What 5 books/authors define your literary tastes?

[Saelune]

Im not much for reading books. I just get too easily distracted. I do like reading wikipedia, but that just lets me get distracted by new topics.

The only real authors I have any particular fondness for, is Brian Jaques, who wrote the Redwall series, a bunch of medieval fantasy books. No magic or anything, but all the characters are animals, the most notable being Martin, a mouse. Fun, but not childish, since plenty of death and maiming occurs. Most are standalone, but may make passing reference to each other.

The other is Kurt Vonnegut. His books are cynical, but humorous, and often pretty weird. I should probably read more of his stuff though. Havent even read his most famous book yet, Slaughterhouse Five.

 

[RedDeadFred]

How does being skillful make someone a Gary Stu? He's a gifted performer and smart... That's it. His performance capabilities allow him to naturally get people to like him, but he has very few meaningful relationships. Kvothe has tons of flaws and a lot of the issues he tackles are his own fault. You also can't really argue him being a Gary Stu as far as an author insert since I doubt Rothfuss sees himself as such an incredible fuck up that he potentially ruins the world. He was an arrogant kid who didn't think of consequences and as we see during the present time sections, he's paying dearly for this.

It's fine if you don't like how he's written. Different strokes and all that.

Being skillful doesn't make you a Gary/Mary, but ideally you don't want your character to be perfect. It's been awhile since I read the book, but from the outset, Kvothe is established as a gifted musician. He then loses his family and goes to a university, where, despite his poverty, he excels in everything he does, even surpassing his own teacher, despite any prior education in sympathy (I think, I recall he was something like a gypsy who'd never be exposed to formal academia before). In the midst of this, it seems that every girl he meets has a 'thing' for him in some manner or another. All the while, he remains arrogant, and given how he narrates the story in the present, it looks like he's remained arrogant, and I can't recall any moment or comment where it's pointed out as a flaw. Kvothe succeeds in everything he does, because it seems that he's 'just that good.'

Also, the idea of self-inserts. A Gary Stu/Mary Sue isn't necessarily self-insert. Also, as someone who's been writing and posting stories for the past decade (no, I'm not putting myself on the same level as Rothfuss), in my experience, self-inserts aren't necessarily intentional. There was a story I wrote where I had an OC, where I left it on the backburner, came back to it after a few years, and realized that my younger self had unintentionally created a self-insert, prompting me to rewrite the story from scratch (and for other reasons). Likewise, in experience, one can become invested in characters that one doesn't expect to, and I do recall that Rowling and Martin have identified themselves as being most akin to Hermione and Tyrion, or at least aspiring to be. So, maybe Kvothe is a self-insert, maybe he isn't. But as a character who succeeds in everything, and doesn't have any flaws (bar the arrogance, which is never really presented as a negative), if he HAD been a self-insert, would anyone be surprised?

I'd say there's a difference between being a wish-fulfilling self-insert and being a character the author simply identifies with, but as you said, the definition no longer strictly means that this must be an aspect of a Gary Stue. Kvothe himself points out that arrogance is an issue of his. Another would be his stubborn anti-authority attitude. The biggest issue is his short-sighted mindset. He doesn't think about consequences. He just does things and this is likely what has caused him to potentially doom the world. You can say that he does succeed a pretty much everything he tries, but at life itself, his very nature has led him to tremendous failure.

As far as others pointing out his flaws? Why is that necessary? I think it should be enough that a reader can pick up on them. Kvothe makes a big deal about telling his story the way he wants to tell it. We can be almost certain that at some points he's been an unreliable narrator if only because he has just has his perspective. He's not at all empathetic towards the people he make enemies of, so he never brings up what they'd consider to be flaws in him.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

1 H.P. Lovecraft
2 Robin Hobb
3 Brent Weeks
4 Elizabeth Haydon
5 C.S. Friedman

I embrace the madness apparently. When I was younger I read Lloyd Alexander, David Eddings, and Tolkien though.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Writers whose books I grew up on:

-RL Stein's "Goosebumps"
-KA Applegate's "Animorphs"
-JK Rowling's "Harry Potter"
-Brian Jacques' "Redwall"

And later on, I became a huge fan of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld"

 

[TakerFoxx]

1. Animorphs bt KA Applegate. First series I ever got into, which makes it the most influential. I still break them out now and then.

