Saturday, June 20, 2015

Eight of the best, worst, and weirdest dad/child pairs in sci-fi & fantasy

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well.

At the B & N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Somers tagged eight good, bad, and weird dad/child pairs in science fiction and fantasy. One bad pairs:
Claudia, Louis, and Lestat (Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice)

Claudia, the orphaned 5-year old girl turned into a vampire by Lestat after Louis feeds on her, is not properly the pair’s daughter, though they essentially adopt her, raising her in a hideous mirror-image of a happy nuclear family. Of course, what they raise her to be is a murderous, angry, unhappy vampire who comes to hate and despise both her fathers for denying her the ability to physically grow up, dooming her to be a woman in a young child’s body. So awful is the parenting of these two supernatural beings, Claudia continues to attempt to assault and kill them long after she is dead, making whatever your surly teenage daughter is going through look like a walk in the park.
Read about another entry on the list.

Interview With The Vampire is among Jonathan Hatfull's ten best vampire novels, Ryan Menezes' top five movies that improved the book, Will Hill's top 10 vampires in fiction and popular culture, and Lynda Resnick's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue