The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters Part 2

@fredthepig on DeviantArt gives us a fresh reimaging of Little Red Riding Hood. 

Hello, Sup Readers!

In Part 1 of The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters, we explored the traditional tropes in the genre, like Vampires, Frankenstein, and Fae. It's clear these creatures are evolving over time, becoming more complex and less predictable. Today, I'm sharing some wonderful and eclectic new examples, all released this year.

Let's start with Rachel Gillig's The Knight and the Moth, out May 2025

From BookTok sensation and NYT bestselling author Rachel Gillig, comes the next big romantasy phenomenon: a gothic, mist-cloaked tale of a prophetess who is forced beyond the safety of her cloister on an impossible quest to defeat the gods with the one knight whose future is beyond her sight.

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

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And then, expected publication June 19, 2025, is The Return of the Sistah Samurai by Tatiana Obey.

Afro Samurai meets The Boondocks in this anime-inspired novel. A fresh take on ancient ideas.

I've wanted nothing more than to become a Sistah Samurai. When I was expelled from the training academy for sneaking in my stupid ex-boyfriend, I still had hope that I could cry enough to convince them to take me back. Then, demons invaded the capital and decimated the clan, and there went my dreams of ever naming my own pair of pink swords.

Until I heard a rumor of one last Sistah Samurai. I packed my favorite outfits and my trusty teddy bear, and recruited my forever bestie to help me find her. If we could manage not to interrupt her lunch, maybe we could convince her to train us? We were ready to do whatever she asked, even if that meant confronting old flames and taking down the patriarchy.

As long as we looked good while doing it.

The sequel of Sistah Samurai is an Action Fantasy novella that is an homage to the anime, Afro Samurai. Both works feature a feudal Japan-inspired setting that is rife with anachronisms. In the words of Samuel L. Jackson, “Is that a motherf—ing RPG?”

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How about The Devils by Joe Abercrombie? This is what happens when the devils are on your side! Out May 2025.

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. 

But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters, and the mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

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And finally, The Floating World by Axie Oh.

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn't realize she's the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined...

What contemporary monsters are you reading right now? I'd love to hear about them!

xKim

Other Posts in the Art of Adaptation 2025

January - The Art of Adaptation - Films in 2025

February - The Art of Adaptation - Authors' Response to External Pressures

March - The Art of Adaptation - The Healing Magic of KDrama

April - The Art of Adaptation -  Reader Persuasion

May - The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters Part 1

June - The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters Part 2

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About Kim Falconer 

Kim Falconer, also writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is ready with the third book, planned to be out in 2025. TBA

Kim can be found on AKWilder.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and KimFalconer.com. 

Throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site.. See you there!

From The Backlist: "What Love Means" by Kim Falconer

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It's backlist time -- & we love this post on "What Love Means " by Kim Falconer.

Time to share it again, we thought. So here it is! Enjoy!!

The "Quantum" Series

What Love Means

by Kim Falconer

I find it fascinating that the English Language has only one word for love. We love our cars and cats and pancakes. We love our new job, the latest film and the computer that never lets us down. We love our gardens, sports, family and our lovers, but the feeling for these ‘loved ones’ can be quite different. Still, we say the same thing: I love . . . Not so in other cultures. The ancient Greeks, for example, had four different words for love with different meanings and different ‘locations.’

Love as Epithemia translates into words like horny or randy. It’s a physical, sensual, sexy love that’s hard to resist. Animal attraction. Chemistry. You know the kind? It’s tactile and felt in the body. It wants to get close, to touch and explore. It wants to have sex because that’s the only thing that will put the fire out!

Love as philia is a friendship love that brings creative inspiration. There can be a deep sense wanting to be together in companionship and co-creation. Philia is felt in the heart. We can write characters that have a feeling of philia for each other and it really screws things up if they do have sex. Or if one character is feeling the philia and the other is on fire with epithemia. These make great problems for convoluted story lines!

Love as Eros is felt in the soul. Eros is a god from which we get the word erotic, but to the ancient Greeks it was much more than just ‘sex’. The original definition of erotic (of Eros) is a situation when two or more people come together in such a way there is a lasting transformation. By this definition, sex is seldom erotic, but it can be. The Eros relationship is heady, intense, obsessive. It always leads to growth and change.

Love as agape is a divine love felt in the spirit. It may not need the body conneciton to feel fulfilled. This is also tantric, sex that opens the mind to another level of consciousness. Agape can lead to transcendence where characters move beyond their earthly limitations to become more than they ever thought possible.

