I have assembled a list of fantasy tropes that I don't want in my next read. It's not that I hate all of these tropes, it's more like I want to read an unconventional take on fantasy that I might not have experienced before.
I'm looking for something that:
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Doesn't have dragons as a main focus.
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Doesn't start with our protagonist in a magic school / academic setting.
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Doesn't have a character of the "chosen one" archetype.
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Doesn't have anything resembling a love triangle, or two men vying for one female protagonist.
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Doesn't utilize royal families or "houses" as it's main vehicle for political intrigue. (There must be something greater going on than just bickering families.)
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Isn't set in an "age of regression" setting, where the world used to be more magical but it is slowly getting more mundane.
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Doesn't feature a younger female protagonist being mentored by a much older male mentor.
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Doesn't have necromancy or alchemy as a focus area. (It can exist as part of a larger magic system.)
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Doesn't have elves. (Or any analogous race that are supposed to be superior to humans.)
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Doesn't feature an unlikely band of theives or outcasts as the main cast.
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Doesn't utilize sexual assault of a woman as a means to further the story.
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Isn't meant to be a parody. (Discworld.)
by IdaSukiShwan
32 Comments
I think Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell goes 12 for 12 here, although it has fairies, which is a possible flag for #9.
* The West Passage by Jared Pechacek
* Patricia McKillip: The Sorceress and the Cygnet
*The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi* by S. A. Chakraborty kinda has a bit of the “unlikely band of thieves” trope, I suppose. But I still think it’s really good for what you’re asking for.
It aligns with that “unlikely band of thieves” trope because the main character is a pirate. And pirates are, by definition, thieves. But it’s super swashbuckling, often hilarious and raunchy (*not* steamy or romantic), magic realism + some things that I’d say are more “true” fantasy, very unusual setting (Indian Ocean region during the crusades), main character is an older woman who came out of retirement, etc.
I think Green Bone Saga is close to what you are looking for, it is about a conflict between 2 maffia families.
Christ that’s a thorough list. Honestly I have to resort to ones that violate them the *least.*
Robin Hobb’s *Assassin’s Apprentice*: it’s absolutely about a royal family, but the main character has no real input on its development, and the political intrigue is pretty secondary and not a primary plot driver.
*The Magicians*, by Lev Grossman: There is absolutely sexual assault of a woman, but I’m not sure how much you would consider it just a means to further the story. She’s one of an ensemble of main characters, and it absolutely plays into her own development, but not really the plot as a whole. I don’t think.
Everything else I got violates at least one of these wayy more blatantly.
You may need some grim dark fantasy…
Check out Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
Ursula Vernon/T Kingfisher is really good at subverting the fantasy tropes and coming up with unique, engaging protagonists.
I suggest *The Goblin Emperor* by Katherine Addison. It’s a young male non-chosen-one protagonist and there are no humans at all. I think it miiiight skate a little close to number 5 because (not spoiler) the protagonist is an emperor, but I think almost everything about this book is pretty out of the ordinary.
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, although you may consider that it fails at point 6 (magic was going but is now coming back.). I love the audiobooks.
The malazan book of the fallen by Steven Erikson.
No elves, No Love triangles, No Magic school. I think you could Like it.
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett hits all 12 points without any argument. It has none of those tropes and it reads like if China Mieville had written a Sherlock Holmes novel.
The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin. It is THUNDEROUSLY good.
I think *A Snake Falls to Earth* might fit here? It might violate 6, because most of the main characters are animal gods and they die as their species goes extinct.
Slightly more sci-fi than fantasy, but maybe try The Sword of Kaigan. Yes, it’s about a family and there are politics at play HOWEVER it wasn’t the typical scheming and bickering thing. I’ve never read a book like it before and I still think about it. One of my favorite books I’ve ever read.
**The Forest of Hours, by Kerstin Ekman**
It’s about as non-tropey as it gets. I’d say it’s the story of a troll getting old and experiencing the world of humans, while longing ever for his forest home, but that is selling it short. There is a hint of a conflict with #10, as the troll does find a home with an unlikely set of characters, but not at all in the usual, tropey way.
Great read, great story, great prose. I assume it’s even better in the original Swedish, but I suppose I’ll never know for sure.
**The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro**
This one absolutely plays with some of these tropes, but the key word here is “play.” I guarantee you, this is not tropey fantasy. It is Kazuo Ishiguro, after all. Yes, there is a focus on dragons, but this will not bother you as a trope. Yes, there is a (secondary) chosen one character, but this will likewise not set off your trope-alarms.
All I’ll say is what any back-cover blurb will tell you; it’s the story of an old couple forgetting, and trying to remember. I’ve seldom been so invested in the resolution of a story.
**The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien**
If you haven’t yet, I’d give it a go. Like the other two, it’s not for everyone, but it certainly isn’t tropey fantasy of the past 50 years.
There’s so much in this one that yes, of course nearly every trope will be present. I’d say it breaks about 2/3 of your rules, but only because there is so very much of it. Yet, I think it is hard to read this and feel that you are reading modern, tropey fiction. It fits the spirit, if not the letter, of your request.
The Hike by Drew Magary!
{{The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands}} I think ticks all the boxes!
*The Rivers of London* series by Ben Aaronovitch is in a genre called urban fantasy, and I don’t know of other entries in that category. The MC is a 20-something mixed-race London cop in 2010’s London. He stumbles upon the fact that the London Metropolitan Police have a secret branch devoted to policing the supernatural denizens of the city. He has a mentor to whom he becomes apprenticed, also a cop, and he starts learning magic from him (not really a magic school, since he’s the only one, and it’s a minor part of the story). The stories are inventive and fun and humorous. They are a fun read, but I gotta say, the audiobooks are fantastic, if you like audiobooks.
