I'm looking for books with decent Fantasy villains

[Elrik]

Usually the villains are the ones to grab me the most in a book. I’m not sure why it has been that way for me, but having a terrifying bad guy (or even a villain that’s intelligent, powerful, or even humorously entertaining) is what normally draws me into a story. I honestly have not read a lot of fantasy so I highly doubt that any recommended villains will be ones that I’ve heard of.

[myancey]

This is probably dumb of me to ask on D&D related forums, but have you read Salvatore's Drizzt series?

The two villians that really stand out for me are Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle.

I just made a thread on the Hyperion and Endymion Cantos' by Dan Simmons. They have some interesting villians. Great books in general.

[JonestheSpy]

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville is pretty amazing in that department. Its villain is Smog: sentient, evil air pollution, and it knows that the more smoke, chemicals, and other toxic gases are in the air, the stronger it gets. Oh, and burning corpses are very very tasty.

The idea was inspired the the real life Great Smog of London, which killed at least 4,000 Londoners in a few weeks in 1952, and sickened 100,000 more, and was the impetus behind Britain's Clean Air Act. Mieville's idea is that the Smog was not dispersed and destroyed but exiled Someplace Else, and now it's regained all its former strength and more, and it's got a plan. And he's a great writer, so it works exceedingly well.

[MoonCat]

Some of Terry Pratchett's work has fascinating villains, Lily Tempshire, Vorbis, The Elves...

[Talya]

Glen Cooke's early books in "The Black Company" series. The Lady is pure style.

[Dienekes]

I too find myself more interested in the villains than the heroes. So here are two series I like and you might too.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Some great villains, some intelligent villains, some repulsive villains, some villains I didn't think would be villains, some villains I didn't thinks would be heroes, some villains I find myself rooting for despite myself.

The First Law series from Joe Abercrombie. Just be sure to read all 3 books to really understand how amazing the villain really is. A lot of the characters in these books would probably be the villains of any other fantasy series (Glokta waves) but the main villain kind of takes the cake in villainy.

[Liffguard]

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville is pretty amazing in that department. Its villain is Smog: sentient, evil air pollution, and it knows that the more smoke, chemicals, and other toxic gases are in the air, the stronger it gets. Oh, and burning corpses are very very tasty.


Mieville is generally good at villains. Whilst I'm ambivalent overall about The Scar, I can readily admit that Uthur Doul is a very compelling, interesting villain (or anti-villain or whatever). He's very hard to place and it helps that his motivations aren't spelled out, leaving it up to the reader to decide. He also has an awesome combat mechanic.

[Tanuki Tales]

Some of Terry Pratchett's work has fascinating villains, Lily Tempshire, Vorbis, The Elves...

Just got to second this. Terry Pratchett is an amazing writer who's devised some of the most engaging, deep and entertaining characters I've ever read.

[Smiling Knight]

I too find myself more interested in the villains than the heroes. So here are two series I like and you might too.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Some great villains, some intelligent villains, some repulsive villains, some villains I didn't think would be villains, some villains I didn't thinks would be heroes, some villains I find myself rooting for despite myself.

The First Law series from Joe Abercrombie. Just be sure to read all 3 books to really understand how amazing the villain really is. A lot of the characters in these books would probably be the villains of any other fantasy series (Glokta waves) but the main villain kind of takes the cake in villainy.

This 2x.

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson also has some great villains, but to say more would be a spoiler.

[Serpentine]

Tamora Pierce's Lioness Quartet and Protector of the Small series have a couple of pretty good villains. Maybe Wild Magic, too. Dunno if I can tell you much about any of them without spoiling stuff, though.

Stephen King's Through the Eyes of the Dragon has a pretty classic style, pure evil, king's advisor type villain.

The Princess Bride, of course.

The Neverending Story and its Nothing.

edit: Oh! Its status as "fantasy" is certainly debatable, but the Animorphs series definitely has a couple of excellent villains of various kinds.

