Gigei Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Like the title says, please rec good fantasy books with adult protagonists or main characters. I am sick of reading fantasy that always has a teenager or a child who grows up to be the king/master magician/assassin.This is probably why fantasy is looked down on by other people, it sometimes seems to me that it is geared towards kids or teenagers since so many of the characters are so young. What about fantasy that is for adults, with characters who have adult concerns.NOs- kids- teenagers- college-aged people- people who are supposed to be chronologically adult but are still immature- chick lit disguised as "urban fantasy" or heavy romance overtones- characters that are supposed to be ancient but act like kidsYes- actual adults- immortals or beings who are mature- preferably responsible persons aged late 20s or 30s 40s +++- plus points for having careers, kids, marriages and other adult-type dutiesLet me give some example:Amber (Roger Zelazny) - yes, main character and all his enemies are adultsDresden files - Yep, an adult with adult problems. Some characters are young but Harry does not live in a kid's world.Furies of Calderon - God, no. The main character starts off as a teenaged/immature shepherd (or was it farmer, whatever). American Gods - yes, adult ex-con with wifeGood Omens - no, too kiddy TadfieldHarry Potter - no, just noLies of Locke Lamora - no. I have no idea what their actual chronological ages are but these people are not mature. They remind me of kids still fooling around with their pranks.Cold Fire trilogy (Friedman) - yes, main chars are priest and ancient beingDragonsbane (Hambly, btw nice cover by Whelan) - yes, this is exactly what I want, the two protagonists are mature adults, married and with kids, house, responsibilities, studies, etc. So far it is one of the few I know with actual people who act like they are nearing 40 and um, the rest of the books in the series never happened. Just totally ignore those and read only Dragonsbane. :)Final note: I do enjoy YA books a lot but I really need a change. No more coming-of-age fantasy books for me for a looong time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 R Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing and the accompanying The Judging Eye are probably the best fantasy novels I can think of that have no adolescent major characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Callers Only Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Barbara Hambly (all i think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Joe Abercrombie's The First Law is child free from what I remember. Certainly book 1 is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maia Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Lois McMaster Bujold "The Curse of Chalion" and "Paladin of Souls". In the first, the protagonist is a broken ex-slave of noble origins in his mid-thirties, in the other it is a dowager queen of about 40, who has been considered crazy because she saw the doom over the royal family, that everybody else didn't. If you aren't against SF, then also her Shards of Honor/Barrayar duology.Guy Gavriel Kay "Song for Arbonne", "Tigana", "Lions of Ar-Rassan", Sarantine duology. While some of those contain POVs that could be categorized as teenagers, they are all multi-POV books where mature protagonists dominate.Tim Powers "Anubis Gates" and "Last Call" both have adult protagonists, too.Abercrombie's "First Law" trilogy and "Best Served Cold". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Callers Only Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Kage Baker? K. J. Parker? Sarah Monette? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pita Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 That's actually hard to find...Let me think...Steven Brust's Taltos series has a main character with a wicked 'Stache.And if you're not averse to the graphic novel, anything by Alan Moore would be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 I was going to suggest Erikson until I remembered about Crokus, Sorry, young Paran, Trull Sengar... does it count if you have a cast of thousands and SOME of them are kids? :PDonaldson, I suppose. I can't think of any of his books that have child protagonists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ants Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 In the Urban Fantasy genre, I'd say: - Kim Harrison is pretty good and doesn't include much romance, no kids in sight. The main character is a little risk taking and slightly immature, but that changes a lot over the series. - Dante Valentine series rocks, no kids in sight and some very adult aspects. Some romance, but very dark. - Felix Castor - can't think of a kid in all 4 books. Very dark, but damn good books.Other series that match the criteria but aren't quite as good would be: Anna Strong, the Riley Jensen series, the Morgan Kingsley Exorcist series, Mark Del Franco's books and the Greywalker series. Bareback and Sunshine are very good one-off books. On the pure fantasy front, The Sun Sword Series is a favourite, the Malazan books, the main character in the Elantra series is a little juvenile (but its a great series), Rogue Mage novels and the confederations series (actually Sci Fi) by Tanya Huff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murphy Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Second