Stories that contrast these kinds of love can be deeply moving because they speak to our own subtle and complex longings. One character feeling the ‘brotherly love’ of philia may be confronted by their companion’s erotic fire. Someone with the reverence of agape may not know how to face pure epithemia head on. It’s not unrequited love, exactly (it doesn’t have to distance characters) but it brings trouble and that’s exactly what we want in a good read! Mixing up the love keeps the stakes high and the dynamics flowing!

... 

What a great post! To read the original, click here

To check in on Kim, try these links:

AKWilder.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and KimFalconer.com. 

Throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site -- see you there!

Kim also writes as AK Wilder

Great Leaders in Speculative Fiction #5: Katniss Everdeen & "The Hunger Games"

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Can you believe it's June already? Time swoopin' by, as it does! Howeverz, it does mean we're at #5 in the "Great Leaders In Speculative Fiction" series -- *and* the spotlight is on the inimitable Katniss Everdeen from Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" trilogy.

Katniss Everdeen

Up until now, the leaders featured in this series have all come from a leadership background in their society -- yes, even Kaladin in Stormlight Archive, although his background is by no means as elevated as that of Dalinar Kholin.

Katniss, though, truly is a commoner, and poor with it. Not only that, she's a poor commoner from one of her society's poorest Districts (think state, province, shire.) Although close to her mother and sister, she's also a loner except for her hunting buddy, Dale, who is also a friend. 

The most interesting aspect of Katniss as a leader, not just a hero and champion (although she's very clearly that, too) is that she remains a loner throughout. From the moment she volunteers to take her sister's place in the Hunger Games lottery, Katniss's leadership is moral, rather than the more usual paths of governance or military prominence. 

In her person, and by her deeds, she exemplifies a riposte, and an alternative, to the cruelty and repression of the Capitol, which masterminds the Hunger Games.

I feel very sure everyone reading this knows the Hunger Games premise, but 'just in case', every District must supply two of their children, one girl, one boy, to the Capitol every year, to compete in an arena where all tributes must kill or be killed. Only the last tribute standing survives the arena.

And no one volunteers -- except for Katniss. The second book is titled Catching Fire and Katniss burns very brightly throughout, but it is a flame of moral integrity as well as physical and mental courage. The combination of the two make her an inspirational leader as well. Seeing and hearing her, people's spirits catch alight. They want to follow her example and do as she does.

Yet Katniss always stands alone. In part, because she sees the realities and uncomfortable truths that most people prefer to avoid. The trilogy ends, as it begins, with Katniss taking a moral stand -- but this time, it's not one that all, if any, among those who follow her, readily understand. 

Katniss has been pushed to a brink. The fact she survives it illustrates the degree to which she has become more symbol than person. The symbol cannot be allowed to fail, or fall, which is also why her final deed carries so much weight and does bring a lasting end to the Hunger Games.

Yet for all the fires Katniss has lit, she is more alone at the end than at the outset. And however bright her personal flame, the path from the Games, through revolution, to reach that end was always a precipice, with death on one side and failure of integrity on the other. 

Unquestionably, though, the fire Katniss Everdeen lit was a conflagration, both in the trilogy's world of Panem, and in readers' enthusiasm for her story. 

~*~

About Helen Lowe

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final instalment in The Wall Of Night series.
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Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.

......................................~*~

Previous Posts: Great Leaders in Speculative Fiction -- Where To Find 'Em & Why they Rock 

February: Mara of the Acoma in the Empire series by Raymond E Feist & Janny Wurts

March:  Kaladin and Dalinar in The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

April: Pyanfar Chanur in "The Pride of Chanur" series by CH Cherryh

May: John Aversin in Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly

From the Backlist: In What World?

 

Jacek Yerka: Surrealist Paintings – Thoughts on Papyrus

Welcome Sup readers and authors to another issue from the Backlist. Today we explore a particular take on world-building by Margaret Ronald. Join us in this vivid exploration of the heart of storytelling!

Read the whole post here - from May 2011. In What World? 

In what world?

by Margaret Ronald

In a world...

The words might not start as many movie trailers as they used to, but they've become a sort of shorthand for setting up drama. And for me, they sum up one of the things I love about writing: finding that "in a world" moment and drawing it out into a real, complicated situation.

 

 

Say you have a fairly normal setting, only with magic/mythical creatures/mutant superpowers. (In a world where vampires roam the night...in a world where deities lurk in back alleys...) Said powers can range from outright awesome (immortality! control over electricity! telekinesis!) to just above mundane (control over all shrimp no longer than one inch! olfactory invulnerability! keeping a fridge permanently clean!). The first and most important question then becomes "why aren't these magicians/vampires/mutants in charge of everything?"

