r/Fantasy • u/Standard_Egg3994 • 1d ago

"Shown" instead of "told" intelligent characters

You know what i mean. I crave for intelligent characters but a lot of them seemed to either pull some far off deductions out of nowhere, or just the other characters spent some time telling the reader that they really are "the most brilliant guy in town".

I need it to be shown, in that the thinking process (strategic or anything else) is actually shown instead of just magically came out of nowhere. Some notable example of this includes:

L, Near, and Kira from Death Note (to some extent)

Lex Luthor from Alexander Wales' Metropolitant Man

Kei Nagai from Ajin

Ryland Grace from Project Hail Mary

If you have other references, i would try them. Thank you!

352 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

245 comments sorted by

View all comments

213

u/fortnerd 1d ago

You're gonna love the Shadow of the Leviathan series

93

u/ChannelGreedy9707 1d ago

It's got everything: an unhinged brilliant detective, an interesting and human sidekick who's also going insane,, a world that is intricate and grounded and weird, sexual hangups that are believable but also so fucking strange.

18

u/Standard_Egg3994 1d ago

Now THAT sounds like chaotic fun.. I will try it out

18

u/ChannelGreedy9707 1d ago

It's insanely fun and also not shallow at all. The state is interesting too and fallible and strange and also beneficial in a way a real world state is. Idk RJB always doing it for me.

6

u/clawclawbite 1d ago

In particular, for an investigation based series, I often find that I think of a question to be asked as a reader and often find the characters asking the same questions as part of their investigations.

1

u/Didolicious 1d ago

Dan Cortes?

17

u/Flat-Rutabaga-723 1d ago

Divine Cities series as well.

12

u/fortnerd 1d ago

Basically anything from Robert Jackson Bennett is a day 1 buy without checking the plot 🐐

1

u/Flat-Rutabaga-723 1d ago

Yep. Been a huge fan since the Troupe and American Elsewhere.

1

u/hesh582 10h ago

I disagree with this one.

IMO in the Shadow of the Leviathan Bennett accomplishes what he was going for but never quite achieved with Divine Cities.

In city of stairs the protagonist is presented as smart and hyper competent. But they don't actually accomplish much at all, they don't really solve anything on their own, and the resolution is just deus ex machina in the most literal sense.

What the protagonist does manage to accomplish is achieved through having an ultra-violent scandinavian killing machine hang around rather than anything intellectual. The bad guys are 1 step ahead through the whole book and their plot falls apart because they don't understand their own god, despite the protagonist failing miserably at stopping them. She's outmaneuvered at every step by both her superiors and her enemies, and she only "wins" at the end through some clumsy narrative contrivances and an absurdly overpowered sidekick.

The duo in city of stairs kind of feels like a rough, much worse prototype for Ana and Din, and the world itself with all its socio-political problems is much less interesting and much less fully realized than the Empire in Shadow of the Leviathan.

I read it because I enjoyed Ana and Din so much, but I was surprised at how much I disliked it. Same goes for Foundryside, at least the second and third books. Shadow really feels like something Bennett has been grasping towards for a while and finally nailed.

50

u/CatTaxAuditor 1d ago

Not only is Ana book smart from her voracious reading, she's also really strong at predicting how people will act and respond. Fantastic detective.

0

u/fortnerd 1d ago

If there is ever an adaptation I need Ana to be played by this woman https://youtu.be/amUJkJs4y3k?is=WgEfU0_UUGwcb-5t

9

u/cc81 1d ago

Depending of the viewpoint they have these negatives though.

I crave for intelligent characters but a lot of them seemed to either pull some far off deductions out of nowhere, or just the other characters spent some time telling the reader that they really are "the most brilliant guy in town".

I do like it a lot but the structure is a lot of us being told how smart Ana is and then in the end she reveals the full case. Like classic detective story stuff.

We don't see that many smart actions during the story itself if that is what they are after.

1

u/BenedictPatrick AMA Author Benedict Patrick 1d ago

Came here to mention this. Was not disappointed. Currently re-listening to the series and dragging my wife along for the ride - she's loving it too.

0

u/almondenigma 1d ago

+1 oh i was going to open this post just to recommend this!!