[The Blackfish]

"(Myrshock) was an ugly port ... The architecture looked thrown together, chance materials agregated and surprised to find themselves a town. Old but without history. Where it was designed, its aesthetic was unsure - churches with cement facades mimicking antique curlicues, banks using slate in uncommon colours, acheiving only vulgarity" - Iron Council, pg22

There are descriptions of other places scattered through the books. This was the one I have encountered most recently.

Of course there are unlikeable and ugly things in our own world. But that doesn't mean that they are the only things that exist or that have the power to effect change. Ugly is ugly specifically because it is contrasted against the existence of something beautiful. And I have no illusions either of what 19th Century London was like. But not all of England was a reflection of that big stinking city.

I am not immature enough in my reading to need one-dimensional hero figures, and am definitely not asking for a perfect character. I agree with you Brys, that characters such as these are dead boring.

In general, I was making a point that without certain elements of beauty, nobility and selflessness, a potentially great story may remain only a good story.