 

 

 

One answer is "they are, we just don't know it." Okay, then. How much energy does it take to hide something that big? And why not rule openly? Or perhaps in this world, they are already visibly in charge of everything. That's going to make a lot of changes in the governance of this world, possibly even down to who's still considered a person. If vampires are in charge, are humans cattle? If magicians rule, where's the check on their power? 

 

 

There are lots of fun ways to play with this character by character -- say, Mr. Electricity above can only exert his power at great personal cost, and so lives off the grid, away from civilization. Or maybe the fridge-cleaning guy works in a sterile lab, and so that just makes his life a little easier. But on a larger scale, the effects of adding magic to a world are a lot more pernicious.. Read the whole post by Margaret Ronald...

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Speculative Fiction (Fantasy/Thriller/Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy) for adults and teens.

We are a group of best-selling authors providing news, reviews and interviews from the darker, more speculative side of fiction.

Fiction that makes the heart beat faster...

 

The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters Part 1

Theresa Konigseder Haller dark-fae-finalSee full size image

 

Hello Sup readers and writers,

Let me introduce you to today's topic in the Art of Adaptation series. It's all about Monsters!

In Fantasy Fiction, there are many kinds of 'evil' antagonistic creatures: classic monsters reimaged, new monsters with historical twists, and monsters from cultures beyond our familiar Western tropes. Through these creatures, we explore the physicality and psychology of our darkest nightmares and how they have adapted and changed over time. 

Classic Monsters

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is often cited as the first published SF/horror story. Exploring themes of humanity, divinity, power and abuse, it has been frequently reimaged. the results are everything from the comedic Young Frankenstein film by Mel Brooks to Pádraig Kenny's middle-grade read, Stitch. 

One of our own Sup authors, Merrie Destefano, has written an entire series in this theme, starting with book #1, Shade.

A dangerous holiday. A deadly curse brought to life.

When Mary Wollstonecroft Godwin accepted an invitation to Lord Byron's house party deep in the Swiss Alps, she hoped it would serve as a welcome distraction from her broken heart. Instead, she finds herself surrounded by enigmatic guests with their own dangerous secrets to hide....

Another classic monster is seen in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, an 1886 Gothic horror novella by  Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of bizarre occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and a murderous criminal named Edward Hyde. 

I think we are all familiar with at least one of the modern-day spinoffs, The Incredible Hulk. But this powerful monster has adapted to new motivations triggered by emotions. Through rage, he becomes incredibly powerful, but unlike the murdering Hyde, he often tries to help or protect others. 

Vampires Revissioned

The classic origin of vampires is usually cited as Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. Here we see a hideous, ravenous monster, as portrayed in the film Nosferatu, but slowly, over time, a transformation in these creatures is occurring. The image of the vampire, still wicked and powerful, is now the alluring and attractive creatures of The Vampire Diaries and The Southern Vampire Mysteries. 

In more examples, four of our own Sup authors have contributed to the expanding genre with an anthology titled Supernatural Underground, Vampires Gone Wild! Have you read it?

A deeper dive into this relationship between readers, writers and vampires is HERE in The Evolution of the Vampire. One of the more intriguing aspects is ... not so much of the monsters themselves, but of our relationship to them. We don’t see evil like we used to! - From Vampire Evolution - 2011

The Fae and Other Forest Creatures

From Pixies to the Unseelie Court, books featuring Fae - revisioned or otherwise -  are extremely popular. Originally, we meet this brand of Fantasy creatures in the 1697 "Tales of Mother Goose," by Charles Perrault. It includes familiar stories like "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," and "Puss in Boots." 

Perrault's work was followed in 1812 by Grimms' Fairy Tales, which included stories like "Hansel and Gretel," "Rapunzel," and "Snow White". 

Many of these Fae from ancient folklore were dangerous, deadly so, but modern adaptations see them differently. Still risky and highly mercurial, contemporary Fae have something akin to a human heart. Consider Holly Blacks Folk of the Air, and Seanan McGuire's "Every Heart a Doorway.

Our own Helen Lowe began her Fantasy Fiction career with the publication of Thornspell - a reimaging of Sleeping Beauty from the point of view of the prince!

Further Shores - Dragons East and West

Chinese Dragon VS Western Dragon: Here's What You Need To Know

When dragons take the form of East or West, they split our cultural psychologies in half. They used to, anyway. Nowadays, you know when you are face to face with a Dragon, but you may not know what kind it is - one that brings the best day of your life, or the worst.

For example, Eastern dragons are benevolent, representing good luck and prosperity, a rain deity to be honoured, while Western dragons are commonly depicted as fire-breathing, treasure-hording, Smaug-like, destructive monsters that must be slayed. 

