The good science fiction and fantasy Scripture are n’t just about amazing estimation , or huge vistas — they ’re about people . So part of the tonality to a really successful SF / fantasy account book is to discover people in a memorable , cool fashion .
A dependable description of a character goes a long way to letting you get to know that person — but it ’s a tricksy patronage . The dear agency to learn this challenge acquirement is by studying how others have pulled it off in the past times . So here are some exercise of our pet character descriptions from science fiction and illusion books .
Top simulacrum byTomasz Jendruszek .
Ender ’s Game by Orson Scott Card ( Thomas Nelson Page 10 ):
“ Ender did not see Peter as the beautiful ten - class - quondam boy that grown - ups saw , with dark , tousled hair and a nerve that could have belong to Alexander the Great . Ender looked at Peter only to detect anger or tedium , the dangerous moods that almost always led to hurt . ” decent building , say us how other people see Peter , but then juxtaposing it with the more visceral way that Ender see him .
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin ( Sir Frederick Handley Page 30 ):
“ … confront like the moon , pale and somehow waffle . I could get the gist of his features , but none of it stick in my mind beyond an impression of astonishing beauty . His tenacious , recollective hair waft around him like dark smoke , its tendril curling and move of their own will . His cloak — or perhaps that was his hair too — shifted as if in an unfelt air current . I could not recall him don a cloak before , on the balcony . The madness still lallygag in his face , but it was a quieter fury now , not the rabid - animal viciousness of before . Something else — I could not bring myself to call it humanity — stirred underneath the glow . ” This is full of lovely imagery , including the whisker and the cloak motivate like smoke — and it leaves you with a really sharp notion even as you do n’t ever get a clear impression of him , because Yeine does n’t either . It ’s like a painting that stand by with you .
Hitchhiker ’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams ( varlet 11 ):
“ He was not conspicuously tall , his features were striking but not conspicuously handsome . His hairsbreadth was stringy and gingerish and brushed back from the temples . His skin seemed to be pull back from the nose . There was something very slightly odd about him , but it was difficult to say what it was . Perhaps it was that his optic did n’t seem to twinkle often enough and when you talked to him for any length of time your eye began involuntarily to water on his behalf . Perhaps it was that he smiled slimly too broadly speaking and gave people the redoubtable impression that he was about to go for their neck . ” This description of Ford Prefect is sparky and full of action , you could much see him smiling unblinkingly at you .
Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien ( page 274 ):
“ The face of Elrond was eternal , neither one-time nor unseasoned , though in it was publish the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful . His whisker was dark as the shadow of nightfall , and upon it was set a circlet of silver gray ; his heart were gray as a clear evening , and in them was a light like the light of stars . ” you could almost feel night gathering as you read that transit , from the gray of evening to the appearance of the night sky , and the overall impression is one of majuscule age despite the claim of agelessness .
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ( Thomas Nelson Page 98 ):
“ She ’s the twelve - year - honest-to-goodness , the one who reminded me so of Prim in stature . Up close she search about ten . She has bright , dark eye and satiny brown hide and stick out cant up on her toe with arm slimly extended to her side , as if ready to take wing at the slightest sound . It ’s impossible not to consider of a bird . ” A destiny of the good character description have action mechanism or a element of drift to them , so you not only see the character , you see her in motion . ( Doris Lessing has a ripe passing about this in one of her Martha Quest novels . ) Here , we get Rue ’s forcible particular , but we also have an indelible sense of how she moves .
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? by Philip K. Dick ( page 39 ):
“ Black - hirsute and slender , wearing the huge raw dust - filtering glasses , she set about his car , her hands deep in the pockets of her brightly undress recollective coat . She had , on her precipitously define small face , an expression of glowering distaste . ” The body language , with the hands deep in the coat pockets , is super vindicated — you may practically see her hump over . And you have to bang the giant glasses and the “ sharply defined small face . ”
Soulless by Gail Carriger ( page 8) :
“ The fourth Earl of Woolsey was much orotund than Professor Lyall and in possession of a well-nigh - permanent frown . Or at least he always seemed to be frowning when he was in the presence of Miss Alexia Tarabotti , ever since the hedgehog incident ( which really , aboveboard , had not been her fault ) . He also had immoderately pretty tawny eyes , mahogany - colored fuzz , and a especially nice nozzle . ” What ’s corking here is that you digress into backstory that gives you a tantalizing hint about this fictitious character ’s bad toughness , and then suddenly you ’re snapped back into very concrete strong-arm verbal description — but the physical verbal description seems sharper because you ’ve gotten this impression of Lord Maccon as a person .
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess ( page 2 ):
“ These sharps were clip in the heighth of fashion too , with majestic and green and orangish wigs on their gullivers . Each one not costing less than three or four hebdomad of those sharp ’ wages , I should reckon , and make - up to match ( rainbows round the glazzies , that is , and the putrefaction painted very astray ) . Then they had long ignominious very straight dresses , and on the groody part of them they had little badge of like silver with different malchick ’s names on them - Joe and Mike and suchalike . ” Describing the three devotchkas , Burgess cave in us a crash row in dystopian future fashion .
Dune by Frank Herbert ( page 459 ):
“ Through the door came two Sardukar herd a girl - child who appeared to be about four twelvemonth honest-to-goodness . She assume a smuggled aba , the bonnet throw back to reveal the attachments of a stillsuit hang innocent at her throat . Her eyes were Fremen blue , staring out of a soft , circular face . She appeared completely unafraid and there was a tone to her stare that made the Baron finger restless for no reason he could explicate . ” Your straightaway impression of Alia is one of power and disturb intensity . But there ’s a lot of implied violence in the verbal description too — the bonnet that ’s “ thrown back ” and the emphasis on her bare pharynx . It ’s immediately intense and gripping .
