Rogues in fantasy literature

[Born Yesterday]

I've compiled a short list of fantasy books where rogues / thieves / scoundrels take centre stage. I'm posting it here, and I'd appreciate some feedback. Here goes:

---EDIT-- I've updated the list with your suggestions. Not all them, because the definitions of "rogues" and "fantasy" are a tricky thing, and ultimately subjective. So I chose to stick to the narrow sense for now, and I've left out modern/urban fantasy, mercenaries, roguish magicians, etc. If you just came in this thread, I encourage you to read on past the first post, and see what everyone suggested.

1. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

2. G.R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (ed.), Rogues

3. Scott Lynch, the Gentlemen Bastards series

• The Lies of Locke Lamora
• Red Seas Under Red Skies
• The Republic of Thieves

4. Terry Pratchett, the Moist von Lipwig novels from Discworld

• Going Postal
• Making Money
• Raising Steam

5. Fritz Leiber, the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories

• Swords and Deviltry
• Swords Against Death
• Swords in the Mist
• Swords Against Wizardry
• The Swords of Lankhmar
• Swords and Ice Magic
• The Knight and Knave of Swords

6. Jack Vance, the Cugel the Clever stories from the Dying Earth series

• The Eyes of the Overworld
• Cugel’s Saga

7. Robin Hobb, the Farseer Trilogy (and perhaps the entire Realm of the Elderlings series?)

• Assassin’s Apprentice
• Royal Assassin
• Assassin’s Quest

8. Leigh Bardugo, the Ketterdam series

• Six of Crows
• Crooked Kingdom

9. Derek Landy, Skulduggery Pleasant

10. Ari Marmell, the Widdershins Adventures series

• Thief’s Covenant
• False Covenant
• Lost Covenant
• Covenant’s End

11. Raymond E. Feist, Jimmy the Hand

12. Gerald Brom, The Child Thief

13. Rob J. Hayes, It Takes A Thief… series

• It Takes a Thief to Catch a Sunrise (a.k.a. The Northern Sunrise)
• It Takes a Thief to Start a Fire

14. Brent Weeks, the Night Angel trilogy

• The Way of Shadows
• Shadow’s Edge
• Beyond the Shadows

15. Steven Brust, Jhereg from the Vlad Tatlos series (which may be relevant in its entirety)

16. Michael J. Sullivan, The Riyria Revelations series

• Theft of Swords
• Rise of Empire
• Heir of Novron

17. Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen’s Thief series

• Thief!
• The Thief
• The Queen of Attolia
• The King of Attolia
• A Conspiracy of Kings
• Thick as Thieves

18. Jon Sprunk, the Shadow Saga trilogy

• Shadow’s Son
• Shadow’s Lure
• Shadow’s Master

19. Rachel Aaron, The Legend of Eli Monpress series

• The Spirit Thief
• The Spirit Rebellion
• The Spirit Eater
• The Spirit War
• Spirit’s End

20. Jesse Bullington, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart

21. Douglas Hulick, the Tales of the Kin series

• Among Thieves
• Sworn in Steel

22. Courtney Schaefer, The Shattered Sigil series

• The Whitefire Crossing
• The Tainted City
• The Labyrinth of Flame

23. Chris Wooding, The Tales of the Ketty Jay series

• Retribution Falls
• The Black Lung Captain
• The Iron Jackal
• The Age of Skulls

24. Paul Kemp, the Erevis Cale trilogy set in Forgotten Realms

• Twilight Falling
• Dawn of Night
• Midnight’s Mask

25. Mary Kirchoff, Kendermore, from Dragonlance Preludes

...And that's all I've got so far. So what do you think? What did I miss? Additions and corrections are welcome. Thanks!

[Jo498]

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos

(I have read only one book so far, so I am not sure whether the series qualifies in toto)

[Queen of Procrastination]

I love books with these kinds protagonists, so thank you for making the list. 

I would add: Ryria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan. I have only read one book  so far, though. 

Two books on my huge pile of unread books also feature these kinds of protagonists, but of course I can't tell you anything about the quality: 

- The thief written by Meghan Whalen Turner. 

- Shadow's Son written by Jon Sprunk. The protagonist is an assassin. 

[HexMachina]

I would say The Alchemy Wars by Ian Tregillis has fairly rougish characters, at least in line with the other titles you include in the OP. You have a literal rogue in one sense with Jax, and a rogue-type character in Berenice in the way she conducts herself. It's also a great series so  win win.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Or most anything in the First Law world to be perfectly honest.