[hamishspence]

Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series has a variety of villains- some of which are more interesting than others.

Mornelithe Falconsbane I think was one of the better ones.

[Yora]

If you don't mind space ships in your fantasy: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn.
It has Thrawn, the greatest villain ever! :smallbiggrin:

[Dr.Epic]

The Neverending Story and its Nothing.

Neverending Story doesn't even have a villain. It has Nothing, which I suppose is still better than 20-something year old Jack Black in high school.

[Serpentine]

There was the Nothing, and also its wolf-thing.

[Eldan]

That's all in only about the first third or so of the book, though.

On the other hand, I always really loved Ygramul. Don't know why, but I always thought it was extremely impressive.

[Serpentine]

I uh... actually only read about half of it <.<

[The Big Dice]

If you don't mind space ships in your fantasy: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn.
It has Thrawn, the greatest villain ever! :smallbiggrin:
I thought Thrawn was a big blue Marty Stu myself.

Now Lord Foul, as well as having a name that is both awesome and cringeworthy at the same time, is a villain. As one of the characters in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant says, it boots nothing to avoid his snares. For all your actions will serve his purpose in the end. Or words to that effect.

Ok, so in the 9 books that are currently in print, he barely gets any screen time. But his presence looms over everything that happens in all of them. When it comes to the intelligent, subtle and manipulative BBEG, Lord Foul is in a class of his own.

[Traab]

The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. The High Lord of Hell is the good guy in this one. Imagine what the bad guys are like? Has a lot of gritty harsh stuff that happens in it, torture, some rape, slavery. But there is humor, friendships, love, and intelligent animals that can use magic.

[comicshorse]

I too find myself more interested in the villains than the heroes. So here are two series I like and you might too.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Some great villains, some intelligent villains, some repulsive villains, some villains I didn't think would be villains, some villains I didn't thinks would be heroes, some villains I find myself rooting for despite myself.

The First Law series from Joe Abercrombie. Just be sure to read all 3 books to really understand how amazing the villain really is. A lot of the characters in these books would probably be the villains of any other fantasy series (Glokta waves) but the main villain kind of takes the cake in villainy.

Seconded, on all points

[Malagnant]

The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. The High Lord of Hell is the good guy in this one. Imagine what the bad guys are like? Has a lot of gritty harsh stuff that happens in it, torture, some rape, slavery. But there is humor, friendships, love, and intelligent animals that can use magic.


Yes but the black jewels trilogy has horrible villians. Two women more or less, one of which is Saetan's ex wife and one the ruler of a kingdom trying to enslave the worlds via gender rage.

Theyre campy, annoying, and when you see their master plans in action you cant help but think. "How the heck was this ever supposed to work."

I like the series, but Anne Biship novels have horrible villians. Pretty eye rolling stuff.

But it makes up for it with the cute and the cringe.

[The_JJ]

Glen Cooke's early books in "The Black Company" series. The Lady is pure style.

Damn, beaten to it. Though her 'villain' status is a bit in flux since the protagonists do start off working for her. (Book one, it's how the plot starts rolling, not really a spoiler)

Afterwards it... gets complex.

[Marillion]

Tad William's Otherland series has Felix Jongleur, a 200 year old man obsessed with immortality, and John "Dread" Wulguru, a technopathic assassin/serial killer with ambitions that go beyond what his boss could dream.

And then there's The Other...

[Morph Bark]

Tad William's Otherland series has Felix Jongleur, a 200 year old man obsessed with immortality, and John "Dread" Wulguru, a technopathic assassin/serial killer with ambitions that go beyond what his boss could dream.

And then there's The Other...

Was he good at juggling?

[Talya]

Damn, beaten to it. Though her 'villain' status is a bit in flux since the protagonists do start off working for her. (Book one, it's how the plot starts rolling, not really a spoiler)

Afterwards it... gets complex.

