What is Progression Fantasy?
Progression Fantasy is a relatively recent subgenre of fantasy that has risen to some success within the last decade. Progression Fantasy focuses on the growth of a characters power or abilities, either magically or otherwise.
Progression Fantasy is a fantasy subgenre term for the purpose of describing a category of fiction that focuses on characters increasing in power and skill over time. These are stories where characters are often seen training to learn new techniques, finding ways to improve their existing skills, analyzing the skills of opponents, and/or gaining literal or figurative “levels” of power.
Andrew Rowe1
What Do I Love About Progression Fantasy?
I was first introduced to the genre with the Cradle books by Will Wight and soon fell in love with it. The focus on growth tends to lead to a faster-paced, plot-focused story filled with action. If you love Shonen anime, unique worlds and magic systems, and characters that never give up, this genre is for you.
A quick warning: Most authors within this genre are self-published and web serial authors, without the same level of editing you may find in more mainstream stories. I find that the writing quality often starts off weaker at the beginning of a series, but for these books, they quickly reach my standards and remain worth a bit of initial writing jitters from new authors finding their pace.
Character Traits that are Common:
- Hard Work: Because the goal is constant progress, the main characters tend to be driven and incredibly hard working through adversity.
- Underdog: Most Progression Fantasy takes a character with a seeming deficiency or disadvantage and turns it on its head. If you love watching for the underdog just keep going until the beat the favorite this genre may be for you.
- Found Family: The main character’s in Progression Fantasy are often orphans, alone at a school, or otherwise taken away from their primary life or family. As a result you tend to follow a full cast of characters who are picked up or chosen by the main character during the story.
Common Plot Themes
- Tournaments: Because of the focus on skills and growth, the authors need a way to clearly demonstrate growth and comparison with other characters. One of the more peaceful or academic ways to do this is through a tournament or sports-style book arc. I love competitions and tournaments, and this has to be a favorite part of the genre for me.
- Magical Progression: Most Progression Fantasy stories have a unique and interesting magical system with tiers of progression that the characters work through. The characters often have a clear rank denoting their ability, and the authors can create tensions quickly by putting the main character up against enemies or opponents who are clearly beyond their stated ability.
- I Want to be the Very Best: Overwhelmingly, you will find the protagonists’ driving goal to be wildly out of sync with their actual abilities. Some backcountry peasant makes it their dream to be the strongest wizard in the world, Naruto wants to be the next Hokage, or some outsider swears to beat the noble scions. If you want your main character’s goals to be as high as they can be and for that character to eventually meet them, this genre may be for you.
And Now, the Recommendations!
Cradle by Will Wight
The Cradle series has to be the first recommendation for this genre because it is without a doubt the most popular series and for good reason. Cradle follows a young man named Lindon who is inspired after meeting an angelic messenger to leave his home valley and to strive to avert a disaster that would destroy his home decades from now. Follow Lindon, someone who has been told they are broken and without any potential for his entire life, as he explores a unique world and becomes the badass he was always meant to be.
Before you Read:
Book one can be a bit slow to pick up, and book two is primarily setting up the larger plotline. If you are at all interested in the story, give the first three books through Blackflame a chance. Once you finish book three, you will be hooked!
Unique Features of the Book:
- Highly Addicting, I couldn’t put these books down
- A full completed series with 12 books
- Part of a multiverse with the other fantasy books written by Will Wight if you like that kind of thing.
Warform: Stormweaver by Bryce O’Connor and Luke Chmilenko
Warform: Stormweaver is a progression fantasy story set within a futuristic setting in which mankind is at war on the fringes of the solar system with an alien threat. In response to alien technologies’ ability to neutralize ranged combat, mankind developed advanced weaponry that enhances its users’ natural abilities both physically and cognitively to unheard-of levels. The main characters are enrolled in a military academy where they are learning to control their unique devices through regular simulated combat. If you enjoy tournaments and the main character regularly competing with their classmates in a school setting, this book is for you.