[RedEyedGhost]

Rachel Aaron's Eli Monpress  - thieves

Jesse Bullington's The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart  - thieves

Mike Carey's Felix Castor books  - rogues

Douglas Hulick's Tales of the Kin  - thieves/rogues

Kameron Hurley's The Bel Dame Apocrypha  - thieves/rogues

John Hornor Jacobs' The Incorruptibles  - rogues

Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim  - thief/rogue

Daniel Polansky's Low Town  - thief/rogue

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn  - thieves

Courtney Schaefer's The Shattered Sigil  - smuggler, so I guess that's roguish, I just wanted to list it because it's awesome.

Chris Wooding's The Tales of the Ketty Jay  - thieves/rogues

 

[Hereward]

It's more SF than fantasy, but Aiken Drum in the Saga of the Exiles by Julian May it is a brilliant rogue character.

[Werthead]

Paul Kemp's Erevis Cale novels set in the Forgotten Realms. Arguably R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden stories, particularly The Icewind Dale Trilogy.

Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy.

Richard Morgan's Land Fit For Heroes trilogy.

Quite a few characters in Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, who was a thief and a rogue (as well as a barbarian; did some good multi-classing there).

Matt Stover's Acts of Caine series (kind of).

[Larry of the Lawn]

Lazarillo de Tormes is the og rogue.

[Born Yesterday]

Thank you all for the replies!

@Hereward I'm leaving sci-fi out of this, hoping it will become a list of its own later. Though if anyone has such a list ready, I'm all ears.

@Werthead Conan, yes, he IS a thief/warrior, but I'm not stepping on the Barbarian's toes. (This is where I shamelessly admit that the list exists because I have a very soft spot for D&D Rogues.) Now, I've only read one Forgotten Realms novel (a long time ago, a Salvatore one, Drizzt-related, don't remember much tbh), so a little help please. Does the Icewind Dale trilogy revolve around Drizzt, and do you consider him the rogue (as in, outcast from drow society)? If that's the case, well, I'm not stepping on the Ranger's toes either. But if there are novels from Artemis's point of view, they could fit. Is it this trilogy? Something else? None?

And Dragonlance Chonicles is more about a whole party, innit? I was looking for books where rogues are the protagonists (as opposed to the Sneaky Persons(TM) in a group of many). But wait, Kendermore looks like it's appropriate.

Once again, thanks everyone for your suggestions, the (updated!) list starts looking much better now. 

 

[C.T. Phipps]

Blackguards is a great anthology by Ragnarok Publications.

[Darth Richard II]

Artemis has his own trilogy that would definitely fit the mood. And yes, the entire Taltos sequence definitely applies.

[Jo498]

The two main Dragonlance trilogies don't not really fit, I'd say. It does have Kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot, of course, and he is a favorite of readers, but it is not focussed on him or on particularly rogueish deeds.

Icewind Dale has the assassin Artemis Entreri as important antagonist and that fat little halfling as comic thief character (and maybe another one I forgot) and of course, Drizzt has "gone rogue" from the perspective of the Drow.

Prince of Thorns starts with protagonist Jorg as leader of a band of thieves/rogues (I have not read the following books)

Maybe not prominent enough but the assassins, the thieves and rogueish characters are more frequent in Pratchett than only the books shown above, e.g. the protagonist of Pyramids is trained as an assassin.

 

[Werthead]

9 hours ago, Born Yesterday said:

 

@Werthead Conan, yes, he IS a thief/warrior, but I'm not stepping on the Barbarian's toes. (This is where I shamelessly admit that the list exists because I have a very soft spot for D&D Rogues.) Now, I've only read one Forgotten Realms novel (a long time ago, a Salvatore one, Drizzt-related, don't remember much tbh), so a little help please. Does the Icewind Dale trilogy revolve around Drizzt, and do you consider him the rogue (as in, outcast from drow society)? If that's the case, well, I'm not stepping on the Ranger's toes either. But if there are novels from Artemis's point of view, they could fit. Is it this trilogy? Something else? None?

And Dragonlance Chonicles is more about a whole party, innit? I was looking for books where rogues are the protagonists (as opposed to the Sneaky Persons(TM) in a group of many). But wait, Kendermore looks like it's appropriate.

Once again, thanks everyone for your suggestions, the (updated!) list starts looking much better now. 

