Essential Fantasy Books Where the Misfits Become Legends

Terry Pratchett’s City Watch (and, honestly, every other character in every other series of his) is made up exclusively of misfits and rejects. Staffed by a cynical drunk of a captain, a cowardly and lazy veteran, and a disreputable soldier who needs a certificate to prove he’s human, they’re the dregs of a very dreg-heavy city in every sense of the way.

But I loved seeing how the addition of Corporal Carrot and Sergeant Angua (and all the others) slowly picked these characters out of the mud and dusted them off until, by the end, they become something truly special: the policing force the city—and all of Discworld—needed. 

The Tide Child is a ship of the damned. Everyone aboard is condemned to die in battle: a criminal, outcast, disgraced, and most important of all, expendable. Their captain is unqualified to lead, a drunken failure, and riddled with insecurities and a deep sense of self-loathing.

But over the course of the series, through all the challenges they endure and the people they lose, the crew of the Tide Child become a tight-knit company. They are transformed into something greater, find purpose in failure, turn enemies into family, and, ultimately, earn redemption through making the hard choices only they can. 

While many people adore Kings of the Wyld, I will forever stand by my assertion that Bloody Rose is the better book.

It treads much of the same gladiatorial and monster-hunting ground as its predecessor, but it follows a group of youths who, as we come to see chapter by chapter, are all misfits in their own unique way. Once the masks peeled away and I got to see the people behind the grand front, it made them so real and complex, and they become characters I fell deeply in love with.

The fact that they became the heroes by the end—at a very painful cost, I might add—just made the journey all the more epic and emotionally satisfying.  

Nobody believes Rin could ever be anything great. She’s an orphaned war refugee, a peasant, abused, and at the very bottom of the social hierarchy with no future to look forward to. Her only ability lies in being obsessive and intensely driven to learn enough to force her way into the military academy—which is impossible, but of course she pulls it off (and what a way she does it, too!).

Even in the academy, she’s mocked, bullied, and ostracized. All that breeds a deep-rooted anger in her, and it’s that anger which feeds the divine magic that she unlocks. The world will come to respect her for a hero—or fear her as she burns it all down. It’s one of my favorite uses of the misfit hero trope, and does an amazing job of twisting it to create a dark, vengeful character. 

Paks is, in many ways, my ideal definition of a misfit hero. She’s a nobody: the daughter of a sheepfarmer, with no noble blood, no particular education, no training (at first), and most importantly, no idea of what a world of hurt she’s in for when she decides to become a knight. But I loved following her fight down the path to becoming a paladin.

She was a constant reminder that idealism is something worth holding onto, no matter how dark and cruel the world around me is. She walks a lonely path, one where she has only her morals for company, but by the end, she truly becomes a paragon.  

In The Demon Cycle, all the protagonists we follow are in some way broken.

Arlen Bales cowered in terror when the night demons came to try and kill his family, and it’s the memory of that fear that drives him to become not only strong enough to stand against demons, but a powerhouse that puts unholy terror in those demons.

Leesha Paper is a brilliant herbalist who is trapped in her role as a woman in a male-dominated society. It’s only when she’s willing to walk away from it all that she finds her true power—and with it, the power to save her people.

Rojer is an orphan with a crippled hand, yet who wants nothing more than to be a musician. I loved watching him slowly develop his abilities until his music becomes the power that gives Arlen and the rest of humanity an edge against the demons.

This whole series does such a great job of turning the misfits into the heroes, and showing how it’s what sets them apart that makes them great. It’s one of my all-time favorite dark fantasy series!

How could a magical world’s least successful, least cohesive adventuring team be the key to salvation? That’s what you’ll discover when you dive into one of my favorite comedic adventure stories, the Dark Profit Saga. Dwarven ex-hero Gorm Ingerson finds himself recruited by a prophet of a mad goddess and sent off on an adventure that will change the face of Aarth forever. It’s a hilarious story of corporate greed, found family, decency in a dark world, and above all, misfit heroes rising to the challenge to save the day. An indie fantasy must-read!