Well, it's not like Croaker & company are really "Good Guys," per se. The Lady just changes from being the antagonist, to working with the protagonists, so to speak. "Villain" is a bit of a murky concept there...

[Traab]

Yes but the black jewels trilogy has horrible villians. Two women more or less, one of which is Saetan's ex wife and one the ruler of a kingdom trying to enslave the worlds via gender rage.

Theyre campy, annoying, and when you see their master plans in action you cant help but think. "How the heck was this ever supposed to work."

I like the series, but Anne Biship novels have horrible villians. Pretty eye rolling stuff.

But it makes up for it with the cute and the cringe.

I personally liked them. They were actually evil bad guys. Most seem to talk a good game, but when it comes right down to it, their actions arent all that horrible. Those two women are HORRIBLE people. Especially the ruler. They torture, enslave, rape, mutilate, and laugh while they do it, treating it as high entertainment to have a mans genitalia slowly cut off for punishment, forcing him to use a quill to pee with while she and her circle of "friends" watch and applaud.

Its one of the few fantasy novels ive read where you see actual evil taking place. Take one of my other favorite authors, david eddings. You have Torak, an evil GOD. He is a bad dude, forcing his people to sacrifice thousands of their countrymen as a form of worship. But he himself doesnt actually do much of anything, short of whispering in the heroes mind trying to turn him from his quest. Or his other series, Otha and his evil god Azash. Its a great backstory of evil. Perversion, cruelty, murder, demonic sacrifices, etc, but its never actually seen to happen really. At least in the black jewels trilogy, you get to see the villains act, and you get to SEE them being truly evil.

[chiasaur11]

Continuing on Discworld:

Carcer Dunn in Night Watch and Teatime from Hogfather? Pretty good.

[Dienekes]

Continuing on Discworld:

Carcer Dunn in Night Watch and Teatime from Hogfather? Pretty good.

I'm going to blaspheme here, so for that I apologize.

I wasn't impressed by Teatime.

Oh he wasn't a bad villain, by any means, but I went into it being told repeatedly how awesome and terrifying he was.

He was an ok villain, no real complaints but nothing that really pops up to make you say "Wow! That guy was great!"

[Seonor]

Tad William's Otherland series has Felix Jongleur, a 200 year old man obsessed with immortality, and John "Dread" Wulguru, a technopathic assassin/serial killer with ambitions that go beyond what his boss could dream.

And then there's The Other...

Oh so very much this.



Was he good at juggling?

His plans/co-conspirators/pawns.




Another recommendation: Neverwhere by Nail Gaiman.

Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar are awesome.
"Oh, Mr Vandemar, if you cut us do we not bleed?" "... No."

[Weezer]

Another recommendation: Neverwhere by Nail Gaiman.

Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar are awesome.
"Oh, Mr Vandemar, if you cut us do we not bleed?" "... No."

Is there some sort of historical/mythological basis for this kind of villain, because I've come across a number of villains in a number of different books that feel exactly like Croup and Vandemar. The pair of mercenaries, one quick witted and clever the other strong and slow, both of them with superhuman/near superhuman abilities and are mysterious and intimidating. I'm blanking on the names of the other books that they're found in but they certainly exist.

Or am I just making connections where there aren't any.

[H Birchgrove]

Magic, Inc by Robert A. Heinlein has Lucifer himself and his Mob.

The Book of Ptath by A. E. van Vogt has some power-hungry gods.

Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis has several villains who try to loot planets, create a master race and other evil deeds.

The last but far from the least, The White Witch of Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis.

[Tavar]

The Abarat series, by Clive Barker. Make sure you get one of the illustrated versions, because, yes, the illustrations are just that good.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Well if you don't mind modernish fantasy, there's Kraken, also by China Mieville. This gives you a small bevvy of fascinating fantasy villains, such as Goss and Subby (Goss and Subby are my favorite villain duet for what they do in that book), the Tattoo, and the religious expert from London's magic-handling task force. Why? He tries to burn the theory of evolution out of existence.

