Spirit Rider - Sam

We meet our simplistic, teenaged protagonist in the village of Besfen, a place which literally ignores the rest of the world. Plot device used so that the reader is in the same position and needs Paralex explained to them? You betcha! But beyond that, Sam’s well natured, though useless. He’s the last person you’d want saving the world, mostly due to the fact that he can barely handle a sword and any magic he can manage is minor at best.

He isn’t the pure and perfect hero with the heart of gold either. He certainly knows right from wrong and would never ‘join the dark side’; however we can’t forget that he’s a hormonal teenager. He makes bad decisions in the fit of teenage emotions, sometimes with far-reaching consequences.

I’ll admit, as I said earlier, Sam started out as something that allowed me to believably explain the rules and beings of my world. For a long while I kind of disliked Sam, and disliked myself for so shamelessly using him. He never had a personality and his face was always blurry in my mind. But over time, the more I wrote him, the more I was able to sense a personality. He’s self-conscious. He’s often quick to anger. He criticises himself. He likes toast. It’s the little things that make all the difference.

In the early stages Sam actually had someone else from Besfen who tagged along with him and Grim. It was originally a one armed boy named Kyle… and his pet chicken. Yeah, believe it or not he actually made it into a written draft! From there the ‘other Besfen person’ became Sam’s younger brother, who had a passion for plants and from there to a girl, who served no other purpose than to be a love interest. Then again I did briefly entertain the idea that in a twist, it might turn out she was the Spirit Rider, not Sam.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHOY! READ CHAPTER 8 OF ‘THE ARMY OF BONES’ BEFORE YOU PROCEED!

Of similar note, Evan started life a white, flying horse named Archie. It sounded like a good idea for transport, though I quickly scrapped the idea because it left Grim with nothing! It sounded too weird just having her sit on the back.