History's Heroes

[BanzaiCat]

Here's a hypothetical situation. I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts on this. It sounds silly, but I do have a reason for my silliness this time.

If you could get say half a dozen or so figures from history...famous warriors, warrior-leaders, from any time period from the now to the distant past, whom would you choose? Say you'd be getting these figures together to fight some powerful, ominous threat.

I'm doing this as part of the book I'm writing, which should be the first of three novels. I can think of some, but I know you guys will think of others that I did not consider. I do not intend to get rich off of this - hell I'll be self-publishing, so I doubt I'd sell more than a few dozen copies - but anyone that assists me, I would be more than happy to give an acknowledgement to in the book itself.

I've been all over the place with this book idea for 20 years and have changed it rather radically in the last few years. Those of you that know me on Facebook might know of my novel page - well, that idea helped spark a newer one, one that has gotten me to move forward faster and with more enthusiasm and a MUCH better idea of how to present the story.

So, let me know your thoughts, if you don't mind. I will be very grateful and give credit where credit is due!

I've

[Barthheart]

Sounds interesting....

Julius Caesar
Alexander III of Macedon
Duke William II of Normandy
General Sir Arthur William Currie
General George S. Patton
Major-General Lewis Wharton MacKenzie

[bbmike]

The first person that popped into my head was Theodore Roosevelt.

[bayonetbrant]

'League of Extraordinary People Who Actually Existed"?

Didn't Bill & Ted already try this?  :)

Gilgamesh
Audie Murphy
The Red Baron
Leopold V of Austria
Winston Churchill for the quips

[BanzaiCat]

Believe be Brant, I've struggled with this concept for a long time. But I've heard regularly from other published authors that there really are very few new ideas anymore, as authors (and filmmakers and songwriters and on and on) tend to use influences, regardless of source, to shape whatever it is they have in their head and what comes out in the end.

I appreciate the ideas! If anything this will give me an excellent chance to research some figures that I don't know a lot about, especially their personalities and outlooks. I actually have the outline of Book 1 written out, and a rough paragraph treatment for both books 2 and 3. I hope I can finally make it to the finish line with these damn things, even if they suck. At least then I'll have done it and have it out of my head/system.

Keep the ideas coming. I don't care if its man or woman, what country or time period. I want as wide a variety as possible, please!  :)

[Sir Slash]

I think the team of Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson and Bill Sherman could whip anything anybody could come against them. But who would you put in command?

[JasonPratt]

^^ Erwin Rommel for operational command. Dwight Eisenhower for strategic logistics.

[Staggerwing]

Wouldn't there be some issues with these worthies not being proficient in methods of warfare from times other than their own? Erwin Rommel in charge of Cataphracts would probably do as poorly as Belisarius commanding the 21st Panzer Division.


OTOH, if these military masters were all kidnapped and dumped on a planet somewhere and tasked with collectively molding an oppressed native hunter-gather society into an efficient combat force, that might be a different matter.

[MetalDog]

What kind of heroes are you looking for, B_C?  What I mean is, we could all give you Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, and on and on, but, is that who you are looking for?  Or is it someone like Audie Murphy, like Brant suggested?  An ordinary guy who did extraordinary things?  If it's the latter, have I got a guy for you!  "Mad Jack" Churchill!

http://gizmodo.com/this-guy-fought-in-wwii-with-a-sword-and-bow-1299489251

And you should also check into William Forstchen's, 'Gamester Wars' trilogy.  It sounds pretty close to the idea you expounded upon in the OP.

[BanzaiCat]

I'm thinking of more ordinary guys, not necessarily leaders. I had originally intended to put Patton into my storyline as a central character over all three books, but the new direction I'm going in means I'm more interested in grunts, like Audie Murphy.

And MD, I know about Gamester Wars...I have the first book right here on my desk, but what I had in mind was a little different from that. I know I'm incorporating ideas from a lot of different sources, so it's probably completely lame, but I'm really surprised at how quickly that outline came out the other day. Hopefully I'll have time to expand it a bit this weekend.

I like the idea of Theodore Roosevelt, like bbmike suggested; I'd actually been thinking about him already as he seems like the kind of roll-up-your-sleeves guy that would wade in and do what needed to be done. I'm also somewhat open to mythical characters too. Not necessarily fictional ones, but this IS a work of fiction. I just want to be sure I don't get too crazy with the fantasy ideas; I want it more rooted in reality, but someone along the lines of Gilgamesh (as Brant suggested) would be a very interesting possibility. Maybe someone rooted in both reality and mythos, if that makes any sense. Not all of them, just whatever you guys think comes to mind.

Again, I appreciate any and all of the ideas you're giving me. Even if I don't use your suggestion(s), you might trip a circuit in my head and make me think of something else. In any case, rest assured if I use your idea or something you gave me an idea for, you'll get credit in the Acknowledgement section. You know, the one I always skip when I'm reading a book, lol. ;)

[Sir Slash]

Well again I place my previously mentioned Greats as being in anybody's list of Heroes ( Lee, Grant, Sherman, & Jackson). As young men all performed admirably in the Mexican War as front line officers and later as Generals in the ACW. One even was a fairly successful President. If you read about Lee as a young officer in the Mexican War, you see the very embodiment of an front line leader and I've always felt he would have made a fine president too. The South would've been far better off with Lee as President rather than Jeff Davis. My 2 cents.

[BanzaiCat]

And those guys, Sir Slash, would definitely fit the bill of legendary, almost mythological, and warriors.

I'm definitely leaning more to the hands-dirty types of heroes. Not necessarily warriors, even though I think I said that earlier. Not everyone has to be a killing machine, but there will of course be some of those.

All of you have left some great ideas, plenty of which I haven't even thought of. I just have been putting this off for so long and haven't spent any time trying to just sit down and bang it out on the keyboard (that's banging out a book, not anything else). You guys are helping me a LOT with kickstarting the characters and the direction I go with the narratives.

[bayonetbrant]

New nominations (non-General Officer category)

Audie Murphy
Rick Rescorla
Shugart & Gordon
Matej Kocak (look him up... :) )
Ken Gaudet  and/or LTCol Peter Rich
Clifford Wooldridge (of the infamous "He overwhelmed the enemy fighter in hand-to-hand combat, killing him with several blows to the head with the enemy's own machine gun" action)
Nancy Wake
William James Hardman (of NZ)
David Smiley
and most importantly, Erin f'n' Doyle

[MetalDog]

And MD, I know about Gamester Wars...I have the first book right here on my desk, but what I had in mind was a little different from that. I know I'm incorporating ideas from a lot of different sources, so it's probably completely lame, but I'm really surprised at how quickly that outline came out the other day. Hopefully I'll have time to expand it a bit this weekend.

I agree there are no new stories.  Everything is just a mishmash of everything else.  It's how you tell it that makes a difference.  I'm sure you'll do fine.  Everyone is there own worst critic and all.

[bbmike]

Another one: Alvin York