So when I discovered Peter David's Sir Apropos of Nothing series, I immediately fell in love with it. Tong Lashing is the latest in the series, came out last month I believe in hardcover, and is as good--if not, I dare say, better--as the first too books in the series (Sir Apropos of Nothing and The Woad to Wuin)
Apropos of Nothing is the main character. He is a craven, cheating, lieing, yellow-bellied coward. (Yes, a craven coward. He manages it.) Which obviously means he lies, cheats, and then runs away when he gets in trouble for it. He takes when he sees an opportunity, and only gives when he sees an advantage in it for himself...an advantage more than "enrichment of the soul". He gets people killed through neglectance and jealousy, and is a rare Main Character that I find myself feeling 'fan girlishly obsessive' over. (I normally obsess over side characters...ie, Nathen from Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, Robinton from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, Severus Snape from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series)
In this third installment of his adventures, he gets washed up on the beach of a very strange land and gradually takes to the life of a peasant in the village of Kit Chin, her daughter Kit Chinette, and others (all named in the same punnish manner.) Of course, living as a peasant does nothing for the adventure aspect of an adventure story, so of course something happens to smash his small contentment in life and he goes careening across the kingdom with a mysterious sword that belonged to his dead mentor, a boy, and a drabbit. He manages to kill lots of things dear to him, and somehow manages to make me feel sorry enough to him to leak a few tears, despite what he did to his best friend in Sir Apropos of Nothing and thousands of innocents in The Woad to Wuin.
I'm not very good at summarizing these things, so I'd just suggest that you go find the series and see what I'm talking about yourself. It really is a great series. Go read.
[Mod Alert: relocated to Critic's Corner on 2-Aug-2005. -- Brad]