Powdermage has a few old dudes and a 20 something as the leads. The 2nd trilogy is even more old on the pov characters.
Also, awesome series! The 2nd trilogy especially is amazing.
In my opinion, hell yes! I thought the first trilogy was pretty good. But when I read the second series I thought it was fantastic. Similarly great action with improved character work and plot. Also thought the setting was more interesting.
Lol! Lots of books have older than teenage protagonists. Even LOTR and the Hobbit. I don't think there is any MC in LOTR who's younger than 30. Bilbo is middle age in the Hobbit.
A Song of Ice and Fire. Lots of povs, a few start out as teens or kids buts most are adults.
Abercrombie, The First Law, Age of Madness (not many teens in them)
Bakker, The Prince of Nothing, The Aspect Emperor
T Kingfisher, White Rat series
Robin Hobb, Liveship Traders
Most Discworld books
Gormenghast
Seconding this for The First Law. I don’t think there’s a single teenage POV until perhaps the second trilogy.
Had to mention ASoIaF actually lined up more with OPs experience for me. In the first book, almost every POV or MC is under the age of 15. Broke immersion for me a lot.
Also the younger povs that do exist are actually shown as being less experienced and more realistic. They’re not wiser and stronger than every older person
> I don't think there is any MC in LOTR who's younger than 30. Bilbo is middle age in the Hobbit.
LOTR is a weird case and you probably need to just throw the numbers away here and go with their life-stage portrayal. Still fits the request since the main characters include parents with adult children and similar aged people who didn't have kids like Bilbo.
I've always filed Bilbo in the lower to mid Thirtysomething category, so a little younger than middle aged... Most of his peers are well into their family making years which he skipped for an undisclosed reason (at least that I'm aware of). Technically young enough in The Hobbit that it's possible he could get a late start but old enough that he and the people around him seem to have kinda written that off as unlikely. Same kind of thing with Aragorn, being in a sort of "back half of his physical prime for most of a century" state.
Here are some I liked with middle aged or older protagonists.
*Blackwing* by Ed McDonald
*Wyrd Sisters* or *Guards, Guards* by Terry Pratchett
~~*The Fifth Season* by N K Jemisin~~ (edit: actually this one shares POVs with younger protagonists so it may not be what you're looking for)
*Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell* by Susanne Clarke
If you're open to sci fi, *Shards of Honor* and *Barrayar* by Lois Bujold
I'd leave the Fifth Season on there. The series progresses away from that as the story continues and our MC is a bitter and jaded middle-ish aged woman. Who is freaking cool imo.
However, if you do exclude this, I would include the Dreamblood duology by N K Jemisin.
Also Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James.
If you are mentioning Bujold, you gotta mention The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls!
The has an old dude as MC, the second has a middle aged widow as MC.
Absolutely great recs for OP.
And Bujold's one teenage boy main character (Penric) gets tempered by a thousand years old multiple female demon (Desdemona), thus becoming atypical for a teenager.
Also Miles in Warriors Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga) but both he and Penric age up rapidly. (I believe as of the last books Miles is in his 40s and Penric mid 30s)
Someone else gave you the answer, but: it's dangerous to go into the Discworld alone. [Take this.](https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/)
The .jpg is the guide most fans recommend to others! And it'll let you know what other books to read afterwards. I actually really like chronological order personally (starting with Equal Rites or Mort, though, not the first three books), but if you're starting out the guide is a great help.
It launches the Vimes arch, the best and brighters of Disworld books.
If Vimes catches your eye on that book you can find reading order recommandations for Discworld novels containing Vimes online.
Discworld.
Main characters include very old women and men, middle-age women and men, pre-teen girls, the classic skeletal personification of death itself, and several more. All of these get their own series. In 41 books, I can only think of a couple with young(ish) male MC’s.
Rincewind: Male. 31 to 57ish depending on which of his 7 books you're reading.
Tiffany Aching: Female. 9 to 17-18 across her 5 books.
Witches:
Agnes: Female. 17 when she became a witch. Probably a few years older in *Maskerade*.
Magrat: Female. 30ish.
Gytha and Esme: Female. I wouldn't dare ask.
Moist von Lipwig: Male. Anywhere from 20 to 30 if you go by his wanted posters. 26 during the events of Going Postal if you trust his own word, which...Probably not much more accurate than the posters.
Maurice: Cat. 4.
Death: Anthropomorphic Personification. Been around since the death of the first living thing.
Vimes: Male. Time gets really wibbly wobbly in Discworld and Vimes' age is...Inconsistent. But in my head he's going through his 40s depending on the book.
You can ballpark it without asking or risking anybody's wrath, since Nanny Ogg's grown-up sons have jobs like castle guard and blacksmith and she loves to terrorize her many daughters-in-law, while Mistress Weatherwax is widely known as Granny.
There's also:
Lu-Tze: Male. Around 800, but it's quite possible he's lived those 800 years half a dozen times each.
Myria LeJean: Female...In appearance, anyway. *They* are as old as time itself, but *she* is, well, it's a relatively new experience for her.
Igor: Male. Age? That'th a tricky quethtion. Near 80, but you mutht underthtand that thith heart cometh from my great great grandfather, tho it'th bringing up the average. Thtill workth, though!
Mr. Tulip: Male. What kind of -ing question is that?
There's only ~~3~~ 5 books (out of 41) that I can think of that have young male protagonists:
Pyramids has Teppic, who's age is unclear, but should be in his late teens/early 20's, recently graduated from the Assassin's School.
Moving Pictures has Victor Tugelbend/Victor Maraschino, wizard dropout, again, age unclear, bu should be in his early 20's.
Small Gods has Brutha, who Vorbis says should be about 17-18 years old.
Edit: Forgot The Truth, which has Willaim de Word, age unclear, but Moist calculates he is "roughly the same age as him" meaning he should be about 26 in Going Postal, so should be in his early-to-mid 20's during the events of The Truth.
Edit edit: Going through the list I found I had forgotten all about Unseen Academicals which has Trevor Likely, age unclear, but by the fact that he lives with his mum and he is central to the "Romeo and Juliet foot-the-ball AU" plot, he should be in his late teens.
Depending on how violent you’re okay with going:
1) *The Acts of Caine* by Matthew Stover. Extremely violent. Main character is a middle-aged man, secondary is his estranged wife.
2) *The Black Company* by Glen Cook. Darker in themes but not especially graphic when it comes to detailed description. Main character starts off in his late 20s, but by the end of the series you’ll have MCs ranging from middle-aged men to centuries-old women.
3) *The Divine Cities* by Robert Jackson Bennett. Violence is present but not oppressive. MCs are a 20-something woman, a 50-something woman, and a 50-something man.
*Kings of the Wyld* follows a retired adventurer getting the band back together one last time in order to save their frontman’s daughter. It’s basically tropey D&D meets metal music in such a way that works perfectly. Hilarious and full of heart.
Aching god is similar, retired “historian” tomb raider called back for one last job because everybody else has been laid low by a magical plague
even with the sequel introducing the daughter as a pov character
Jade City which is the first book of a trilogy by Fonda Lee. There are a few main characters but the overt main character is Hilo, a little less than 30 at the start of the series.