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki:
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.
When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka’s ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She’s found her final candidate.
But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn’t have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan’s kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul’s worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.
As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.
I believe The Tainted Cup meets all 12, and directly subverts a few such as #6 and 7 along the way.
Omg you absolutely NEED to check out the writing of Frances Hardinge. Almost all of her books satisfy all of your criteria!
I would start with Gullstruck Island first. It’s set in a world in which some people can send their senses away from their bodies. So like see or hear things somewhere else (but that leaves their bodies unable to see or hear and therefore vulnerable). The whole system of communication society uses is build around these people’s abilities. The main character is not one of these people, but her sister is, and now someone is trying to murder them. It’s FANTASTIC.
A Face like Glass takes place in an underground society where people aren’t born with the ability to make expressions but need them to be taught to them by “Facesmiths” – for a price. The main character is different though (like us), and has a face that shows her emotions. She has to wear a mask all the time to hide this. Also the magic system is AWESOME. I don’t want to spoil it but it’s wild!
Cuckoo Song is about a girl who comes home one day and her sister is acting super weird and afraid of her. And strange things keep happening to and around her. When I first started reading it I was like what in the WORLD is going on and the language in this one is very flowery and full of similes which I wasn’t digging but then when you find out what’s actually happening I was LOCKED IN it’s AMAZING.
First, I want all these recommendations, too. When I tell people I like fantasy I usually say that when you look in the fantasy section at Barnes & Noble, take out the high fantasy, take out the sword and sorcery fantasy take out the Romantasy, take out the chosen ones, the magic schools, and I like all the rest.
Here are some recommendations: Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay is epic fantasy but not like LOTR. I haven’t read any of his other books but I hear they’re not any of the above.
I’m in the middle of one Alix E Harrow’s book, The Once and Future Witches. That might work for you as well.
Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. They are portal fantasy, but the premise of the series is what happens to the children when they come back to the real world, i.e. Narnia, Wonderland, etc..
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Others have mentioned this. It has fairies but it’s so much different.
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees. Much like Jonathan Strange, it has fairies but the townspeople are treating the existence of them like a dirty thing. It’s a fun one.
(Unfortunately, I can’t recommend fucking Gaiman anymore! 🤬 But if you run across his short story collections in a used bookstore, that’s also an option.)
Weaveworld by Clive Barker. He’s known as a horror author but this is a fantasy about a magical group of people being chased by a goddess who wants to kill them and so they weave themselves into a carpet to hide. The pros are beautiful. He also has another fantasy called Imajica that is beautiful as well.
There are so many. A lot of these you can just read others books by the authors. Like Jonathan Carroll, Tim Powers, China Mieville, Graham Joyce, Charles de Lint, Murakami, etc etc.
Here are some of my favorites:
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Little, Big by John Crowley
The City and the City by China Mieville
The San Venifcio Canon by Michael Cisco
Observatory Mansion by Edward Carey
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Memoirs of a Master Forger by Graham Joyce
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer
Viriconium by M. John Harrison
Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll
Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin
The Beka Cooper trilogy (starts with Terrier) is a close fit to this. She does have a mentorship with an older male and female partner, not just the male. He’s also not like old old, just middle aged, and you never see him without the female partner.
It’s a wonderful trilogy.
Summary: “Beka Cooper is one of the newest trainees in the Provost’s Guard. As a rookie—known as a Puppy—she’s assigned to the realm’s toughest district: the Lower City. It should be a death sentence. The Lower City is filled with pickpockets who are fast as lightning, murderers stalking the streets, and rogues who will knock your teeth out with a smile. But Beka’s not your average Puppy. She grew up in the Lower City and knows what makes it tick. It’s Beka who notices that there might be something more to the latest crime wave. And it’s Beka who must use her street smarts and her own brand of eerie magic to chase down a killer.”
The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin plays with a lot of those tropes while also side stepping them.
There is a “love triangle” in the first book but it’s more like a casual sex thrupple situation. But no less tragic. There is a little girl learning from a much older mentor who’s barely human. But that’s not presented and something charming or at all good for the girl. But it also never crosses the line into some sick man’s dark fantasy.
Oh. I may be able to help.
“The Bone Houses” by Emily Lloyd-Jones
“Godkiller” by Hannah Kaner
“Vespertine” by Margaret Rogerson
“A Wizards Guide to Defensive Baking” by T. Kingfisher
“Thornhedge” by T. Kingfisher
I would submit the black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Cannavan.
One of my all-time favorites. And it does not break any of the rules you gave!
Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones. No non-humans. Set a few years after the Napoleonic wars in the fictional country of Alpennia.
Sorcery and Cecelia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede. Also set a few years after the Napoleonic Wars in England. Very different magic system than Jones’s books.
Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard. Jemis is done with university. And although the world is recovering from a major magical disaster, and some parts of the world have turned their backs on magic (and some haven’t) I wouldn’t characterize the setting as magical regression.
Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold. Set in her World of the Five Gods universe.
The Merlin trilogy by Mary Stewart. The first book is The Crystal Cave.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles
Claire North: the Sudden Appearance of Hope
The Eyes of the Overworld. It’s humorous, but not a parody.
How about the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde? Especially good if you like weird play.
Mythago Wood By Robert Holdstock