The Role of Character in Science Fiction

We like reading about people who are competent. We don't necessarily nowadays want most of our heroes to be supermen, yet we do want them to be good at something. Yet we also want them to have flaws. When you establish a conflict, make it difficult for this hero to use the things that they already know how to do to save the day. Then they will come off as heroic. Just reemphasize the thing, Brandon can attest in many books he's written which were all losers and couldn't do anything I loved. It took me four or five books under my belt to realize that having a very flawed character wouldn't work unless he was also good at something else.