Any fantasy (or sci-fi) written from villain's POV?

[Shaidar]

Now I'm aware of quite a lot where the hero is an "anti-hero" / Byronic personality, but I can't think of a single one actually written from an outright baddie's POV.

 

(Which is very understandable, of course. To make it believable, you need to somehow justify (however loosely) the baddie's actions, and not many people are comfortable with that, and find reading about a scumbag as protagonist discomfiting or depressing.)

 

So does anyone know of a good book (or even series!?) that explores this theme - the Last Battle as seen by the Forsaken, or the fight for Middle-Earth from the eyes of the Witch-King of Angmar, etc.

[Lilbaz]

Joe Abercrombies First Law trilogy. The characters start out as a normal group but by the end you realise actually they were the cause of most of the problems and in their own way more evil than those they were fighting.

[Lilbaz]

Warhammer have a few that are from Deamons/Darkelves etc... view. Some of them are quite good.

[Mr Ares]

Tell you what, if ever I write my memoirs I'll send you a copy.

[Thorum]

So does anyone know of a good book (or even series!?) that explores this theme - the Last Battle as seen by the Forsaken,

 

While it's not Tarmon Gaedon, we do have the Cleansing from the eyes of the Forsaken if I remember correctly.

[shinerfan]

Jaqueline Carey's two volume series The Sundering is told from the point of view of Tanaris, the top general of the "Dark One", Satoris. There were three humans who fought for Satoris in the previous age's apocalyptic battle, roughly the equivalent of the Forsaken or Nazghul. The rest of humanity + the elves believe Sartoris and his followers to be evil incarnate. Pretty much what you're looking for, but none of the characters are nearly as memorable as Phedre or Melisande from Carey's Kushiel series.

[Ozzie_aiel]

Warhammer have a few that are from Deamons/Darkelves etc... view. Some of them are quite good.

 

The Malus Darkblade series, beautiful.

 

Some of the Horus Heresy books are the same, especially Fulgrim, and to a lesser extent, Legion

 

[RembrandtQ.Einstein]

Dune is very ambiguous.

 

 

It is hard to tell who is the true villain. While the Empire might not have been bad. Let us think of what Paul is doing and has unleashed unto the Universe? He overthrew the Padishah Emperor by threatening to blow up all the spice so as to completely kill everyone on the planet and to cripple human civilization for millenia. An act that would have brought about the death of hundreds of billions and centuries of anarchy/chaos.

 

Then not content with that. He unleashes a brutal crusade which murders tens of billions, as his Fremen Legions brutally invade and subjugate all planets in his name without any mercy. Wiping out cities and crushing planets with a violence and brutality not witnessed for millenia. A notable scene is when his mother sees a vision of the future concerning his legions rolling over the universe in anger rails at him "What about the innocent people?" and Paul simply says "There are no innocent people." Likewise he makes it clear he views his men as merely pawns to his ascent to power and stated "he served his purpose," when asked if he mourned for a warrior.

 

There is a reason why in "Dune:Messiah" Paul talks with Stilgar and compares himself to Hitler and Genghis Khan only worse.

 

Although in the end Paul is overcome with guilt and tries to stop the behemoth he has brought to life. But on a more depressing note he doesn't succeed. Instead his son takes his place and becomes an even more oppressive and brutal dictator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So yeah. I would say Dune quite clearly has a villain protagonist(s). At least "Dune, Dune: Messiah, Dune: Children of Dune and Dune: The God Emperor" do

[Nomos]

Not sure if this should count, but Darth Bane: series in the Star Wars Expanded Universe tells how the Sith went from an academy and a government all the way down to only two: one to hold the power, and one to crave it.  It's really quite interesting since Bane didn't really start out as "evil" but passionate. 

 

I've been looking for some stories where either the villain is the protagonist or the good guys lose.  I'm beginning to think that publishers won't back those stories.  When you think about it, not many people want to read through 400+ pages of characterization to have them die at the end.  It would be the death of the author too.  I think a more modern audience (read: emo teens) would be more receptive to a villainous protagonist and/or losing good guys, so we might get to see more of this soon.