does it have to be the protagonist. I didn't love Snape until fanfic but the writing stands on it's own in the first 3 books as writing (phonetics/punning) talking kids books - I adore Artemis Fowl and he is his own protagonist BUT I think it's because he reminds me of the spiritual love child of Lex Luthor and Draco Malfoy.
So, that was my 'hook' as it were. Am reading Fowles 'The Magus' at the moment in which I identify strongly with Urfe's pov in that Fowles has made us both utterly intrigued by Conchis. Love Nicholas Urfe? ... no.
Actually, Harry IS my first reason for loving the series. After that it's the stunning plotting and funny/dangerous details.
I've read a lot of books lately that have had huge marketing pushes (sometimes conjoined with the concept of, "Wow! Did you know? There's a hidden world under New York!!") that feel rather soulless to me. I mean, the plot is nifty, the world has interesting details, but I really don't care about the main character too much.
The characters don't have to be perfect, they don't have to have logical minds (meaning, I may want to shake them for their stupidity), BUT I can feel their emotions and in some way understand/sympathize with them.
It depends on the book. Some books I love for the plots--Kage Baker's Company series comes to mind, with its intricate and convoluted plot--but pretty much all of the books I count as "comfort" reads are ones I read for the sake of the characters: Bujold's Vorkosigan and Chalion series, Jennifer Crusie's Welcome to Temptation, and even to a certain extent, Sayers's Lord Peter books (although those books are also really good plots).
One of the fastest ways to turn me off a book is to have a protagonist that I find unpleasant or unsympathetic.
Have you read Brandon Sanderson? I think you'd find his stuff groovy. He's doing some interesting things in his current series (the first one is called Mistborn), and I'd love to get your take on what he's doing and if it reads the same to you as it does to me (and I can't say more than that without spoiling it).
I think what I need is not so much love for the character as to be able to see something of myself in one or more of the important characters (preferably not just the parts I'd rather not acknowledge, though they can be party of a bigger package, to lend realism). If I don't have that connction a tepid liking coupled with a strong respect is about the best a book can do for me - a recent example is A Dead Man in Deptford is a recent example. I could see that it was of stellar quality, but I doubt I'll ever love it unless my life takes some rather unpleasant turns and changes me accordingly.
IMHO, it is still about character most fundamentally -- you don't necessarily have to fall wildly in love with that character or this, but you do have to have enough sympathy for/interest in them to delve deeper into the world. JKR populates the Wizarding World with entertaining people of all different stripes; it's impossible that anybody could fall in love with all of them, but it's almost impossible that a reader would find nobody to become fond of.
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So, that was my 'hook' as it were. Am reading Fowles 'The Magus' at the moment in which I identify strongly with Urfe's pov in that Fowles has made us both utterly intrigued by Conchis. Love Nicholas Urfe? ... no.
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I've read a lot of books lately that have had huge marketing pushes (sometimes conjoined with the concept of, "Wow! Did you know? There's a hidden world under New York!!") that feel rather soulless to me. I mean, the plot is nifty, the world has interesting details, but I really don't care about the main character too much.
The characters don't have to be perfect, they don't have to have logical minds (meaning, I may want to shake them for their stupidity), BUT I can feel their emotions and in some way understand/sympathize with them.
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One of the fastest ways to turn me off a book is to have a protagonist that I find unpleasant or unsympathetic.
Have you read Brandon Sanderson? I think you'd find his stuff groovy. He's doing some interesting things in his current series (the first one is called Mistborn), and I'd love to get your take on what he's doing and if it reads the same to you as it does to me (and I can't say more than that without spoiling it).
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