Harry Potter and the Philosopher ’s Stone by J.K. Rowling ( page 8) :
“ If the bike was immense , it was nothing to the man sit astride it . He was twice as tall as a normal humankind and at least five times as wide . He look simply too braggart to be allowed , and so wild — long tangles of bushy inglorious hair and beard enshroud most of his face , he had hands the size of trash can lids , and his feet in their leather boot were like baby dolphins . ” The theme that Hagrid is “ simply too big to be provide ” is wild — it ’s the Dursleys ’ vantage point seeping through , but also maximise how big and unruly he seems . And his feet are like babe dolphin ! It ’s comical and totally lodge itself in your brain .
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut ( page 23 ):
“ He was a funny - looking child who became a risible - reckon youth — grandiloquent and rickety , and shaped like a nursing bottle of Coca - Cola . ” I love the succinctness of Vonnegut , the far-out range of a function that say a lot in a few words .
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest ( page 22 ):
“ Without the coat , her body had a lean tone to it — as if she worked too long , and eat too little or too poorly . Her glove and marvellous brown iron heel were caked with the filth of the plant , and she was outwear pants like a man . Her foresighted , dark fuzz was pile up and back , but two shift of labor had picked it aside and heavy strand had scatter , elude the combs she ’d used to hold it all aloft . ” This is another verbal description that gives you both the physical inside information but also a sense of who Briar is , and precisely how impoverishment and hard labor have affected her .
Nineteen Eighty - Four by George Orwell ( Thomas Nelson Page 12 ):
“ She was a bold - looking girl of about twenty - seven , with fatheaded colored hair , a freckle expression , and swift , athletic movement . A minute ruby sash , emblem of the Junior Anti - Sex League , was wound several time around her waist of her overalls , just tightly enough to bring out the shapeliness of her hips . ” I love the irony of the anti - sex sash bringing out the voluptuousness of Julia ’s hips , but also the repeated suggestion that she ’s bold and fast - moving .
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman ( page 7 ):
“ There are four dim-witted way of life for the observant to tell Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar apart : first , Mr. Vandemar is two and a one-half head taller than Mr. Croup ; second , Mr. Croup has eyes of a wither china blue , while Mr. Vandemar ’s eyes are brown ; third , while Mr. Vandemar fashion the rings he wears on his good paw out of the skull of four raven , Mr. Croup has no obvious jewelry ; fourthly , Mr. Croup likes words , while Mr. Vandemar is always thirsty . Also , they look nothing alike . ” I do it how the first sentence sets you up to believe the two role are almost indistinguishable , and by the meter the expected value is subverted , you ’ve gotten a very cleared effect of both of them because you ’ve been paying extra - measured attention .
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ( pageboy 4 ):
“ He knew that when he regress to the fire station , he might wink at himself , a minstrel man , fire - cork up , in the mirror . Later , going to sleep , he would feel the flaming smile still gripped by his facial expression muscles , in the wickedness . It never went away , that grinning , it never ever proceed away , as long as he remembered . ” It ’s not precisely a verbal description , but it give us a brilliant impression of Guy Montag , his creepy grin and his cut face .
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman ( varlet 12 ):
“ Lord Asriel was a marvelous man with powerful shoulders , a trigger-happy dark face , and optic that seemed to flaunt and glisten with savage laugh . It was a case to be dominated by , or to fight : never a face to patronize or commiseration . All his movement were large and utterly balanced , like those of a wild animate being , and when he appeared in a room like this , he seemed a wild animal have in a cage too small for it . ” I know the idea that his movements can be both Brobdingnagian and all controlled , and that his face tells you what the two proper responses to it are .
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley ( page 4 ):
“ Tall and rather thin but upright , the Director advanced into the way . He had a foresightful chin and big rather prominent tooth , just get over , when he was not talk , by his full , floridly curved lips . Old , young ? Thirty ? Fifty ? Fifty - five ? It was severe to say . ” It ’s laughable how a lot of description leave some thing dissonant , like the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning ’s eld — but you do it that he ’s someone who “ advance ” into a room rather than strolling in , and he ’s always talk and displaying his elephantine teeth .
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ( page 40 ):
“ Fifteen years past , when they had ridden away to acquire a throne , the Lord of Storm ’s End had been clean - shaven , clear - eyed , and muscled like a maid ’s fantasy . Six and a one-half feet tall , he hulk over less men , and when he don the armour and the great antlered helmet of his house , he became a regular giant . He ’d had a whale ’s specialty too , his weapon system of selection a spiked iron warhammer that Ned could just raise . In those days , the smell of leather and blood had clung to him like fragrance .
“ Now it was perfume that clung to him like perfume , and he had a girth to match his height . Ned had last seen the Riley B King nine yr before during Balon Greyjoy ’s rebellion , when the stag and the direwolf had joined to cease the pretension of the self - proclaimed King of the Iron Islands . Since the night they had suffer side by side in Greyjoy ’s fall fastness , where Robert had accepted the rebel lord ’s capitulation and Ned had taken his Word Theon as hostage and Aaron Montgomery Ward , the king had arrive at at least eight Harlan Fiske Stone . A face fungus as course of study and calamitous as iron covered his jaw to hide his duple Kuki and the droop of his purple lower jawbone , but nothing could hide his stomach or the dark circles under his heart . ” Instead of a dividing line between how other people see a character and the POV character sees him , as in Ender ’s Game , you have a lovely demarcation between how Robert appeared in his flower and how he appear now — which serves to accentuate his present dilapidation far more than a elementary description would .
book of account
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture news show in your inbox daily .
tidings from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