[Aiani]

I'd say Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I thought the main villain in the book while doing some pretty awful things somehow managed to be sympathetic at times and he is very intelligent.

[Vilyathas]

Try the War of the Spider Queen series. It's six books worth of nothing but drow, and more drow, characters, society, and plots. There's villainy to suit all manners of tastes, ranging from sympathetic villain, to manipulative bastard, and all the way to kick-the-puppy-while-cackling villainy.

Another is the Empire trilogy by Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist. Three books, three sets of villains with overwhelming odds against the female protagonist, with lots of intrigue and political maneuvering.

[Serpentine]

How about the villain in Stephen King's Needful Things?

[Eldan]

Oh, yeah. He's a good one. Though I think the last few chapters ruined it a bit.

[Knaight]

I'd say Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I thought the main villain in the book while doing some pretty awful things somehow managed to be sympathetic at times and he is very intelligent.
One of the two anyways. The other one is very hard to muster any sympathy for whatsoever.

On another note, Guy Gavriel Kay also wrote The Lions of Al-Rassan, which has several quite well written antagonists, a more interesting setting, and much better protagonists.

[Nerd-o-rama]

David Eddings's villains run the gamut from awesome to utter, utter fail.

Actually the Belgariad and parts of the Malloreon are the only parts with good villains, but still, the human villains in those books are very good. Not so much Torak, the demons, or the Prophecy of Dark, but the whole gamut of assassins and evil wizards in the Belgariad are pretty good, as are Harakan and his 11 aliases in the Malloreon. By the end of it, though, you start seeing Eddings developing the ideas that force all his later villains to suck...

tl;dr read the Garion books for the non-Final Boss antagonists.

[Cyrion]

The Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn has a good villain in Prince Roelstra. He's arrogant and overconfident, but he's not stupid. And you do catch him doing evil things.

Also, C.S. Friedman has a couple of good villains in Black Sun Rising and in In Conquest Born. Tarrant becomes a protagonist during Black Sun Rising and in the rest of the series, but he's still a villain. In Conquest Born is space opera rather than straight fantasy, but it's still a fun book.

[DomaDoma]

In the first three Novels of the Change, the main villain is just a relatively smart but otherwise standard Evil Overlord, but holy cow, does his wife make up for it.

[pita]

The Thran by Robert J King has an excellent villain.
Sorry, The First Law was already mentioned, so I don't have anything else. Seriously, The First Law is the single greatest trilogy ever if you like the villain.
Another good one is R. Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse, though Kellhus's status is the villain is somewhat negotiable. I guess The No-God would be the villain if he weren't dead for some two thousand odd years at the beginning of the novel.

[Marillion]

Is there some sort of historical/mythological basis for this kind of villain, because I've come across a number of villains in a number of different books that feel exactly like Croup and Vandemar. The pair of mercenaries, one quick witted and clever the other strong and slow, both of them with superhuman/near superhuman abilities and are mysterious and intimidating. I'm blanking on the names of the other books that they're found in but they certainly exist.

Or am I just making connections where there aren't any.

It's not so much that there's a historical or mythological basis for these character types, as much as there is a storytelling basis. They're found in pairs because they play off of each other very well, complementing each others strengths and covering their weaknesses.

[Mauther]

another +1 for The Lady from the Black Company Books. Its going up to Urban Fantasy I suppose, but I really like both Gentleman Johnny Marcone as the respectable villian and the utterly inhuman Nicodemus head of the Fallen Denairans from the Dresden Files, plus the delicously naughty Leananshidhe (sp?).

[JonestheSpy]

This gives you a small bevvy of fascinating fantasy villains, such as Goss and Subby (Goss and Subby are my favorite villain duet for what they do in that book)

Goss and Subby are definitely way up there - in a world of weird magic, their power is just how firickin' bad they are. It can take any form really, because it all boils down to just what transcendental bastards they are. And Subby is just horribly, horribly creepy besides.

