The best fantasy books with pragmatic heroes who are still heroic

Jude Duarte, a human girl living in Faerie, is a cold-hearted ball of ambitious rage. Never have I rooted for a character so much.

Although picking fights with the clever and cruel Fair Folk is not pragmatic – on the surface – when the choice is between waiting for a random death on a bully’s whim or fighting back with every weapon at her disposal, Jude will always fight. I may have cheered out loud when she stabbed an enemy who broke into her bedroom and then stuffed his body under her bed until she could bury him. She does what she has to do to survive–and, in the end, to make Faerie a (slightly) better place.

Holly Black’s writing is so poetic, so smart, so sharp, like a honed fairy blade. She is a master.

Moist von Lipwig – no jokes, please, he’s heard all of them – is a con man, and I love him. His talents are charm, psychology, forgery, a little bit of pickpocketry, and running away faster than his mark can chase him. When he’s forced to fix his city’s defunct (and possibly haunted) post office, he triumphs with people skills and sheer chutzpah.

Terry Prachett’s sprawling Discworld series, of which this is a part, is full of satire, but it never ceases to amaze me how funny he can be without being mean-spirited. I love many of his characters, but Moist is my favorite.

In this series, the paladins are generally noble, honest, and wholesome – they are paladins, after all, even if their god is dead. But I don’t read these books for the paladins. What I most adore are the backdrop machinations of the Temple of the White Rat, a religious order interested in saving the world in the most sensible of all ways: with lawyers, doctors, social workers, and a sound understanding of economics.

At least once per book, the delightful – and very, dangerously practical–Bishop Beartongue will turn up to throw a wrench into events, and it delights me every time. I hope she gets her own book someday. Even if she doesn’t, I will continue to eat up this series like the most scrumptious chocolates.

I’m not much of a re-reader, yet after I finished the five books in this series, I turned straight back to page one and started over, cackling all the while.

Although Johannes Cabal would be far from charming if you met him, following his adventures is a delight due to Jonathan Howard’s delicious, dry wit. Whether it’s coming out on top in a deal with the Devil, solving a murder on an airship, or surviving a time loop in a Lovecraftian universe, I have confidence that Cabal’s clever mind–and giant revolver–will see him triumph with black humor and grumpiness intact. (The only thing that may be his undoing is his annoyingly charming vampire brother.)

These are some of the funniest fantasies around, and it’s a crying shame how little-known they are.

Cimorene, a princess disinclined to marry a numbskull prince, cuts her own path by seeking employment amongst the dragons. Naturally (naturally?) she is hired on the strength of her Latin and her skill at cooking cherries jubilee.

In this book and its sequel, Cimorene is proof that one can thwart any evil plan by the application of practical thinking, good manners, and a willingness to tell ballsy lies to nosy wizards. Now, isn’t that a world you’d like to live in? They were mainstays of my childhood (back when they had way cooler covers) and still bring me immense joy as an adult.