• Ender Wiggin (The Ender Saga)
• Gerald Tarrant (Coldfire Trilogy)
• Jon Snow (A Song of Ice and Fire)
• Joscelin Verruil (Kushiel's Legacy)
• Phèdre nó Delaunay (Kushiel's Legacy)
• Quentin Coldwater (The Magicians)
• Legolas (Lord of the Rings)

notes & observations:

I think I have a penchant for geniuses. Because Tarrant is one, and so is Ender. And Quentin was the smartest in his class, second only to Alice. All Geniuses with a moral quandary, some fatal flaw, that they have to resolve.

But look - Bean (Ender's Shadow) isn't on my list. And he is the smartest of them all. Perhaps my first loyalty is to Ender. So no matter that Bean was later re-written in the Shadow Series as the more capable, more intelligent, more analytical of the two of them, no matter that I do no...