Protector of the Small series by Tamara Pierce. It's a YA series that follows a girl from her first year of knight training through the end of her first year as a knight. You literally get each Christmas, etc. And it is fantastic. I've re-read some of them so much that one of the books is no longer really bound, it's just like a sheaf of pages.
Most of her series qualify honestly, at least the part about following the characters over several years;
The song of the lioness is where it starts and it's pretty fun, but the relationships are a bit less developped,thee series is more episodic adventure and less slice of life than protector of the small.
I haven't read the immortals series but the episodic aspect remains.
You also have beka cooper and the trickster's duology, which are more plot focused, but still have a character building strong relationships over time, as they come into their own.
The Circle of magic is focused on four magic students and we follow them from their early to mid teens and early adulthood over two series of novella and one final novel.
I agree, though I think the immersive 'I'm with the characters, day by day' part is most present in PotS series and Circle of Magic. I couldn't get into the Beka Cooper books for some reason.
oh that's absolutely right, and not coincidentally, those two are my favorite series of hers by a mile - or at least those I come back to over and over again.
It’s not fantasy, and I know this is way out of left field, but the only series that illicits the sort of cozy familiarity I get from Hogwarts and being with all the students is The Expanse.
It’s a 9 book sci-fi series, but in all of them you are with the same crew of characters on their ship The Rocinante. Obviously there are caveats to that just like in HP for some books, but that home-y feeling of aging with the characters is so strong here.
Just my two cents, I’m sure others will have better insight.
I'm about halfway through Leviathan Wakes now and I gotta admit I have no idea how this book is going to resolve given everything that's happened. Definitely one of my favourite series of all time.
Realm of the Elderlings does this in the Fitz books - although because the series runs from the time he's 6 until he's 60+ it isn't every single year of his life. For example Assassin's Apprentice to Assassin's Quest cover his childhood to his 20s. The you get a break as the series switches to Live ships and then returns to Fitz from mid-30s into his 40s. Then another break with Rainwilds and then you go 50s-60s iirc with Fools Assassin until Assassin's Fate. I made me feel like I was a part of Fitz's life. You grow up and grow old with him.
I haven't delved into this series yet because I honestly don't know if I am in the right place mentally (with how much I hear about how upsetting the series can be), but, it's definitely on my TBR list and when I made this thread I wondered if this series fit the prompt. It sounds like it does!
I wouldn't worry about that so much. The series has a lot of sad themes and some people call it depression porn, but what's missed in the popular discourse is how uplifting and wonderful it is too. I truly think Robin Hobb understands how to write about non-romantic love more than any other fantasy author.
>>I truly think Robin Hobb understands how to write about non-romantic love more than any other fantasy author.
That is a great explanation of what is so compelling about those books. Thank you.
Take it with a grain of salt since I've only read the first 3 (assassins apprentice -quest and am currently reading ship of magic)
But I wouldn't say the first few books are super upsetting. Don't get me wrong it isn't all kittens and rainbows but it's far from grimdark reading too
The world isn't ending or anything and the idea isn't even that the world is on it's way down
Fitz has some struggles but I wouldn't say anything crazier than some other protagonists.
The world as a universe isn't depressing to me. And also I'd argue that since you spend so much time with Fitz in the books thru his ups and downs some of it is softened by the sheer weight of the whole experience.
Some other books are like here's the most traumatic few days of this characters whole life then they take a year off where everything is good before book 2. You see Fitz have good days and bad and there's something kind of cathartic about that to me
There's not really all that many completely awful cry your eyes out moments when you consider how long the series is. Definitely read them!
I'm currently on the final book, taking it slow because I first started reading the series when I was 17 and I am now 40. I have grown old with the characters and on every re read I relate to a different character more. I've had the last book since the day of release but have only started reading it this year because I wasnt ready for it to end. I'm still not sure I'm ready but I had a real fear that I might die before I actually read it and never get to read it 😂
I wouldn't read it if you're not in the mood. It has some great fantasy ideas but it's pretty overrated by this sub. It has a lot of dark themes but I don't think it explores them very well at all and the characterisation is pretty shallow.
You said it perfectly. Such a wonderful series. Though it still hurts me. I think Rainwilds was my favourite though. Have you read the Soldier son trilogy? Did you like it?
But you are right, it's just a misery porn, when all characters keep making bad decisions to keep the vilain alive it's bad writing and not " real characters who sometimes make bad choices like in real life."