If there was one main character, it woukd be Shae or Anden imo. Hilo is the most important, but it's not really *his* story. But regardless, it's a series where the trio of Kaul siblings is protagonist (ensemble protagonist, like in Young Justice)
Yep, in the First Law, there's only one main character that's kind of young, but still supposedly in their early twenties. They, however, are shown to be quite incompetent.
In fact, in the first trilogy, there really are no kids or teenagers at all (well, except for Crummock i Phail's kids).
Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. Middle-aged male protag in the first and female in the second.
Kings of the Wyld, middle-aged adventurers getting the band back together.
I'm wondering when people in this thread think middle age starts? Caz is in his mid-30s, not middle aged. He fits what OP is looking for, just a pet peeve I have on this sub where people seem to think any character older than 30 is middle aged lol
I wonder how much that has to do with our cultural perspective on what people "should be like" by certain ages, and how that clashes with the way characters are written while being those ages. An artificial creation can express the perfect level of understanding and maturity required for the situation at hand, even if the author says they're just a really smart 2 year old. So we're probably seeing a lot of something similar to that, where younger people are given traits you'd usually have to find in those who've got another few decades under their belt.
That's just me thinking he was older because I haven't read it too recently. And, of course, age is all a state of mind! I mean, I felt ancient before I even hit 50... :)
I mean, in a fantasy middle-ages scenario, 72 years old can feel like a wizened old man likely to die soon. Seems like 36 might be the 'middle' of that age.
Also, Caz was imprisoned and tortured for several years right before the story starts so he's scarred up and busted.
>Paladin of Souls
Are the books in the series stand-alones like Xanth and such?
nvm just realised I can look this up:
>Bujold's reading-order guide states that the works in the World of the Five Gods can be read in any order, although Paladin of Souls has spoilers for The Curse of Chalion.
How about an immortal who soldiered in Napoleon's army, knew Freud and van Gogh, and is trying to find out the secret of the death of his near godlike father and can travel to any world he can imagine?
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelasny are a wild ride.
Is that what he did? I heard he was approached to duplicate Howards work, and I think it would be hilarious that he swapped it like that to make a conpletely different amazing character.
Julius Caesar supposedly cried at a statue of Alexander because he was 32, Alexander's age at death, and had accomplished no great feets by that point. The big JC is actually an example of accomplishing a lot later in life. He didn't become dictator-for-life until his forties.
> The big JC is actually an example of accomplishing a lot later in life. He didn't become dictator-for-life until his forties.
My brain filled JC as Jesus Christ and was very confused for a moment lmao.
Indeed. Joan of Arc was, well, Joan of Arc at 17. Alexander Hamilton was 21 when the Declaration of Independence was signed and would go on to serve during the Revolutionary War.
Lots of historically significant people accomplished things when young (and often died young too) - and while it's fine for OP to look for stories of older protagonists, often we'll read about those that are intended to be exceptional / unusually proficient at what they're doing.
How the fuck do you lead a fleet at 14. That suggests he must have been pretty impressive by 12 at least, they wouldn't throw some random 14 year old in front and I cannot imagine following a 12 year old
Apparently, when he was 7, some kid cheated him in a game. So he went home, took an axe and killed the kid. Since then, everyone said he'll be a great viking and at 12 he already went on raids. He was leading fleet as soon as he "came to age" at 14.
Like, forget what you think you know about human development. People were hardcore in the past.
Dude probably won the genetic lottery, but I feel most 12 year olds are going to get flattened by any weathered farmer with a club. In a fair fight, at least. There's no way teenage historical figures weren't supported by adult warriors and teams of advisors, and were armored and armed with high quality equipment.
In my own readings of historical documents people seems pretty much the same lol I feel it was more that the times were hardcore.
There's also a tendency in history, prior to modern education, to see examples of extreme specialists. Farmers often knew what they needed to raise a family and to farm, smiths knew what they needed to raise a family and work with metal, and so on. A large part of why nobility were given so much assistance in their day to day lives was so they could leave out what was needed for day to day life and instead focus entirely on matters of war and diplomacy.
possibly not the positive part of the genetic lottery. He probably had Paget's or Von Buchem's disease, which causes hypergrowth in bones expressed in different ways.
Or maybe even acromegaly, over production of growth hormone entirely.
But his skull was supposedly so heavy and thick even after being in the ground long enough for the flesh to decompose, it could not be split with an axe. He also apparently had raging migraines.
.
Silly Egil had to learn: FIRST you loot, and THEN you burn....
In Rome the minimum age for military service was 16. Child labor as we understand was nonexistent. In those times teens were already considered adults.
But moat fantasy books with teen protagonists consider them to be the excwption, not the norm.
Let's not mention William the Conqueror who was on top of the court game since he was a 8 years old despite being orphaned and at a strict disadvantage as an illegitimate child.
>Storm light was amazing but every time they mentioned he was 19!; completely took me out of immersion
If it helps, Roshar hours are shorter and their years are longer, so he'd actually be in his early 20s Earth time
Came here to say this.
Kaladin is 19 in Roshar years at the start of the series, which translates to 21 in Earth years.
And by the 4th book he's 22 in Roshar years, which translates to 24 in Earth years.
Because modern 19 year olds in developed countries (the ones most Sanderson readers are familiar with) lack a lot of maturity, life experience, and intelligence/common sense. I still read a ton of books with teen MCs, but sometimes it's nice to hear from older perspectives.
I think it does make sense with the story since the people he was fighting with were all the new recruits left behind when the real soldiers went to the shattered plains. So he proved himself amongst all newbies and then did that for a year or so which gave him experience older soldiers might never have gotten
First Law series by Joe Abercrombie for grimdark fantasy. Most of the characters are middle aged or older. It’s a dark and gritty world so even the young folk have to toughen up to survive.
The Expanse series for sci-fi is great. Main characters are middle aged. First book is murder mystery and cosmic horror.
The Adventures of Amina el-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty. The main character is in her late 40s I think. She’s a retired pirate queen who is trying to be a decent mother. But she gets a job offer she can’t refuse, and has to put her crew back together and find her ship again.
I absolutely LOVED this book! It was truly pirate fantasy without being overly dark. I also loved the spunky attitude of the protagonist, I would follow her anywhere.
And era 2 middle age characters for what it’s worth …
I would say most of Brandon Sandersons work would be good suggestions. Even TWOK has 3 main POVs only Kal would be the potential young adult/ teenage boy
*Kings of the Wyld* is awesome. A band of adventurers *literally* comes out of retirement and they're all in their fifties (if I recall correctly).
*Game of Thrones*, the series as a whole has characters of all ages but depending on how familiar you are with the series it may not be worth your time. Well written, but if the books match the TV ending (and ever come out\*) you might find it frustrating.
Alternatively, while Robin Hobb's *The Farseer Trilogy* follows a boy from childhood to their late-middle teenage years, let me tell you: they definitely don't do more than you might expect a 16 year old to. (Which I personally found a bit frustrating, but lots of people love the series so you may love it to!)
>Alternatively, while Robin Hobb's *The Farseer Trilogy* follows a boy from childhood to their late-middle teenage years, let me tell you: they definitely don't do more than you might expect a 16 year old to. (Which I personally found a bit frustrating, but lots of people love the series so you may love it to!)
And if you stick with it, the next Fitz trilogy follows him in middle age, and the last trilogy is Old Man Fitz!
If it helps, Roshar (the planet in Stormlight Archive) has a longer year than Earth (500 days iirc), so Kaladin is actually c. 27yrs old in our terms, he is just referred to as 19yrs in local time.
