It feels like forever since I’ve done a Top Ten Tuesday post – in fact, I checked, and the last one was on the 7th of April! That’s over a month ago!!! But this week’s topic was really fun and it also counts as a Wyrd and Wonder post, so I thought I would participate again.
The topic this week is: favourite side characters/minor characters.
I’ve not picked ten different books/series, but I have picked ten specific characters across six books/series (technically they’re all series, even if I haven’t finished all of them, because I find series just lend themselves more to developing side characters and making me love them).
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme originally created by The Broke and the Bookish and currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Covers link to Bookshop.org UK and are affiliate links.
The Innkeeper Chronicles have tons of great characters, even if most of them are only around for a little bit. I have a soft spot for two side characters in particular, both of whom show up in book 2:
Nuan Couki is a lee (bipedal fox-like aliens) from a ruthless Merchant family. He’s smart, cunning, and oh so fluffy.
Orro is an intimidating looking chef with a fiery temper – but he’s such a softy at heart.
I thought about not including this one since 검을 든 꽃 (A Flower Holding a Sword) has no English translation, but it’s one of my most recent reads and there are so many side characters I really enjoyed and look forward to reading about more in future instalments.
Fatima and Alice are turning into excellent friends for our main character Eki – we like women supporting women in this house, and some of the other guys in the story look like they’re going to be excellent comic relief.
I can’t give too much information here because this is the third book in the series, the character doesn’t show up before the third book and any details I give could be spoilers.
All I’m going to say is: Sphene. If you know, you know.
I don’t talk about much YA on this blog and I’m not a huge fan of Sarah J Maas’ other series, but Throne of Glass is the pinnacle of my teenage years and part of that is because of how much I love all the cast members. I particularly love Lysandra, especially in Queen of Shadows.
Another sci-fi series with a great cast of characters is the Final Architecture series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. My favourite character is definitely the main character, Idris, but I love the whole crew of the Vulture God. I think Olli is probably a lot of people’s favourites, but I personally think Kris and Kit are also massively underrated. I love found family + competence, and they both have it in buckets.
Finally, we have another Ilona Andrews series to round-off the count. We’ve only got book one in this series so far and I expect to love these characters (or other characters) more as the series goes on, but This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me has excellent side characters. I think everyone likes Clover, but I’m also really feeling Solentine – specifically him at the end of the book – and who could resist the fox-like cuteness of Sushi (unlike Nuan Couki, Sushi is actually pet-coded – see link for official art and Sushi’s inner monologue).
Who are your favourite side characters? Leave me your recommendations below!
Keira x
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