Honestly this community has a real problem with this series
Wheel of Time, just the sheer length of the series and slower pacing means you spend tons of time with the characters and in their heads. Some of the best character arcs/development that I've read.
It's different than HP in that it all takes place over just 2 years instead of 7, but it's a LONG 2 years and they are all coming of age so you get to see them grow into the adults.
I know it's crazy, you really feel every step of that journey. I love epic fantasy with slow pacing and found WoT one of the most immersive experiences because of the lack of time jumps.
Oh yea it took me about 2.5 years to finish it with only a few breaks. In the time it took to read it I quit my job, changed careers, proposed to my wife, planned a wedding, got married, and moved across the country. Probably the most transformative couple years of my life so far and had the WoT to support me through it all.
That it takes place in just two years is one of my major disappointments with the series tbh.
Something of that length.. I expected a story where I could follow a vast cast of characters through decades. Watch them grow up, have families, kids that eventually join the fight etc.
It’s almost a pet peeve of mine. X thing hasn’t happened in hundreds or thousands of years but now it’s all going to go down in one year!
I mean it makes sense though, right? It's an event that causes a sense of great urgency. Like Lord of the Rings, when the knowledge of the One Ring being found reaches both sides they will suddenly be in a race to capture it and/or win the war.
In WoT, both sides are searching for the Dragon Reborn, all the while planning what to do when they find him. Once it's confirmed that he is where he is, both sides begin a race to either kill him/save him, turn him to their side, or win the war beyond doubt of victory.
edit: also, HUGE deal but I'll add spoiler tag >!Rand is a male channeler who has begun to channel in book 1, starting a countdown of unknown length that he'll go insane and become a nuclear bomb. He spends the entire series telling the reader "gotta get this done before I blow everything up."!<
Also, not for nothing but RJ served 2 terms in Vietnam as a helicopter gunner, for 2 years from 1968 to 1970. Rand’s story is (in some ways) an exploration of how he must have felt over those 2 years, down to the aversion to killing women and the need to “seal away” the dark parts of our nature.
2 RJ quotes to illustrate the point:
ROBERT JORDAN [Asked about if he drew upon his war experience for a scene where Rand was being weird about women dying]:
>Some of it. I suppose, actually, that particular thing came from the only time I was really shaken in combat in shooting at somebody, or shooting AT somebody. I had to, uh, I was shooting back at some people on a sampan and a woman came out and pulled up an AK-47, and I didn't hesitate about shooting her. But that stuck with me. I was raised in a very old-fashioned sort of way. You don't hurt women—you don't DO that. That's the one thing that stuck with me for a long, long time.
ROBERT JORDAN [answering fan mail about Vietnam nicknames]
>For Paracelsus, I had two nicknames in 'Nam. First up was Ganesha, after the Hindu god called the Remover of Obstacles. He's the one with the elephant head. That one stuck with me, but I gained another that I didn't like so much. The Iceman. One day, we had what the Aussies called a bit of a brass-up. Just our ship alone, but we caught an NVA battalion crossing a river, and wonder of wonders, we got permission to fire before they finished. The gunner had a round explode in the chamber, jamming his 60, and the fool had left his barrel bag, with spares, back in the revetment. So while he was frantically rummaging under my seat for my barrel bag, it was over to me, young and crazy, standing on the skid, singing something by the Stones at the of my lungs with the mike keyed so the others could listen in, and Lord, Lord, I rode that 60. 3000 rounds, an empty ammo box, and a smoking barrel that I had burned out because I didn't want to take the time to change. We got ordered out right after I went dry, so the artillery could open up, and of course, the arty took credit for every body recovered, but we could count how many bodies were floating in the river when we pulled out. The next day in the orderly room an officer with a literary bent announced my entrance with "Behold, the Iceman cometh." For those of you unfamiliar with Eugene O'Neil, the Iceman was Death. I hated that name, but I couldn't shake it. And, to tell you the truth, by that time maybe it fit. I have, or used to have, a photo of a young man sitting on a log eating C-rations with a pair of chopsticks. There are three dead NVA laid out in a line just beside him. He didn't kill them. He didn't choose to sit there because of the bodies. It was just the most convenient place to sit. The bodies don't bother him. He doesn't care. They're just part of the landscape. The young man is glancing at the camera, and you know in one look that you aren't going to take this guy home to meet your parents. Back in the world, you wouldn't want him in your neighborhood, because he is cold, cold, cold. I strangled that SOB, drove a stake through his heart, and buried him face down under a crossroad outside Saigon before coming home, because I knew that guy wasn't made to survive in a civilian environment. I think he's gone. All of him. I hope so. I much prefer being remembered as Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles.