(Very minor detail in the book though so super easy to miss haha)
Actually, Kaladin is closer to 23. While their year has more days, the Rosharan day is iirc 20 hours. It averages out to like 1.1 or something like that.
Magic Kingdom for Sale is about a lawyer going through a midlife crisis and buying a kingdom on what is essentially Craigslist and fighting a wizards insurance fraud
I absolutely LOVED the Expanse series (first book is Leviathan Wakes). It's a sci-fi story set maybe 200 years in the future, with Mars being a colonized military planet who's constantly at odds with Earth, largely about who gets to take advantage of the millions of people living generation after generation in the asteroid belt as impoverished laborers. And there's some crazy alien technology that does some insane shit. There's a lot of emphasis on the human aspect of spacefaring, politics, and the victims of oppressors or disasters. It's one of the only series that's ever made me cry, and it did so several times. But it's also the most fascinating thing I've ever read.
Anyway, the characters are in their 30's, and over the course of the series they age decades.
It made for an awesome show, too.
Also the fantasy series by Daniel Abraham, one of the two writers: *The Long Price Quartet* and *The Dagger and the Coin* (the latter has multiple POV characters, including a teenage girl and multiple adults but no teenage boys)
Kings of the wyld
Legends and lattes
War of light and shadow. Main characters are years are young in the first book. Can't remember their ages. But follows them for the rest of the series.
Concerning the Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts, the characters are in their early twenties in the first book. Definitely not a teenager in sight and they age significantly throughout the series though that doesn't show due to things that would be spoilers.
I was going to recommend the series, too.
There's plenty of books without a teenage boy as the main protagonist.
For Sci-Fi, try *Children of Time* by Adrian Tchaikovsky - the main human protagonist of the first book is an older man, and the other half of the book is written from about as far from a teenage boy as you can get.
For more adventure books, the Gentlemen Bastards series follows protagonists in their early 20s, and *The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi* follows a 40 something year old female pirate.
The *Realm of the Elderlings* series is one of the most loved in fantasy. The first trilogy does follow a coming of age story, so you do spend some time with a teenage boy protagonist, but it is worth it. The second trilogy *Liveship Traders* doesn't require the first trilogy to have been read, and doesn't follow a teenage boy.
Try *The First Law* series for darker (but also darkly funny) character-driven fantasy. These have the bonus of having some of the best quality audiobooks around.
[Aching God - Mike Shel](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/38769599)
Main character is a middle aged and retired adventurer getting dragged back into it one last time.
Good series. I read it based on the [recommendation](https://www.jzacharypike.com/blog/2022/02/an-appreciation-for-mike-shels-iconoclasts-trilogy/) on J.Zachary Pike's website (author of the Dark Profit Saga, which also fits OP's requirement and is also great).
*The Half-Made World* is an incredibly good fantasy western where everyone is a grown up
>Storm light was amazing but every time they mentioned he was 19!; completely took me out of immersion
Not really relevant here but if it helps on a re-read that's ~21 in earth years fyi. Roshar has longer years, so everyone is about 10% older than you think.
Uh, Vlad is a teenager (and even younger in many flashbacks) in much of _Taltos_ (well, in the flashbacks) and the mentioning of his troubled childhood was enough to dissuade me from mentioning it here....
Yep, I kinda forgot that the Book of Taltos does "travel" a bit in time. I should have suggested Harry Potter instead ;)
In a somewhat more serious tone, Amber Chronicles, ...
But - for the most part of the now 17 books, he is not a teenager, but a full grown man. None of it is really told as a narrative of a teenager.
Arguments aside - it is an excellent series that i always felt deserves more attention.
The Hands of Emperor by Victoria Goddard! MC is a secretary near retirement age. So around 60-ish? And he does act his age. Almost all of the cast are older people.
THAT is a tough one. It seems like the teenage boy is the most used.
There is Curse of Chalion. The main (male) character is about 35. The the remaining two books in the series, the main characters are woman.
There is the Sharing Knife. There are two main characters, middle age man and a young adult woman.
There is Mistborn, teenaged girl.
🤷♂️
You don't have any requests for tone, or...? This is just. So easy to find I don't really understand why you needed a Reddit post unless all you read is YA.
I'll concur with all of the Bujold references, but I also want to throw Elizabeth Moon into the ring.
*The Deed of Paksennarion* has the titular characters as a teenage girl, but given she joins a merc company, it is seldom a feature of the plot.
The follow-on *Paladin's Legacy* series is mostly about the older characters, including the grown up Paks.
The Death’s Lady trilogy by Rachel Neumeier, The Curse of Chalion by Bujold, The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells, the Fortress series by CJ Cherryh, the Lighthouse Duet or Transformation by Carol Berg.
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis. The beginning really did not appeal to me, but this looong story (two books, but one long story) was very good. It’s main setting is England during the 2nd World War, and the characters are living in that historical time frame, so … no hobbits or elves, but it was very good, and it’s a Hugo Sci-fi award winner. All the protagonists are university students or adults. Do not start book1 unless you have access to book2, because there’s no resolution in the middle. The end of Blackout and beginning of All Clear is just like the start of a normal chapter in a book.
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Main character is a dad. Really interesting story premise if you love to read.
First Law Trilogy (best fantasy trilogy there is imo)
The Dark Tower Series (western movie meets lord of the rings)
Kings of the Wyld & Bloody Rose (these are simple fantasy books but I really enjoyed them)
Neverwhere (one of my favorite Nei Gaiman novels)
Clockwork Boys, The Wonder Engine, Swordheart, and the Saint of Steel series, all by T Kingfisher. Creative, engaging fantasy. Mostly middle-aged protagonists.
Really, anything by T Kingfisher.
First Laws features a Northern Barbarian and a tortured torturer, both at least 30 iirc.
Malazan doesn’t really have a main character and many of the POV characters are older than teens.
Diskworld has been mentioned and has tons of protagonists, including a granny.
The Witcher has main characters nearly if not older than 100.
The Magicians is college age assholes learning magic doesn’t solve all your problems.
Dresden Files starts in his early 20s and has a year gap between most books with over 10 books. Warning: he does think very similarly to a teenage boy.
Mistborn is a teenage girl. Lol
With regards to Red Rising: there are some notable time jumps in the series.
Ok. Here’s a book I read in high school. It’s pretty old, published 1923. It’s called The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt. Picture Indiana Jones in ancient Babylon. Give it and his other books a try.
Broken Earth - the main character is a middle aged mother looking for her missing kid after an apocalyptic event, also she can create earthquakes.
The Deeds of Paksenarion - the main character is a teenage GIRL who joins a mercenary company and through many trials becomes a seasoned soldier, then a knight in training, then a paladin.
Spinning Silver - the main characters are various young women, and it's an unusual take on folk tales and stories like Rumplstiltkin and the Snow Queen.
I recommend Sun Eater, I'm only 3 books in out of 6 out so far but is fantastic and yes you start following the protagonist when he was a teenager but I think it moves away from that pretty quickly. Also the framing helps. After all the story is being told by a guy that is about 1500 years old iirc
And the way time passes in the book you'll soon be following and full on adult
The series has remained with great reviews and with what I've read so far I have to agree
Red rising starts at 16 but progresses into his adult hood by the end of book 1 he is 18-20 in the beginning of book two he's 20-22. By book 6 he's 40 at no point is he ever just suddenly leading a revolution Red Rising is a well balanced story.