Which reminds me, must give a shout-out to their Neverwhere cousins, Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, who are really very similar (while being completely different).

[Mewtarthio]

another +1 for The Lady from the Black Company Books. Its going up to Urban Fantasy I suppose, but I really like both Gentleman Johnny Marcone as the respectable villian and the utterly inhuman Nicodemus head of the Fallen Denairans from the Dresden Files, plus the delicously naughty Leananshidhe (sp?).

Does Marcone count as a villain? For the most part, he and Dresden work together in perfect harmony, with Dresden occasionally remarking, "Oh, yeah, and you're totally on my list, by the way! You're not very high up there, but once I've destroyed the Black Council, and the Denarians, and all vampires everywhere, and maybe Yog-Sothoth or something, then I'm going after you!"

I guess he could be an example of a villain that is not an antagonist...

[Tyrant]

To add to the other Forgotten Realms recommendations, the Twilight War trilogy heavily features a few of the Shades that run the reborn Empire of Netheril. Particularly Telamont, Rivalen, and Brennus Tanthul. Telamont is the ruler of the Shade Enclave and the other 2 are 2 of his many sons and they are over 2000 years old by the time the story occurs. Rivalen is what is known as a theurge, he uses arcane and divine magic. He is also the high priest of Shar. They are fighting with and/or against the "heroes" of the story Erevis Cale and Drasek Riven who are the chosen of the god Mask. They are fighting a demigod and have to contend with the machinations of one of the archdukes of hell and along with the gods Shar and Mask while Shade is trying to reclaim their lost property and take over new countries.

So, you have high powered individuals all over the place along with villains that are quite a bit more than card board cut outs set against a story where "good" characters are few and far between. Though there is one good character in particular who is very well written and has a very moving moment as he goes out in a blaze of divinely fueled glory.

These characters come from two other sets of stories. Cale and Riven come from the Sembia series and it's follow up the Erevis Cale trilogy. The Tanthuls come from the Return of the Archwizards trilogy. I believe the writing in this trilogy to be superior to the previous stories with these characters.

I will also second the mention of Jarlaxle and Entriri.

Edit to add: Also, since I mentioned the Forgotten Realms, I should mention Manshoon. He is in a number of books and in most of them he is pretty firmly in the moustache twirling villainy column. But, he is fairly powerful and he just won't die. Or rather, he won't stay dead.

[Mauther]

Does Marcone count as a villain? For the most part, he and Dresden work together in perfect harmony, with Dresden occasionally remarking, "Oh, yeah, and you're totally on my list, by the way! You're not very high up there, but once I've destroyed the Black Council, and the Denarians, and all vampires everywhere, and maybe Yog-Sothoth or something, then I'm going after you!"

I guess he could be an example of a villain that is not an antagonist...

He's pretty much a perfect example of the Magnificent Bastard
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard. I mean he's not a bad guy except for the fact that he runs all crime in Chicago, from petty theft and prostition up to cuying off cops and judges. That he's better than the undead and hellspawn that are the alternatives is his only saving grace.

[Serpentine]

I think Once... might have a pretty good villain, but it's been a long time since I read it. Also it's "erotic horror fantasy".

[Velaryon]

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Some great villains, some intelligent villains, some repulsive villains, some villains I didn't think would be villains, some villains I didn't thinks would be heroes, some villains I find myself rooting for despite myself.


Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson also has some great villains, but to say more would be a spoiler.


Try the War of the Spider Queen series. It's six books worth of nothing but drow, and more drow, characters, society, and plots. There's villainy to suit all manners of tastes, ranging from sympathetic villain, to manipulative bastard, and all the way to kick-the-puppy-while-cackling villainy.


