I invited a number of science fiction authors to be mean with a silly question:

Is there a character depicted in a science fiction story who survived to tell the tale who you would have liked to have seen killed. If so, how would you have liked to seen him finished off?

My own choice would be Takeshi Kovacs mercifully killed by himself at the end of Altered Carbon. Which isn’t to say that I didn’t like the character or the book because I do.

Now on to our commentators….

Joel Shepherd: Oh that’s easy, Jar Jar Binks. I haven’t any preference for how poor Jar Jar would meet his end, but I’ve observed before that he would have made a far better handbag than he did a character.

Joel Shepherd is an australian science fiction author. His most recent novel is Crossover.

Mark Budz: Talk about saving the toughest for the last. I’m tempted to plead the fifth, rather than get myself in trouble. I guess one character I think should have permanently died was Ripley in “Alien 3.” It was great that she survived the first movie (she was too resourceful not to). Great that she had to go back and confront her worst nightmare in the second movie (we should all be courageous). But I think she should have stayed dead after the third movie. From an artistic point of view it was unnecessary to bring her back. “Alien Resurrection” added nothing of value whatsoever to her self-sacrifice and implied martyrdom. If anything, it undermined everything she’d done — made it essentially pointless. That’s not the message I want to hear about my mythic heroes. I want to learn as much, or more, from their deaths as their lives.
Mark Budz is an american science fiction author behond Idolon

AR Yngve: Ender Wiggin. Killed by a vindictive Bugger Queen, who then laid her eggs in his sanctimonius little corpse. (ouch! -ed)
AR Yngve is a swedish science fiction author who also maintains a writing blog read his novel Alien Beach free here: (link)

Nick DiChario: Wow, you seemed like a nice enough fellow up till now too. But no, I have to be honest, other than almost the entire subgenre of insatiable, blood-sucking vampire narrators, I can’t think of one.
Nick DiChario is a science fiction author has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award, the World Fantasy Award, and two Hugo Awards.

Keith Brooke: But I’m a fluffy green hippy! How can you ask me to kill someone off,
even for fun? Hang on, has George Bush ever appeared in an SF story…?
Keith Brooke is a British science fiction author behind Genetopia

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