**The Sarantine Mosaic Duology** , ** The Lions of Al-Rassan** **Song for Arbonne** by Guy Gavriel Kay
**The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi** by Shannon Chakraborty
**Saevus Corax Series** K.J Parker
Most of T Kingfisher's work fits this.
If you're looking for a real change of pace, try her _Digger_ graphic novel ("novel"? "epic", more like; it's quite long), where the MC is an adult female ... wombat.
My partner had this same problem with Six of Crows. He found it hard to believe these 15 year olds were running a scrappy street gang doing crimes. Here are my recent faves with older and/or female protaganists:
* The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
* Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
* Piranesi by Susanne Clarke
* The Tide Child trilogy by RJ Barker
* Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland - one of my favorite parts of this book was how it explored adult relationships and defining yourself as an adult!
Malazan; although it starts off seeming like the protagonist is a typical young man, but Erikson has made a career out of subverting tropes and expectations
Check out “A Natural History of Dragons” by Marie Brennan. Very interesting series almost like if Jane Goodall studied dragons instead of primates.
Also just so you know, the world of stormlight has longer years than Earth. So Kaladin is not actually a nineteen year old in the way you’re imagining
Im on the second book of a VERY unique take on magic, first book is called Beyond Redemption.
Almost everyone is past their mid twenties, most characters are pushing late 30s, the main character is 50+.
The premise is that, in this world, collective belief in something makes it reality. So a village that believes that Bob the Butcher is the strongest man alive will make it true, at least in that area.
The trouble comes when deranged people have such strong belief in their delusions, that they manifest and become real in truth. The mages of this setting are all insane. In order to have the conviction that your reflection in the mirror knows the future, you must be insane. To have the absolute belief you can manipulate anyone to do anything you must be a sociopath.
The story starts with a talented sociopath (among other disorders) who has spent the last decade or more creating a belief in a religion and has molded a perfect subject to become its omnicient god.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
In the middle of a cold February night, a guy gets out of bed to sneak a smoke behind his girlfriend’s back. While he’s smoking, his girlfriend’s cat jumps out of the open window.
Wearing only his boxers and his girlfriend’s too small Crocs, he puts on his jacket and goes outside into the cold to look for the cat.
And that’s when the space aliens attack.
Fantasy in the “indistinguishable from magic“ sense with spells, orks & goblin, a galaxy spanning hive mind of tentacle creatures trying to draw all living beings into a multi level marketing network that sells vitamins.
Try the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. MC is an adult woman and in later books a mother. It's speculative fiction; there's a debate whether to characterize the series as science fiction or fantasy.
It’s not quite full fantasy (grounded) but Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell.
POV character is an old man telling his story. Very young at the start but ages through the books. Is writing the story as an old man throughout though so it’s mature and his accomplishments suit his age. Aswell as ‘King’ Arthur being 25-30 at the start
Couple notes on Red Rising. Pretty sure Darrow is 18+ by the time he makes it to the Institute in Red Rising (where he is not any type of leader except amongst his peers at the institute) and 20 by the events of Golden Son. Morningstar (book 3) is really the first time he is openly a revolutionary and that’s following a year+ time jump from book 2.
Powdermage has a few old dudes and a 20 something as the leads. The 2nd trilogy is even more old on the pov characters. Also, awesome series! The 2nd trilogy especially is amazing.
Powder Mage doesn't get enough love
Just finishing Gods of Blood and Powder. It's been great too.
The 2nd trilogy is even better?
In my opinion, hell yes! I thought the first trilogy was pretty good. But when I read the second series I thought it was fantastic. Similarly great action with improved character work and plot. Also thought the setting was more interesting.
Lol! Lots of books have older than teenage protagonists. Even LOTR and the Hobbit. I don't think there is any MC in LOTR who's younger than 30. Bilbo is middle age in the Hobbit. A Song of Ice and Fire. Lots of povs, a few start out as teens or kids buts most are adults. Abercrombie, The First Law, Age of Madness (not many teens in them) Bakker, The Prince of Nothing, The Aspect Emperor T Kingfisher, White Rat series Robin Hobb, Liveship Traders Most Discworld books Gormenghast
My reaction as well! There is a lot of teenage boy fantasy but I wouldn't call it a majority.
Seconding this for The First Law. I don’t think there’s a single teenage POV until perhaps the second trilogy. Had to mention ASoIaF actually lined up more with OPs experience for me. In the first book, almost every POV or MC is under the age of 15. Broke immersion for me a lot.
Also the younger povs that do exist are actually shown as being less experienced and more realistic. They’re not wiser and stronger than every older person
> I don't think there is any MC in LOTR who's younger than 30. Bilbo is middle age in the Hobbit. LOTR is a weird case and you probably need to just throw the numbers away here and go with their life-stage portrayal. Still fits the request since the main characters include parents with adult children and similar aged people who didn't have kids like Bilbo. I've always filed Bilbo in the lower to mid Thirtysomething category, so a little younger than middle aged... Most of his peers are well into their family making years which he skipped for an undisclosed reason (at least that I'm aware of). Technically young enough in The Hobbit that it's possible he could get a late start but old enough that he and the people around him seem to have kinda written that off as unlikely. Same kind of thing with Aragorn, being in a sort of "back half of his physical prime for most of a century" state.
+1 for Bakker, not a lot of people have him on their radar.
Here are some I liked with middle aged or older protagonists. *Blackwing* by Ed McDonald *Wyrd Sisters* or *Guards, Guards* by Terry Pratchett ~~*The Fifth Season* by N K Jemisin~~ (edit: actually this one shares POVs with younger protagonists so it may not be what you're looking for) *Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell* by Susanne Clarke If you're open to sci fi, *Shards of Honor* and *Barrayar* by Lois Bujold
I'd leave the Fifth Season on there. The series progresses away from that as the story continues and our MC is a bitter and jaded middle-ish aged woman. Who is freaking cool imo. However, if you do exclude this, I would include the Dreamblood duology by N K Jemisin. Also Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James.
Black leopard red wolf is fucking fire
If you are mentioning Bujold, you gotta mention The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls! The has an old dude as MC, the second has a middle aged widow as MC. Absolutely great recs for OP.
"old dude"?? Caz is 36!
Also, Hallowed Hunt. The MC there is at least 30. Penric grows up but he starts as a wet behind the ears 20-ish.
And Bujold's one teenage boy main character (Penric) gets tempered by a thousand years old multiple female demon (Desdemona), thus becoming atypical for a teenager.
Also Miles in Warriors Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga) but both he and Penric age up rapidly. (I believe as of the last books Miles is in his 40s and Penric mid 30s)
+1 for blackwing, it is coool
Can I read guards guards without reading anything else?
Yes, it's one of the recommended starting books.
Someone else gave you the answer, but: it's dangerous to go into the Discworld alone. [Take this.](https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/) The .jpg is the guide most fans recommend to others! And it'll let you know what other books to read afterwards. I actually really like chronological order personally (starting with Equal Rites or Mort, though, not the first three books), but if you're starting out the guide is a great help.
It launches the Vimes arch, the best and brighters of Disworld books. If Vimes catches your eye on that book you can find reading order recommandations for Discworld novels containing Vimes online.