I second all of the above. I would also add to the list:

I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire - the Demiplane of Ravenloft is all about villains, and Strahd von Zarovich is the original, iconic darklord of the land. While he draws obvious inspiration from Dracula, the character is different enough and awesome enough to make this a worthwhile read. If you like that, you can check out the sequel I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin, which is decent but not quite as good.

I am somewhat hesitant to recommend them, but the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind has some pretty good villains. The books have a few huge flaws, but villains are not one of them. In fact, most of the characters in general are pretty compelling (though not all). If you do decide to check the books out, you might consider stopping after the sixth book. The series gets very preachy the longer it goes on, and while that mostly starts with book 6, it makes a pretty good stopping point. From that point on, it's all downhill IMO.

[Serpentine]

To semi-back up that last bit, I stopped reading The Sword Of Truth series around the point someone got skinned alive.

[Lord_Gareth]

The villain(s) from Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series are of particular note.

[factotum]

I'd say Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I thought the main villain in the book while doing some pretty awful things somehow managed to be sympathetic at times and he is very intelligent.

Darn it, I was going to say that one! It helps that a good third of the story is told from the POV of someone who's in love with said villain, of course...

[The Big Dice]

I am somewhat hesitant to recommend them, but the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind has some pretty good villains. The books have a few huge flaws, but villains are not one of them. In fact, most of the characters in general are pretty compelling (though not all). If you do decide to check the books out, you might consider stopping after the sixth book. The series gets very preachy the longer it goes on, and while that mostly starts with book 6, it makes a pretty good stopping point. From that point on, it's all downhill IMO.
The first two are excellent. Darken Rahl and the Sisters of the Dark are great villains. After that it gets into Ayn Rand, preachy objectivism territory, though it does redeem itself in the final three books. Just wach out for the hundred page long conversations explaining the plot in the later books.

[Dienekes]

The first two are excellent. Darken Rahl and the Sisters of the Dark are great villains. After that it gets into Ayn Rand, preachy objectivism territory, though it does redeem itself in the final three books. Just wach out for the hundred page long conversations explaining the plot in the later books.

Are you trying to say the chicken that is not a chicken was not the single greatest villain ever?

Honestly I'd give this series a pass, the first book was pretty good, the second I don't have any memory of (is there a single more damning thing to say about a book?), and the third started the ridiculous trend. I kept reading after that until the anti-communist rant book and had to put it down. To this day it remains the only series I've started and stopped with no intention of returning. It just degenerated into mindless dribble.

[Saph]

I am somewhat hesitant to recommend them, but the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind has some pretty good villains. The books have a few huge flaws, but villains are not one of them. In fact, most of the characters in general are pretty compelling (though not all). If you do decide to check the books out, you might consider stopping after the sixth book. The series gets very preachy the longer it goes on, and while that mostly starts with book 6, it makes a pretty good stopping point. From that point on, it's all downhill IMO.

I'd second this. Terry Goodkind does a lot of things really well and a lot of things really badly, but if you're looking for brutal, cruel villains, he's hard to beat.

Despite its length, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has some pretty good villains too. There's the Dark One's principal servant, Ishamael, a scholarly philosophical type who's possibly the only person in the story who really understands the truth of the war between Good and Evil that shapes the plot - unfortunately, understanding it has led him to the conclusion that Evil's inevitably going to win and so he's been working for them ever since. Then there are the Children of the Light, who work tirelessly to root out "Darkfriends", which according to them means anyone who disagrees with them. Finally, there's the main character's old love interest. Good news: You're a reincarnation of an ancient hero, and your ex, who still wants you, is the most beautiful woman in the world. Bad news: She did the in-world equivalent of selling her soul to the Devil and has a millenia-old grudge against you for dumping her. Have fun! :smalltongue:

[Dr.Epic]

I am somewhat hesitant to recommend them, but the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind has some pretty good villains. The books have a few huge flaws, but villains are not one of them. In fact, most of the characters in general are pretty compelling (though not all). If you do decide to check the books out, you might consider stopping after the sixth book. The series gets very preachy the longer it goes on, and while that mostly starts with book 6, it makes a pretty good stopping point. From that point on, it's all downhill IMO.

