I love escapism when reading and and Mary Sue characters give me that.
But when reading about the umpteenth modeling/acting jock excelling in martial arts, coming to a fortune, spying and beating crime, I was a little bored.
So, I'm looking for idealized and seemingly perfect MCs who are different (country, race, gender...), use non standard skills or face uncommon obstacles (for a Mary Sue).
So no Ka Hmnd or aubie56 stories...
Seriously though, Ka Hmnd has a bit of variety, noble thief, pirate, soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor... oops I got carried away.
aubie56 is a bit on the repetitive side, cowboys and superheros with an occasional time travel tossed in the mix.
both have hundreds of stories posted at SOL
Ernest has a bunch though they are not quite in the Mary Sue department. They do have uncommon skills and obstacles.
Well, what you describe pretty much defines a Mary Sue type. Still, you might try looking outside SOL. The Elle Donsaii series by Lawrence Dahner (available on Kindle) might interest you.
The Elle Donsaii series by Lawrence Dahner
In a similar vein as El Donsaii -- The Eons-Lost Orphan by Laer Carroll. Or, if you like magic and lesbians (and who doesn't?), Ceri Brent, starting in Thaumatology 101 by Niall Teasdale.
Thank you Samuel. I'm always on the alert for kick-ass girls. If you haven't read Graceling by Kristin Cashore do so immediately.
Have you checked out Samantha_K ?
Fits most of what you are looking for.
ETA
Also Morgan's Kelly which may not tick all your boxes but is certainly different.
How about the daughter of a god? Is that Mary Sue enough for you? :)
Legacy of a Legend
As for well written ... has an 8.06 score, and I also note that it gets better further in, since this was the authors first attempt at publishing something this long.
Legacy of a Legend
I clicked on that story and was sorry. One of the items cited in the description is Vampires. I don't read stories with vampires.
I clicked on that story and was sorry. One of the items cited in the description is Vampires. I don't read stories with vampires.
Just out of curiosity, is it due to the rather recent tendency to romanticize that way of life, sort of like starting with 'The Vampire Lestat' (and even more so with the 'Twilight' books, or were you cool with something like the original 'Nosferatu'?
Reason I ask is because, since the story is based in the Bethesda software world 'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim', this isn't our Earth. And most of the time in fantasy novels, where you have things like trolls, zombies, giants, werewolves, magic, and such, you typically also have vampires of some kind or another.
As an example, a series written by Larry Correia and published by Baen, Monster Hunter International, is set in the modern era. If you like action and don't mind what people on here call gun porn, I highly recommend it. He sure DOESN'T romanticize them, that's for darned sure.
I like Intelligent Mary/Marty Sue's more than physical ones.
They don't use superpowers or nearly overpowered human strength to take out antagonists.
I like Intelligent Mary/Marty Sue's more than physical ones.
Yes, but the level of intelligence (basically genius) required to make it a Mary/Marty Sue is exceedingly difficult to write convincingly.
It's not your average Mary Sue.
Instead it's Cammie Sue (Series of three stories)
And it's really good read, even if it's not exactly what you asked for...
Lazlo Zalezak's John Carter fills the bill. Personally I found Carter too sickenly perfect for my tastes but from the score and downloads you can see that I'm in a tiny minority.
Sorry, but What's A Mary Sue?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
A Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character. Often, this character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfillment.[1] They can usually perform better at tasks than should be possible given the amount of training or experience, and usually are able through some means to upstage the main protagonist of the story, such as by saving the hero. A male can also be referred to as a Marty Stu, Larry Stu, or Gary Stu, but the name Mary Sue is more commonly used.[2][3][4]
Thank you for your clear-cut explanation. Even at 80 years old I have learned something new. I can see why some readers might find such a character (depending on how they are defined) either acceptable or a total pain in the butt,
Thank you for your clear-cut explanation.
Yep, I learned something new too.
I found several sites that had definitions of Mary Sue.
A lot of people here seem to refer to impossibly good main characters as Mary Sues. However, all the sites if found that defined Mary Sue agreed that upstaging the protagonist (main character) was integral to the definition of a Mary Sue character, so an MC can't be a Mary Sue.
The term 'Mary Sue' seems to have originated from a piece of trekkie fanfic, and that's what those site definitions are based on.
However, the concept of an idealised character based on the author's wish-fulfillment is as old as literature and nowadays the term Mary Sue has been adopted to cover such characters in all types of fiction, not just fanfic. The 'Mary Sue' character is usually the protagonist (predictable, since they're normally by novice authors who are writing from personal experience), and the 'Mary Sue' character doesn't have to die an honourable death to save the federation.
ETA.
Here's another defective definition, this time from Oxford Dictionaries:
NOUN (originally in fan fiction) a type of female character who is depicted as unrealistically lacking in flaws or weaknesses..
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/mary_sue
Notice how it specifies a female character, whereas the term is widely used for males as well. Perhaps in 10 years they'll get around to correcting it :(
AJ
However, the concept of an idealised character based on the author's wish-fulfillment is as old as literature and nowadays the term Mary Sue has been adopted to cover such characters in all types of fiction, not just fanfic.
While they noted the origin of the term in fan fiction, particularly Star Trek fan fiction, none of the sites I found limited the definition of Mary Sue to fan fiction.
Rather, they claimed that the integral characteristic of a Mary Sue was a secondary character that upstages the protagonist.
By the way, while the Oxford Dictionary reference you found does not mention the characteristic of upstaging the protagonist, it also does not explicitly or even implicitly apply Mary Sue to a main character.
The Mary Sue definition is rather flexible. While originally applied to fanfic, it upstaged the protagonist of the *base plotline*. The Mary Sue character is always the protagonist of the story in which she appears.
One of the areas in which definitions differ is whether the term can even be applied to a well-written character with lots of strengths and few weaknesses, or if the term can only be applied to badly written ones.
I think that a mandatory part of a Mary Sue character is the heavy-handed recognition of her admirable qualities. Everybody she meets is immediately in awe of her talent, courage, generosity, and dedication, (except for obvious villains); while Mary Sue herself is excessively, obnoxiously modest.
In Julius Caesar's 'Conquest of Gaul', he portrayed himself as a Mary Sue character a couple of millennia before the term was even invented, winning every battle and never making any mistakes. The actuality was somewhat different, the 'cheese-eating surrender-monkeys' giving quite a decent account of themselves.
AJ
I have to admit that most of Oyster50's Smart Girls seem to fit the category without being jocks or most of the rest of that. Defending themselves when attacked is probably OK rather than going out to fight crime. Terri and Cindy in particular are just too good to be true. That's not a complaint - I'm with anja on my appreciation for escapism. I'm sure it could be argued that both Jeff and Trish in 'Building a Better Past' are too good to be true as well but I'm happy with them.