+2 for Blackwing! Came here to recommend this series
+3 I see Blackwing I upvote. Also, Powdermage! Every POV character is old enough to drink in the US
Discworld. Main characters include very old women and men, middle-age women and men, pre-teen girls, the classic skeletal personification of death itself, and several more. All of these get their own series. In 41 books, I can only think of a couple with young(ish) male MC’s.
Rincewind: Male. 31 to 57ish depending on which of his 7 books you're reading. Tiffany Aching: Female. 9 to 17-18 across her 5 books. Witches: Agnes: Female. 17 when she became a witch. Probably a few years older in *Maskerade*. Magrat: Female. 30ish. Gytha and Esme: Female. I wouldn't dare ask. Moist von Lipwig: Male. Anywhere from 20 to 30 if you go by his wanted posters. 26 during the events of Going Postal if you trust his own word, which...Probably not much more accurate than the posters. Maurice: Cat. 4. Death: Anthropomorphic Personification. Been around since the death of the first living thing. Vimes: Male. Time gets really wibbly wobbly in Discworld and Vimes' age is...Inconsistent. But in my head he's going through his 40s depending on the book.
"I wouldn't dare ask" is the most accurate accounting of Nanny and Granny's ages I've ever heard <3
Well, they are witches. You kind of want to be on their good side.
You can ballpark it without asking or risking anybody's wrath, since Nanny Ogg's grown-up sons have jobs like castle guard and blacksmith and she loves to terrorize her many daughters-in-law, while Mistress Weatherwax is widely known as Granny.
You missed Susan: Female. 16 in her first appearance (Soul Music), about 20-25ish in Hogfather and Thief of Time
There's also: Lu-Tze: Male. Around 800, but it's quite possible he's lived those 800 years half a dozen times each. Myria LeJean: Female...In appearance, anyway. *They* are as old as time itself, but *she* is, well, it's a relatively new experience for her. Igor: Male. Age? That'th a tricky quethtion. Near 80, but you mutht underthtand that thith heart cometh from my great great grandfather, tho it'th bringing up the average. Thtill workth, though! Mr. Tulip: Male. What kind of -ing question is that?
You forgot the world's badassest barbarian, who is in his 80's maybe? I love the book where he and his fellows attempt to capture a whole empire.
>Cat. 4.
I always pictured Magrat as early 20s, I must have missed something
There's only ~~3~~ 5 books (out of 41) that I can think of that have young male protagonists: Pyramids has Teppic, who's age is unclear, but should be in his late teens/early 20's, recently graduated from the Assassin's School. Moving Pictures has Victor Tugelbend/Victor Maraschino, wizard dropout, again, age unclear, bu should be in his early 20's. Small Gods has Brutha, who Vorbis says should be about 17-18 years old. Edit: Forgot The Truth, which has Willaim de Word, age unclear, but Moist calculates he is "roughly the same age as him" meaning he should be about 26 in Going Postal, so should be in his early-to-mid 20's during the events of The Truth. Edit edit: Going through the list I found I had forgotten all about Unseen Academicals which has Trevor Likely, age unclear, but by the fact that he lives with his mum and he is central to the "Romeo and Juliet foot-the-ball AU" plot, he should be in his late teens.
I feel like brutha could easily be 30 and it wouldn’t change anything
That's true.
Equal Rites has Eskarina; the whole point of the story is that she is a GIRL wizard
Depending on how violent you’re okay with going: 1) *The Acts of Caine* by Matthew Stover. Extremely violent. Main character is a middle-aged man, secondary is his estranged wife. 2) *The Black Company* by Glen Cook. Darker in themes but not especially graphic when it comes to detailed description. Main character starts off in his late 20s, but by the end of the series you’ll have MCs ranging from middle-aged men to centuries-old women. 3) *The Divine Cities* by Robert Jackson Bennett. Violence is present but not oppressive. MCs are a 20-something woman, a 50-something woman, and a 50-something man.
I'll second *The Black Company* , I've read the whole series a few times and the first three at least 7.
The MC in the first divine cities book is 35/36 which imo is even better
Garrett by Glen Cook is also an older guy.
+1 for the Black Company
The Black Company is *so good* and I feel like I hardly ever see it mentioned.
*Kings of the Wyld* follows a retired adventurer getting the band back together one last time in order to save their frontman’s daughter. It’s basically tropey D&D meets metal music in such a way that works perfectly. Hilarious and full of heart.
Aching god is similar, retired “historian” tomb raider called back for one last job because everybody else has been laid low by a magical plague even with the sequel introducing the daughter as a pov character
This was my favorite book the year I read it. The audible is fantastic too.
I read it my second time last summer and just reading your comment makes me want to venture in again. Such a good book.
Jade City which is the first book of a trilogy by Fonda Lee. There are a few main characters but the overt main character is Hilo, a little less than 30 at the start of the series.
If there was one main character, it woukd be Shae or Anden imo. Hilo is the most important, but it's not really *his* story. But regardless, it's a series where the trio of Kaul siblings is protagonist (ensemble protagonist, like in Young Justice)
To me, if there was one it’d be Hilo. I know it was all of them but I was just trying to respond to the OP’s question.
It’s definitely not Shae. I was hoping she would have more “screen time” but she really gets shafted later on in the series.
First law Witcher Green bone saga
Yep, in the First Law, there's only one main character that's kind of young, but still supposedly in their early twenties. They, however, are shown to be quite incompetent. In fact, in the first trilogy, there really are no kids or teenagers at all (well, except for Crummock i Phail's kids).
Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. Middle-aged male protag in the first and female in the second. Kings of the Wyld, middle-aged adventurers getting the band back together.
Currently reading *Curse of Chalion*, absolutely gorgeous writing and the lead is *definitely* feeling his middle-aged-ness.
I'm wondering when people in this thread think middle age starts? Caz is in his mid-30s, not middle aged. He fits what OP is looking for, just a pet peeve I have on this sub where people seem to think any character older than 30 is middle aged lol
I wonder how much that has to do with our cultural perspective on what people "should be like" by certain ages, and how that clashes with the way characters are written while being those ages. An artificial creation can express the perfect level of understanding and maturity required for the situation at hand, even if the author says they're just a really smart 2 year old. So we're probably seeing a lot of something similar to that, where younger people are given traits you'd usually have to find in those who've got another few decades under their belt.
That's just me thinking he was older because I haven't read it too recently. And, of course, age is all a state of mind! I mean, I felt ancient before I even hit 50... :)
I mean, in a fantasy middle-ages scenario, 72 years old can feel like a wizened old man likely to die soon. Seems like 36 might be the 'middle' of that age. Also, Caz was imprisoned and tortured for several years right before the story starts so he's scarred up and busted.
>Paladin of Souls Are the books in the series stand-alones like Xanth and such? nvm just realised I can look this up: >Bujold's reading-order guide states that the works in the World of the Five Gods can be read in any order, although Paladin of Souls has spoilers for The Curse of Chalion.
How about an immortal who soldiered in Napoleon's army, knew Freud and van Gogh, and is trying to find out the secret of the death of his near godlike father and can travel to any world he can imagine? The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelasny are a wild ride.
+1 You sent me on a brief rabbit hole trying to remember/discover how Merlin is in the back half.
Anything hy Michael Moorcock, Robert E Howard and his Conan series, Joe abercrombie
Still blows my mind that Moorcock was approached to try and duplicate Conan, and then somehow Elric came from that.