Like the guy who made a cape out of people's scalps? Man I love that guy. He's like a Super Jail character.

[Traab]

I'd second this. Terry Goodkind does a lot of things really well and a lot of things really badly, but if you're looking for brutal, cruel villains, he's hard to beat.

Despite its length, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has some pretty good villains too. There's the Dark One's principal servant, Ishamael, a scholarly philosophical type who's possibly the only person in the story who really understands the truth of the war between Good and Evil that shapes the plot - unfortunately, understanding it has led him to the conclusion that Evil's inevitably going to win and so he's been working for them ever since. Then there are the Children of the Light, who work tirelessly to root out "Darkfriends", which according to them means anyone who disagrees with them. Finally, there's the main character's old love interest. Good news: You're a reincarnation of an ancient hero, and your ex, who still wants you, is the most beautiful woman in the world. Bad news: She did the in-world equivalent of selling her soul to the Devil and has a millenia-old grudge against you for dumping her. Have fun! :smalltongue:

Dont forget how about half of the other big bad guys have spent all these years carving out various empires for themselves, usually ruling in secret over various factions that poor rand and crew doesnt find out about until its trap time. But yeah, the children of light are awesome hypocrites. Instead of fighting the dark ones forces in the two rivers, they hang back and WATCH the town face slaughter because they are afraid that Perrin might escape if they dont. Even if he WAS a agent for the dark one, isnt the bigger threat the thousands upon thousands of trollocs and the hundreds of fades? Epic asshats.

[Velaryon]

Despite its length, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has some pretty good villains too. There's the Dark One's principal servant, Ishamael, a scholarly philosophical type who's possibly the only person in the story who really understands the truth of the war between Good and Evil that shapes the plot - unfortunately, understanding it has led him to the conclusion that Evil's inevitably going to win and so he's been working for them ever since. Then there are the Children of the Light, who work tirelessly to root out "Darkfriends", which according to them means anyone who disagrees with them. Finally, there's the main character's old love interest. Good news: You're a reincarnation of an ancient hero, and your ex, who still wants you, is the most beautiful woman in the world. Bad news: She did the in-world equivalent of selling her soul to the Devil and has a millenia-old grudge against you for dumping her. Have fun! :smalltongue:

Wheel of Time is one series I didn't bring up, because I really don't think the villains are among the strong points of the series.

Spoilered just in case:
Nearly all the Forsaken have cookie-cutter backstabbing lieutenant personalities. Attaching one unique quirk to each of them (Graendal's obsession with making beautiful people into mindless servants, Asmodean being a pansy, and even Lanfear's obsession with Lews Therin) really doesn't change that their basic characterizations are fairly cliched. If you remove the one or two unique things about each of them, they're pretty much interchangeable as far as I can remember.

And then there's the fact that the heroes mostly steamroll them. Moghedien gets embarrassed pretty much any time she tries to do something. Rand makes Asmodean his bitch with little difficulty, and then he ends up getting killed by... do we even know who? Ishamael, for all he's built up as being the leader and the most dangerous of the Forsaken, is killed in the third book, before we even know the names of half the others. Sure, like many others he's reincarnated at some point, but Rand has already beaten him when he barely knew what he was doing. Why should Ishamael be regarded as a credible threat now just because he's changed his name to Moridin?

As for the Children of the Light, I can agree that they make more compelling villains even though they fit solidly into the Inquisition archetype. The Seanchan are pretty interesting too, though
as the books go on, it's not really clear whether they can still be considered villains after Mat hooks up with the Daughter of the Nine Moons, and Rand exposes Semirhage hiding among their ranks.

