Tough Traveling: Minions
The Thursday feature “Tough Traveling” is the brainchild of Nathan of Review Barn, who has come up with the excellent idea of making a new list each week based on the most common tropes in fantasy, as seen in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynn Jones. Nathan has invited anyone who is interested to come play along, so be sure to check out the first link for more information. Compulsive list-maker that I am, I’m very excited to take part!
This week’s tour topic is: Minions of the Dark Lord
MINIONS OF THE DARK LORD are all over the place. The DARK LORD has been busy planting them for years…
And the description in the book goes on and on and on. It basically boils down to anyone working for a Dark Lord. You’ve already seen my extensive list for Dark Lord a few weeks back, and almost all of them have their henchmen or agents. Rather than naming them all and featuring the same books again, I’m going to go for a shorter list this time and use a few new titles I haven’t talked about yet!
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Newcago is ruled with an iron fist by the extremely powerful Epic named Steelheart, who is apparently invincible and has the ability to fly and hurl blasts of energy in addition to turning matter into steel. To take him down, the protagonist David and his fellow Reckoners have to take in account three other Epics who are supposedly in Steelheart’s inner council and who also serve as his elite bodyguards: Firefight, Conflux, and Nightwielder.
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Levana is the evil queen of Luna, employing Sybil as her head thaumaturge. Sybil herself ruled over a colony on Luna and accompanied her queen when she went to Earth to discuss an alliance with the Commonwealth. Sybil’s role was described as “between a doting lapdog and gleeful servant who delighted in seeing to Levana’s cruelest request”. She is also the cold, uncaring adoptive mother of Cress Mira, who is the main focus of the series’ third book.
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
Charles Talent Manx likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith, taking them away forever into the otherworldly realm called “Christmasland”. With an ad in the back of a magazine, he enlists a chemical plant worker named Bing Partridge, who ultimately becomes his wicked and obedient “Head Elf”, as it were. Bing does terrible things for Manx, using his knowledge of chemicals to drug and capture children, then killing the victim’s parents.
The BiblioSanctum 
I’m waiting on the series to wrap up before reading Steelheart 😀
LikeLike
I couldn’t wait. It’ll be another few more years before Firefight and Calamity comes out, hope you can hold out!
LikeLike
Isn’t Firefight coming out in a few weeks/months? Sanderson’s writing it before he moves on to Stormlight 3, which he plans to start writing really soon.
LikeLike
I think it was originally slated to come out Fall 2014, but it was pushed back to end of the year or January 2015 😦
LikeLike
Ouch, that sucks. On the bright side, Sanderson’ll probably churn out 2 or 3 other books to keep you occupied in the mean time, hah 😀
LikeLike
Wow. I have read none. Not one. But that graphic up top is styling, I like a lot.
LikeLike
Wendy made those! I like ’em too, adds a bit of flavor to the blog!
LikeLike
Oh I have Cinder to read!!! I loved the Brandon Sanderson I tried, it was a great discovery.
LikeLike
I’m so glad! Sanderson’s one of my favorite authors, I enjoy pretty much anything he writes, whether it’s his epic fantasy or YA.
LikeLike
Hey! Another Bing mention! 🙂 Love it. Also love your Steelheart pick.
LikeLike
Heck yeah, Bing is the ultimate minion. I thought of him right away when this topic was picked!
LikeLike
Hah – I haven’t read any of these. I do have Cinder (have actually had it for a couple of years) so really need to get onto that. Plus I really do want to read NOS4R2. Too little time.
Lynn 😀
LikeLike
Lunar Chronicles is a pretty good YA series – very entertaining and enjoyable, and doesn’t follow a lot of the YA conventions which keeps things interesting. Plus I love creative retellings! I hope you’ll enjoy it when you get to it!
LikeLike
Nice Lunar Chronicles pick! I thought about choosing Ran (Wolf’s brother) but passed because that story line made me sad. I’ve been seeing a lot of Joe Hill around today – clearly I need to read something of his!
LikeLike
I’ve only read one book of Joe Hill’s, and that’s NOS4A2 – but based on what I thought of it, I definitely want to check out more of his books! I have a copies of two of his other books, Horns and Heart Shaped Box on my Kindle to check out 😀
LikeLike
We are so in line! Those are excellent examples of minions and I’ve read all three *hooray!!
LikeLike
Yeah, I thought of you and how you’ve read all three when I made this list!
LikeLike
Hooray! =) It’s so fun trying to find these books wondering the shelves trying to remember types of things from each story.
LikeLike
Oh, yes, Sybil is a great example of a perfectly wretched minion. I’ve got both of your other picks on my TBR already, so YAY for not having to add new ones this time 😉 And I think I’ve tapped myself out on this subject already so I’m gonna stick with the Darklings creepy, shadow wraith creatures from The Grisha trilogy, and that honkin’ dude from the Northern mountains in ToG whose name I can’t remember. Celaena’s main competition in the champion competition.
LikeLike
I neeeed Steelheart. yay for good minions, lol.
And btw, thanks for reminding me to stop by!
LikeLike