Before you Read:
The characters’ progression is shown through a numerical rating that the device provides for the characters’ different abilities. If you prefer to avoid a numerical or systematic rating of a character’s abilities, this book may not be for you.
Unique Features of the Book:
- A focus on tournament combat rarely seen in other stories
- A school setting that focuses on the main growth of students rather than any external crisis or plots.
- Clear, constant growth of the main character shown via growth of their devices statistics.
The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba
I love The Wandering Inn and can’t recommend the series enough for avid readers. If you have ever felt like you wish your favorite stories would just keep going and going, The Wandering Inn is for you. The Wandering Inn follows a group of people from Earth who have been transported to a fantasy world in which every aspect of life is influenced by the magic system, which provides classes and levels that give unique abilities and skills to the characters. Erin Solstice finds an abandoned inn and becomes an innkeeper. You follow Erin as she establishes her inn, navigates interactions with the local non-human city Liscor, and slowly makes friends.
Before you Read:
The Wandering Inn only gets better the longer it goes on, in my opinion. Book one is great, but it has some basic stylistic and character work that I find doesn’t necessarily hold up to later parts of the story. I think if you give this one a chance, you will be impressed; it is great.
UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE BOOK:
- The story currently holds the record for longest written fantasy story with the equivalent of almost just over (and always growing) 12 million words as of October 2023. This breaks down to around 43k pages if it was printed.
- The story covers the events of an entire world. If you want to feel like you are a part of a unique world filled with diverse characters and cultures this is a great story for you.
- Have you even finished a series you love and wished there was more? The Wandering Inn is the only series that truly never stops giving you more.
Mother of Learning by Domagoj Kurmaic
Mother of Learning is a web serial that follows Zorian Zazinski, a student in the middle of his studies at the Cyoria Royal Academy of Magical Arts. Zorian gets randomly swept into a time loop where he relives the same month over and over in a Groundhog day style story. You watch Zorian slowly grow as a person, as a mage, and as a brother as he grows curious about the people and the world around him.
Before you Read:
This story is at its most fun when you are paying attention to the little details that may seem like they don’t matter. The author has constructed an excellent mystery for the protagonist to solve and woven hints throughout the story for future plot events.
UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE BOOK:
- Have you ever read a time loop story? This was my first one and I loved it! Some people don’t end up enjoying them but I am always happy to recommend a unique kind of story.
- The story is fully completed with an excellent ending. You can start this series with confidence that it ends well.
Super Powereds by Drew Hayes
Okay, Super Powereds may just be a personal favorite of mine rather than an objectively best entry in the genre, but I can’t not recommend this one. Progression fantasy at its best, to me, is a story about young people finding themselves and who they want to become. Super Powererds follows a group of five freshmen enrolled in a secret superhero academy program at a state university as they train to be heroes. The story is filled with superhero tropes and names but adds an interesting new take on the genre. If you want to read about a group of outcasts finding a family in each other and becoming their best selves, Super Powereds is one of my favorites.
Before you Read:
This story was written with the full four-book plot clearly created well in advance of the pen hitting the page. There are a ton of clues and details all throughout the story leading up to the big mysteries that the main characters are trying to figure out; the author does a great job of giving you clues, make sure you don’t miss them.
UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE BOOK:
- Super Powereds will feel like you are at college with these characters. If that kind of setting is your jam in Harry Potter or any of the other school settings, you will probably enjoy it here. If you don’t want to read about college students being college students, maybe not the pick-up for you.
- The entire cast of students and, for the most part, professors end up being well-developed by the end of the story. I love the characters and their interactions; they all feel vibrant and alive.
Conclusion
Have a series you think I missed? Think any of these books don’t deserve to be on the list? Let me know! I am always happy to try a new series in the progression fantasy genre and give my thoughts!
- https://andrewkrowe.wordpress.com/2019/02/26/progression-fantasy-a-new-subgenre-concept/ ↩︎