It's not that the Wheel of Time has BAD villains or anything, but I wouldn't really call them great either. Just my 2 cp.

[Saph]

And then there's the fact that the heroes mostly steamroll them. Moghedien gets embarrassed pretty much any time she tries to do something. Rand makes Asmodean his bitch with little difficulty, and then he ends up getting killed by... do we even know who? Ishamael, for all he's built up as being the leader and the most dangerous of the Forsaken, is killed in the third book, before we even know the names of half the others. Sure, like many others he's reincarnated at some point, but Rand has already beaten him when he barely knew what he was doing. Why should Ishamael be regarded as a credible threat now just because he's changed his name to Moridin?

It depends how you look at it. The Forsaken are the Dark One's chess pieces. They rarely do well in a stand-up fight, but they usually do a hell of a lot of damage before one of the main characters can make that happen. Ishamael pretty much destroyed the last two civilizations on the continent, and the others have caused an average of about one civil war each. Manipulators can be just as dangerous as soldiers.

[Electrohydra]

The Thran by Robert J King has an excellent villain.

Seconded. This villain is most probably the most evil being I've read about that is still human, so you can "relate" to him, even if it's repulsing. Very well written character.

[Dmatix]

I thought Thrawn was a big blue Marty Stu myself.

Now Lord Foul, as well as having a name that is both awesome and cringeworthy at the same time, is a villain. As one of the characters in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant says, it boots nothing to avoid his snares. For all your actions will serve his purpose in the end. Or words to that effect.

Ok, so in the 9 books that are currently in print, he barely gets any screen time. But his presence looms over everything that happens in all of them. When it comes to the intelligent, subtle and manipulative BBEG, Lord Foul is in a class of his own.


Definitely this. Its amazing how menacing this guy can be when he appears in person in like one episode per book. His Reavers (malefic spirits that can possess pretty much anyone) are also good examples in their own right.

[scarletsorcerer]

My favourite villain is from Ian Irvine's The View From The Mirror series. There are two villains, Rulke and Faelamor - but Rulke seems pretty Gary-Stu-ish to me, the perfect guy that the author would love to be.

But Faelamor is great. She is a master of illusions, and she is really driven. She has a noble goal, but she uses seriously quetionable methods in her desperation to attain in. And she often goes up against people who can use the Secret Art (basically magic) to blast people to bits etc., but she can kick ass. I absolutely love her.

[Elrik]

First, to all those who replied: Thank you! I didn't think this request would get past a single page.

I think I'm probably going to check out Thomas Covenant , ASOIAF, and The First Law when I get the chance to this summer. I poked around in other places and heard alot of good things about them.

Also, Lord Foul strikes me as the sort of villain who can sound completely ridiculous (what, with that name and all) but still manage to be frightening.

If TV Tropes can be trusted he's also at the high end of the villain effectiveness scale (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfVillainEffectiveness)! Which makes him alright in my book.

[Science Officer]

For some reason, I really liked King Gorice XIVth of Witchland from The Worm Ouroboros.

The book isn't particularly well written, but it really is interesting to read such an old fantasy novel. The styles and influences that are and are not there are surprising.

Gorice and Witchland are a interesting antagonist, they're not so much evil as power-hungry and huge jerks.

[Weezer]

Also, Lord Foul strikes me as the sort of villain who can sound completely ridiculous (what, with that name and all) but still manage to be frightening.

If TV Tropes can be trusted he's also at the high end of the villain effectiveness scale (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfVillainEffectiveness)! Which makes him alright in my book.

He does sound ridiculous, on the surface he is the stereotypical ancient, corrupting evil out to destroy the world and titles like Lord Foul the Despiser, a-Jeroth of the Seven Hells and Fangthane don't help his case. But he overcomes it in so many ways for he personifies perfectly some of the darkest aspects of human nature.

He is very high on that scale for a good reason, his plans are incredibly well done, as are their resolutions.