Top Ten Tuesday #42 + Teaser Tuesday #3

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish 

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic: Top 10 Characters Who Are Excellent Villains! Hm, hm, hm - this may be more difficult than I initially thought . . . . We'll see! These aren't in any particular order, by the way.

Keeper from Entwined by Heather Dixon.

Normally, villains who rely on magical powers don't impress me as much as villains who have nothing but their wits. It's easy to be evil when one simply has to wave one's fingers - and anyway, the scariest villains are ones that you could meet in real life. Sorry, but you won't be meeting Voldemort or Sauron in Walmart. However, Keeper was intimidating, because he showed that while he had magical powers, he didn't need them to get what he wanted. And of course - he had poise. I love villains with poise.

Gehn from The Book of Atrus by Rand Miller.

Maybe you have to had played Riven: The Sequel to Myst in order to fully appreciate how awesome Gehn is. He's got a god complex, he's got presentation and amazing style (yeah, you definitely have to play Riven to get that), and he carries out his threats. This is one villain who can monologue and still be scary.

Roseman from Thief's War by Hilari Bell.

His villainy kind of snuck up on me; I didn't fully realize or appreciate how downright scary and creepy Roseman was until the end of the book. Then it just hit me like a ton of bricks: this guy was seriously intimidating. Those can be some of the best villains.

Bernard de Cressac from Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson.

There's nothing awesome about this villain; he's just creepy. Oozing, take-a-bath-in-carbolic-acid-afterward creepy. The kind that are soooooooo horrible that it's almost not fun to hate them; you just hate them, and get the heebies whenever they're around. Oh yes, that Bernard de Cressac.

Adderhead from Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke.

He's genuinely intimidating! He carries out his threats, kills without second thought, and is so very believable as a medieval tyrant (even if Inkworld isn't technically in the medieval world).

King Gaius from Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes.

Maybe not as much in this volume, but in Rebel Spring King Gaius totally made it on my "awesome villains" list. Just when I thought he couldn't be any crueler, he would go and do something that would just completely ratchet up how awful he really is. I hope Magnus gets to kill him.

Jack the Ripper from Ripper by Stefan Petrucha.

You have to read the book to fully understand why I chose him. He's not . . . your typical Jack the Ripper. And he doubles as both villain and anti-hero. And he was just . . . just awesome. Jack the Ripper hasn't quite been done like he is in this novel.

Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.

Because I wouldn't be a true Snicketeer if I didn't put him on my favorite villains list in some capacity. To be honest, Olaf is a little intimidating in the first two books, then becomes unpleasant and horrid - but kinda funny at the same time - and then he turns into an anti-hero by the end. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks that, but I personally felt really bad for him in Book #13.

Bill Sikes from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

the 2005 movie adaption almost got Bill Sikes down - almost. But no movie has ever truly captured how downright terrifying Sikes is in the book. This guy is seriously creepy. Maybe it's a good thing I never read this as a kid; I was paranoid enough the way it was.

Charles Augustus Milverton from The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Yes, people, I have chosen a villain other than Moriarty from the Canon! Don't get me wrong - Moriarty is still an awesome villain. But for me, Milverton - the blackmailer, the one man that could genuinely chill Sherlock's blood - was always much more intimidating than Moriarty.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading

- Grab the book that you're currently reading.
- Flip to a random page.
- Share 2 sentences from that page!

"A strong one." This from Stacia, who until now has sat cross-legged on the ground, eyes firmly fixed on her food. "The Fourth Stage of War would never have happened if the president of the United States had attacked the Asian Alliance. Instead, he tried to broker a worldwide coalition even when his own advisers said it was useless. He was a pacifist when the country needed aggression."

The Testing, pg. 194