on Sarah Monette and the Barbara Hambly fantasy. Her (Hambly's) period mysteries are pretty good too. Ilona Andrews' Magic Bites & Magic Burns are very good urban fantasy. Little to no romance involved. Mature main character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decius Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen has children as secondary characters from time to time. They mostly suffer and then die. Often horribly. Might be good enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ants Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Second on Sarah Monette and the Barbara Hambly fantasy. Her (Hambly's) period mysteries are pretty good too. Ilona Andrews' Magic Bites & Magic Burns are very good urban fantasy. Little to no romance involved. Mature main character.Hmm, there is definitely a romantic side as it develops, although its never been the main theme. But absolutely fantastic books. Magic Strikes rocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wizard Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 A lot of the main characters in Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga are adults. Sure, early in the series Pug, Thomas and Jimmy are children but you get to see them mature into adults as the series progresses. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dumas Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Something right on the edge of fantasy and sci-fi is Le Guin's Rocannon's World. It's a pretty short novel, but it more or less fits your requirements. It works with the idea of a standard quest story on a world with a relatively low general level of technology in a broader setting with much higher technology and what can happen with that.The Gods of Pegana has no children, though it's probably not quite what you're looking for either. You seem to be looking for a novel and Pegana isn't one and it has more in common with the first few sections of the Silmarillion than anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maia Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 How could I have forgotten about Brusts's Vlad Taltos! Or his Agyar for that matter, which is a brilliant urban fantasy in the original sense of the word.Re: "new" urban fantasy, Dante Valentine series examplifies most of what people find wrong with new urban fantasy for me, although world-building is certainly imaginative and detailed. Kim Harrison is OK, though, as is Briggs "Mercy Thompson" series. Not far behind Butcher's Harry Dresden in any case, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wastrel Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Robin Hobb? Yes, Farseer has a child protagonist. Liveships has a mix of ages - Wintrow is a boy, Malta a girl, Althea late teens or early twenties, but Kennit, Kyle, Etta, Ronica and Keffria are major adult protagonists. And then in Tawny Man we see our child hero from Farseer coping with life as a middle-aged parent.Thinking of things I've read recently: Dhalgren and Canticle for Leibowitz have adult protagonists (mostly), though are more SF than fantasy. People in the latter even have jobs. Ash: A Secret History may count - yes, the title character is technically a teenager iirc, but she's mature for her age. I think that if it weren't for her virtually-zero life-expectancy she could easily have been ten years older without much impact on her character (yes, she's headstrong and impulsive and ill-disciplined, but I think that that's more a result of upbringing than actual childishness - a lot of adults are equally impulsive).Book of the New Sun? Severian starts out around twenty, but I don't think it's really that important. He certainly ends up feeling rather ageless. He's got a job, too. Watchmen - all adults, iirc. Left Hand of Darkness - adults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poobah Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Le Guin's Earthsea, did anyone mention those?-Poobs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Le Guin's Earthsea, did anyone mention those?-Poobs(Sparrowhawk's a kid and a teenager in the first one, Arha's a kid and then a teenager in the second one, and there's yet another teen in the third...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procrastimancer Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake. No children, though one of the three main characters is a dwarf (actually dwarf, not fantasyland race) that might get confused for one at a distance. The Black Company by Glen Cook, though I believe there is a child somewhere further along in the series. Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer also fits, though it is different from your average read. Damn, I really need shelves, it would be so much easier than shuffling through stacks to find such books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ants Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Re: "new" urban fantasy, Dante Valentine series examplifies most of what people find wrong with new urban fantasy for me, although world-building is certainly imaginative and detailed. Kim Harrison is OK, though, as is Briggs "Mercy Thompson" series. Not far behind Butcher's Harry Dresden in any case, IMHO.What do you find wrong with Dante Valentine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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