 

As mentioned above, Artemis Entreri has several books dedicated to him, although they come from the crappier end of the series. THe Icewind Dale Trilogy becomes more Drizzt-centric as it goes along, but it starts off focused on the whole team. Apart (arguably) from King Bruenor, the rest of the team are rogue or rogue-ish: the thief Regis, the mis-trusted Drizzt and the Conan-esque barbarian Wulfgar. You also have Artemis Entreri playing a major role in the second and third novels.

The Erevis Cale books revolved around a master thief (and occasional assassin) who becomes the Chosen of the God of Rogues, so he definitely fits

[williamjm]

The protagonist in Steph Swainston's Fourlands series is a former thief who doesn't get any less roguish when elevated to become one of the Emperor's elite servants.

I'd say Corwin in Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber is quite roguish.

The Duchess of the Shallows and sequels written by @TrackerNeil and Daniel Ravipinto about a young woman aspiring to rise high in a criminal organisation.

[stonebender]

Salvatore was mentioned but I'd specifically point out the Sellswords trilogy and The Spine of the World.  Maybe Bishop's The Etched City.   

[Prince of the North]

14 hours ago, Born Yesterday said:

Thank you all for the replies!

@Hereward I'm leaving sci-fi out of this, hoping it will become a list of its own later. Though if anyone has such a list ready, I'm all ears.

@Werthead Conan, yes, he IS a thief/warrior, but I'm not stepping on the Barbarian's toes. (This is where I shamelessly admit that the list exists because I have a very soft spot for D&D Rogues.) Now, I've only read one Forgotten Realms novel (a long time ago, a Salvatore one, Drizzt-related, don't remember much tbh), so a little help please. Does the Icewind Dale trilogy revolve around Drizzt, and do you consider him the rogue (as in, outcast from drow society)? If that's the case, well, I'm not stepping on the Ranger's toes either. But if there are novels from Artemis's point of view, they could fit. Is it this trilogy? Something else? None?

And Dragonlance Chonicles is more about a whole party, innit? I was looking for books where rogues are the protagonists (as opposed to the Sneaky Persons(TM) in a group of many). But wait, Kendermore looks like it's appropriate.

Once again, thanks everyone for your suggestions, the (updated!) list starts looking much better now. 

 

Fun list!  I, too, have a soft spot for D&D rogues but I definitely include rangers in that category as well as thieves and assassins.  Thus, I certainly consider Drizzt to be a rogue. 

I was glad to see Leiber's "Fafrd and the Gray Mouser" included in the first post (in fact, that's why I clicked - to check on that).  That, of course, is basically what we have to thank for the thieves/assassins of D&D.  However, rangers in D&D were probably most influenced by Strider and the other rangers of the north in the LOTR.  So, I know when I was growing up and playing rangers with my friends in D&D, it was sometimes difficult to really get a handle on the just how to play/portray the more "roguish" aspects of the ranger class (there didn't seem to be all that much detail on that in LOTR).  Oh, we figured it out but it took a bit.

Ironically, (and much too late for my D&D playing friends and I) a newer series of books that I am enjoying reading to my kids, "Ranger's Apprentice" by John Flanagan, really does a great job of portraying the more "roguish" aspects of rangers (i.e. how they can use stealth, infiltration, disguise, etc. to further their ends).  If we'd had these stories 30 years ago, it would have made playing rangers in D&D even more fun! 

So, although they are are probably more YA, I would think John Flanagan's "Ranger's Apprentice" and maybe even his companion series to it called "The Brotherband Chronicles" (concerning "Skandians", who are obviously modeled after Vikings) would be appropriate for your list. 

[Jo498]

It is not a typical case but the main character in "American Gods" starts as a petty criminal with rogue-features (and Mr Wednesday, too).

[C.T. Phipps]

11 hours ago, Jo498 said:

It is not a typical case but the main character in "American Gods" starts as a petty criminal with rogue-features (and Mr Wednesday, too).

Then we get into superheroes, in which a LOT of supervillain books exist.

[Rorshach]

Juliet McKenna's First tales of Einarinn has a rouge (thief) as one of the main charachters. The first book is even called The thief's gamle.

The books are ok. Popcorn reading.

[PetrusOctavianus]

The Satampra Zeiros stories (alas, only two), by Clark Ashton Smith. The Tale of Satampra Zeiros is brilliant.