This week’s theme from Top Ten Tuesday is all about secondary/minor characters, and I love it — secondary and minor characters can add so much to a world, help to flesh out the major characters, and bring in interesting themes and ideas that the main character alone can’t support.

Sooo let’s dig into some favourites.

1. Csevet Aisava, from The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison).
   He appears early in the story and from that point on, he’s constantly in support of Maia, helping him find his feet in the court and enacting his will in the most efficient way possible. We don’t see a lot of his inner life, but we see enough tantalising glimpses to know that he has one, and his competence and loyalty are very enticing. I’d love to know more about Csevet.
2. Tom Wilker, from The Memoirs of Lady Trent (Marie Brennan).
   Wilker’s start in A Natural History of Dragons isn’t a terribly promising one: he comes across as trying to gatekeep Isabella’s part in her husband’s expedition, and disrespectful of her suggestions and the expertise she can offer. Over time, though, it becomes clear that he’s afraid of losing his own chance: as a lower-class scientist, he’s (at the start of the series) not taken seriously by other naturalists. As the series goes on, he and Isabella begin to support one another and work together to overcome their disadvantages, and watching his character grow is one of the satisfactions of the series for me. He and Isabella are perfect work partners, and complement one another’s strengths.
3. Mu Qing and Feng Xin, from Heaven Official’s Blessing (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu).
   I’m discussing these two together because I don’t want to pick just one: they’re pretty inseparable, even as they seem to hate each other, and their relationship (and their relationship with Xie Lian) adds a lot of spice and complexity to the story, giving us another emotional arc beyond the testing of Xie Lian’s principles or his love story with Hua Cheng. The two generals are both loyal to Xie Lian, but in different ways, with Mu Qing’s practicality offending Feng Xin’s idealism, and Feng Xin’s privilege and lack of subtlety annoying Feng Xin at every turn. Half the time, they just need to communicate, but they’re both completely stubborn. They are complete idiots, Your Honour: I love them.
4. Liu Qingge, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu).
   I am incredibly fond of Liu Qingge’s character, and I think it’s all in the way he will defend Shen Qingqiu no matter what (loyalty is my catnip; you might have noticed). To Liu Qingge, it doesn’t matter what Shen Qingqiu is accused of, or who exactly he is now that he is very clearly not the original flavour: Shen Qingqiu saved him, they are martial brothers, and so he will defend Shen Qingqiu against all comers. He doesn’t pretend that this isn’t a potential burden or beat around the bush about it: he straight-up tells Shen Qingqiu that yeah, I know, you’re afraid of being a burden to us, but we’re not afraid of that. The fact that he considers Shen Qingqiu worth it no matter what is such a big moment, such a beautiful thing to say, and I haven’t seen enough talk about that moment. He doesn’t lie and tell Shen Qingqiu he’s not a burden, he says so what if you are? I will support you anyway.
5. Jiang Cheng, from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu).
   Jiang Cheng is a bit of an exception on this list because he isn’t loyal to Wei Wuxian, but turns against him, but I enjoy the character a lot (even if I don’t always like him) because he’s very understandable. He grows up being second fiddle to Wei Wuxian, and resentment builds up — assuaged when Wei Wuxian promises that it will always be the two of them against the world, a promise which Wei Wuxian ultimately breaks to save the Jiang clan from being associated with his actions. His resentment turns into hatred when Wei Wuxian’s actions ultimately lead to the death of their sister and her husband. Throughout the story, he is brash, irrational, and nothing like as clever as Wei Wuxian, but he loves his family deeply and in the end he comes through for Wei Wuxian in a critical moment as well, even after everything that comes between them. It’s kind of a sad thing for him that in a world where Wei Wuxian didn’t exist, Jiang Cheng would absolutely be a hero himself.
