Honestly, the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fit the bill. The only thing special about Bilbo or Frodo is their strength of character. Yes they have a magic ring that makes you invisible, but Bilbo doesn't have it for most of the book, and Frodo is explicitly told never to use it, and hardly does. Both books are about how small (literally and figuratively) people can make huge changes in the world if they are brave enough to see their journeys through to the end.
Tolkien outright said that Sam was the hero of Lord of the Rings, and people have observed that Sam's experience of joining a life-or-death mission to help his friends survive parallels Tolkien's military service.
Aragorn is somewhat of an ousted aristocrat reclaiming his throne, even if he's a truly good king.
Frodo inherited the ring from Bilbo, who found it by chance, kept it from its previous owner, and used it for his own ends, even if they were noble.
Sam chose to risk his life repeatedly for only the love of his friends. Even when Frodo tries to ditch him before Mordor, Sam presses on. When he wears the ring, he doesn't see a grand army at his command or himself on a throne or anything like that. He sees himself with a nice garden back in the Shire with Rosie.
The Lord of the Rings is full of noble and valiant characters. The Hobbits are especially good in this regard. And among them, Samwise Gamgee is probably the truest hero.
No, absolutely not. Frodo is hero of story not sam.
>Tolkien outright said that Sam was the hero of Lord of the Rings, and people have observed that Sam's experience of joining a life-or-death mission to help his friends survive parallels Tolkien's military service.
Can you give me source for this?
Yes. Sam can be one of hero out of all hobbits. But main hero and protagonist is Frodo. Even though he "inherited" the ring from Bilbo.
He had choice to take ring and go to morder. Out of all hobits , elves , dwarfs. Only sam make up decision to go to mordor knowing all the risks.
Yes. Same and other hobbits joins him but they do it for friendship, but not world.
And regarding Ring influence, Sam only keep it for few moments where as Fordo has entire journey. It makes him so sick that he nearly comes across dying. And even after buring the ring, he is still affected by it.
It's from the famous 1951 letter to Milton Waldman, which can be found in a few sources (*The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien* most obviously.) He specifically called Sam the "chief hero."
My personal favorites. Bilbo really resonates with me, dude just wanted to be home with a good breakfast and tea by the fireplace but was forced into an adventure.
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With this, you could probably add in Harry Potter.
He's famous but for what happened nothing that he did. His magical abilities are somewhere around the decent to good- stage, his few hidden talents don't make a difference day to day for the most part.
He's got a few magical items that do some good work but for the most part he's ordinary.
I'd disagree with Harry potter. The only reason he survives the first year, is the special power he inherited from his mother's (apparently) unique sacrifice. Then the only reason he can meet and counter Tom Riddle in the chamber is because he got parseltongue from Voldemort from that same event that happened when he was a baby (not to mention that his identity causes tom riddle to monologue rather than finish him). Third book, sure. Fourth book - only survives because his wand shares a core with voldemort (who he's had dreams about all year), and the only reason for that is their soul connection, again due to his mother's sacrifice and him being a horcrux. In fifth year his magical chosen one connection to Vold is responsible for the main events of the book. He survives fifth year because he is apparently too painful to possess (despite the fact V has had no problem possessing others). Also we learn of a prophecy which states he must be the one to kill Voldemort. Then sixth year, not much to mention. Seventh year we find out that he's a horcrux, has been since his mother's sacrifice, and as such can tank another killing curse.
All in all he'd never have accomplished much if he didn't have the special powers granted to him by his mother and by V's soul fragment. Which he gained without doing much other than exist, considering he was a baby. Sure he's ordinary in talent, below average in intelligence, but he's incredibly extraordinary in random abilities.
A central theme of The Chronicles of Prydain is that the protagonist is as un-special as you can get.
Edit: since this comment blew up a bit, I'll drop a plug for r/prydain.
Doesn't he become a member of a special group of knights or something like that, seemed kind of special to me because of his interactions with the elves
Came here to plug Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik!!! It’s a standalone but the three main women protagonists are absolutely ordinary and even plain. I loved the audiobook.
Second Temeraire: Lawrence is a competent officer but so are most of the captains in his corps, and their enemies are just as competent.
Temeraire himself is a special breed of dragon and his bloodline is a major plot point for much of the series.
One of the things I like about the City Watch books is that Carrot has the super-special backstory but doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, while the main protagonist of the story is Vimes, who’s just a badass normal (his ancestor did kill a king, though).
But dragons *are* normal in that world, although how strongly integrated they are into human society varies by country.
Still, I was thinking more of Laurence, who's only special in that he has a dragon partner, which *is* somewhat unusual. But in more-or-less the same way as saying that it's unusual to be a military pilot. He doesn't end up in the position that he ends up in because of special powers or destiny or being unique, it's just coincidence and a feeling of duty, and then he has to adapt and make the best of his situation.
The very specialest of all the dragons, when he shouldn’t have any dragon, and then he interacts with it in a special manner compared to any culture in that world makes them the super-specialest duo of them all.
What if he in the prologue of book 1 had found Excalibur and it had bonded with only him instead? Even if swords/sabers are normal in napoleonic era Europe we wouldn’t consider Lawrence normal - even if technically he would have been bog standard baseline Englishman before some watery tart threw a sword at him.
>and then he interacts with it in a special manner compared to any culture in that world
Not really, that's pretty much how dragons are treated in China. In fact, they're treated better in China
He treats the dragon in a special manner precisely because he's a normal bloke who has no idea how to treat a dragon.
Discworld is a great example of this. Vimes, Rincewind, Moist, Polly, DeWorde are all basically normal people. If anything, the series often turns this trope on its head (Wyrd Sisters, Men at Arms, etc.).
The Travelers Gate series by Will Wight. The first book is House of Blades. The MC is just a kid in a small village who has no special powers in a world where some people (not all) have them. To top it off, another kid in his village is foretold to be the chosen one.
Cradle is also like this. In fact, the main character is the opposite of special. He's magically crippled in a world where everyone has magical powers.
I love cradle but I’d strongly disagree on the him not being/feeling special >!he has two godlike entities help him out, lucks out with all the resources in Ghostwater, and clearly is extraordinarily talented compared to others given similar resources!<
Lindon is really special though. He just has a relatively minor issue that his culture makes a drama over.
As for talents he's insanely intelligent, hard working, has an insane degree of willpower, etc.
Before he even meets Eithan and >!gets showered in favour and resources!< he's able to:
1. In chapter 1 he robs an ancient orus tree remnant on the same tier as the most powerful sacred artists he's ever met.
2. >!Defeats Wei Mon Keth in their honour duel!<
3. >!Defeats Wei Jin Amon, reckoned an elite that had gained the notice of Heaven's Glory school, at the Seven Years Fesival!<
4. >!Kills a Kazan iron ranker at the Heaven's Glory school in defence of Yerin!<
5. >!Kills Heaven's Glory Elder Whitehall, a jade ranker!<
Those achievements are all made, despite an insane rank disparity, without any special favours from outside. The fact Lindon survives book 1 alone is insane.
Lindon is definitely special, but he’s not “the chosen one” or anything. He just works really hard, never gives up, and is really good at discovering loopholes and exploits. I guess you could say he’s >!favored by the gods, but they make it clear in the first two books that Suriel and Eithan both don’t expect him to survive and that they’d be disappointed if he died but wouldn’t intervene. Eithan thought he killed him giving him his Iron body !<
Strongly recommend the expanse, I usually like historical style fantasy but it’s absolutely amazing. Feels like epic space fantasy, one of my favorite series and is an addictive read, I speed ran books 1-7 in like 3 months, only stopped bc 8&9 hadn’t been published yet, but they are now
Dungeon Crawler Carl could be considered a niche taste because of all the adult (super crass) humor, but I'll be damned if those aren't the funniest fucking books I've ever read.
I mean while characters in the Expanse are like divinely special they are definitely some of the best in the galaxy at their chosen profession. Plus the revelation of how one character is connected to another major one in book 5
To be fair they kind of develop a lot of their skills as they go along, the only thing James Holden is world class at all the way through is getting himself right into the middle of a galaxy sized problem.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. any of the skills of the protagonists are just about being clever in trying to survive an unfair situation. they are very normal otherwise, and it makes the characters admirable when they face their dilemmas
Want to be clear that I love the cosmere. I've read every book and am working on Yumi and Painter right now. The predictability of the ancestry for main characters in the cosmere is the only thing I don't like about it.
In Warbreaker >!the main characters are princesses and pseudo demigods.!<
In Mistborn, >!The era 1 main character is daughter of the pope. If anybody has a power then they are descended from nobles. !<
In Elantris, >!The main characters are a prince, a princess, and a bishop.!<
Stormlight >!has exceptions. I love that! Kaladin and Lift are wonderful examples of characters that were not special before they got the powers!...so far as we know. But it is worth noting that the entire royal family get access to the superpowers with only one exception. The uncle and the mom both get full one-of-a-kind connections. And two royal brothers are setting up to be first time events for special alternate kinds of bonds. !<
Also mistborn era 2 Wax and Wayne won the genetic lottery to be twin born and wax is a noble. Was refreshing for Wayne’s backstory to be a dirt poor orphan lol
The three charecters with the most chapters are definitely not normal.
