T5W: Sci-Fi Character Lives that Suck

Frequently when reading or talking about books, it’s easy to imagine yourself in the place of your favorite characters. What girl wouldn’t want to be the bookworm who saves the day, or the butt-kicking heroine, etc? What boy wouldn’t love to be the dashing hero, the valiant space-fighter, or even the genius astronaut who brains his way through surviving alone on Mars? There are so many characters out there that it would be awesome to be – even for a day! …….but have you ever thought about the other ones? I mean, some characters lives in our favorite books just … suck.  (This will be kept as spoiler free as possible, but spoilers may happen.)  Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly book meme, done by most book bloggers and booktubers. It’s started out by Lainey, but is now hosted by Sam at Thoughts On Tomes. Here’s the Goodreads group if you want to join in!

5 Sci-fi Character Lives that Suck

I mean, who in their right mind would want to be Andrew Wiggin, from Ender’s Game? He spends his first 6 years of life with everything he does being monitored, faces possibly being killed by his brother, and then gets shipped off to Battle School. In Battle School he’s pushed far harder than any little kid should ever be, etc. Soo… yeah, little dude is king of the “Sci-Fi Character Lives that Suck” crowd. My review of Ender’s Game.

The whole crew from Tau Zero. Can you imagine going through what they went through? I mean, knowing that even if you do manage to live to an old age, everyone you’ve ever known back on earth is dead. Not only dead, but dust in the wind on an almost incomprehensible level. The psychological burden must be immense. There’s no way most people could handle being in their situation. None. My review of Tau Zero.

Denise from On the Edge of Gone. Being anywhere on the autism spectrum is hard enough. Being severely autistic is even more difficult. But being severely autistic AND having to save your family during the apocalypse? Denise is a wonderfully strong character, but there’s no possible way you could say she has it easy in any way, shape, or form.  My review of On the Edge of Gone.

Honestly, Dan Delacour from The Dean Machine has a life that almost rivals Ender’s for pure suckage. I can’t say much without spoiling but lets just say  no part of him is his own, and he gets debased and victimized in every way short of rape. My review of The Dean Machine.

Finally, George from The Lathe of Heaven. He is another one of those deals where even if he makes it through things alive, he’ll never be unscathed. When your dreams had the power to change reality, and you were one of the few who could remember all of what happened, there’s no way you’ll ever be normal again. Even if the power to change reality was suddenly taken away from you, wouldn’t you spend your whole life either afraid to fall asleep in case it came back, or having nightmares from what you inadvertently did?  Crap. My review of The Lathe of Heaven.

Feel free to leave your links, or just tell me what characters (sci-fi character lives that suck or otherwise) lives you wouldn’t want to live!