But contemporary storytelling in the West is changing as our dragons adapt to a more blended representation. Anne McCaffrey dedicated her life, intentionally or not, to this cause with her 25 volumes of Dragon Riders of Pern. 

Where to begin? Anne McCaffrey's first novel is Dragonflight 

In this world, dragons bond telepathically with a single human when they hatch, and then the pair spends their lives together protecting the planet from deadly Thread that falls from the sky. Those growing up with, or even reading her books for the first time, experience a new dragon psychology that is warmer, yet challenging, empowering, but full of risks. 

Compare this to the novels released in the last few decades featuring Eastern Dragons, such as Alison Goodman's Eon and Eona. Can you feel the adaptations, in both directions?

If you are drawn to a specific type of 'monster', I would love to hear about it! 

And, be sure to check back next month for part 2 in the Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters

:) Kim

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Other Posts in the Art of Adaptation 2025

January - The Art of Adaptation - Films in 2025

February - The Art of Adaptation - Authors' Response to External Pressures

March - The Art of Adaptation - The Healing Magic of KDrama

April - The Art of Adaptation -  Reader Persuasion

May - The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters Part 1

June - The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters Part 2

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About Kim Falconer 

Kim Falconer, also writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is ready with the third book, out in 2025. TBA

Kim can be found on AKWilder.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and KimFalconer.com. 

Throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site.. See you there!

From The Backlist: "Sex, Gore, and @!*&%! " by Dakota Banks

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Here on Supernatural Underground we love us a backlist post -- and we think you'll love a reprise on "Sex, Gore, and @!*&%! " by Dakota Banks. 

In it, Dakota takes 'a step to the right' (or maybe it's 'a jump to the left', he-he) on our core speculative fiction fare (SciFi, Fantasy, Horror, with more than a little Paranormal and Romance thrown in ;-) ) and hones in on the Mystery genre.

The "ratings" classifications of Mystery fiction, that is, based on their violence, sex, and bad/gory language content. Let's go check it out!
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Sex, Gore, and @!*&%!

by Dakota Banks

"In the mystery genre, there are general classifications that readers assign to books based on their use of violence, sex, and language--just like rating movies. Some readers are comfortable only within the classification that appeals to them and rarely read beyond it. Others, like me, sample from all parts of the buffet table. Let's take a look at these classifications and see if they apply to paranormal books, too.

• Fluffies. These books drip wholesomeness, except for the fact that someone is murdered. Otherwise, they couldn't be considered murder mysteries at all. But the murder is sanitized and happens off-stage. For example, someone might get a phone call from the police informing them that Aunt Helen is (gasp!) dead. There is not even a hint of foul language and the only blood in the book will be there from the paper cut you got turning the pages. Fluffies are a fairly recent invention, created as a backlash when readers of the next classification of books started noticing language creeping in that made them uncomfortable. Thus, the fluffy was born. Guaranteed no encounters of the sex, violence, and foul-mouthed varieties. G-rated movies.
  
  

• Cozies. Light on all three aspects. These stories frequently take place in small towns, or if not, within an extended family. The emphasis on character development and especially relationships among a group of people are the controlling aspects of the story. Again, the murder usually happens off-stage and the mystery may involve something like keeping family secrets or falsifying the will. PG movies.
  
  

• Traditional. Now we get to mysteries with real meat on their bones, literally. While the murder might or might not still happen off-stage, the reader gets to see the dead body or bodies through the eyes of the lead character. The reader may see other characters in the book killed on-stage besides the initial murder. There may be couples having sex, but in a "fadeout" manner where the door closes or the blankets are pulled up just when things are getting really interesting. No lengthy specific descriptions of what's going on under those blankets. Language has slipped into usage of common curse words, and only the f-word is off limits. Or is it? Some of these books use the f-word in non-sexual ways as a strong expletive or something that is consistent with a particular character's manner of speech. These are generally the amateur sleuth books, where a character outside law enforcement becomes involved in a murder investigation, possibly to prove herself innocent of the murder. PG-13 movies.
  
  

• Hard-boiled. Language, violence, and sex are explicit but according the author's standards, not used for sensationalism. Subject matter such as serial killers, rape, pedophilia, human trafficking, gangs, kinkiness, drugs, the whole range of the human condition--anything goes. Language can be coarse, bloody violence is shown to the reader, and hot sex is usually part of the story. The protagonists are usually people within law enforcement in some capacity, or private investigators--in other words, a small segment of society that fights to keep the rest of us safe. R movies.
  