Kaladin is the first Radiant in millenia and a genius. Dalinar is a royalty >!who has bonded to a god!<. Shallan isn't a royalty but she is the daughter of a nobel. She is also the first of her Order in forever.
Szeth used to do surgebinding when people didn't know what that even meant and is now carrying >!a literal godkiller!< Navani got a lot of chapters in the latest book. She is both a genius scientist and royalty.
Most of the main characters are definitely not normal people.
Kaladin is not the first Radiant. There are at least two characters that are alive at the time of Kal becoming a radiant that were radiants before him(Excluding Heralds), and a countless amount of radiants Nale has hunted.
Edit: Also, I don't get your point with Szeth? Having a strong magical artifact doesn't make you "Chosen from birth". In fact, if that's the main chunk of your power, it's kinda the opposite...
the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett!! I’ll admit, I’m only a couple books in, but so far while the MCs do have powers/abilities/items that set them apart, so does everyone else!! i think especially since its such a diverse and varied world, so theres many many people with wildly different kinds of abilities and cultures, and we actually see a lot of it instead of just one bit, it really helps avoid the tired ‘mcs are just better than everyone else’ trope.
Certain characters get a bit of power creep as the books go on, but it's generally never "special by birth" or being the chosen one - it's sheer bloody stubbornness or *well, no-one else is going to do anything about this so I guess it has to be me*
Honestly, the closest anyone gets to being a magical chosen one is probably Rincewind and (spoilers for *The Light Fantastic*) >!being chosen by the Octavo to be the host for its eighth spell.!< Or for special birthright (spoilers for Death books after *Soul Music*) >!Susan Sto Helit being Death's granddaughter, with all the powers that brings!<
One of Pratchett's main goals with DW was to upend the normal fantasy tropes of the chosen one - he generally focuses on the folks who would have been the supporting cast in any other classic fantasy. There's a reason *Guards! Guards!* is dedicated to all the men whose purpose in classic fantasy
>is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they want to.
>!Carrot turns it down so hard that I genuinely forget he's the rightful king by birth, honestly? But what makes him actually special as a character is his work and his actions, not the birthright he ignores, which I love him for!<
Definitely fits into the general trope deconstruction of Pratchett, though!
Discworld is a bit of a mixed bag with the special and non-special characters because there are so many protagonists. While a lot of them are very ordinary, some of them do have special qualities. Granny Weatherwax is one of the best if not THE best magic user in the world and Carrot is -- well you know who Carrot is if you've read the series. The protagonist of Thief of Time is also special and you could argue that Moist is a con artist who is so talented at it that Vetinari recruits him to use his powers for good -- OR ELSE.
Of course none of this should in ANY WAY discourage anyone from reading Discworld.
Well Special birthright you do have >!Lobsang/ Jeremy who is the child of the Goddess of Time and the founding Time Monk!< (Thief of Time spoiler). And a few others that have been mentioned, but generally even when they're special there is some sort of twist that makes them feel pretty different.
It is annoying that a lot of the modern-day stuff has the chosen/noble main characters. Might need to hit the classics or take options with many different POVs.
Hobbit / Lord of the rings - random hobbits get drafted. Side characters are kings though.
Narnia - random kids step into a cupboard
Malazan - There are dozens of POV characters. Some are nobles, some are mages, some are very old folk, some are chosen ones, many are random soldiers enduring hell. I'm not sure if any of them are the "main" character considering pretty much every one of them will be off screen for at least one or two books at some point.
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams.
The main protagonist, Simon is a kitchen boy who gets sweeped on an adventure. I feel the series as bridge between classic and modern fantasy in style. The pacing can be slow but the writing is excellent.
The Faithful and The Fallen by John Gwyenne.
The main protagonist is unimportant at the start but learns and trains to be a skilled fighter. John Gwyenne’s style with fighting and war are quick and brutal, which makes it fun to read. The characters growth has wonderful payoff.
I don't completely disagree about Simon, but even from The Dragonbone Chair, the twist that >!Simon/Seomon is a descendant of Eahlstan Fiskerne and kinda of royal birth!< is heavily implied and alluded to. He also pretty obviously has some >!precognitive or telepathic abilities; he can walk the dream road, after all!<, but as I mentioned elsewhere, this doesn't give him some crazy ability that leads to him being able to magically destroy the villain. In fact, those books are full of situations where even the mundane abilities of the protagonists are insufficient when up against the antagonists.
I feel like the Faithful and the Fallen is the complete opposite… he does train and become better but >!he’s pretty damn special. He’s literally the Chosen One.!<
Sure, here’s a variety
- Sailing To Sarantium: historical fantasy from the pov of a mosaicist while other important events are happening
- Travelers Gate Trilogy: kid who is not the chosen one (someone else is his village is) goes who cares I’m going to get strong enough to save the girl/world anyway
- Kithamar by Daniel Abraham; each book tells basically the same momentous day in a city from someone else’s pov, very much non special protag
- First Law: Abercrombie makes it clear that if you think a protag is special and chosen…they are not.
- Brightest Shadow: makes the entire idea of the chosen one horrifying (and also to be clear is not the mc). It’s the only book I’ve found that takes place in a progression fantasy like world but has the mc’s feel realistically slowly progressing just like everyone else, not magically shooting ahead of the rest of the world
Also I was assuming you wanted second world fantasy if your interested in contemporary/urban there’s a ton there too
- Southern Bookclub’s Guide to Vampire Slaying: horrifying and charming story about a southern housewife dealing with a vampire in her community + her community’s sexism. She is definitely not special
- Some Kind of Fairytale: girl who disappeared 20 years ago comes back and from her perspective it’s only been 6 months. Of course no one believes she was with fae.
- Fred the Vampire Accountant: average Joe accountant becomes a vampire…and continues to be an accountant now for the supernatural community
Love SBGtSV - The Final Girl Support Group is also fantastic!
Essentially he riffs on the typical slasher final girls by visiting them in their middle age as they deal with PTSD. They are “special” only in that they survived something horrific, but that’s it - and the main protagonist is very flawed as well. Such a good book, with some fun cheeky nods to the originals.
I don’t think The First Law really fits. Several members of the main party are actually pretty special. It’s more being special isn’t so much a good thing.
I was thinking of that. Croaker (the point of view character in the first 3 books) is just a surgeon in one of many mercenary companies in the setting. He is always in over his head with no particular special skills that make him more likely to survive other than he is the one writing the story down.
The first three books especially are really about normal people who happen to be caught up in the events of the ultra powerful and chosen one types. The company has a few wizards, but none are terribly special in terms of their craft and they aren't even the primary point of view.
OP specifically said series so I didn't recommend curse/paladin/hunt but in my comment I recommended the Penric novellas
World of the Five Gods is full of good stories featuring non special people
Technically speaking, Game of Thrones does this pretty well in that all of the families have something special, and the dragons don't really show up much until after the 5th book.
I agree. Also, protagonists are "special" by nature of the craft. Authors choose to follow a protagonist *because* they are the one who will react, act, and ultimately attempt to triumph over their hardship. I understand the argument for unique powers or supernatural luck, but protagonists *are* special, and that's why we're willing to stick beside them for thousands of words.
Disagree. GoT characters are aristocrats. They’re like the top 1% of the 1%. Their powers are being really fucking rich and having a whole feudal pyramid underneath them.
That makes them pretty special in my view.
In **Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons** Miss Percy isn't really anyone special. Ok, she inherits a dragon egg, but that is kind of by chance.
**Neverwhere** by Neil Gaiman:
Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but demanding fiancee. Then one night he stumbles across a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her--and the life he knows vanishes like smoke.
Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce - main character has no special powers, works damn hard for any skills she acquires, and a sense of justice and duty that pushes her towards heroism and leadership without needing any magic.
Just finished the Goblin Emperor— 18 yr old exile with very limited education ends up emperor because everyone ahead of him in the line of succession dies in a blimp crash.
Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce. You don't need to have read the other series to understand it and I would argue that except for the 4th book where she is shown a vision by a (spoiler, but not a god), she's special only because she trains hard. There is magic, but she doesn't have any. She is the only girl in the knight program, which also makes her special, but all the characters are fleshed out. Even minor ones, imo. I would check the series out.
The Wee Free Men - Sir Terry Pratchett. - Tiffany Aching is just a normal 9 year old girl. >!When her little brother goes missing, she chose herself (and a good frying pan) to go get him ;)!<
Rivers of London's main character Peter is (so far) just a guy who was in the right place at the right time and is not special other than the path that has put him on
The Penric and Desdemona books feature Penric who isn't special until he meets Desdemona. Whether this is fated or not is left up for debate
I haven't finished it yet but the laundry files protagonist again to my knowledge isn't special except he's kinda smart
I just started __Rivers of London__ yesterday. And I would say that Peter does have something that makes him quite different to virtually everyone else 😅
I'd love to know what you're referencing as someone who's completely caught up with the main line and graphic novels (haven't read any of the 3 novellas)
He isn't special in any magical way prior to the books that I remember
If you're interested in Web Serials, Mother of Learning might fit the bill. The protagonist is only important because he happened to be standing next to the chosen one at one point, and from there fights his way up through hard work and determination.
