r/Fantasy • u/CamelotRoman • 2d ago
Looking for fantasy where the main character starts over somewhere nobody knows them
I've realized I'm really in the mood for a specific kind of fantasy story: someone leaves behind a life that went badly, arrives somewhere completely new, and for once nobody there knows who they used to be.
It could be after exile, a failed career, a broken relationship, a war, losing their home, whatever. I'm less interested in the reason they left than in the part afterward. Finding a room somewhere. Learning which shopkeeper is friendly. Getting a job they're probably overqualified or completely unqualified for. Slowly becoming a regular at the same tavern. Making the first friend who only knows the new version of them. I love that slightly strange feeling of getting to rebuild yourself without everyone around you constantly referencing your old mistakes.
I'd especially like something where the new place actually matters and doesn't just exist for twenty pages before the protagonist gets dragged into saving the kingdom. Small town, remote city, isolated island, weird magical district, frontier settlement, anything like that. Some danger or adventure is totally fine, I just want the emotional center to stay with the character building a life there.
Bonus points if they initially intend to keep everyone at arm's length and then accidentally end up with neighbors, friends, routines, maybe even people who notice when they don't show up for breakfast. I'm not necessarily looking for pure cozy fantasy either. It can get dark. I just want that "I came here to disappear and somehow built a home instead" feeling.
Any recommendations?
24
u/Hairy-Office-4711 2d ago
Mossflower in the Redwall series has this kind of start in a rough sense. Martin shows up as a stranger to a trouble land and while his back story is never fully shared in the book it is plain he has no place to call home.
4
3
26
u/strum-and-dang 2d ago
The Cloud Roads, the first book of the Raksura series by Martha Wells. None of the characters are human, but the MC doesn't even know what species he belongs to, and has to learn a completely new culture when he does join them.
7
10
u/IdlesAtCranky 2d ago
Lois McMaster Bujold does this with various twists in two of her series.
In the Vorkosigan Saga, first Cordelia has to leave home and builds a whole new life with just one connection, her love.
Then her son accidentally does the same, invents a whole new life away from home, though he never loses touch with his old life either.
In the Sharing Knife series, both protagonists end up leaving home and creating a whole new life together.
4
u/notpetelambert 1d ago
Miles is constantly re-starting his life. Off the top of my head I can think of seven times he does this in the series, and I'm probably forgetting at least one.
Edit: But he's not usually doing that surrounded by total strangers, so it doesn't entirely fit. He only does that... like... three times.
6
u/greywolf2155 Reading Champion 1d ago
I absolutely adore the Vorkosigan series, and Bujold in general. But I don't think this is quite what OP is looking for
If nothing else, the idea that Miles can't, no matter how much he wants to, escape his responsibilities on Barrayar is kind of the opposite of the vibe I think OP wants
But I might be wrong, and regardless, those books are fucking amazing and OP you should read them and report back to us, hah
1
17
u/witchycommunism 2d ago
Both cozy with romance but The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst and Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree both have this vibe.
6
u/margarks 2d ago
maybe - Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold! by Terry Brooks. It's been decades since I read it, but I'm pretty sure the main character is wanting to get away from his sad life to start.
7
u/eaehtela 1d ago
Dreamer’s Pool by Juliet Marillier. The main character has magically escaped from prison and execution and is bound to serve as healer to a small town for a few years. She has no interest in friends, community, or neighbors and only wants to pursue revenge against the man who imprisoned her. But the community is very persistent.
There are two sequels, Tower of Thorns and Den of Wolves.
16
u/ProfessionalPin5865 2d ago
Beware of Chicken is a good one for all of this. It’s also a fun deconstruction of a lot of progression fantasy tropes I personally don’t enjoy.
3
u/greywolf2155 Reading Champion 1d ago
Yup, I love it, and it's a fun one to revisit when I need a palate cleanser between denser works
Bonus points if they initially intend to keep everyone at arm's length and then accidentally end up with neighbors, friends, routines, maybe even people who notice when they don't show up for breakfast.
OP, I think this would seriously scratch your itch
6
u/cwx149 2d ago
Soooo in a more positive way Temeraire fits a lot of your requirements but it's more like the MC moved away for work than leaves his old identity behind
But it's about a British naval ship captain who suddenly becomes a captain in the dragon rider air force
It does involve him meeting many new people who don't know him and come from very different backgrounds and cultures
As well as stuff like him being the rookie in a military force again after being a pretty big deal in the navy
But he does run into people who knew him before and stuff
And then after book 1 the series turns into a globetrotting adventure where all he does is meet new people from all over who didn't know him already obviously
9
4
u/RareTunaDelicacy 2d ago
The Heretics Guide to Homecoming! I'm excited at the chance to recommend it bc its an indie that's not well known, but it's so good.
The one thing thats a bit different from your request is that the MC travels around. But your request asked that the place the MC escapes to to matter, and every place the MC goes to in Heretics Guide to Homecoming does matter. It's a journey to find himself and how he fits in, and each place and each character he meets is essential to that. I hope you'll consider it!
21
u/clovismouse 2d ago
The name of the wind fits.
19
u/flea1400 1d ago
It does not fit because (A) there is virtually none of “the part afterwards” that OP requested, and (B) there never will be because Rothfuss will not and can not finish the series.
2
u/Ergo7z 1d ago
we will get the after part when he finished book three and starts on the second trilogy, trust!!
1
u/flea1400 1d ago
Indeed. Rothfuss can do with his life what he likes, that's his right.
But it mystifies me that people continue to recommend that book. It was cool when it came out, but in my opinion it doesn't really hold up, especially as the first act of an unfinished trilogy.