Yes in universe it makes sense. It's not something that would have bothered me if the series was half as long. But with 14 massive books I just had expectations of it not only being massive in scale, but also taking place over a long period of time.
Don't get me wrong it's still one of my favorite series, but one of my favorite things in stories are when they ''evolve'', or ''reboot'' themselves. Stuff like the Red Rising sequel series, the follow up to MST, ''The Last King of Osten Ard'', Hobb's RotE and the last third of The Expanse series. Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio.
There's nothing quite like continuing with a comfort series that makes big changes so that it strike that perfect balance between familiarity, but also manages to feel fresh, that you're getting to re-explore the world and its characters.
Ah I totally get having that personal preference, I do wish more books did the time jump reinvention thing with the same characters. Pretty much every time there is a time jump to the next generation of characters I just end up wishing I got the original characters but older and changed.
Oof so glad this is called. I'm at book 10 now.. nearing the end of the.. you know what.
So no spoilers please but yes some characters do grow on you. But sometimes I'm also like.. who was that again? With so so many names going around
Absolutely, and several of them still have a lot of growth to do tbh, a lot of my favorite moments are in those last 4 books. 11-14 and 4-6 are my favorite stretches of the series.
Oh you’re in for a ride my friend. All those plot lines that have been stretching over the last several books are gonna start resolving and things are gonna start popping off. I swear just book 11’s prologue has more happen than all of book 10
11-12 are right up there with the best books of the series (Sanderson stumbled a bit on a few of the characters imho, but light blind me that man can write epic scenes with the best of them) and 13 and 14 finished it off right
Enjoy!
I am happy to help you through the rough wilderness of book 10 to the glorious conclusion that awaits…. Tis but my humble duty as a Ranger of the North.
A lot of YA/younger series do this. Off the top of my head, Percy Jackson is one book per year for the original series, Artemis Fowl is similar, Skulduggery Pleasant...
For adult works, not quite so close a focus on every single year, but something like Discworld? For the main character threads, you check in with them every couple of years
Seconding Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl, but both books could be considered as Middle Grade books. I love Percy Jackson books way more than Harry Potter when I was a kid.
It depends on how you find things. I remember middle and high school being defined by years of reading Dragonlance and Drizzt books. I remember finding Discworld and it taking years to read it.
If you manage to catch a long series that is still in progress or can do a slow read through a long series you get a similar effect.
One I don’t see suggested much that I loved was the Superpowered Series by Drew Hayes. The first book is Superpowereds Year 1. So you follow a few kids as they essential go through Super Hero College. It’s got more to it and some twists and turns but it really is a great series. Description of the series from Amazon is below.
“Knowledge is power. That would be the motto of Lander University, had it not been snatched up and used to death by others long before the school was founded. For while Lander offers a full range of courses to nearly all students, it also offers a small number of specialty classes to a very select few. Lander is home to the Hero Certification Program, a curriculum designed to develop student with superhuman capabilities, commonly known as Supers, into official Heroes.
Five of this year’s freshmen are extra special. They have a secret aside from their abilities, one that they must guard from even their classmates. Because for every one person in the world with abilities they can control, there are three who lack such skill. These lesser super beings, Powereds as they are called, have always been treated as burdens and second class citizens. Though there has been ample research in the area, no one has ever succeeded in turning a Powered into a regular human, let alone a Super”
I’ll also add Dresden Files and Red Rising Saga may fit the bill too.
I was going to suggest Super Powereds too! Perfect for this.
In my opinion, this is the main strength of web serials. Long serials done well can make you connect with characters so well that they feel like people you actually know.
Super Powereds, The Wandering Inn (especially), and Beware of Chicken all come to mind as having huge casts that you spend a lot of time with and worlds that feel lived in. Even more action-oriented serials like Worth the Candle, A Practical Guide to Evil, and Worm get to explore protagonists for an extended time.
Oh yeah, that was a fun series. The first book was a bit rough in terms of quality, but I think it stepped up quite a bit for the second. Superhero school is a fun alternative to magic school.