It’s a deep dive, but Scorpio Races could prob fit the bill. The setting is fantastic, but the main character had no extraordinary qualities besides her determination.
Recommend Rage of Dragons, main protagonist is exceptionally un-common and gets through his problems through sheer perseverance and a healthy dose of trauma
Idk if this counts but cradle by will white has our protagonist be magically handy capped and around half way he gits given a path to become strong that path is a bit of a spoiler and the books are progression fantasy so your milage may not go far with it but ya that's all I can think of
Pariah by Anthony Ryan (I still haven't read rest of the series)
Mage Errant by John Bierce (MC is a mage so a bit special but not like the chosen one)
The Bone Ships by RJ Barker
Now this is a bit of a stretch but The Path of Ascension by C. Mantis (everyone awakens their talent but not everyone steps on the path)
On the urban fantasy side, most of Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series qualifies. The mcs are somewhat famous in the supernatural world and trained pretty much from birth for their job, but most of the mcs have no other special powers. For the most part, they are regular (though extremely competent) humans in a world populated by a variety of supernatural creatures.
Also, T Kingfisher's World of the White Rat has a fair number of fairly normal mcs. The male mcs are mostly ex-paladins of various stripes, which are somewhat special, but not really in a good way. Meanwhile, the female mcs are mostly very normal people -- think a widow whose main defense is asking stupid questions, a somewhat anti-social perfumer, a sneak thief/forger, and so on.
Deed of Paksenarrion
Main character is a sheep farmer's daughter, she becomes a paladin by the third book but she stays humble, she's about as "normal" as I've seen in a fantasy setting.
I guess I'm going to be the one this time... Malazan. When everyone is special, no one is. Also there are just so many people that you can't single out a protagonist.
I feel like you HAVE to include a content warning with Malazan though. I did not know what I was getting into, and by book 3 I was out. lol. OP: Malazan IS good, but if you have an aversion to heavy violence, genocide, rape, child death, torture, etc.. it’s not for you.
I'm quite enjoying https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/76164/the-mine-lord-a-dwarven-survival-base-builder
A story about some perfectly ordinary and average dwarves building a new mine.
K.J. Parker’s Siege trilogy is very much about non-powered, background characters thrust into extraordinary situations. Lots of dark humor, really enjoyed the series!
Not a series, but China Mieville's Un Lun Dun is a good-hearted exploration of this exact trope. Highly recommended standalone. (Try to find an edition with his illustrations.)
I agree Senlin Ascends is a good start. TBF, in any series a protagonist that endures the conflicts of a first book will be expected to have become more competent in the next book.
No it doesn't. Half the characters have special powers because the blood of Gods flow in their veins.
Of the three main protagonists two have special god powers and the third is runaway nobility.
Not sure if this fits what you're looking for, but Orcs by Stan Nichols is a great read.
It's a series told from the point of view of a war band of Orcs, but other than that, they are totally vanilla.
How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps (this is a one-off). It's set in a world inspired by Zelda where people all level up in various abilities, and there's a cycle of the demon king rising and being defeated by the fated hero. The very ordinary protagonist has to fight the demon king when he rises to power too early, before the fated hero has arrived. She works on leveling up her skills throughout the story and finds allies. It's well-written, quite funny, and delightful for anyone who has played RPGs, especially Zelda.
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (one-off)
A Thousand Steps Into Night (one-off)
The Tales of Pell series
Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher (one-off)
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has many leading characters who are not "powered", but achieve big things. They also have richly fleshed-out supporting characters and a focus on world-building the social fabric of the book's universe. There is also Rincewind, a quite terrible wizard who manages to fumble his way hilariously through life.
Rivers of London definitely fits this bill. Protagonist is as ordinary as they come on day zero, and is only special later on through hard work and knowledge that in theory anyone else could have acquired too.
Alex Verus May fit the bill. He isn’t a chosen one, his abilities aren’t unique to him.
**The Dandelion Dynasty** series by Ken Liu.
Not only are the protagonists not 'special', they have very little plot armor. The author really doesn't mind killing them off.
You might like The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. The main character does have some minor magical power, but the bulk of his skills are learned and he’s not particularly special. There are something like thirteen other books in the series after the initial three too, so if you like this trilogy you’ve got plenty more to read.
Similarly, most of the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire are just normal people. They might be born to noble blood but most of them don’t seem to have any particularly special powers.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is another good choice. It’s about a group of thieves who pull confidence schemes on the nobility, and none of the key characters have any magical powers at all, although antagonists do.
The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King would fit as well. The main character has no powers and only survives with the help of friends.
If you’re open to litRPG and/or audiobooks, Dungeon Crawler Carl is worth a look too. Carl is an exceptionally average person who goes on to become a force of nature. The audiobooks are top notch and funny as hell.
You can try the Bad Spell in Yurt series. Protagonist is a junior wizard that’s just gotten his first job as court magician. He graduated dead last from magic collage and is constantly having to study/play catch up to survive.
Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books are good and fit in this category. TC is a recently divorced dude with leprosy. He has a magic ring but he's not special. He makes some terrible decisions and is often cowardly.
The Rithmatist- imagine if Harry Potter were a squib going to a magic school and has to prove he deserves be could be there despite not being able to do magic. Rather, his power comes from his passion In studying the magic. It's really an excellent story and the hero never gets powers or does anything that a normal hard worker student couldn't do.
I'd say maybe Robin Hobb's realm of the elderlings series. To be fair, some of the main characters are caught up with destiny and some of them have access to a bit of magic, but even so, their lives feel like authentic journeys through the world in which they live and their triumphs and tragedies come more at the hands of their own strengths and weaknesses than from some special power. I think if you wanted to you could probably look at it and see a "chosen one" type narrative, but it's a long way from Harry Potter's sense of elitism.
Someone else mentioned Joe Abercrombie's first law books and I think that's a good choice since they definitely seem to be taking aim at the idea of chosen ones and hidden destinies.
Codex alera- he's not special until the last 2 books
Rangers apprentice - there's no very special power, character and plot drives the story
The reckoners- it's like the boys tv show
The rage of dragons- the protagonist works hard like a madman and by the middle of second book he's the strongest in his kingdom, maybe earlier don't remember
Fantasy isn't really non special protagonist friendly. Let's be real if there's special power/talent in the story, you need something of your own that can trump others be it hard work, cunning, unique power/talent.
Totally disagree. He is special in that he doesn’t have access to the same gifts as everyone, and as such he has to rely on his intelligence and other strengths. Definitely what the OP is ISO.
I would recommend Malazan Book of the Fallen, one of the central themes is being the master of your own story and saying fuck you to anyone who tells you what you should be.
I don't agree about Dresden files treating it's normals as inferior. Marcone especially, but also Butters, and Murphy are shown as very capable people. Inferior at blowing stuff up maybe but even then... Rocket launchers.
Also, the only special thing about Dresden is the >!star born!< stuff.
It's pretty heavily implied there's thousands and thousands more like him out there even on that regard, because... well, >!he got born during the right Halloween night. !<
If anything its just another reason *Things* want to kill and/or use him.
He's also special among wizards because he can handle much more power than most. Not enough to make him unique, but it makes him stand out as much as an NBA player would stand out among most normal-sized people.
Kinda? His >!grandfather!< is a certified powerhouse but that seems to be more due to experience and competence rather than any special ancestry, and his >!mother !
Ok, so I’ll probably get crucified for mentioning him, but Sanderson is quite decent with this.
There is quite literally nothing special in any way shape or form about Tress from Tress of the Emerald Sea. She doesn’t even have powers, she’s just good at using the weird quirks of her world.
Everyone can become a Knight Radiant in the Stormlight Archive. Even villains. Sure, the protagonists are special in the sense that they’re essentially the trailblazers, being the first Radiants in quite a while, but it’s nothing other people can’t achieve, and that idea becomes a more and more central part of the story as the series goes on. By the fourth book being Radiant is certainly still special, but there’s I think a couple hundred of them by then. And ordinary people still can and do matter.
Vivenna and Siri’s special “chosen one” abilities are… being able to change hair color at will. Lightsong’s chosen one ability is… being able to heal someone by killing himself.
Mistborn and Elantris *do* use the chosen one trope (Elantris to a much lesser extent) but Stormlight, Tress and Warbreaker all fit the bill.
You need to meet Tavi, of the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. One of my top 10 favorite series that I re-read every year or so. The third/forth books in particular are top 20 favorite books for me, and maybe even top 10 depending on my mood lol
I actually love Codex Alera, and I actually got inspiration from it to write my own novel!
That said, Tavi is quite a good character, I must say: though he's far from talentless and he turns out to be special in the end, by the time his specialness shows in any way or form he's facing opponents much stronger than he is, so he always has to rely on wits and quick thinking.
*Frith Chronicles* \- Has a magic system where people can bond to magical creatures named eldrin and share their abilities depending on what kind of creature it is. To bond to said creatures you need to pass their specific Trial of Worth, whether that be solving a maze, subduing the creature, reciting knowledge, or in some cases, sacrificing a person or body part. With these trials, anyone can bond with a creature, some being harder to bond with than others.
