Flat Character or Round Character

Discuss the December 2016 Book of the Month, Nightlord by Garon Whited.
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kandscreeley
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Flat Character or Round Character

Post by kandscreeley »

I'm still in the process of reading this book, but I found I have a question for all of you reviewers and bookies out there. Do you think that the main character of Nightlord, Eric, is flat or round?

A flat character is defined by britannica.com as characters that are, "two-dimensional in that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the course of a work." While a round character are more complex, more easily believable, and more life-like.

I am going to hold off on my opinion of this one in order not to influence anyone. What do you think?
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Post by Mbarnes »

Personally, I could not finish the book. I am glad that I found your thread about this. I strongly believe that Eric is a flat character. To me he does not mature much in what I read. On my kindle it says that I read about fifteen percent of the book. The author was slow to get to the points he was trying to make. The whole time travel thing was annoying as well. I was willing to finish the book if it had not have went way off in left field. It is one of the more annoying books I have tried to read about vampires. Instead of trying to get the book done quick for a buck was the wrong was to go with this one. The author should have spend more time with some of the details instead of his pocket book. I will not be reading the rest of this series and I might even go as far as to say I will probably not read another book by him.
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Post by kandscreeley »

Well, mbarnes, I'm glad to see that there is someone who agrees with me on this one. I'm still reading. According to my Kindle app, I'm about 40% of the way through. I'm hanging on by my teeth. I wouldn't read the rest, though, and I certainly wouldn't read any more by this author.
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Post by Mbarnes »

I agree. I had to quit reading it. I had a better time watching paint dry and that is pretty frikking boring. Based on the reviews I thought it would be better than it was. The author should have spent more time on the details instead of trying to get money in his wallet. I am baffled at the fact that there are more books in this series.
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Post by Julie Ditton »

I guess this wasn't your cup of tea. I actually finished this book and enjoyed it immensely. Because Eric is already ethical, he doesn't have a lot of room for personal growth. In that respect, you might call him flat. But I enjoyed the story despite the 2 dimensional characters and plan on reading the sequels.
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Post by animatedwolf3432 »

I found Eric to be quite relatable! I didn't find him two-dimensional at all. In my opinion, I thought he was had a very complex design. He started out intriguing, and continued to grow more and more interesting as the book progressed.

I thought the time traveling actually helped him grow as a character. He was able to unlock his potential as a nightlord, and I honestly think he became a better person. A lot of horrible stuff happened to him, but a lot of good happened to him, too. He's a great character, and I can't wait to see what the series has in store for him. I bought the next two books, and am really excited to read them!
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Post by mewsmash »

The flatness of Eric is half the reason I couldn't finish this book. The other reason was the diary format, but that's another story. Eric seemed to know exactly what he was doing at both the beginning and end of the story.
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Post by Kdonegan91 »

I agree with the majority of the posts above. Eric is most definitely a flat character. He did not change much from page one to the last page.
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Post by hailvilla18 »

Eric is a flat character. His personality and views did not change in the course of the story. Round characters are more interesting since you would see multiple facets and you would know how they develop. Round characters also surprise readers. In the story, I think, it could have been better if Eric is a round character.
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Post by kio »

Definitely a flat character. He had little depth to his personality and seemed to bore me.
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Post by Jeyran Main »

The lead is flat as a pancake, and that is not the beginning of it. It is such a shame when I cannot click with the main character sometimes. It just puts me entirely off of the whole book.
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Post by Naval Aulakh »

I think that Eric is a flat character and does not change mush as the story unfolds.

-- 09 Jul 2017, 03:33 --

I think that Eric is a flat character and does not change mush as the story unfolds.
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Post by Anjum »

I think that he is a flat character.
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Post by Sarah Schmidt »

The first book is not a good point to judge Eric's character by. His laidback character calls a lot of things into question, so I too had initially wanted to label him a 'flat' character. He gets marginally more interesting as the book progresses, but the story remains largely plot-based than character-driven.
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Post by Dominique M 5 »

I think that Eric does a lot of growing in this book. At first, he seems to be a flat character. As the story goes on, he seems to become more of a round character due to all the different obstacles he encounters during the novel. I read the whole book and would encourage anyone else to give Eric a chance and complete the book. I know it is long, but I felt it was worth it.
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