Guest Post by Zoraida Córdova: ON SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

I really love big casts. I love it when there isn’t just one hero. This makes sense since my favorite show is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think it’s important to give a hero a good support system. I picked three of my favorite supporting characters from The Vicious Deep Trilogy.

Marty McKay: Marty is a character that transitions through all of my books. He’s an all around peace keeper and messanger for a society called The Thorne Hill Alliance. The Alliance is consisted of the magical creatures in the tri-state area. When Marty joins up with Tristan, he’s not supposed to be as involved as he gets. His involvement doesn’t start until there is a new king. But he’s very much still young (relatively for supernatural types), and he loves some merman tail, and of course wants to protect Coney Island, he stands behind Tristan.

AND HE NEVER TAKES OFF HIS CAP.

Penny: Penny is one of my favorites because she’s a normal young mom. She’s got a kid who is a genetic freak (he has a real turtle shell on his back) and she herself has fingers that can shift into tentacles. She is one of the Landlocked of the Sea Court. Her mother was banished to shore and gave Penny up for adoption. It wasn’t till she was in her teens that she realized where she came from, and found the support of other Landlocked in Brooklyn. She’s a baker and waitress at a cupcake shop, but when it comes time to defend her home, she gets right in it. She has one of my favorite scenes in The Savage Blue. In The Vast & Brutal Sea, her loyalty to Tristan still remains. 

(When I saw this image on Tumblr, THIS IS HOW I PICTURE HER HANDS. ONLY HER HANDS. Penny has hair and a tan.)

Arion: Arion is a merman who is magically bound as the masthead, and Captain, of a ship. His job as long as there is a king, is to carry out his father’s punishment. His father was a traitor and rebel who aligned himself with the Silver Mermaid during her first attempt to steal the throne. Despite Arion’s fierce loyalty to the throne, he was forced to carry out his father’s sentence. It’s part of the Sea Court’s traditions that makes Tristan extremely uncomfortable, as it should. Arion was a dragon slayer during the war with the dragons, and his reward became a punishment instead. Arion is one of my favorite because he’s named after one of my best friends from high school. When I write his dialogue, I can hear his baritone voice. In The Vast & Brutal Sea, I had to cut some of his backstory for pacing, but hopefully I’ll write his a short story one day.

Want to know more about other characters in the books? Shoot me an e-mail at zoraidawrites@gmail.com, or ask in the comments! Catch up on other blog tour stops at www.zoraidacordova.com

Review: The Vast and Brutal Sea

Book three of The Vicious Deep
By Zoraida Córdova
Available now from Sourcebooks Fire
Review copy
Read my reviews of THE VICIOUS DEEP and of THE SAVAGE BLUE

Tristan Hart has been through a lot since he learned that he was a merman and a candidate for the throne.  But now his girlfriend Layla has been kidnapped and he's been betrayed by two of his closest allies.  Shortly after THE VAST AND BRUTAL SEA begins, things get even worse for Tristan and his companions.  But he's still determined to defeat his aunt Nieve, save the sea, and keep his promises.

I love this trilogy so very much.  I think it is the best of the many mermaid books and series that have come out in the last several years.  Much of that rests on Tristan's shoulders.  He's come a long way from the shallow teen boy he was before the series began.  He's humble, overmatched, and still determined to do his best by his people.

The diverse supporting cast (in nationality and sexuality) is terrific too, including the new additions to the cast.  I'm sorry that the ongoing war means some of them must die. The Vicious Deep series might have a male protagonist, but it has never shied away from including a variety of well-rounded female characters.  THE VAST AND BRUTAL SEA also fills out antagonist Nieve's painful past.  She needs to be defeated, but one can understand how she came to make her choices.

THE VAST AND BRUTAL SEA is a stunning conclusion to a series that ranges through the wild ocean, abandoned magic isles, and Coney Island.  It's also the story of choice for anyone who wants to see a melee involving vampires, giant turtles, merrows, and demigods.  It is a final battle to be remembered.  I am sad to part ways with these characters, but I look forward to whatever Zoraida Cordóva writes next.

Be sure to come back later today for a guest blog by Zoraida.