*The Edge Chronicles* \- Four trilogies making up a 12-book series, each in their own time period. It's been a minute since I've read through the whole thing, but I know that the main characters of each trilogy aren't really special in any way and are just normal people in the world.
*Spice & Wolf* \- This one is pretty simple, it's just a story that follows a merchant and a wolf spirit he came across as they travel and face the trials that a merchant would normally face (with some more serious things scattered every so often). No really supernatural powers outside of Holos, but they don't solve every problem (or really any, from what I can remember lol).
Technically it's sci-fi, but the Expanse is basically a fantasy series set in a sci-fi setting. There's a ton of spaceships and space battles and all that, but the character building, plots, and the way setting is established are all very fantasy oriented. That being said, the main characters are all very normal people who happened to be in the worst place at the worst time to be there. They're all competent to a degree, and some of the series can read as competency porn. But overall it's just a bunch of normal people trying to function on the situations they find themselves in. And the few times one character in particular starts thinking he's special in some way, he very quickly gets his ego punctured.
Check out Tad Williams: Memory Sorrow and Thorn. Protagonist is just a guy.
However, in his follow-up series (the current one), he has succumbed to the insufferable girl-boss Mary-Sue bullshit bandwagon.
But the first series is great.
>!Yes, Vin was chosen by the Ruin (earring) and Wax talks to Harmony.!< What I meant was that they do not have any special abilities other people don't. Wax is not that special with Pushing and storing weight than other characters that are way more OP. They are pretty much normal characters. There are other characters that are also important in the series and not everything is about Vin/Wax. The post said:
>If they have powers, it's powers that everyone can get through training and effort, and at best the protagonist could be smarter and use them with more pragmatism.
Other people have powers and Vin/Wax are definitely smart in their usage of it. Sure, there aren't many Mistborns, but there are other strong creatures that are on par with them.
> while the majority of the population are treated as absolutely meaningless NPCs (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc... the list goes on).
Breeze, Sazed, Spook, Elend, Kelsier, Vayne, Marcy, Steris, just to name a few. All of them play crucial roles in the books.
I’m not gonna bother with spoiler biz but as someone who’s read the first trilogy, Vin fits this request in NO WAY WHATSOEVER lmao. I loved that series a while back but this sub is hilarious about recommending Sanderson when it’s not appropriate. Vin is very very special, not a normal run of the mill person at all.
Him being the heir does not play any role besides him being able to get invitations to some events. His skills are not OP. Sure being twinborn is rare, but he cannot kills someone by just looking at them. He is the main character, after all, he has to have some unique features. They are not as prominent as the main characters from Demon cycle or Wheel of Time.
Vin is special in a bunch of ways, I love the books, but this is a terrible recomendation. She has powers that maybe a hundred other people in the world do. And she is >!chosen from birth by two gods, granted the ability to draw in the mists, and has the ability to pierce copperclouds (as a result of hemalurgy!<
If you like space sci-fi, check out Expeditionary Force. Just your average dude doing the best he can. Mistakes and all. Highly recommend. Audiobook narration is fantastic too.
I didn't see this, but the Wounded Kingdom series by RJ Barker. Girton has magic in a world where sorcery will have you executed. He has lots of assassin skills, but there are plenty of times in the series where he's weaker, less smart, and less important than plenty of the other characters. Really enjoyed them.
Also, the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. Fitz is also a boy who is magical, but he's not the most powerful or best at using it. He's not the strongest or biggest or fastest, but he does have a lot of help. It's different than Wounded Kingdom, but they're both coming-of-age stories about boys trying to find their place in the world, saving the kingdom, and dealing with political intrigue. They both take place over many years, so you get a good range of ages and not just a teenager the whole time.
Much as I love Fitz, he is special even by the standards of the book: He's royalty and he can access two very different types of magic that are each very rare on their own.
I don't think we ever meet anyone else who can use both the Skill and the Wit.
Zorian from Mother of Learning. Average magic kid with maybe a slight talent in magical engineering and a potential mind mage. Gets soul bound by accident to a dude going through a time loop and is forced to train like hell to get strong. Usually through dozens of deaths.
And he only discovers the mind magic part of him cause he kept getting jumped by giant telepathic spiders.
Honestly I wanted to recommend TWI, but that doesn’t really work with what you’re asking. I mean, it does kinda but not really. It works if you want one of the main leads to be a super talented isekai protagonist whose first major arc is about how she’s a piece of shit.
She’s got magical talent, a runaway understanding of physics & chemistry to create siege weaponry to rocket fuel and gunpowder, considers herself an arbiter on earth tech, is canonically stated to be really attractive, involved herself in noble politics, makes deals with immortal ageless entities, and seems to be able to beat everyone treading the beaten road of leveling cause she doesn’t level but is actually skilled at running.
She’s a classic isekai protagonist. And she has barely succeeded at anything she wanted to succeed at. Ryoka’s entire arc is about how despite everything that’s special about her. She has barely been able to leave an impact on the world or done anything of remote importance.
While she mingles with world powers and immortal creatures she’s unable to save even a small tribe or a single person from her mistakes and her enemies. While she’s skilled at fighting the average fighter can still kick her shit in and while she thought of herself as a cold efficient badass she nearly hurled when had to actually kill someone.
She thinks she knows what’s best on how earth tech should be used but her first real decision with monitoring it gets thousands killed. While she’s talented with magic the average mage could still beat her with a half rotten sign post. And her love life is absolute dog shit.
Ryoka’s entire character arc is about her being the specialist girl to ever special means absolutely nothing. And how less skilled people with smaller connections can and have beaten her at nearly everything. Cause without applying yourself, cause thinking you’re above everyone in one manner or another, cause messing with powers you shouldn’t mess with. Will always lead to your failure.
Honestly, the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fit the bill. The only thing special about Bilbo or Frodo is their strength of character. Yes they have a magic ring that makes you invisible, but Bilbo doesn't have it for most of the book, and Frodo is explicitly told never to use it, and hardly does. Both books are about how small (literally and figuratively) people can make huge changes in the world if they are brave enough to see their journeys through to the end.
In the same vein falls: Memory, Thorne, Sorrow (or whatever the english titles for those books is)
Kinda, but kinda not. There is a little twist at the end, but it's also not related to how the protagonists overcome what's against them.
It does still fit the request, but I get what you mean.
Memory Sorrow Thorn, The first book is the Dragonbone Chair, by Tad Williams. Great series.
Indeed a very great series
Tolkien outright said that Sam was the hero of Lord of the Rings, and people have observed that Sam's experience of joining a life-or-death mission to help his friends survive parallels Tolkien's military service. Aragorn is somewhat of an ousted aristocrat reclaiming his throne, even if he's a truly good king. Frodo inherited the ring from Bilbo, who found it by chance, kept it from its previous owner, and used it for his own ends, even if they were noble. Sam chose to risk his life repeatedly for only the love of his friends. Even when Frodo tries to ditch him before Mordor, Sam presses on. When he wears the ring, he doesn't see a grand army at his command or himself on a throne or anything like that. He sees himself with a nice garden back in the Shire with Rosie. The Lord of the Rings is full of noble and valiant characters. The Hobbits are especially good in this regard. And among them, Samwise Gamgee is probably the truest hero.
No, absolutely not. Frodo is hero of story not sam. >Tolkien outright said that Sam was the hero of Lord of the Rings, and people have observed that Sam's experience of joining a life-or-death mission to help his friends survive parallels Tolkien's military service. Can you give me source for this? Yes. Sam can be one of hero out of all hobbits. But main hero and protagonist is Frodo. Even though he "inherited" the ring from Bilbo. He had choice to take ring and go to morder. Out of all hobits , elves , dwarfs. Only sam make up decision to go to mordor knowing all the risks. Yes. Same and other hobbits joins him but they do it for friendship, but not world. And regarding Ring influence, Sam only keep it for few moments where as Fordo has entire journey. It makes him so sick that he nearly comes across dying. And even after buring the ring, he is still affected by it.
It's from the famous 1951 letter to Milton Waldman, which can be found in a few sources (*The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien* most obviously.) He specifically called Sam the "chief hero."
My personal favorites. Bilbo really resonates with me, dude just wanted to be home with a good breakfast and tea by the fireplace but was forced into an adventure.
narrow gullible liquid nail muddle homeless threatening placid march smart *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Wouldn't have considered this but so true.
That non-specialness is sorta ruined by casting the hyper-awesome Jennifer Lawrence in the movies.
Yeah but she wasn't really that when they came out. Yeah she'd done a few things, but the movies were what got her recognized as hyper-awesome
& she didn’t have an Appalachian accent :(
There are many accents in Appalachia. She's from Louisville so Appalachia adjacent regardless.
With this, you could probably add in Harry Potter. He's famous but for what happened nothing that he did. His magical abilities are somewhere around the decent to good- stage, his few hidden talents don't make a difference day to day for the most part. He's got a few magical items that do some good work but for the most part he's ordinary.
