Today’s Tough Travels takes us once again wandering through the tropes of fantasy, ably led by our fearless leader Nathan over at the Fantasy Review Barn.  This week the topic is: ORPHANS

No one in Fantasyland amounts to anything if they still have both parents.  Rule number one.  Thanks to Stephanie for the suggestion (and let us all be surprised together that it isn’t in the Tough Guide).

1. Nobody – or ‘Bod’ – Owens.  Who at the start of Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book becomes orphaned.  “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife”
2. Harry Potter – You couldn’t ask for a more famous orphan so I just had to pick him (plus he definitely lives up to Rule number one!)
3. Daenerys Targaryen from GRRMartin’s Game of Thrones.  Well, she may be an orphan – but she has 3 dragons! Three!!
4. Locke Lamora – never miss an opportunity to get Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards onto a list – that is my motto.
5. Sookie Stackhouse from Charlaine Harris’ True Blood.  
6. Kvothe from The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

‘I give Pirrip as my father’s name on the authority of his tombstone’…

I guess Dickens liked his orphans – Pip, Oliver, Little Nell…