I have been reading a lot of genre books lately, mainly through whatever Google Books suggests (I read on my phone.) But I’ve gotten stuck in a YA rut where everything is trying to be a Sarah Maas rip-off (whose work I like just fine, but don’t want to keep repeating).
Are there any good fantasy books featuring protagonists that aren’t so young and deal with more adult themes? I don’t mean sexy stuff (although that’s fine), I’m just tired of reading about amazing 19-year-olds and coming-of-age stories. Preferably women protagonists, but not picky about that. Can be any kind of fantasy and/or soft sci-fi, including urban fantasy.
For example, I really loved Becky Chambers’s Monk and Robot series for how it deals with adult feelings of boredom and personal growth, but might want something with a more active plot.
Becky Chambers is in general the bomb–have you read her other works? Her Monk and Robot work is my least favorite, but even that’s pretty good.
NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy is a tour de force–the only series ever to win the Hugo three years running. It is devastating and beautiful and complex. Make sure you read it when you have the emotional energy to engage with it: it is not a light work, and although there’s humor in it, the tragedy is the focus.
Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a super literary work that’s just brutal. It’s very, very good, but holy shit is it rough.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant is the first fantasy novel I read with a badass accountant as the protagonist. I’ve read several since then, but it was my first. It’s an underrecognized gem IMO.
I am reading my way through Chambers’s Wayfarers series now! They are hard to get at the library and a little more expensive to buy than some others as ebooks, so it’s been slow, but I do enjoy them.
And I LOVED the Traitor Baru Cormorant series, I tore through them then read it again. Just a well-woven epic story.
If you like Traitor Baru Cormorant, I think we have similar tastes!
I do want to emphasize my caveat with Marlon James, and be a little more specific: the world he describes is a world with a lot of brutal violence, including a lot of brutal sexual violence. It’s not portrayed in any prurient/pornographic light–it’s appalling–but it’s not happening off-screen, so to speak. If sexual violence in literature is a nope, stay away from his books.
Terry Pratchett- the Witches, Death and Watch books.
Granny Weatherwax is not young by any means, nor is Vimes.
Yeah, I can do without Rape fantasy books. That ruined the Thieves World series (along with torture porn) for me.
Richard Parks has a Samurai fantasy series called Yamada Monogatari , which is really excellent.
Then there is the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance, and a couple other authors joining in.
However, I get what the OP says- I am SO tired of the new crop of YA or late teen fantasy where not only does the girl (it can be a guy, but mostly a female) discovers that not only is she special, she is the most special chosen one evar.
I have always hated those storylines. I’d much rather see a normal person with some good and bad qualities fumbling through.
The Expanse series, perhaps? Neither Miller nor Holden are particularly wonderful. You can sort of root for both of them, but they are hardly chosen people. I guess it becomes complicated with Holden, but I think an ordinary person being placed at the center of a multi-planet controversy is sort of the point.
Also some great female characters. Big, diverse cast.
Yeah. I mean, sure, you find out you are now a witch/vampire hunter/demon slayer/sorcerer, whatever- fine. But why always the very best most powerful ever?
Oh and just in case someone here has not read them, I strongly suggest The Master Li series by Barry Hughart. Three books, you can get them all in one volume.
Oooh, oooh, oooh, I know this one! Yes, Paladin of Souls. How many swords-and-castles fantasy novels do you know where the hero is a widowed middle-aged grandmother? And Ista’s not just a hero in the sense of being the protagonist; she literally saves all the other characters, and resolves the conflict of the story. Plus being wonderfully snarky and dry.
I would love to see Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls made into a miniseries, but I fear it would be seen as derivative of Game of Thrones, despite being utterly different in tone and theme.
But, OP, if you want an exciting story with plenty of depth, realized characters, and touches of humor, read Paladin.