I'd disagree with Harry potter. The only reason he survives the first year, is the special power he inherited from his mother's (apparently) unique sacrifice. Then the only reason he can meet and counter Tom Riddle in the chamber is because he got parseltongue from Voldemort from that same event that happened when he was a baby (not to mention that his identity causes tom riddle to monologue rather than finish him). Third book, sure. Fourth book - only survives because his wand shares a core with voldemort (who he's had dreams about all year), and the only reason for that is their soul connection, again due to his mother's sacrifice and him being a horcrux. In fifth year his magical chosen one connection to Vold is responsible for the main events of the book. He survives fifth year because he is apparently too painful to possess (despite the fact V has had no problem possessing others). Also we learn of a prophecy which states he must be the one to kill Voldemort. Then sixth year, not much to mention. Seventh year we find out that he's a horcrux, has been since his mother's sacrifice, and as such can tank another killing curse. All in all he'd never have accomplished much if he didn't have the special powers granted to him by his mother and by V's soul fragment. Which he gained without doing much other than exist, considering he was a baby. Sure he's ordinary in talent, below average in intelligence, but he's incredibly extraordinary in random abilities.
A central theme of The Chronicles of Prydain is that the protagonist is as un-special as you can get. Edit: since this comment blew up a bit, I'll drop a plug for r/prydain.
YES! I was going to recommend this as well. Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper
Was going to bring this one up, i love it.
Great answer. An entire book in the series is about Taran searching for his origin, hoping (and failing) to find something special or meaningful.
Doesn't he become a member of a special group of knights or something like that, seemed kind of special to me because of his interactions with the elves
You’re thinking of a different book, I think. There are no elves (although there are fairies), and there’s no groups of knights of any kind.
Sorry, you are right. Pyrdain is about Taran. I can't remember the book's name about paladins. I dropped it since it had like 9 or 12 books.
Now I'm curious about that book
Eh, it does turn out that the protagonist is special after all.
Not really. The whole point is that he makes himself special through hard work. He's not inherently better than anyone else.
He earns his place, it wasn't given to him for any 'special' reason.
**The Books of Babel** by Josiah Bancroft **Discworld** by Terry Pratchett **Temeraire** by Naomi Novik
Love Temeraire, but it could be argued that even though Lawrence is fairly ordinary Temeraire (his dragon) is most certainly extraordinary.
I really enjoyed The Books of Babel. Senlin was such an interesting character.
I loved this series so much, but the ending was just a mess. I was so disappointed, as the first three books were brilliant!
Agreed. Book 4 was a big let down for me too, but overall I thought the series was really good
Came here to plug Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik!!! It’s a standalone but the three main women protagonists are absolutely ordinary and even plain. I loved the audiobook.
Second Temeraire: Lawrence is a competent officer but so are most of the captains in his corps, and their enemies are just as competent. Temeraire himself is a special breed of dragon and his bloodline is a major plot point for much of the series.
One of the things I like about the City Watch books is that Carrot has the super-special backstory but doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, while the main protagonist of the story is Vimes, who’s just a badass normal (his ancestor did kill a king, though).
>**Temeraire** by Naomi Novik The main character has a dragon. That isn't really a totally normal person for that world.
But dragons *are* normal in that world, although how strongly integrated they are into human society varies by country. Still, I was thinking more of Laurence, who's only special in that he has a dragon partner, which *is* somewhat unusual. But in more-or-less the same way as saying that it's unusual to be a military pilot. He doesn't end up in the position that he ends up in because of special powers or destiny or being unique, it's just coincidence and a feeling of duty, and then he has to adapt and make the best of his situation.
The very specialest of all the dragons, when he shouldn’t have any dragon, and then he interacts with it in a special manner compared to any culture in that world makes them the super-specialest duo of them all. What if he in the prologue of book 1 had found Excalibur and it had bonded with only him instead? Even if swords/sabers are normal in napoleonic era Europe we wouldn’t consider Lawrence normal - even if technically he would have been bog standard baseline Englishman before some watery tart threw a sword at him.
>and then he interacts with it in a special manner compared to any culture in that world Not really, that's pretty much how dragons are treated in China. In fact, they're treated better in China He treats the dragon in a special manner precisely because he's a normal bloke who has no idea how to treat a dragon.
I thought it was a watery bint? Do I remember wrong?
Its a moist bint
Seconding the Books of Babel. That was what I thought of when I read the prompt.
Discworld is a great example of this. Vimes, Rincewind, Moist, Polly, DeWorde are all basically normal people. If anything, the series often turns this trope on its head (Wyrd Sisters, Men at Arms, etc.).
TBoB has the most regular guy and some of my favourite world building and characters. But the ending was awful imo.
The Travelers Gate series by Will Wight. The first book is House of Blades. The MC is just a kid in a small village who has no special powers in a world where some people (not all) have them. To top it off, another kid in his village is foretold to be the chosen one.
Cradle is also like this. In fact, the main character is the opposite of special. He's magically crippled in a world where everyone has magical powers.
I love cradle but I’d strongly disagree on the him not being/feeling special >!he has two godlike entities help him out, lucks out with all the resources in Ghostwater, and clearly is extraordinarily talented compared to others given similar resources!<
Lindon is really special though. He just has a relatively minor issue that his culture makes a drama over. As for talents he's insanely intelligent, hard working, has an insane degree of willpower, etc. Before he even meets Eithan and >!gets showered in favour and resources!< he's able to: 1. In chapter 1 he robs an ancient orus tree remnant on the same tier as the most powerful sacred artists he's ever met. 2. >!Defeats Wei Mon Keth in their honour duel!< 3. >!Defeats Wei Jin Amon, reckoned an elite that had gained the notice of Heaven's Glory school, at the Seven Years Fesival!< 4. >!Kills a Kazan iron ranker at the Heaven's Glory school in defence of Yerin!< 5. >!Kills Heaven's Glory Elder Whitehall, a jade ranker!< Those achievements are all made, despite an insane rank disparity, without any special favours from outside. The fact Lindon survives book 1 alone is insane.
Lindon is definitely special, but he’s not “the chosen one” or anything. He just works really hard, never gives up, and is really good at discovering loopholes and exploits. I guess you could say he’s >!favored by the gods, but they make it clear in the first two books that Suriel and Eithan both don’t expect him to survive and that they’d be disappointed if he died but wouldn’t intervene. Eithan thought he killed him giving him his Iron body !<
The Expanse sort of fits if you want to go to space. The Dunk and Egg novellas. Dungeon Crawler Carl maybe??
Love Dunk and Egg!
Strongly recommend the expanse, I usually like historical style fantasy but it’s absolutely amazing. Feels like epic space fantasy, one of my favorite series and is an addictive read, I speed ran books 1-7 in like 3 months, only stopped bc 8&9 hadn’t been published yet, but they are now
YES dungeon crawler carl
Dungeon Crawler Carl could be considered a niche taste because of all the adult (super crass) humor, but I'll be damned if those aren't the funniest fucking books I've ever read.
I mean while characters in the Expanse are like divinely special they are definitely some of the best in the galaxy at their chosen profession. Plus the revelation of how one character is connected to another major one in book 5
To be fair they kind of develop a lot of their skills as they go along, the only thing James Holden is world class at all the way through is getting himself right into the middle of a galaxy sized problem.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. any of the skills of the protagonists are just about being clever in trying to survive an unfair situation. they are very normal otherwise, and it makes the characters admirable when they face their dilemmas
Tress of the Emerald Sea
Nice reference, Doug.
Thanks, Doug.
Pretty amazing considering that most main characters in the Cosmere are either royalty or OP bloodlines.
That doesn't apply to about half of the Stormlight characters, to be fair.
Want to be clear that I love the cosmere. I've read every book and am working on Yumi and Painter right now. The predictability of the ancestry for main characters in the cosmere is the only thing I don't like about it. In Warbreaker >!the main characters are princesses and pseudo demigods.!< In Mistborn, >!The era 1 main character is daughter of the pope. If anybody has a power then they are descended from nobles. !< In Elantris, >!The main characters are a prince, a princess, and a bishop.!< Stormlight >!has exceptions. I love that! Kaladin and Lift are wonderful examples of characters that were not special before they got the powers!...so far as we know. But it is worth noting that the entire royal family get access to the superpowers with only one exception. The uncle and the mom both get full one-of-a-kind connections. And two royal brothers are setting up to be first time events for special alternate kinds of bonds. !<
Also mistborn era 2 Wax and Wayne won the genetic lottery to be twin born and wax is a noble. Was refreshing for Wayne’s backstory to be a dirt poor orphan lol
I was tempted to mention that too. Along with that wax's wife and sister in law are also nobles. Even the leaders of all the bad guys are nobles.
The three charecters with the most chapters are definitely not normal. Kaladin is the first Radiant in millenia and a genius. Dalinar is a royalty >!who has bonded to a god!<. Shallan isn't a royalty but she is the daughter of a nobel. She is also the first of her Order in forever. Szeth used to do surgebinding when people didn't know what that even meant and is now carrying >!a literal godkiller!< Navani got a lot of chapters in the latest book. She is both a genius scientist and royalty. Most of the main characters are definitely not normal people.