2. Jim Butcher. Dresden is love, Dresden is life, and Codex Alera is pretty damned awesome too.

3. Neil Gaiman. Just...Neil Gaiman.

4. Adam Troy Castro's Sinister Six trilogy. Yes, I'm including a Spiderman series here.

5. Does Joss Whedon count? No? Okay, fine. GRRM then.

 

[Glongpre]

Pretty much. That, and he's a Gary Stu who succeeds in everything

MMmmmmm, RedDeadFred covered it well, but yeah, Kvothe isn't a perfect person who succeeds with everything. In fact, the present story is a direct result of him failing spectacularly (or at least that is what we are told).

He has an amazing memory, which allows him to excel at lots of things, however, he is deeply flawed, and he fails. A lot.

Spoiler: Name of the Wind spoilers

Remember when he destroys the one bullies sentimental belongings out of spite in Tarbean?
Remember when he jumps off the building, just because he was told to?
Remember when he gets put on the horns for being a deviant?
Remember when he tries to drug a giant lizard with resin but only manages to make it go manic and destroy a village?
Remember when he tries to connect the air outside, with the air in his lungs and nearly kills himself?
Remember when he brings an open flame into the archives and gets banned?

It is okay to not like the protagonist. However, he is a really well written character, not a dime a dozen "gary-stu".

 

[Breakdown]

1. First started reading - the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, and the Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner.

2. Dragonlance books by Weis and Hickman, David Edding's books, and then Raymond E Feist.

3. Terry Pratchett and Robert Rankin for comedic fantasy.

4. David Gemmell and other more gritty types of fantasy.

5. Brian Lumley for his Necroscope and Cthulhu Mythos books, which got me into reading horror. They had really striking covers that would grabe your attention in the book shop.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

1. Stephen King around 9 years old. I'd been reading before that but his work is the earliest impactful writings for me.
2. JRR Tolkein followed not long after, Hobbit and LOTR were gifted to me by my grandfather.
3. Douglas Adams I picked up by accident, happy accident around 13 years old.
4. Margaret Weis/Tracey Hickman pushed me into playing D&D.
5. Carl Hiaasen spoke at my high school graduation and taught me that most of the people I went to school with were ignorant of what good humor actually was... I'd read his works before but after he spoke I have read everything he's written since.

 

[seventy two]

Roughly in chronological order.
1. Emily Rodda - Deltora Quest and Rowan of Rin, were among the first books I actually sought out and led to my interest in fantasy.
2. Weis/Hickman - Their Dragonlance novels are probably my favorite books, having read them multiple times, something I almost never do.
3. Dean Koontz - I started with Odd Thomas, and grew to love the suspenseful style. I think I've probably read 30 of his books, and still want to read more.
4. James Rollins - I cannot remember why I started reading his books, they are much more action intensive that anything else I read but, I have read almost all of the Sigma series and enjoyed it.
5. Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child - I mainly read the Pendergast series which are light mystery thrillers, I recommend giving their books a shot if your a fan of Koontz.

 

[maninahat]

Rex Stout and his Nero Wolfe: It's a series that celebrates both the armchair intellectual and the tough as nails, wise guy. So do I.

Tom Sharpe: If you took the cast of Jackass and transformed them into Oxford educated, genius writers, their resulting books would turn out something like Tom Sharpe's; a combination of really crude sex and violence humour, arrived at through really clever build up and social satire.

John Steinbeck: inspires me to talk about the naked human soul, and other such nonsense.

Dr Samuel Johnson: Godfather of literary criticism, witty curmugeon, Dr. big fatty know-it-all.

Hugo Pratt, writer of Corto Maltese: Wearily cynical, yet hopelessly romantic.