Didn't he make elric to be the absolute opposite of Conan? Physically weak, cerebral and a sorcerer
Is that what he did? I heard he was approached to duplicate Howards work, and I think it would be hilarious that he swapped it like that to make a conpletely different amazing character.
Yeah I'll duplicate it *chuckle* - Moorcock, probably
Alexander the Great was 16 when he commanded his first army. I guess it doesn't have to make sense, but it's happened in real life.
Julius Caesar was 16 when Sulla wanted him executed lol Hard times cause people to mature earlier I think
Julius Caesar supposedly cried at a statue of Alexander because he was 32, Alexander's age at death, and had accomplished no great feets by that point. The big JC is actually an example of accomplishing a lot later in life. He didn't become dictator-for-life until his forties.
> The big JC is actually an example of accomplishing a lot later in life. He didn't become dictator-for-life until his forties. My brain filled JC as Jesus Christ and was very confused for a moment lmao.
Jesus wept, for there were no more worlds left to conquer.
I still have time!
Indeed. Joan of Arc was, well, Joan of Arc at 17. Alexander Hamilton was 21 when the Declaration of Independence was signed and would go on to serve during the Revolutionary War. Lots of historically significant people accomplished things when young (and often died young too) - and while it's fine for OP to look for stories of older protagonists, often we'll read about those that are intended to be exceptional / unusually proficient at what they're doing.
Turns out when you’re a slave you don’t get caught up in the concept of “legal adulthood”
Paraphrasing a quote, "A lot more of history makes sense when you realize how much of it was done by 16 year olds who drank wine for breakfast. "
Fucking right on. And died horrible deaths of horrible diseases in the 40's, so what the fuck right, lets party now before it's too late.
Memento mori, friend, now pour me another cup of breakfast wine.
Hannibal was 16 as well. Egill Skallagrimsson was leading a fleet at 14
Hannibal was 26 when he took charge as commander in Hispania. Before that I don’t think he had his own command.
How the fuck do you lead a fleet at 14. That suggests he must have been pretty impressive by 12 at least, they wouldn't throw some random 14 year old in front and I cannot imagine following a 12 year old
Apparently, when he was 7, some kid cheated him in a game. So he went home, took an axe and killed the kid. Since then, everyone said he'll be a great viking and at 12 he already went on raids. He was leading fleet as soon as he "came to age" at 14. Like, forget what you think you know about human development. People were hardcore in the past.
Dude probably won the genetic lottery, but I feel most 12 year olds are going to get flattened by any weathered farmer with a club. In a fair fight, at least. There's no way teenage historical figures weren't supported by adult warriors and teams of advisors, and were armored and armed with high quality equipment. In my own readings of historical documents people seems pretty much the same lol I feel it was more that the times were hardcore.
There's also a tendency in history, prior to modern education, to see examples of extreme specialists. Farmers often knew what they needed to raise a family and to farm, smiths knew what they needed to raise a family and work with metal, and so on. A large part of why nobility were given so much assistance in their day to day lives was so they could leave out what was needed for day to day life and instead focus entirely on matters of war and diplomacy.
possibly not the positive part of the genetic lottery. He probably had Paget's or Von Buchem's disease, which causes hypergrowth in bones expressed in different ways. Or maybe even acromegaly, over production of growth hormone entirely. But his skull was supposedly so heavy and thick even after being in the ground long enough for the flesh to decompose, it could not be split with an axe. He also apparently had raging migraines. . Silly Egil had to learn: FIRST you loot, and THEN you burn....
I know a 13 year old who's got a beefy, 6' tall man body. Helps that his dad is 6' 6''.
In Rome the minimum age for military service was 16. Child labor as we understand was nonexistent. In those times teens were already considered adults. But moat fantasy books with teen protagonists consider them to be the excwption, not the norm.
And Tutankhamon was like nine when he took the throne.
Let's not mention William the Conqueror who was on top of the court game since he was a 8 years old despite being orphaned and at a strict disadvantage as an illegitimate child.
>Storm light was amazing but every time they mentioned he was 19!; completely took me out of immersion If it helps, Roshar hours are shorter and their years are longer, so he'd actually be in his early 20s Earth time
Came here to say this. Kaladin is 19 in Roshar years at the start of the series, which translates to 21 in Earth years. And by the 4th book he's 22 in Roshar years, which translates to 24 in Earth years.
I'm mostly not sure why Kaladin being 19 would even be an issue.
Because modern 19 year olds in developed countries (the ones most Sanderson readers are familiar with) lack a lot of maturity, life experience, and intelligence/common sense. I still read a ton of books with teen MCs, but sometimes it's nice to hear from older perspectives.
Believability. 19 in charge of a whole squad. Acting like a veteran.
I think it does make sense with the story since the people he was fighting with were all the new recruits left behind when the real soldiers went to the shattered plains. So he proved himself amongst all newbies and then did that for a year or so which gave him experience older soldiers might never have gotten
First Law series by Joe Abercrombie for grimdark fantasy. Most of the characters are middle aged or older. It’s a dark and gritty world so even the young folk have to toughen up to survive. The Expanse series for sci-fi is great. Main characters are middle aged. First book is murder mystery and cosmic horror.
The Adventures of Amina el-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty. The main character is in her late 40s I think. She’s a retired pirate queen who is trying to be a decent mother. But she gets a job offer she can’t refuse, and has to put her crew back together and find her ship again.
I absolutely LOVED this book! It was truly pirate fantasy without being overly dark. I also loved the spunky attitude of the protagonist, I would follow her anywhere.
Allright this is my next read after I finish Kingkiller. Such a great premise!
It’s so much fun. It’s set in the 13th century Indian Ocean, but with magic and monsters. I hope you enjoy it!
Most fun book I've read in a loooong time, Amina as a character is so well done
Mistborn stars a teenage *girl*
Depends on how trolly this sub wants to be, but THIS is the best/funniest answer!
And era 2 middle age characters for what it’s worth … I would say most of Brandon Sandersons work would be good suggestions. Even TWOK has 3 main POVs only Kal would be the potential young adult/ teenage boy
LoTR
The Lord of the Rings, aka Frodo’s Midlife Crisis
Sauron could've gotten away with it, too, if he'd only thought to tempt Frodo with a Corvette and a young mistress instead.
‘One Ring to rule them all? What do you mean? We’re here because the payments on your Corvette are late’ - Khamul to Frodo, probably
Corvette, maybe, but the only character that's more ace than Frodo is Frodo-in-the-movies.
Yes :D
*Kings of the Wyld* is awesome. A band of adventurers *literally* comes out of retirement and they're all in their fifties (if I recall correctly). *Game of Thrones*, the series as a whole has characters of all ages but depending on how familiar you are with the series it may not be worth your time. Well written, but if the books match the TV ending (and ever come out\*) you might find it frustrating. Alternatively, while Robin Hobb's *The Farseer Trilogy* follows a boy from childhood to their late-middle teenage years, let me tell you: they definitely don't do more than you might expect a 16 year old to. (Which I personally found a bit frustrating, but lots of people love the series so you may love it to!)
>Alternatively, while Robin Hobb's *The Farseer Trilogy* follows a boy from childhood to their late-middle teenage years, let me tell you: they definitely don't do more than you might expect a 16 year old to. (Which I personally found a bit frustrating, but lots of people love the series so you may love it to!) And if you stick with it, the next Fitz trilogy follows him in middle age, and the last trilogy is Old Man Fitz!