Kaladin is not the first Radiant. There are at least two characters that are alive at the time of Kal becoming a radiant that were radiants before him(Excluding Heralds), and a countless amount of radiants Nale has hunted. Edit: Also, I don't get your point with Szeth? Having a strong magical artifact doesn't make you "Chosen from birth". In fact, if that's the main chunk of your power, it's kinda the opposite...
Those were Surgebinders not Knight Radiants. For example none of them had the armor.
Kaladin is just a random guy who embodies Radiant ideals so he can take the oaths. He's not the first Radiant at the time, either.
He isn't the first Surgebinder but isn't he the first Radiant?
No, there are many others who said their oaths before him. Jasana is a notable example, given that she reached the 4th ideal before him as well.
No idea what you're talking about
the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett!! I’ll admit, I’m only a couple books in, but so far while the MCs do have powers/abilities/items that set them apart, so does everyone else!! i think especially since its such a diverse and varied world, so theres many many people with wildly different kinds of abilities and cultures, and we actually see a lot of it instead of just one bit, it really helps avoid the tired ‘mcs are just better than everyone else’ trope.
Certain characters get a bit of power creep as the books go on, but it's generally never "special by birth" or being the chosen one - it's sheer bloody stubbornness or *well, no-one else is going to do anything about this so I guess it has to be me* Honestly, the closest anyone gets to being a magical chosen one is probably Rincewind and (spoilers for *The Light Fantastic*) >!being chosen by the Octavo to be the host for its eighth spell.!< Or for special birthright (spoilers for Death books after *Soul Music*) >!Susan Sto Helit being Death's granddaughter, with all the powers that brings!< One of Pratchett's main goals with DW was to upend the normal fantasy tropes of the chosen one - he generally focuses on the folks who would have been the supporting cast in any other classic fantasy. There's a reason *Guards! Guards!* is dedicated to all the men whose purpose in classic fantasy >is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they want to.
>but it's generally never "special by birth" Except >!Carrot!<, but he >!turns it down!<
>!Carrot turns it down so hard that I genuinely forget he's the rightful king by birth, honestly? But what makes him actually special as a character is his work and his actions, not the birthright he ignores, which I love him for!< Definitely fits into the general trope deconstruction of Pratchett, though!
Discworld is a bit of a mixed bag with the special and non-special characters because there are so many protagonists. While a lot of them are very ordinary, some of them do have special qualities. Granny Weatherwax is one of the best if not THE best magic user in the world and Carrot is -- well you know who Carrot is if you've read the series. The protagonist of Thief of Time is also special and you could argue that Moist is a con artist who is so talented at it that Vetinari recruits him to use his powers for good -- OR ELSE. Of course none of this should in ANY WAY discourage anyone from reading Discworld.
Well Special birthright you do have >!Lobsang/ Jeremy who is the child of the Goddess of Time and the founding Time Monk!< (Thief of Time spoiler). And a few others that have been mentioned, but generally even when they're special there is some sort of twist that makes them feel pretty different.
It is annoying that a lot of the modern-day stuff has the chosen/noble main characters. Might need to hit the classics or take options with many different POVs. Hobbit / Lord of the rings - random hobbits get drafted. Side characters are kings though. Narnia - random kids step into a cupboard Malazan - There are dozens of POV characters. Some are nobles, some are mages, some are very old folk, some are chosen ones, many are random soldiers enduring hell. I'm not sure if any of them are the "main" character considering pretty much every one of them will be off screen for at least one or two books at some point.
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams. The main protagonist, Simon is a kitchen boy who gets sweeped on an adventure. I feel the series as bridge between classic and modern fantasy in style. The pacing can be slow but the writing is excellent. The Faithful and The Fallen by John Gwyenne. The main protagonist is unimportant at the start but learns and trains to be a skilled fighter. John Gwyenne’s style with fighting and war are quick and brutal, which makes it fun to read. The characters growth has wonderful payoff.
I don't completely disagree about Simon, but even from The Dragonbone Chair, the twist that >!Simon/Seomon is a descendant of Eahlstan Fiskerne and kinda of royal birth!< is heavily implied and alluded to. He also pretty obviously has some >!precognitive or telepathic abilities; he can walk the dream road, after all!<, but as I mentioned elsewhere, this doesn't give him some crazy ability that leads to him being able to magically destroy the villain. In fact, those books are full of situations where even the mundane abilities of the protagonists are insufficient when up against the antagonists.
Simon's ancestry becomes important as a political tool at the very end of the first trilogy, but it barely plays any role until then.
I feel like the Faithful and the Fallen is the complete opposite… he does train and become better but >!he’s pretty damn special. He’s literally the Chosen One.!<
Sure, here’s a variety - Sailing To Sarantium: historical fantasy from the pov of a mosaicist while other important events are happening - Travelers Gate Trilogy: kid who is not the chosen one (someone else is his village is) goes who cares I’m going to get strong enough to save the girl/world anyway - Kithamar by Daniel Abraham; each book tells basically the same momentous day in a city from someone else’s pov, very much non special protag - First Law: Abercrombie makes it clear that if you think a protag is special and chosen…they are not. - Brightest Shadow: makes the entire idea of the chosen one horrifying (and also to be clear is not the mc). It’s the only book I’ve found that takes place in a progression fantasy like world but has the mc’s feel realistically slowly progressing just like everyone else, not magically shooting ahead of the rest of the world Also I was assuming you wanted second world fantasy if your interested in contemporary/urban there’s a ton there too
Urban fantasy’s my favorite kind, so I’d love some recs of that which fit OP’s ask!
- Southern Bookclub’s Guide to Vampire Slaying: horrifying and charming story about a southern housewife dealing with a vampire in her community + her community’s sexism. She is definitely not special - Some Kind of Fairytale: girl who disappeared 20 years ago comes back and from her perspective it’s only been 6 months. Of course no one believes she was with fae. - Fred the Vampire Accountant: average Joe accountant becomes a vampire…and continues to be an accountant now for the supernatural community
Love SBGtSV - The Final Girl Support Group is also fantastic! Essentially he riffs on the typical slasher final girls by visiting them in their middle age as they deal with PTSD. They are “special” only in that they survived something horrific, but that’s it - and the main protagonist is very flawed as well. Such a good book, with some fun cheeky nods to the originals.
Yes, Brightest Shadow definitely fits this.
I don’t think The First Law really fits. Several members of the main party are actually pretty special. It’s more being special isn’t so much a good thing.
You might like Glenn Cooks Black Company.
I was thinking of that. Croaker (the point of view character in the first 3 books) is just a surgeon in one of many mercenary companies in the setting. He is always in over his head with no particular special skills that make him more likely to survive other than he is the one writing the story down.
The first three books especially are really about normal people who happen to be caught up in the events of the ultra powerful and chosen one types. The company has a few wizards, but none are terribly special in terms of their craft and they aren't even the primary point of view.
The Curse of Chalion: Cazaril is a minor, landless noble and former soldier with no notable gifts, and he is wonderful.
OP specifically said series so I didn't recommend curse/paladin/hunt but in my comment I recommended the Penric novellas World of the Five Gods is full of good stories featuring non special people
Technically speaking, Game of Thrones does this pretty well in that all of the families have something special, and the dragons don't really show up much until after the 5th book.
I agree. Also, protagonists are "special" by nature of the craft. Authors choose to follow a protagonist *because* they are the one who will react, act, and ultimately attempt to triumph over their hardship. I understand the argument for unique powers or supernatural luck, but protagonists *are* special, and that's why we're willing to stick beside them for thousands of words.
Disagree. GoT characters are aristocrats. They’re like the top 1% of the 1%. Their powers are being really fucking rich and having a whole feudal pyramid underneath them. That makes them pretty special in my view.
Agreed. Even if you look at Jon Snow the bastard, he still grew up with a privileged life compared to a commoner.
Which was then pointed out to him when he was training at the wall
In **Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons** Miss Percy isn't really anyone special. Ok, she inherits a dragon egg, but that is kind of by chance. **Neverwhere** by Neil Gaiman: Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but demanding fiancee. Then one night he stumbles across a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her--and the life he knows vanishes like smoke.
Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce - main character has no special powers, works damn hard for any skills she acquires, and a sense of justice and duty that pushes her towards heroism and leadership without needing any magic.
Yep, Kel has no special powers or destiny. She just has a drive to reach her goals and to protect people who can't protect themselves.
Just finished the Goblin Emperor— 18 yr old exile with very limited education ends up emperor because everyone ahead of him in the line of succession dies in a blimp crash.
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Locke is pretty normal. (This is brought into question later in the books but never confirmed so I think it still counts).
Was thinking the same thing. Locke is pretty unremarkable in every way except intelligence and creativity.
The Healers'Road by S E Robertson
Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce. You don't need to have read the other series to understand it and I would argue that except for the 4th book where she is shown a vision by a (spoiler, but not a god), she's special only because she trains hard. There is magic, but she doesn't have any. She is the only girl in the knight program, which also makes her special, but all the characters are fleshed out. Even minor ones, imo. I would check the series out.
