Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is “Books I Wish Had More/Less [Insert Your Concept Here] In Them”. I decided to go slightly off-piste and talk about characters I want more of in given books, because there are some characters I’d love to understand more about or see the further adventures of.

Without further ado, here are my ten!

1. Csethiro Ceredin, from The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. She’s really cool, but we only really see her through Maia’s eyes — and early in their acquaintance, at that. I want to know about why she learned fencing, I want to know about all her other interests, and of course I want to know how she and Maia work out as a couple.
2. Liu Qingge, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by MXTX. He’s a fairly prominent character, given the amount of time he spends protecting Shen Qingqiu and fighting Luo Binghe, but I’d love to know about his childhood, how he and Mingyan both came to Cang Qiong Mountain, more about his past animosity toward the original Shen Qingqiu… I just like him a lot, okay!?
3. Ning Yingying, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by MXTX. It’s fairly obvious that her “demotion” from love interest to side character actually allows her a chance to develop and grow. I’d love to have seen more of that.
4. Liu Mingyan, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by MXTX. Pretty much the same story here! And why did she decide to wear a veil, and when? What will she do when she’s not Luo Binghe’s love interest, and with her brother alive?
5. Faramir, from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This has been a long-term wish for me. I loved the brief glimpse we got of Faramir from a very young age, and that interest in him hasn’t abated at all. How’d he come to be the best of his family, far nobler, braver and kinder in many ways than Boromir or Denethor?
6. Don Abene, from Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells. And her whole group, really. How do they get on after meeting Murderbot? Does Murderbot ever join them again?
7. Tom Wilker, from A Natural History of Dragons (and sequels) by Marie Brennan. He’s a major character of the books, and we do get to see him succeed, but what would he write in his memoirs? What did he make of his life after he and Isabella’s great discoveries?
8. Cal, from Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. He’s a bit-part, really, coming or going as needed by the plot — but I wanted to know more about how he gets along in the world.
9. Thimble, from Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. I think this might just be because he was cute. But also we didn’t get to know a lot about his thoughts and feelings, and I’m curious.
10. Sun Li, from Shady Hollow (and some of the sequels) by Juneau Black. We know a bit about where he’s come from and why, but he’s developing a friendship with Vera and Lenore, and I’d actually like to see more of it — more than just them eating at his restaurant with him, for example. Do they hang out other than that? What does he do with his free time?

In the end, these are books I love just as they are… but it really wouldn’t hurt to see more of these characters.