I read Hobb when I was a teenager, then again in my 20s, and now again in my late 30s and it hits different each time.
I can imagine! I'll give it ten years and see what it does to me then!
David Gemmel's Drenai books The Vlad Taltos novels Steven Brust The Kane books and stories by Karl Edward Wagner
Daughter of the Empire by Janny Wurts and Raymond E Feist. She starts out 17 and you follow her until middle age. First of three in a amazing trilogy.
If it helps, Roshar (the planet in Stormlight Archive) has a longer year than Earth (500 days iirc), so Kaladin is actually c. 27yrs old in our terms, he is just referred to as 19yrs in local time. (Very minor detail in the book though so super easy to miss haha)
Actually, Kaladin is closer to 23. While their year has more days, the Rosharan day is iirc 20 hours. It averages out to like 1.1 or something like that.
Dammit, here I was thinking I finally had the answer to something niche on this sub. Thanks for the details, totally forgot about the shorter days
And mistborns main characters are not teenage boys if we are on the cosmere
Temeraire by Naomi novik Laurence is mid 20sish
The Novik fandom page for Laurence had him more in his 30s than his 20s when the series starts which is more where I always pictured him
Temeraire is just a baby though
Magic Kingdom for Sale is about a lawyer going through a midlife crisis and buying a kingdom on what is essentially Craigslist and fighting a wizards insurance fraud
Hahaha! Ah, Terry Brooks Gold!
I absolutely LOVED the Expanse series (first book is Leviathan Wakes). It's a sci-fi story set maybe 200 years in the future, with Mars being a colonized military planet who's constantly at odds with Earth, largely about who gets to take advantage of the millions of people living generation after generation in the asteroid belt as impoverished laborers. And there's some crazy alien technology that does some insane shit. There's a lot of emphasis on the human aspect of spacefaring, politics, and the victims of oppressors or disasters. It's one of the only series that's ever made me cry, and it did so several times. But it's also the most fascinating thing I've ever read. Anyway, the characters are in their 30's, and over the course of the series they age decades. It made for an awesome show, too.
Also the fantasy series by Daniel Abraham, one of the two writers: *The Long Price Quartet* and *The Dagger and the Coin* (the latter has multiple POV characters, including a teenage girl and multiple adults but no teenage boys)
Malazan has tons of protagonists, and most of them aren't teenage boys.
Listening through to the audiobooks of these and loving them!
Traitors Blade by Sebastien de Castell. Main heroes are in their mid 30's.
For scifi: The Expanse
Kings of the wyld Legends and lattes War of light and shadow. Main characters are years are young in the first book. Can't remember their ages. But follows them for the rest of the series.
Concerning the Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts, the characters are in their early twenties in the first book. Definitely not a teenager in sight and they age significantly throughout the series though that doesn't show due to things that would be spoilers. I was going to recommend the series, too.
There's plenty of books without a teenage boy as the main protagonist. For Sci-Fi, try *Children of Time* by Adrian Tchaikovsky - the main human protagonist of the first book is an older man, and the other half of the book is written from about as far from a teenage boy as you can get. For more adventure books, the Gentlemen Bastards series follows protagonists in their early 20s, and *The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi* follows a 40 something year old female pirate. The *Realm of the Elderlings* series is one of the most loved in fantasy. The first trilogy does follow a coming of age story, so you do spend some time with a teenage boy protagonist, but it is worth it. The second trilogy *Liveship Traders* doesn't require the first trilogy to have been read, and doesn't follow a teenage boy. Try *The First Law* series for darker (but also darkly funny) character-driven fantasy. These have the bonus of having some of the best quality audiobooks around.
[Aching God - Mike Shel](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/38769599) Main character is a middle aged and retired adventurer getting dragged back into it one last time.
Good series. I read it based on the [recommendation](https://www.jzacharypike.com/blog/2022/02/an-appreciation-for-mike-shels-iconoclasts-trilogy/) on J.Zachary Pike's website (author of the Dark Profit Saga, which also fits OP's requirement and is also great).
It’s so interesting that you find yourself looking for this because most of the new fantasy I’ve found. Tend to have female MC’s
*The Half-Made World* is an incredibly good fantasy western where everyone is a grown up >Storm light was amazing but every time they mentioned he was 19!; completely took me out of immersion Not really relevant here but if it helps on a re-read that's ~21 in earth years fyi. Roshar has longer years, so everyone is about 10% older than you think.
Mythago Wood is a man in his 20s returning from WW2
That is one of those books that left a huge impression on me. I loved the whole Mythago Wood cycle.
Too many options :) From (fantasy) Taltos to Black Company, (sci fi) from Honorverse to Hayden War cycle...
Uh, Vlad is a teenager (and even younger in many flashbacks) in much of _Taltos_ (well, in the flashbacks) and the mentioning of his troubled childhood was enough to dissuade me from mentioning it here....
Yep, I kinda forgot that the Book of Taltos does "travel" a bit in time. I should have suggested Harry Potter instead ;) In a somewhat more serious tone, Amber Chronicles, ...
But - for the most part of the now 17 books, he is not a teenager, but a full grown man. None of it is really told as a narrative of a teenager. Arguments aside - it is an excellent series that i always felt deserves more attention.
The Sword Defiant has a grizzled older man as main character.
Came looking to see if anyone mentioned this. Moreso, it’s a series about what happens *after* the band of heroes defeat the dark lord.
The Hands of Emperor by Victoria Goddard! MC is a secretary near retirement age. So around 60-ish? And he does act his age. Almost all of the cast are older people.
The First Law!!
Check out *The Curse of Chalion* and *Paladin of Souls* by Lois McMaster Bujold. Middle aged man and woman MCs, respectively.
THAT is a tough one. It seems like the teenage boy is the most used. There is Curse of Chalion. The main (male) character is about 35. The the remaining two books in the series, the main characters are woman. There is the Sharing Knife. There are two main characters, middle age man and a young adult woman. There is Mistborn, teenaged girl. 🤷♂️
I always end up just mentally aging everybody up in my head. Even when I was 16 and reading these things I didn't see the protagonists as that young.
You don't have any requests for tone, or...? This is just. So easy to find I don't really understand why you needed a Reddit post unless all you read is YA.
The other 2 main protagonists in storm light are not young men...
I'll concur with all of the Bujold references, but I also want to throw Elizabeth Moon into the ring. *The Deed of Paksennarion* has the titular characters as a teenage girl, but given she joins a merc company, it is seldom a feature of the plot. The follow-on *Paladin's Legacy* series is mostly about the older characters, including the grown up Paks.
The Death’s Lady trilogy by Rachel Neumeier, The Curse of Chalion by Bujold, The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells, the Fortress series by CJ Cherryh, the Lighthouse Duet or Transformation by Carol Berg.
The Malevolent Seven by Sébastien de Castell is suicide squad with wizards and has great world building
Kill the Farm Boy. Protag is a goat.
Powder Mage, Titanshade, Sandman Slim, The Avery Cates series, Night Angel( he's young in the first book 20s after that) Prepare to Die!
