Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where I’m joined by the fantastic author Ren Hutchings to talk about ragtag crews in fiction, and why they’re so popular. Ren’s brilliant novel Under Fortunate Stars is one of my absolute highlights of 2022 (you can read my review of it here), a gripping space opera full of great characters and exploring some really smart ideas, so I was delighted when she agreed to write this guest post. If you too like a good character-driven science fiction (or any fiction, really) novel then read on to explore some of the reasons why these sorts of character groupings are so much fun, check out the list of recommendations at the end for more books to look out for, and make sure you pick up a copy of Under Fortunate Stars!
Without further ado though, over to Ren.
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We see ragtag crews pop up again and again in fiction, but what is it that makes them work so well? What makes their stories so compelling, and keeps us coming back for more?
Anyone who’s spent time chatting with me about my favourite tropes and character dynamics in books knows that I’m always a sucker for a ragtag crew, no matter the genre or the setting. As soon as a story description hits me with “a mismatched team is thrown together against the odds” and “they’ll just have to find a way to cooperate,” I’m all in. (And if it’s in space, even better!)
A good ragtag crew brings together a variety of personality types, especially characters with the kind of opposing traits that are guaranteed to clash. Crass loudmouth versus prim-and-proper, eternal pessimist versus eternal optimist, uptight rule-stickler versus chaotic risk-taker… as soon as you throw a bunch of characters with very different personalities into close proximity, you’ll soon have a lot of juicy conflict to explore. Whether these clashes manifest in a humorous or a dramatic manner will depend on the story (and sometimes it’s both!)
Of course, those compelling personality clashes often serve up another key ingredient: banter! As a lover of character-focused stories – both as a reader and as a writer – I know that ragtag crews will deliver the kind of interpersonal dynamics and snarky arguments that have us grinning at the page. Minor personal conflicts going on between the characters in a group cast can create background tension that makes even the quieter scenes in a book crackle with energy.
But it’s not just different personalities that can bring characters into opposition. Characters in a ragtag crew tend to have two sets of goals, so their motivations are unfolding on multiple levels at once. First, they’ll each have their personal goals (which can be individual to one character, or shared among a small subset of the group). And second, there will also be a big, epic, overarching goal – the one that they’re all going to have to work together to achieve.
Whether that goal is pulling off a heist, escaping from peril, defeating a shared enemy, or even just plain survival, the team can usually only complete this goal if they join forces. Their personal goals might well be pulling them in opposite directions, but unless they cooperate on the big goal, they’re all going nowhere. Convincing everyone to get on board with a shared plan is critical to their collective success. And discovering how far they’re willing to go to sway others to their side can make for some really complex character moments.
The team members in a ragtag crew ultimately have no choice but to overcome their differences – at least temporarily – so they can face their common obstacle. They’ll probably all need to use a unique skill, talent, characteristic, or piece of knowledge that only they have, as each of them provides a piece of the puzzle to reach the solution the group needs.
Ragtag crew stories have a familiar flavour that we can’t get enough of, following a recipe we know well: team up, get past your personal conflicts, combine your strengths in cool ways, confess a secret or two, solve the Big Problem together, hopefully get out of trouble… and learn something about yourselves in the process.
But then what? Where do our intrepid crews go from there? Once the obstacles have been cleared and the dust has settled, what happens to the group next could go a few different ways. If the narrative is centered around a single major conflict, it might end with the crew saying goodbye and separating once the peril is over or the adversary is defeated. Other stories might carry on through a long-running series of adventures, or they might never really end, because the characters are still connected and their journey continues indefinitely.
Regardless of how they came together in the first place, once they’ve discovered their common ground, we usually find that the team is willing to sacrifice and compromise for one another, and that they care for each other far more than even they might like to admit. By the end of the adventure, they’ve learned lessons and grown as people. (And we’ll always smile at that cheeky aside that shows how the characters have taken on some of each other’s opposite traits!)
Personally, I really love it when a character gets to use a weird interest or unusual talent that originally seemed inconsequential, but ends up being extremely relevant to the problem at hand. My manuscript wishlist as a writing mentor includes the phrase “I’m always here for that one character with an obscure or seemingly useless skill that turns out to be essential.” This is a trope I adore, and I live for that moment when some odd little thing about a character’s back story, or an arcane tidbit they happen to know about, becomes the thing that saves the day.
There are some moments like this in my time travel space opera, Under Fortunate Stars. A scientific research vessel, the Gallion, encounters a broken-down space hauler from 152 years in the past – and the ramshackle ship seems to be carrying some crucially important historical figures. The Gallion’s chief engineer, Uma, is a lifelong history nerd and collects lesser-known unauthorized biographies of her favourite historical heroes. She has this obsession with obscure facts from the past – an interest that other people have sometimes deemed quirky or annoying. But when the accidental time travel incident happens, Uma’s detailed knowledge of certain historical events suddenly becomes vital to her crew’s survival.
There’s definitely a ragtag crew dynamic at play in Under Fortunate Stars, too. Two very different groups – a rough-and-tumble hauler crew and the staff of a corporate science vessel – need to cooperate and reconcile their very different worldviews. And the hauler crew are already a ragtag group themselves: a charming con artist, a cynical mathematical genius, a gruff engineer, and two mysterious passengers on the run with secrets of their own. It’s only by combining all their strengths and talents that they can attempt to escape from an anomaly that has trapped both their ships in a rift in deep space.
Love a ragtag space crew? Check out Under Fortunate Stars and these other sci-fi books you might enjoy!
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White
Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot
Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone
The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt
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Ren Hutchings is a speculative fiction writer, writing mentor, and history grad. She spent most of the past decade working in game dev while also plotting twisty space novels. She loves pop science, unexplained mysteries, 90s music, collecting outdated electronics, and pondering about alternate universes. Her debut novel, UNDER FORTUNATE STARS, was published by Solaris in 2022. You can find Ren online at renhutchings.com, and on social media as @voidcricket.
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Massive thanks to Ren for writing such an interesting, entertaining guest post, and for agreeing to be part of the 2022 Track of Words Advent Calendar series. If you haven’t already read Under Fortunate Stars I can strongly recommend it – it really is fantastic, and I hope this post has left you excited to check it out! Thanks to Ren too for the book recommendations. These all look great, so I’m certainly adding them to my TBR!
See also my interview with Ren talking about Under Fortunate Stars
Under Fortunate Stars is out now, with the paperback edition due in May 2023 – check out the links below to order your copy:
*If you buy anything using any of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
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