Beyond Selidor

I was going to save this until I had something more interesting to write, but ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGH!

Dakar the incredibly annoyingMad Prophet in Janny Wurts's War of Light and Shadows books is driving me up the wall. Every time he appears on the page I want to hurl him from a window. After setting him on fire. I don't think I've ever read a character that I disliked so much. (And this, from the girl who counts Sara 'I people my books with rapists, raving lunatics and machiavellian, scheming women' Douglass's Troy Game series as one of her favourites.)

To be perfectly honest, I can't see any point for him even existing in the plot. All he seems to do is whine, and get into drunken scrapes from which Arithon must rescue him.

*grinds teeth*

I'm talking about two books and how their authors deal with two of fantasy's most popular tropes here. There are generic spoilers for Janny Wurts's The Curse of the Mistwraith and Diana Marcellas's Mother Ocean, Daughter Sea.

And another thing: looking at Last.fm, I note that the most popular band of 2008 was MGMT. They also took out spots in the top 10 for album (Oracular Spectacular) and songs. Usually I'd be appalled to be following the herd, but I'm pleased to have done my part in catapulting MGMT to the top spots. (132 plays of MGMT! *shines badge*)