  

• Splatter books or erotica--Language has no restriction in either of these books. Splatter books detail scenes of bloody violence and torture that amount to wallowing in blood, which is the purpose of the book. Erotica emphasizes explicit, frequent, unusual, whatever, sex to the point that other story elements exist to support the portrayal of sex. X-rated movies or soft porn.

As I mentioned earlier, some mystery readers are loyal to one classification. Some will read only cozies, some hard-boiled readers think cozies are a waste of time and not real mysteries. You get the idea.

... "

To read the original post, click here.

To check in on Dakota, go here.

She also writes as Shirley Kennett, here.

Great Leaders in Speculative Fiction #4 -- John Aversin & "Dragonsbane"

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Just squeaking in under the wire here, but made it for May 2 -- phew! And am stoked to be featuring post #4 in the Great Leaders of Speculative Fiction series.

This month we're back to Fantasy with the legendary John Aversin, from Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane.  

I always think of John Aversin as a fairly ordinary kind of guy, at face value. He is the local, and only, ruler left in what was once the northernmost province of an empire. The Winterlands province has been abandoned and the inhabitants left to fend for themselves for over a century. No light matter, when the fending off involves regular raiding by barbarian tribes, the return of demons and monsters as the population dwindles, and the brutalization of that human population as dangers, poverty, and deprivation deepen.

As the local lord, it falls to John Aversin to organise, equip, and lead the local militia against these threats and maintain the rule of law, thereby supporting the local community and sustaining civilization. All of which he does, from a commitment to the aforementioned civilization and the rule of law, and because if he didn't, all those seeking to maintain those values in the Winterlands would perish. 

So-o, just another smalltime, local lord, abandoned by the world's great powers and fighting a losing battle, so doomed to be forgotten by history. That's one way the story could go. Except that John Aversin has a claim to fame that has spread beyond the Winterlands -- because he has slain a dragon, something that is notoriously difficult to do. And completely impossible, as Jenny Waynest, the local witch, puts it, if the knight tries to take: 

"...a three-foot steel blade against twenty-five feet of (airborne) spiked and flaming death."

Needless to say, John hasn't done anything nearly that stupid. Consequently, he is the only living Dragonsbane, aka successful dragonkiller. So when a dragon (Morkeleb the Black) infests the capital city of the Kingdom of Belmarie, the crown prince (Gareth) seeks out John Aversin, to ride to the south and slay it. Initially, John has no intention of going, since as he points out to Gareth, he is the Winterlands' only knight and military leader, whereas the king has hundreds at his command. 

Although my summary is just the beginning of the story, I hope it's already clear why I consider John Aversin one of the great leaders of speculative fiction. First and foremost, he lives his commitment to his people, the values of civilization, and the rule of law, and puts himself at continual hazard to uphold those values. It is, in fact, the only reason he fought the dragon.

It's also the reason he does eventually go south to take on Morkeleb the Black -- because Gareth promises him, in the king's name, that if he does, then Belmarie will re-establish civil government in the Winterlands, and send the soldiers necessary to defend them. So once again, John will hazard himself to secure a future for his people.

When he (and Jenny) reach the capital, however, they find a court far from universally supportive of Gareth's mission. Worse, some factions are prepared to tolerate the dragon's depredations (devouring, destroying, and burning) in order to further their acquisition of wealth and power. John, therefore, rather than being welcomed and helped, finds his reputation disputed and his appearance and speech mocked. He is also hindered at every turn.

What makes John a great leader is that despite the baiting, verbal abuse, and obstacles put in his way, he continues to place the larger mission and the Winterlands' wellbeing ahead of personal affront. He also, despite his rough northern speech and patched armor, exemplifies the behavior of a true knight and person of honor, by defending the refugees that the dragon has forced into the city, including those of nonhuman species, who are being falsely accused of summoning the dragon and persecuted accordingly.  

Defending the weak and persecuted might just make John Aversin a hero. The reason I believe it also makes him a great leader, is because he is capable of convincing others to emulate the behavior he models. And because in doing so, he is motivated by the same values and vision that led him to slay the first dragon and be prepared to fight the second -- the commitment to civilized behaviour, the rule of law, and the wellbeing, primarily of the Winterlands community (his people), but also of all people.

So yes, when it comes to great leaders of speculative fiction, John Aversin is not only right up there. He rocks. 

~*~

About Helen Lowe

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final instalment in The Wall Of Night series.
.
Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.

......................................~*~

Previous Posts: Great Leaders in Speculative Fiction -- Where To Find 'Em & Why they Rock 

February: Mara of the Acoma in the Empire series by Raymond E Feist & Janny Wurts

March:  Kaladin and Dalinar in The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

April: Pyanfar Chanur in "The Pride of Chanur" series by CH Cherryh