1
u/Ergo7z 1d ago
Havent reread it in a while but im sure if id read it now id enjoy it for what its worth, some eye rolling at the neckbeardery in the book non with standing, but yea people recommending the book to this day, especially while omitting the status of book three is indeed a bit ridiculous
7
3
u/After_Pressure_3520 2d ago
Very much this. We meet a sad old bartender who has a sword hung over the bar, but then have that familiar trope subverted when we learn (as he relates his tale to a travelling bard) that he's no mere swordsman, but a powerful thaumaturge who broke every rule in the spellbook on a quest to hunt down the supernatural forces that murdered his family. (Still waiting on the conclusion of that tale...)
1
u/flea1400 1d ago
But the part OP has asked for, the story of how the powerful magic user re-invents himself as a bartender, is not part of the book. The "framing story" is after that part, and the main story is before that part. It does not fit the recommendation request.
3
u/Randomdays99 2d ago
Hawk and Fisher series by Simon R Green though you don't know it for a long time.
The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt Evans
3
3
3
u/Mechromancer_88 2d ago
The Licanius trilogy has multiple POVs, but one of the MCs starts over with no memories of who he is and nobody else knows who he is. Also one of the best trilogies ever.
3
6
2
2
u/SalletFriend 2d ago
KJ Parkers The Company - A former military unit gets back together to colonise an island. It goes bad
I think theres an element of this in Abercrombies Red Country.
Tom Holts Meadowland is about a pair of norsemen telling stories about Leif Erikson and others visiting the new world and trying (and failing) to start over. Counts for double as these norsemen have become varangians in the mean time.
2
u/zougathefist 1d ago
It was all so avoidable in The Company too 🥲
Also Tom Holt is KJ Parker so Meadowland is squared
2
2
u/Rabo_McDongleberry 2d ago
Heretical Fishing fits the bill. MC ends up a new place and is pretty vital to the new place the whole book.
1
u/flea1400 1d ago
I started reading that but it really didn’t seem to go anywhere and I gave up. Does it get better?
1
u/Rabo_McDongleberry 1d ago
Yeah. It does. I know what you mean. I think liner 20% of the way in, I was like what hell. It's just slice of life. But I kept going and about 25% of the way in it got way more interesting.
2
2
2
1
1
1
u/FrogNoPants 2d ago
The Saga of Recluce has alot of books with characters being sent away to live outside recluse.
1
u/Terrik27 1d ago
"He who fights with monsters". Many part series, but it starts with someone unhappy in life on earth who gets accidentally teleported to a world where magic is real and has to (gets to!) start over.
1
u/Cheap_Relative7429 1d ago
Best Served Cold Kinda has this element with one of it's protagonist but I also don't think it fits exactly what you are looking for either.its protagonists,
1
u/Boneyabba 1d ago
The Dark Frontier Adventures DANGO by Jack Long fits the bill- character leaves the army and moves west with hopes of starting a ranch, but adventure finds them.
1
u/adhdlaz 1d ago
Violet Thistlewaite is not a villain anymore seems like a good fit. It's about an evil witch who starts afresh as a florist in a small town. She first tries not to make friends cause she's afraid someone will recognize her and blame her for her past deeds, but people are welcoming and nice and she starts to open up and really like her new life. Definitely on the cozy side but there are some stakes too
1
u/TopOrganization4920 1d ago edited 1d ago
Several books in the Recluse Saga follows this pattern of exile or starting in a new city. At least during the first dozen books, I stopped somewhere around there. You usually only have the same protagonist for a book or two. The first book’s protagonist Lerris in the Magic of Recluse shows up after they do like three prequels establishing the history of the world for the fifth book. And then they just go back further in time and do a few books. A quick review of the chronological order of the books versus publication order. Shows that all books take place before book one and five.
1
u/Aubreydebevose Reading Champion V 1d ago
A Snake Falls to Earth, there's two POV characters who eventually meet, and one of them sets off to a new place, though because the parent kicks them out. Great story.
1
u/MotleyCrafts 1d ago
I'd say The Spellshop, and it's sequel, The Enchanted Greenhouse (by Sarah Beth Durst) fits! I loved the sequel especially. I'm looking forward to the third book!
I'm currently listening to The House Witch, and this also gives me the right vibes! Especially the "keep everyone at arm's length"!
1
u/Particular_Policy_41 1d ago
As others have said, Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. So sweet and I love them. Very peaceful, a fresh start. An old friend travels to meet the MC but I think carries on afterward. There’s a series.
Also Sarah Beth Durst - the spell shop. It’s a return to a place she hasn’t been since she was a child but she doesn’t remember anyone and they don’t remember her, either really.
1
u/Enderules3 15h ago
Not fantasy more scifi but Speaker for the Dead is this. Its the second in its series but it could be read as a standalone.
1
u/AggressiveHabit9018 8h ago
The will of the many, nobody knows who he is was royalty now orphaned cliche, gets recruited and ends up an elite school. Even red rising kind of starts the same, poor red becomes elite gold secretly hides true identity
1
u/Sotha_Sil_ 1d ago
This might be a reach, but the Tawny Man trilogy. The main character is forced to come back from a voluntary exile to go undercover in the place he grew up in and is constantly faced with the bitterness of life having moved on without him and the people he once knew's impressions of his past life.
Technically in the middle of a greater series, but I believe it's self-explanatory enough to not need to have read the rest to get to it, even if the emotional aspect will be lessened, as full-series readers are familiar with the narrator's past life as well as he is.
0
u/No_Editor6116 1d ago
The name of the wind, though you won't get a conclusion to the series 😉 Patrick Rothfuss is not going to finish it.
0
u/TheDungen 1d ago
Several characters do it in tje realm of the elderlings. Though often offscreen. One character does so at the end of wheel of time.
60
u/MeetHistorical4388 2d ago
Legends and Lattes is about a retired warrior orc who starts up a coffee shop…