On Leigh Bardugo‘s eighth stop in her blog tour, we get more character profiles, with one Malyen Oretsev and two amazing supporting characters:
Name: Malyen “Mal” Oretsev
Most Frequently Found Wearing: First Army uniform or roughspun
Line of Work: Soldier
Skills: Tracking—anyone or anything. Great with a rifle and bow, faultless sense of direction
Likes: The outdoors and hanging out with his friends
Dislikes: Court life, the Darkling
Inspired by: Chris Chambers, Karl Agathon (Helo)
Frequent fancasts: Colton Haynes, Drew Van Acker, Steven R. McQueen“I’m sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now.”
Leigh’s Comment: At the start of the story Mal is such a guy, he’s a seventeen-year-old boy who’s never really had to think about what’s important to him. He goes through so much when he loses Alina and then when his unit tracks the stag into Tsibeya. When he tells that story and when he finally expresses his feelings for Alina, it was important to me that he not become someone else: He’s still a soldier, he’s still a guy who isn’t fantastic at big declarations, but he’s also found the courage to speak his heart. I love writing him and I’m so glad I got the chance to write in his voice for the paperback bonus content.
Name: Genya Safin
Most frequently found wearing: White and gold, but these days red and blue
Line of Work: The Tailor
Skills: Genya’s skills represent a unique combination of Corporalnik and Materialnik and include manipulating physical appearance.
Likes: Fabulous clothes, rich food, spending time in the Fabrikator workshops, gossip about other people
Dislikes: Herring, dirt, gossip about her
Inspired by: My most fabulous makeup artist friends and fairy godmothers everywhere
Frequent fancasts: Holland Roden, Deborah Ann Woll, Sophie Turner“I’m marvelous.”
Leigh’s Comment: With Genya, I wanted to take the idea of the sassy best friend—the girl who acts as a kind of guide and fairy godmother, transforming you, helping you to fit in—and tweak it a bit, because I think playing that role is bound to have a cost. Genya has been both empowered and victimized by beauty. But even after all she’s been through, she refuses to be shamed or cowed by her situation and I love that about her.
Name: David Kostyk
Most frequently found wearing: Purple and red
Line of Work: Durast (Materialnik)
Skills: Manipulation of metal, glass, textiles. Master Fabrikator and most talented Durast in the Second Army.
Likes: Science, gadgets, being left alone
Dislikes: Are you still here?
Inspired by: My dad and some of the programmers I worked with in Seattle.
Frequent fancasts: Logan Lehrman[sic], Aaron Johnson, Matthew Gray Gubler“I make things. I don’t destroy them.”
Leigh’s Comment: David is all about focus—the kind of guy who could easily walk into traffic because he’s busy unraveling some tricky problem in his head. He sometimes seems rude or abrupt, but he’s just not interested enough in people to care. The biggest challenge in writing him is that he’s so much smarter than I am. His work often requires that I talk to actual scientists. Luckily I have a pretty amazing braintrust.
(via eighth blog tour stop: IceyBooks. Enter to win a paperback copy of Shadow and Bone and a Hardcover copy of the upcoming Siege and Storm!)
