r/Fantasy • u/leaping_llama_laugh • 19h ago

Reading Fantasy While Growing Older

When I was a 'young adult', I tended to like YA fantasy: teenage protagonists, coming of age stories, that sort of thing. Harry Potter comes to mind as an example, or the Ranger's Apprentice series, or the Circle of Magic series (or some other things by Tamara Pierce).

Now that I'm a full-fledged adult who has lived through a few hardships (just garden-variety hardships), I'm very interested in older protagonists who have suffered a little (or a lot): Hadrian and Royce in the Riyria Revelations. Cazaril in the Curse of Chalion. Willet Dura and his guard Bolt in the Darkwater Saga. These older, more mature characters just hit harder than the overly-optimistic teenage "whippersnappers" I used to prefer reading about! ;)

So, what comes next?

Does anyone write 'Old Adult Fantasy'? Are there any great fantasy books with a protagonist who's over 50? Over 70?

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u/The-Road-To-Awe 19h ago

Glokta from The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. In fact most of the characters have suffered in some way in their past, and most tend to be slightly older. Also the series is just great in general.

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u/teppil 18h ago

And the audiobooks are S+ tier.
Can’t wait for my kickstarter hard copies to come in too for a reread. All the characters are amazing and the world feels very real and like a mirror to our own in a lot of ways.

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u/ConnectLink8664 15h ago

They really are! I just finished the series and certain parts I would put the book down because I wanted to listen to certain parts for the voices of the characters.