January SFFKIT - Villain / Morally Grey

For January's SFFKIT, we will be focusing on books containing a villain or morally grey main / principal character.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines such a villain character as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot". The antonym of a villain is a hero.

But sometimes we have the morally grey character - the one whose motives are not quite clear or whose actions are not all evil but sometimes can be for the good of the hero.
The simple definition is that morally grey characters are those who are not completely good or completely evil. They are the characters who wobble in the “grey” area between hero and villain.

Here are some possible examples of books focusing on villain or morally grey main characters:

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
the Disney Villains series of 7 books by Serena Valentino
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
The Contortionist by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
Medusa by Rosie Hewlett

Let us know what you come up with!

Oh, I have been meaning to tackle Locke Lamora. But if I can't squeeze it in (it's quite fat), there's always The Stainless Steel Rat to revisit.

I've been meaning to read Mike Chen's We Could Be Heroes ever since it came out, and it sounds like a perfect book for this challenge, so that's my plan!

Would Murderbot from Murderbot diaries be morally ambiguous enough to fit this category?

>4 amberwitch: I think so. I mean, she's hacked her programming, and she doesn't appear to really like humans that much, at least in the first couple of books.

I'm making it easy on myself and finishing the Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin this month. I read The fifth season when it first came out, but by the time Obelisk gate came out a year later, I'd forgotten what happened in the first novel. I got to do a group read of The fifth season in December and am almost finished with Obelisk gate. So I'm pretty confident I'll finish The stone sky before January ends. I like Essun, the main character, but she's also done some horrific things.

I'll be reading City of Dragons by Robin Hobb. ALL of her characters are grey!

>4 amberwitch: If it fits for you, it fits for me!

I'll be rereading The Magicians by Lev Grossman, I've been meaning to reread it for ages. I definitely recall the main character being selfish and rather unsympathetic so that should fit nicely.

I have The Road to Woodbury by Robert Kirkman on my TBR, this is the second book in a trilogy that delves into the backstory of the Govenor and how he became such a disturbing person.

I just came in to recommend Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire Trilogy. This is one I wish I could go back and read for the first time! I read the three books over a 48-hour period and regret nothing!

>1 JayneCM: thanks for hosting January!

Not sure what evil entity I'll read next month...

I've started 2022 off with Unbirthday, one of the Disney Twisted Tales series, based on Alice in Wonderland. It is fun so far - the Queen of Hearts has gone totally rogue and is destroying Wonderland.

I've finally located The Blade itself on my shelves (full of not particularly nice people) - I tried (and abandoned) it when it was first released - time for another go methinks

I am reading Hench for this one.

I might take up Sleeper Protocol for this one. It sounds like a morally ambiguous protagonist from the book jacket description.

I started Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear, hoping to finally get beyond the first chapter.
But after the first 4 chapters I am not sure whether Seeker is actually morally ambiguous, or whether she is doing her best in difficult circumstances.

I have completed my read of The Road to Woodbury in which the evil Governor rises to power and people have to chose between living under his thumb or taking their chances in the zombie infested world outside of Woodbury.

>17 DeltaQueen50: I remember at the height of the Zombie craze loving the comic books... up to a point. It was actually the run with the Governor in it that seemed to be the climax! After that, it started to fizzle for me. (And no, I never had the time then to watch the TV series). I remember reading and liking The Walking Dead: Rise of The Governor (by Robert Kirkman) but being a little disgruntled that what was built up to be one book ended up getting split up. I never did read beyond RotG!

>18 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I also enjoyed the first book, but with this second book, I can see why Robert Kirkman is better at the comic books. He's great at action but less so on character development. I still have a couple more books about the Governor but I am not sure if I will actually bother with them.

For this theme I'll be reading La zone du dehors by French author Alain Damasio. AFAIU it's about a terrorist group in a totalitarian society so there should be plenty of morally gray in there. :)

Finished Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear as SSFKIT January read.

I just read Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding. The main character is a small-time criminal with very little sense of loyalty or personal responsibility (though he does grow throughout the book). Plus, he accidentally assassinates someone! So I'm counting that as a morally gray main character. :)

I read Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, the 2nd in the duology that started with Six of Crows. I wouldn't want to get on Kaz's bad side... I do want to go back and read the first trilogy set in this world, though.

I'm not sure this counts, but the main character is an assassin. And this is about as dark as I feel like getting right now.


Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

I'm a huge fan of the Expanse series and I decided to reread the first book Leviathan Wakes (and maybe more) before reading the newly published final book. This whole series is full of morally grey characters. Most of the main characters have secrets from their past that they are trying to hide.

>25 mathgirl40: I've put off reading the last book, since I've also been pondering re-reads.

I read The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey. I really liked it. I would like to read The Royal Assassin before the month is gone. I read the first book in series last year. And this works for the alpha RH as well.

Here's February's thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/338804

Just finished Vicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I've read plenty of series openers in the past few months and though most were good, none were really great. I've had this on my list for almost 7 years, but now I'll probably read a lot more V. E. Schwab/Victoria Schwab the rest of this year. I will certainly read Vengeful and keep an eye out for the third book. At first the author said it would be just two books, but now she has said she will be writing #3 this year.

I'm about 100 pages into Sleeper Protocol and really enjoying it. And while the main "I" character is on a walkabout to try to regain his memory, and he seems morally OK (just lost), the organizations around him are equally represented in the book and are definitely morally grey. Like, sleepers are soldiers from the 21st century who are awakened, with no memory, in the 23rd.

Quite well written and I'm looking forward to diving back into this world.

I just finished The Unbroken by C.L. Clark, which is a secondary world fantasy clearly based on French colonialism in North Africa with two basically well-intentioned protagonists who both take seriously questionable actions and betray each other and others around them.

>29 soelo: I am starting a readalong of all V.E. Schwab's books in publication order, so January starts with The Near Witch. I have never read any of her books, although I have had them on my list for ages, so am looking forward to the push to read them.

>32 JayneCM: That sounds like fun! I did not realize how long her books have been waiting on my list when I checked the dates.

Finished We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen.

Ya'll, this book was so good. I've written a full review, but I just adored it. It was my first five-star read of the year, and I hope a bunch of ya'll will check it out if you haven't already. I'm now a fan of the author for life.

I just finished Court of Venom by Kristin Burchell, in which the heroine is a poisoner/assassin and a drug dealer. Sounds like a morally gray main character to me!

I finished Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. This book had a lot of potential, but I was a little underwhelmed. I loved most of the supporting characters, but the main character just missed the spot for me. Her motivations were not evil enough, or virtuous enough for my tastes. I wanted her to either embrace the evil motives or have a stronger case for heroes being worse for the world than villains. Overall, it was an OK read. I would love to read a book from some of the other characters points of view.

I did not think I was going to get a book to fit this month's theme, but I just finished Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin, and I do think it fits. It is a feminist dystopia written in the 1980s, set in a future in which women's rights have been taken away and they are completely subservient to men. In this future, linguists are very important as they communicate with the many, many alien species that have been encountered to negotiating trading contracts and space colonies.

Pretty much of the all male characters in the book justify their reprehensible behavior as being for the greater good. So there's that.

But my favorite character is a woman who becomes a secret serial killer under the cover of her job as a nurse. At first, she's totally fine with serial killing and has good reasons for doing so, but then after meeting some other women, she starts to question the morality of what she's doing. But then she rationalizes one last really big killing in a wonderful way that had me rooting for her.

"They've never found the body of the first and only boy who broke my heart. And they never will." Great first line for a book about an amoral character. Alessandra has a plan: to woo, marry, and then kill the Shadow King so she can take the throne for herself. Someone murdered the king's parents and is now trying to kill him. Alessandra must try to keep him alive long enough so he can marry her. Almost every character in the book is out for themselves, so Alessandra isn't exactly a villain. You can't help but root for her and the Shadow King.
The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller.

I finished Sleeper Protocol last night and it was fantastic. While the main character turns out not to be morally grey, all of the people and organizations around him are. Or at least, start off that way in their interactions towards him. The main character, the "I" in the storyline, is trying to remember his identity after being awakened at the Integration Center in Australia, 300 years after his death. The General in charge of his case, the Terran Defense Council, the cyberscientist who is also tracking his integration process, and even his implant all have morally ambiguous storylines.

Changeling by Roger Zelazny

Babies switched by a Merlin-type character grow up in separate worlds, but twenty years later are headed for a showdown.

I liked the characters, especially the supporting cast, and the slightly wacky plot.

>40 fuzzi: And gotta love that cover!
Thanks for all the new books to add to my to read list, everyone!