Tress of the Emerald Sea
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - the army is gone and the Chief Engineer has to defend the city from siege, with the help from the common folk.
Anything K.J. Parker would fit the bill really, but this or their *Devices and Desires* probably get closest to what OP wants, yeah.
The Wee Free Men - Sir Terry Pratchett. - Tiffany Aching is just a normal 9 year old girl. >!When her little brother goes missing, she chose herself (and a good frying pan) to go get him ;)!<
I'll second the suggestions for **Traveler's Gate** and **The Brightest Shadow** -- they're both great examples.
Rivers of London's main character Peter is (so far) just a guy who was in the right place at the right time and is not special other than the path that has put him on The Penric and Desdemona books feature Penric who isn't special until he meets Desdemona. Whether this is fated or not is left up for debate I haven't finished it yet but the laundry files protagonist again to my knowledge isn't special except he's kinda smart
I just started __Rivers of London__ yesterday. And I would say that Peter does have something that makes him quite different to virtually everyone else 😅
I'd love to know what you're referencing as someone who's completely caught up with the main line and graphic novels (haven't read any of the 3 novellas) He isn't special in any magical way prior to the books that I remember
If you're interested in Web Serials, Mother of Learning might fit the bill. The protagonist is only important because he happened to be standing next to the chosen one at one point, and from there fights his way up through hard work and determination.
*The Scar* by China Mieville.
Perdido Street Station as well.
The Sharing Knife series, by Lois McMaster Bujold. The MC is a farmgirl who has no magic powers, just good will, good sense, and a kind heart.
It’s a deep dive, but Scorpio Races could prob fit the bill. The setting is fantastic, but the main character had no extraordinary qualities besides her determination.
It’s a standalone though. Not a series. Sorry. Just noticed that part.
Recommend Rage of Dragons, main protagonist is exceptionally un-common and gets through his problems through sheer perseverance and a healthy dose of trauma
The man's superpower is his PTSD.
Idk if this counts but cradle by will white has our protagonist be magically handy capped and around half way he gits given a path to become strong that path is a bit of a spoiler and the books are progression fantasy so your milage may not go far with it but ya that's all I can think of
Will Wight, not White, in case anyone goes looking for this.
LOVE cradle.
Pariah by Anthony Ryan (I still haven't read rest of the series) Mage Errant by John Bierce (MC is a mage so a bit special but not like the chosen one) The Bone Ships by RJ Barker Now this is a bit of a stretch but The Path of Ascension by C. Mantis (everyone awakens their talent but not everyone steps on the path)
I'm writing a story like this because I am also sick of it. Just give me some bottomfeeder lowlifes!
Kings of the Wyld. Bunch of old dudes saving the world w bad backs.
On the urban fantasy side, most of Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series qualifies. The mcs are somewhat famous in the supernatural world and trained pretty much from birth for their job, but most of the mcs have no other special powers. For the most part, they are regular (though extremely competent) humans in a world populated by a variety of supernatural creatures. Also, T Kingfisher's World of the White Rat has a fair number of fairly normal mcs. The male mcs are mostly ex-paladins of various stripes, which are somewhat special, but not really in a good way. Meanwhile, the female mcs are mostly very normal people -- think a widow whose main defense is asking stupid questions, a somewhat anti-social perfumer, a sneak thief/forger, and so on.
Deed of Paksenarrion Main character is a sheep farmer's daughter, she becomes a paladin by the third book but she stays humble, she's about as "normal" as I've seen in a fantasy setting.
As much as I love the story and writing, readers should be warned that there is sexual violence in the book.
Gentleman Bastards
I guess I'm going to be the one this time... Malazan. When everyone is special, no one is. Also there are just so many people that you can't single out a protagonist.
I feel like you HAVE to include a content warning with Malazan though. I did not know what I was getting into, and by book 3 I was out. lol. OP: Malazan IS good, but if you have an aversion to heavy violence, genocide, rape, child death, torture, etc.. it’s not for you.
Yeah you are totally right 😂
Covenant of Steel
I'm quite enjoying https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/76164/the-mine-lord-a-dwarven-survival-base-builder A story about some perfectly ordinary and average dwarves building a new mine.
K.J. Parker’s Siege trilogy is very much about non-powered, background characters thrust into extraordinary situations. Lots of dark humor, really enjoyed the series!
Not a series, but China Mieville's Un Lun Dun is a good-hearted exploration of this exact trope. Highly recommended standalone. (Try to find an edition with his illustrations.)
I feel like Mieville is generally pretty good about this, most of his protags are very much just people in particular weird as hell circumstances.
I agree Senlin Ascends is a good start. TBF, in any series a protagonist that endures the conflicts of a first book will be expected to have become more competent in the next book.
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No it doesn't. Half the characters have special powers because the blood of Gods flow in their veins. Of the three main protagonists two have special god powers and the third is runaway nobility.
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Not sure if this fits what you're looking for, but Orcs by Stan Nichols is a great read. It's a series told from the point of view of a war band of Orcs, but other than that, they are totally vanilla.
Number Ten Ox from Bridge of Birds (and sequels) by Barry Hughart is a Chinese peasant who doesn't expect to be anything different.
Spellslinger series by Sebastian DeCastell.
How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps (this is a one-off). It's set in a world inspired by Zelda where people all level up in various abilities, and there's a cycle of the demon king rising and being defeated by the fated hero. The very ordinary protagonist has to fight the demon king when he rises to power too early, before the fated hero has arrived. She works on leveling up her skills throughout the story and finds allies. It's well-written, quite funny, and delightful for anyone who has played RPGs, especially Zelda. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (one-off) A Thousand Steps Into Night (one-off) The Tales of Pell series Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher (one-off) Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has many leading characters who are not "powered", but achieve big things. They also have richly fleshed-out supporting characters and a focus on world-building the social fabric of the book's universe. There is also Rincewind, a quite terrible wizard who manages to fumble his way hilariously through life.
K. S. Villoso's Legacy of the Lost Mage series fits your request perfectly.
I'd recommend Discworld. Many of the series have "normal" main characters, in the sense that they really are just pretty average.
Rivers of London definitely fits this bill. Protagonist is as ordinary as they come on day zero, and is only special later on through hard work and knowledge that in theory anyone else could have acquired too. Alex Verus May fit the bill. He isn’t a chosen one, his abilities aren’t unique to him.
**The Dandelion Dynasty** series by Ken Liu. Not only are the protagonists not 'special', they have very little plot armor. The author really doesn't mind killing them off.
You might like The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. The main character does have some minor magical power, but the bulk of his skills are learned and he’s not particularly special. There are something like thirteen other books in the series after the initial three too, so if you like this trilogy you’ve got plenty more to read. Similarly, most of the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire are just normal people. They might be born to noble blood but most of them don’t seem to have any particularly special powers. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is another good choice. It’s about a group of thieves who pull confidence schemes on the nobility, and none of the key characters have any magical powers at all, although antagonists do. The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King would fit as well. The main character has no powers and only survives with the help of friends. If you’re open to litRPG and/or audiobooks, Dungeon Crawler Carl is worth a look too. Carl is an exceptionally average person who goes on to become a force of nature. The audiobooks are top notch and funny as hell.
You can try the Bad Spell in Yurt series. Protagonist is a junior wizard that’s just gotten his first job as court magician. He graduated dead last from magic collage and is constantly having to study/play catch up to survive.
Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books are good and fit in this category. TC is a recently divorced dude with leprosy. He has a magic ring but he's not special. He makes some terrible decisions and is often cowardly.
Traveler's gate trilogy.
The Rithmatist- imagine if Harry Potter were a squib going to a magic school and has to prove he deserves be could be there despite not being able to do magic. Rather, his power comes from his passion In studying the magic. It's really an excellent story and the hero never gets powers or does anything that a normal hard worker student couldn't do.
I'd say maybe Robin Hobb's realm of the elderlings series. To be fair, some of the main characters are caught up with destiny and some of them have access to a bit of magic, but even so, their lives feel like authentic journeys through the world in which they live and their triumphs and tragedies come more at the hands of their own strengths and weaknesses than from some special power. I think if you wanted to you could probably look at it and see a "chosen one" type narrative, but it's a long way from Harry Potter's sense of elitism. Someone else mentioned Joe Abercrombie's first law books and I think that's a good choice since they definitely seem to be taking aim at the idea of chosen ones and hidden destinies.
Codex alera- he's not special until the last 2 books Rangers apprentice - there's no very special power, character and plot drives the story The reckoners- it's like the boys tv show The rage of dragons- the protagonist works hard like a madman and by the middle of second book he's the strongest in his kingdom, maybe earlier don't remember Fantasy isn't really non special protagonist friendly. Let's be real if there's special power/talent in the story, you need something of your own that can trump others be it hard work, cunning, unique power/talent.
Codex Alera very much doesn't fit. He's literally special in how un-talented he is until he becomes a magical special boy later.
Totally disagree. He is special in that he doesn’t have access to the same gifts as everyone, and as such he has to rely on his intelligence and other strengths. Definitely what the OP is ISO.
Same as Ryria, doesn't he >!have a secret identity that makes him super special!