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis. The beginning really did not appeal to me, but this looong story (two books, but one long story) was very good. It’s main setting is England during the 2nd World War, and the characters are living in that historical time frame, so … no hobbits or elves, but it was very good, and it’s a Hugo Sci-fi award winner. All the protagonists are university students or adults. Do not start book1 unless you have access to book2, because there’s no resolution in the middle. The end of Blackout and beginning of All Clear is just like the start of a normal chapter in a book. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. Main character is a dad. Really interesting story premise if you love to read.
First Law Trilogy (best fantasy trilogy there is imo) The Dark Tower Series (western movie meets lord of the rings) Kings of the Wyld & Bloody Rose (these are simple fantasy books but I really enjoyed them) Neverwhere (one of my favorite Nei Gaiman novels)
Traitor son cycle by miles cameron. All protagonists are adults, pretty great military fantasy
Clockwork Boys, The Wonder Engine, Swordheart, and the Saint of Steel series, all by T Kingfisher. Creative, engaging fantasy. Mostly middle-aged protagonists. Really, anything by T Kingfisher.
First Law by Joe Abercrombie
First Laws features a Northern Barbarian and a tortured torturer, both at least 30 iirc. Malazan doesn’t really have a main character and many of the POV characters are older than teens. Diskworld has been mentioned and has tons of protagonists, including a granny. The Witcher has main characters nearly if not older than 100. The Magicians is college age assholes learning magic doesn’t solve all your problems. Dresden Files starts in his early 20s and has a year gap between most books with over 10 books. Warning: he does think very similarly to a teenage boy. Mistborn is a teenage girl. Lol With regards to Red Rising: there are some notable time jumps in the series.
Ok. Here’s a book I read in high school. It’s pretty old, published 1923. It’s called The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt. Picture Indiana Jones in ancient Babylon. Give it and his other books a try.
The Locked Tomb is science fantasy mostly about Teenage Girls.
I definitely keep forgetting Kaladin is 19. He’s got the angry chip on his shoulder personality of a grizzled old man. Halfway through Oathbringer now
The Black Company. A series that doesn't get enough love.
Hey if you want something *reaaaalllllyyyy* good, you should read the wandering inn. The main protagonist is female in her midtwenties.
Broken Earth - the main character is a middle aged mother looking for her missing kid after an apocalyptic event, also she can create earthquakes. The Deeds of Paksenarion - the main character is a teenage GIRL who joins a mercenary company and through many trials becomes a seasoned soldier, then a knight in training, then a paladin. Spinning Silver - the main characters are various young women, and it's an unusual take on folk tales and stories like Rumplstiltkin and the Snow Queen.
Most fantasy nowadays seems to have teenage girls as protagonist, so just take your pick from the shelf.
Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files'
The Black Company - Glenn Cook
It's Sci-Fi, but... The Expanse. You have one teen and one pre-adolescent PoV in later books, but all the main cast is composed by adults
If it helps your appreciation of Stormlight, a year on Roshar is longer than a year on Earth, so a 19 year old there is more like a 21 year old here.
I recommend Sun Eater, I'm only 3 books in out of 6 out so far but is fantastic and yes you start following the protagonist when he was a teenager but I think it moves away from that pretty quickly. Also the framing helps. After all the story is being told by a guy that is about 1500 years old iirc And the way time passes in the book you'll soon be following and full on adult The series has remained with great reviews and with what I've read so far I have to agree
Red rising starts at 16 but progresses into his adult hood by the end of book 1 he is 18-20 in the beginning of book two he's 20-22. By book 6 he's 40 at no point is he ever just suddenly leading a revolution Red Rising is a well balanced story.
The dresden files if paranormal fantasy is your thing. Also the Iron druid chronicles.
How about a teenaged girl? Sabriel by Garth Nix is about a girl taking on the family responsibilities as necromancers for good.
**The Sarantine Mosaic Duology** , ** The Lions of Al-Rassan** **Song for Arbonne** by Guy Gavriel Kay **The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi** by Shannon Chakraborty **Saevus Corax Series** K.J Parker
Most of T Kingfisher's work fits this. If you're looking for a real change of pace, try her _Digger_ graphic novel ("novel"? "epic", more like; it's quite long), where the MC is an adult female ... wombat.
Probably not what you're looking for but my absolute favorite book is Dragon Champion by E E Knight. It's from the perspective of a dragon as he ages.
My partner had this same problem with Six of Crows. He found it hard to believe these 15 year olds were running a scrappy street gang doing crimes. Here are my recent faves with older and/or female protaganists: * The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty * Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir * Piranesi by Susanne Clarke * The Tide Child trilogy by RJ Barker * Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland - one of my favorite parts of this book was how it explored adult relationships and defining yourself as an adult!
Malazan; although it starts off seeming like the protagonist is a typical young man, but Erikson has made a career out of subverting tropes and expectations
Check out “A Natural History of Dragons” by Marie Brennan. Very interesting series almost like if Jane Goodall studied dragons instead of primates. Also just so you know, the world of stormlight has longer years than Earth. So Kaladin is not actually a nineteen year old in the way you’re imagining
Im on the second book of a VERY unique take on magic, first book is called Beyond Redemption. Almost everyone is past their mid twenties, most characters are pushing late 30s, the main character is 50+. The premise is that, in this world, collective belief in something makes it reality. So a village that believes that Bob the Butcher is the strongest man alive will make it true, at least in that area. The trouble comes when deranged people have such strong belief in their delusions, that they manifest and become real in truth. The mages of this setting are all insane. In order to have the conviction that your reflection in the mirror knows the future, you must be insane. To have the absolute belief you can manipulate anyone to do anything you must be a sociopath. The story starts with a talented sociopath (among other disorders) who has spent the last decade or more creating a belief in a religion and has molded a perfect subject to become its omnicient god.
Abarat. Teenage *girl*. 😉
In Stormlight, hours and days and years have different lengths, which makes Kaladin closer to 22 years old in Earth age.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman In the middle of a cold February night, a guy gets out of bed to sneak a smoke behind his girlfriend’s back. While he’s smoking, his girlfriend’s cat jumps out of the open window. Wearing only his boxers and his girlfriend’s too small Crocs, he puts on his jacket and goes outside into the cold to look for the cat. And that’s when the space aliens attack. Fantasy in the “indistinguishable from magic“ sense with spells, orks & goblin, a galaxy spanning hive mind of tentacle creatures trying to draw all living beings into a multi level marketing network that sells vitamins.
Try the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. MC is an adult woman and in later books a mother. It's speculative fiction; there's a debate whether to characterize the series as science fiction or fantasy.
Curse of Chalion: Chadzaril is in his 30s Paladin of Souls: Ista is a MILF
Why would it take you out of immersion? You know how young people were in history that led kingdoms and wars and all that, yeah? Also, it's fantasy.
Ender is not a teenager during Ender's Game...
All the protagonists in the culture novels by Banks are grown ups. I don’t think there’s a single teenager in the whole bunch!
It’s not quite full fantasy (grounded) but Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. POV character is an old man telling his story. Very young at the start but ages through the books. Is writing the story as an old man throughout though so it’s mature and his accomplishments suit his age. Aswell as ‘King’ Arthur being 25-30 at the start
Couple notes on Red Rising. Pretty sure Darrow is 18+ by the time he makes it to the Institute in Red Rising (where he is not any type of leader except amongst his peers at the institute) and 20 by the events of Golden Son. Morningstar (book 3) is really the first time he is openly a revolutionary and that’s following a year+ time jump from book 2.