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While these are all fine books in their own right, they're not really 'character-driven' in the same way that 'Flowers For Algernon' is. Most SF is so categorised because it springs from an original technological idea, and the characters get built around that.
Bester's two masterpieces are fantastic, but, again, characterisation is secondary to something else, in these cases the author's toying with the possibilities of the typed novel format.
Rather than 'Ender's Game', I'd suggest trying the sequel, 'Speaker For The Dead'. 'Ender's Game' was, apparently, primamrily written to provide some backstory for the later novels and as a simple introduction to the universe the series is set in. Hence, presumably, the way that it doesn't really fit into the remaining Ender sequence in terms of atmosphere or subject matter. Speaker is the strongest of the bunch and is entirely driven by the lives and beliefs of the characters within. Like '..Algernon', you feel for the individuals involved, you travel through their lives with them. Characterisation is strong throughout and each indivual's personality is both complex and utterly believable.
Theodore Sturgeon's 'More Than Human' should definitely be on your list. Five children, each with extra-sensory abilities, form a group of runaways. The story is based on a scientific premise (which I'm not going to give away here), but that premise is inseperable from the personalities and actions of the main characters. In other words, you just know that Sturgeon had a eureka! moment and decided that his next novel would have to be centred on that one idea, but, through luck or good judgement, the personalities that he wrote into each of the children was strong enough to wrestle the novel back, to makle it something more than 'just' another funny little SF story.
Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said also fits in here, I think. As with 'Flowers For Algernon', we follow one person through the vast majority of the story, watching him as his world changes around him and his personality changes with it. There's an absolutely fantastic bit where the reader suddenly realises that the main character, Jason Taverner, has gone from the extremes of arseholery to being a pretty decent guy. His personality changes so naturally and gradually that you don't see it going on until it's already happened. Virtually all of Dick's books could be called character-driven, but this one is something different. It's got more in common with the 'Valis' trilogy than the majority of his work, in that the SF bits are all just there in the background. |
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