Genre Character of the Week: Anton Gorodetsky

As a guy who grew up on Role Playing Games (RPGs) I am a big fan of spending experience points. Basically, for all of you who had better things to do in your teen years, a character in a RPG would get experience points for doing stuff and then you, the player, could spend those points to make your character faster, stronger, or able to speak French. I honestly believe that it was the hard work that went into gaining experience for my character that gave me serious respect for a good character arc in a story. One of my favourite characters which show this phenomenon in genre fiction is Anton Gorodetsky.

Anton is the protagonist in Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch, series of books. Basically he is a lower level wizard (tech support, really) in Moscow's Night Watch, an organization which guards the city from the members of the Day Watch, who claim they do the same thing - the series has a real Russian Cold War feel to it. Anyway, in the first novel Anton is given his first field assignment, to track down a vampire and of course it all goes horribly wrong - otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story.

Throughout the four novels that comprise the series, Anton grows in his abilities, meets a girl, marries her, is promoted, becomes a dad and eventually goes much farther both professionally and personally than he ever imagined. I love when this happens to characters in genre fiction. Rather than simply solve the problem, move on and repeat, Anton learns from each major event in his life, which causes him to grow as a person. I find that far too often, the characters in genre fiction simply don't change from one book to the other, the same awesome guy shows up, kicks ass, and leaves. Character growth is good - it is what keeps me coming back for more.

*One quick note about the movies - I had already read the books when I saw Night Watch, and I really liked the movie. I have been told that if you haven't read the books, the movies don't make much sense. I will say this though, Konstantin Khabenskiy (pictured above), who plays Anton in the films is really, really good. I totally bought him as the character and that's pretty tricky when the character in the novels is such a favourite.

You Owe it to Yourself #10: Favourite Characters

We all have them, the characters in books or movies or even video games that just stand out, that we relate to, and I think it might be interesting to take a closer look at the ones that you like best. Unfortunately, you aren't writing this post, so instead we'll look at the ones I like best and you can tell my your favourties in the comments.

When analysing why your favourite characters are your favourites, you should follow these steps: (I'll give an example)

1. Gush - Begin by explaining everything you love about the character.

For me, one of my favourite characters in SF is Miles Vorkosigan, who features in more than a dozen books by Lois McMaster-Bujold. This guy starts out as a trainee, becomes a mercenary, then the leader of an army of space mercenaries, a spy, a diplomat, and has a LOT of character development, dealing with his parents expectations, growing up, growing older, falling in love, changing careers, and lost of other stuff - but with Laser guns and spaceships!

2. Relate - Try to figure out things you and the character have in common.

All right, I'll admit it, I'm not the head of a band of mercenaries, or a super-spy, or even the next in line of a royal family in a military world, but Miles and I do have a lot in common, we both come from a mixed marriage, we both have a significant health problems we had to overcome (Miles' health problem, an issue with his bones which makes them very fragile, definitely trumps my asthma and vision problems, but I can relate), and we both married women we are crazy about.

3. Role Model - What attributes does the character have that you want?

Miles' two greatest strengths are thinking outside the box and working through a problem until it is finished. I love how regardless of the danger he is put in (these are Action-Adventure SF stories) that he can overcome it in unusual ways (Check out the short story Labyrinth for my personal favourite) and actually thrives in most any environment. Miles ability to see a job to completion, whether a murder investigation, or a difficult mercenary mission, is also really admirable to me as I like to think I'm pretty good at finishing what I've started, too.

So there you have it, three simple steps to getting a handle on why you love the characters you do, as well as a look at one of my personal favourites, you know, I might actually make a "Favourite Characters" post a regular thing here.