6. Faramir, from The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien).
   I have to bring up Faramir here because I think reading LotR was one of the first times I latched onto a side-character so firmly. I have such opinions about the movies because of how they presented Faramir! He represents the best of his family’s line, the bravery coupled with the cleverness, the willingness to serve Gondor without the need for self-aggrandisement, and all of that made me love the character immediately. I know why it was changed for the movie, it makes loads of sense, especially for that medium — but I love the Faramir of the books, and the fact that he never sways from his path and his loyalty to Gondor, Gandalf and (ultimately) Aragorn, even as he unquestionably loves his brother and his father and does his best by them.
7. Mervyn Bunter, from the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries (Dorothy L. Sayers).
   To be honest, I don’t actually want more information about Bunter, and I think the character would actually agree with me that it’s not his place! Hideously classist, of course, but Bunter seems to enjoy serving Lord Peter, and putting Peter (and the world) in their proper places, and that provides some moments of comedy amidst it all. He is always loyal to Peter, though the bond between them is forged off-the-page and the reasons for it just briefly referenced, and he acts as the perfect support through the mysteries that Peter tries to unravel (and his courting of Harriet Vane as well). Somehow Bunter always has the right thing at the right moment. He’s a caricature of the perfect servant, but written in a way that I think is aware of that and sometimes gently, quietly poking fun at it: Bunter knows what he’s doing (and Sayers did too).
8. Lord Ruthven, from the Dr Greta Helsing series (Vivian Shaw).
   I was torn between Ruthven and Fastitocalon here, but I think Ruthven’s my favourite, in part because we see a bit more of him and he’s active all throughout the first three books. (I haven’t read the newest yet, and I don’t think he plays a part in Bitter Waters that I can remember, but he’s still a major character in the trilogy.) I love the difficulty he clearly has with his long existence, and the way he’s put that to learning and helping people most of the time… but, very humanly (despite being a vampire), also sometimes just mopes. I love that he gives his unsuitable boyfriend a second chance at life and being a reasonable person, I love that he’s ready to support Greta no matter was, and I love that ultimately he’s happy to get his hands dirty (not to mention risk his unlife) helping people as well as just throwing large quantities of money at problems.
9. Beru, from Solo Leveling (Chugong).
   I never thought I would ever, could ever, find an undead shadow minion based on a giant warrior ant so cute, but his loyalty to Jinwoo (and Jinwoo’s family), his interest in traditional court dramas and his general behaviour (plus his appearance at times in the manhwa) is just adorable. He’s not an especially complex character, so I thought about picking Yoo Jinho or Woo Jinchul instead for their unforced loyalty and support of Jinwoo… but, yeah, sorry, Beru’s cuter.
10. Seivarden, from the Imperial Radch series (Ann Leckie).
    Seivarden is a hot mess. She isn’t a particularly good person, mired in privilege and — once that’s stripped away — self-pity. However, she learns to rely on Breq, and then comes the loyalty (you knew that word was coming, surely). She was never a favourite of Breq’s, she’s still fucking up a lot of things, but she begins to really, really try to drop her addiction, to treat people better, and to help Breq even while Breq is essentially dismantling a lot of the things that gave Seivarden her privilege and her place in the world. Ultimately, betraying Breq would be easier, but Seivarden grows and learns and tries. I love her journey, even though I do not think one would enjoy knowing Seivarden, unless Seivarden recognised one as being of equal or higher status and thus behaved appropriately within the bounds of acceptability. Once you step outside that, she’s more than a little careless.

Okaaaay, that’s enough of the mini-essays! I’m very curious to see the characters that other people choose.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday theme celebrates flowers, which is another opportunity for me to look at book covers a bit more closely! I’m not a very visual person and often don’t notice/remember covers, so I’ve been enjoying this kind of topic lately. Let’s see what I can do!

Flowers are such a common element of cover design that I had trouble picking favourites — especially when it came to danmei and baihe, where cherry blossoms abound!

I haven’t read all of these books yet (Thistlemarsh is still on my TBR, and I only just started Princeweaver), and some of the books I didn’t love… but the cover designs stood out for one reason or another for all of them. I was surprised by the relatively dark theme in the second row until I added in The Beauty’s Blade there to break it up a bit: you don’t always associate flowers with that kind of dark cover, but here we are.

Curious to see what others have picked today!

I wasn’t feeling inspired by this week’s topic, since the only answers that leaped to mind for deceased authors I wish were still writing were Tolkien and Le Guin, and non-deceased authors… well, you never know, they might be writing something as we speak! I live in hope. I poked around a bit online trying to jog my memory, but nothing felt really authentic, in the end.

So I went and looked at old topics, and picked #294: “Ten books I picked up on a whim.” I do a lot of whim-driven buying when I go to a physical bookshop: honestly, that’s the main reason I go to bookshops: not to buy the books I know I want, but to explore what else is out there.

Here are some that I picked up on a whim and loved! I’ll count library books as well as books I bought, and I’ll link the reviews when they’re already up on my blog. In some cases they

1. Ramesses the Great, by Toby Wilkinson.
   I wasn’t actually sure if I’d like it, since I remembered finding something else by Wilkinson a bit tedious… but I’m glad I gave it the chance, because I found it totally riveting. Despite a lifelong interest in ancient Eygpt, I hadn’t dug very deep into most specific pharoahs, not even Ramesses the Great, and I ended up telling several people aaaaall sorts of things based on this book.
2. Tied to You, by WHAT/Chelliace.
   This was a random borrow from the library via ComicsPlus, because it kept popping up when I was idly browsing for ideas for what to read, and I was curious about the concept (which is basically that every person has a “ring partner”, and if they touch them after they’re both of age, then a bond forms between them so they have to be physically together in order to sleep, and sleep wonderfully when they are together). It should not be mistaken for portraying a healthy romance because oh boy it does not, but I really enjoyed the twists and turns in getting Wooseo to eventually accept the fact that Jigeon is his ring partner for good.
3. Mr Collins in Love, by Lee Welch.
   I am not a huge Austen fan, and I’d seen someone whose taste I trust praise it highly, so I approached this with a pretty open mind, despite the fact that it’s Mr Collins. I found it was very well done, with sympathy for a could-have-been Collins.
4. The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans.
   I almost wasn’t expecting to like this one, because it was a random pick solely because I thought it’d be a good one to review for Postcrossing. I ended up really enjoying it, because it does a good job at giving us characterisation through letters, and drawing out some small mysteries to keep things intriguing while the main character slowly works things through. It’s not a book in which stuff happens, more of a character study.
5. A Boy Named Rose, by Gaëlle Geniller.
   This was another random find via ComicsPlus, and I loved the gentle exploration of Rose’s love of dancing and his slow branching out into the world outside where he grew up. The blurb of the book makes it sound more dramatic than it really is.
6. A History of England in 25 Poems, by Catherine Clarke.
   I keep banging on about this one since it’s a recent read, heh. But it really was an interesting history, selecting unexpected poems and digging into contexts I hadn’t thought of.
7. Moon Cop, by Tom Gauld.
   I love Gauld’s comic strips, but wasn’t sure what I’d make of something longer. I hadn’t expected the melancholy tone of this one, but it worked really well, actually.
8. Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism, by Bill Schutt.
   I know, it doesn’t sound a very appetising subject, but nonetheless I found it really interesting, especially being introduced to alternative ideas about prion diseases and how they might spread.
9. Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide to the Churches of the British Isles, by Andrew Ziminski.
   Very much a whim for me here, because I’m not interested in churches or architecture per se — but I am always interested in someone enthusing about something, and that’s definitely what I got here. I did have a few critiques of the book, and honestly I don’t remember much of the actual detail, but it was soothingly fascinated in a subject that I didn’t have to agonise about at all, so I could let it wash over me, and that was at the time exactly what I wanted.
10. Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold On Us, by Anna Bogutskaya.
    This was a random choice from the library — especially random because I’m not that interested in horror! Especially not horror movies, which this was predominantly about. But it was pretty fascinating, all the same. I didn’t like the author’s other book nearly so much, sadly, but I’m still glad I read this one!

Hope everyone’s having a good week so far!