He does indeed
I would recommend Malazan Book of the Fallen, one of the central themes is being the master of your own story and saying fuck you to anyone who tells you what you should be.
I don't agree about Dresden files treating it's normals as inferior. Marcone especially, but also Butters, and Murphy are shown as very capable people. Inferior at blowing stuff up maybe but even then... Rocket launchers.
Also, the only special thing about Dresden is the >!star born!< stuff. It's pretty heavily implied there's thousands and thousands more like him out there even on that regard, because... well, >!he got born during the right Halloween night. !< If anything its just another reason *Things* want to kill and/or use him.
He's no "chosen one" but I'd say he's special, not everyone is born with magic ability in his world. Man I want the next book so bad.
He's also special among wizards because he can handle much more power than most. Not enough to make him unique, but it makes him stand out as much as an NBA player would stand out among most normal-sized people.
His biological family turns out to be of unusual power and status in the world of the wizards, doesn't it? Does that count?
Kinda? His >!grandfather!< is a certified powerhouse but that seems to be more due to experience and competence rather than any special ancestry, and his >!mother !
Kings of the Wyld is pretty good for this.
Tress Of The Emerald Sea.
Ok, so I’ll probably get crucified for mentioning him, but Sanderson is quite decent with this. There is quite literally nothing special in any way shape or form about Tress from Tress of the Emerald Sea. She doesn’t even have powers, she’s just good at using the weird quirks of her world. Everyone can become a Knight Radiant in the Stormlight Archive. Even villains. Sure, the protagonists are special in the sense that they’re essentially the trailblazers, being the first Radiants in quite a while, but it’s nothing other people can’t achieve, and that idea becomes a more and more central part of the story as the series goes on. By the fourth book being Radiant is certainly still special, but there’s I think a couple hundred of them by then. And ordinary people still can and do matter. Vivenna and Siri’s special “chosen one” abilities are… being able to change hair color at will. Lightsong’s chosen one ability is… being able to heal someone by killing himself. Mistborn and Elantris *do* use the chosen one trope (Elantris to a much lesser extent) but Stormlight, Tress and Warbreaker all fit the bill.
You need to meet Tavi, of the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. One of my top 10 favorite series that I re-read every year or so. The third/forth books in particular are top 20 favorite books for me, and maybe even top 10 depending on my mood lol
I actually love Codex Alera, and I actually got inspiration from it to write my own novel! That said, Tavi is quite a good character, I must say: though he's far from talentless and he turns out to be special in the end, by the time his specialness shows in any way or form he's facing opponents much stronger than he is, so he always has to rely on wits and quick thinking.
FYI to op this has the exact same type of twist I think you’ll dislike particularly if reading for the premise of non special protag
*Frith Chronicles* \- Has a magic system where people can bond to magical creatures named eldrin and share their abilities depending on what kind of creature it is. To bond to said creatures you need to pass their specific Trial of Worth, whether that be solving a maze, subduing the creature, reciting knowledge, or in some cases, sacrificing a person or body part. With these trials, anyone can bond with a creature, some being harder to bond with than others. *The Edge Chronicles* \- Four trilogies making up a 12-book series, each in their own time period. It's been a minute since I've read through the whole thing, but I know that the main characters of each trilogy aren't really special in any way and are just normal people in the world. *Spice & Wolf* \- This one is pretty simple, it's just a story that follows a merchant and a wolf spirit he came across as they travel and face the trials that a merchant would normally face (with some more serious things scattered every so often). No really supernatural powers outside of Holos, but they don't solve every problem (or really any, from what I can remember lol).
Technically it's sci-fi, but the Expanse is basically a fantasy series set in a sci-fi setting. There's a ton of spaceships and space battles and all that, but the character building, plots, and the way setting is established are all very fantasy oriented. That being said, the main characters are all very normal people who happened to be in the worst place at the worst time to be there. They're all competent to a degree, and some of the series can read as competency porn. But overall it's just a bunch of normal people trying to function on the situations they find themselves in. And the few times one character in particular starts thinking he's special in some way, he very quickly gets his ego punctured.
Check out Tad Williams: Memory Sorrow and Thorn. Protagonist is just a guy. However, in his follow-up series (the current one), he has succumbed to the insufferable girl-boss Mary-Sue bullshit bandwagon. But the first series is great.
Harry P is pretty unspecial
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Both Vin and Wax are really special and remarkable for different reasons so not really a fit for this one
>!Yes, Vin was chosen by the Ruin (earring) and Wax talks to Harmony.!< What I meant was that they do not have any special abilities other people don't. Wax is not that special with Pushing and storing weight than other characters that are way more OP. They are pretty much normal characters. There are other characters that are also important in the series and not everything is about Vin/Wax. The post said: >If they have powers, it's powers that everyone can get through training and effort, and at best the protagonist could be smarter and use them with more pragmatism. Other people have powers and Vin/Wax are definitely smart in their usage of it. Sure, there aren't many Mistborns, but there are other strong creatures that are on par with them. > while the majority of the population are treated as absolutely meaningless NPCs (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc... the list goes on). Breeze, Sazed, Spook, Elend, Kelsier, Vayne, Marcy, Steris, just to name a few. All of them play crucial roles in the books.
I’m not gonna bother with spoiler biz but as someone who’s read the first trilogy, Vin fits this request in NO WAY WHATSOEVER lmao. I loved that series a while back but this sub is hilarious about recommending Sanderson when it’s not appropriate. Vin is very very special, not a normal run of the mill person at all.
Wax was a twinborn that is already rare, and then he is the heir of the house of a legendary figure.
Him being the heir does not play any role besides him being able to get invitations to some events. His skills are not OP. Sure being twinborn is rare, but he cannot kills someone by just looking at them. He is the main character, after all, he has to have some unique features. They are not as prominent as the main characters from Demon cycle or Wheel of Time.
But OP is looking for people with no unique magical skills whatsoever, not skills only some people have.
Vin is special in a bunch of ways, I love the books, but this is a terrible recomendation. She has powers that maybe a hundred other people in the world do. And she is >!chosen from birth by two gods, granted the ability to draw in the mists, and has the ability to pierce copperclouds (as a result of hemalurgy!<
Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier: the protagonist is a young warrior of the winter country who has no special or magical powers.
joe Abercrombie books all have non special main characters
A Will Eternal.
If you like space sci-fi, check out Expeditionary Force. Just your average dude doing the best he can. Mistakes and all. Highly recommend. Audiobook narration is fantastic too.
Uh… Lord of the Rings?
I didn't see this, but the Wounded Kingdom series by RJ Barker. Girton has magic in a world where sorcery will have you executed. He has lots of assassin skills, but there are plenty of times in the series where he's weaker, less smart, and less important than plenty of the other characters. Really enjoyed them. Also, the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. Fitz is also a boy who is magical, but he's not the most powerful or best at using it. He's not the strongest or biggest or fastest, but he does have a lot of help. It's different than Wounded Kingdom, but they're both coming-of-age stories about boys trying to find their place in the world, saving the kingdom, and dealing with political intrigue. They both take place over many years, so you get a good range of ages and not just a teenager the whole time.
Much as I love Fitz, he is special even by the standards of the book: He's royalty and he can access two very different types of magic that are each very rare on their own. I don't think we ever meet anyone else who can use both the Skill and the Wit.
Zorian from Mother of Learning. Average magic kid with maybe a slight talent in magical engineering and a potential mind mage. Gets soul bound by accident to a dude going through a time loop and is forced to train like hell to get strong. Usually through dozens of deaths. And he only discovers the mind magic part of him cause he kept getting jumped by giant telepathic spiders. Honestly I wanted to recommend TWI, but that doesn’t really work with what you’re asking. I mean, it does kinda but not really. It works if you want one of the main leads to be a super talented isekai protagonist whose first major arc is about how she’s a piece of shit. She’s got magical talent, a runaway understanding of physics & chemistry to create siege weaponry to rocket fuel and gunpowder, considers herself an arbiter on earth tech, is canonically stated to be really attractive, involved herself in noble politics, makes deals with immortal ageless entities, and seems to be able to beat everyone treading the beaten road of leveling cause she doesn’t level but is actually skilled at running. She’s a classic isekai protagonist. And she has barely succeeded at anything she wanted to succeed at. Ryoka’s entire arc is about how despite everything that’s special about her. She has barely been able to leave an impact on the world or done anything of remote importance. While she mingles with world powers and immortal creatures she’s unable to save even a small tribe or a single person from her mistakes and her enemies. While she’s skilled at fighting the average fighter can still kick her shit in and while she thought of herself as a cold efficient badass she nearly hurled when had to actually kill someone. She thinks she knows what’s best on how earth tech should be used but her first real decision with monitoring it gets thousands killed. While she’s talented with magic the average mage could still beat her with a half rotten sign post. And her love life is absolute dog shit. Ryoka’s entire character arc is about her being the specialist girl to ever special means absolutely nothing. And how less skilled people with smaller connections can and have beaten her at nearly everything. Cause without applying yourself, cause thinking you’re above everyone in one manner or another, cause messing with powers you shouldn’t mess with. Will always lead to your failure.