BookTalk.org

My roommate and I were having a discussion/debate about the fact that there is a lack of really good villains in modern fiction. Of course, the whale in Moby Dick, Dracula, Professor Moriarty, Jekyll/Hyde etc. are legendary villains.

Has modern fiction lost the ability to produce a truly evil villain that we love to hate? I say no.

So, who's your favorite villain of the last three decades or so?

It's been a while since I read a villain that I 'love' to hate. But one villain in particular stands out in my mind as being so thoroughly detestable that I feel slime smearing over my soul anytime the story reached his POV chapters. I am referring to Big Jim Rennie, the town selectman in Stephen King's 'Under the Dome'. He was such an evil little bastard as I have not encountered in a very long time. Partly this stems from the fact that there is nothing supernatural about him, and he is so well written that not one trait in his character isn't a trait you have already seen in other people over your life. He is truly disturbing.

Now as for my most favorite villain ever, he actually comes from a video game rather than a book. Lezard Vellath is a sorcerer in the Valkyrie Profile game, and a truly narcissistic piece of work. And yet, you almost hate to beat him down in the game when the story reaches that point. Later he comes back like some creepy stalker, and the joke is on everyone because it turns out he was mostly right all along and he's just been waiting for the chance to say "I told you so". His smug attitude is somehow endearing when in most others it would be annoying.

I was a huge fan of Count Olaf from Lemony Snicket. He was larger than life, very funny, and relentlessly nasty in a buffoonish school bully kind of way.

Vladmir Harrkonnen from Frank Herbert's Dune. He is Perverse, gross, witty, and clever. Very evil...and yet sometimes I find myself rooting for him.