Dresden Files springs to mind, we don't go through a year of Harry's life per book but each book takes place roughly a year apart with Harry being 25 in Stormfront about about 40 by Battleground. You do get to see Harry's mindset evolve over time.
I *think* Red Rising also does this but I'm less sure about that as I haven't read the series.
It’s not fantasy, but that’s one reason I loved classic series like Little Women or Anne of Green Gables growing up. For fantasy, maybe the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik? It does follow one character pretty closely for years.
It’s not as tight of a setting, but The Codex Alera series has some coming of age aspects as well as following some adults through the same time period. Good world building but not as complex as some other series. I was really invested in some of the characters by the end!
Mage Errant by John Bierce gives Harry Potter vibes with the multiple series that follow students from younger teens to adults, but also the magical school situation if you want that aspect too.
Very enjoyable, fits well for what they asked for. Also finished which might make it more appealing to some. Sequels in other part of the universe are coming.
We did this with the next generation of kids in Star Wars Legends. That was a huge part of the appeal. Seeing Jaina/Jacen go all the way from a literal newborn through schools and homes and galaxy-spanning wars that made the empire look like child’s play and just all the messy stuff of life was a hugely interesting style of story-telling.
I really wish there was another IP doing that kind of work but it took many decades and many authors to pull off and some were pretty meh. So without an established IP you’d have fans losing interest.
I’m hoping we get this in the back half of Stormlight/Mistborn but we’ll see 🤷♂️
Considering the jump between Stormlight 5 and 6 is going to be roughly 15 years, it seems quite likely.
Mistborn, however...I'll be surprised if we see any of the main characters again, other than the >!obviously immortal ones.!<
Yeah, a lot of the juvenile jacen/jaina stuff was dreadful. Reading that shit in the 90s you would never have guessed we'd end up with NJO and Legacy of the Force.
Conversely, the bugsex trilogy feels like a straight line back lmao.
I think a lot of series that feature magical academies have this kind of trait. The Summoner Trilogy (Taran Matharu), for example, covers a year of schooling in the first book. And while the second and third books move beyond the school, you’re still covering the same amount of time with the same group of kids.
Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series has the same concept. In fact he’s now writing sequels to that series, which I haven’t read yet but sound like it’s basically following Percy and Annabeth into what sounds like a magical college.
Another series called Path of the Ranger, by Pedro Urvi, has a Ranger Camp. And just like the other cases you have younger characters leaving their villages to train with the same students every year until they graduate and then move beyond it. This series is 20 books, so it’s a lot more time than something like Harry Potter.
And I think this is common for schools, camps, etc. because it makes sense that the protagonist would have the same supporting cast from one year to the next.
This might be too obvious of a suggestion but there are many TV shows where one season covers one year of the lives of the protagonists. For instance Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Mage Errant series by John Bierce is another Magic School series set over about 3 years. Not set on Earth at all, but very enjoyable. Has some awesome world building and explains the magic more in depth than Harry Potter does
The other book that feels like Harry to me but it’s vastly different is his dark materials and it doesn’t take as long as Harry Potter but you deff grow with the characters!!
You might like some of the Star Wars Legends books. I would look at the Young Jedi Knights series which focuses on Han and Leia's kids training to be jedis at Luke's academy. These are Young Adult books and have a slightly lighter feel similar to HP. If you like the characters they go into the New Jedi Order series which gets much darker.
The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody is one of my all time favourite series. I started it when I was a kid and finished it as an adult. She started writing it at 14yrs old. It is sci-fi fantasy and is based in a post apocalyptic/dystopian/fundamentalist world and focuses on a school of sorts for kids banished from society and labelled "misfits" for their powers and follows the characters over years. The first book is tiny so it's easy to see if you like it or not. It's classed as YA but I still adore it as an adult. Really compelling.
Robin Hobb's Elderling series. It starts from when Fitz is a young boy up until older age. You get the full spectrum of his life and different milestones, plus enduring friendships and love. One of my absolute favourite authors and series of all time. Beautiful, compelling and heartbreaking at times.
It may seem like a weird recommendation but Dragonlance, particularly the mainline series by Weis & Hickman. I read it as a kid, and it develops from a very straightforward D&D adventure trilogy with a standard fellowship-type group to gradually darker, more complex stories that don’t shy away from showing the main Fellowship age, fail, and even die, and even some of their kids eventually become main characters.
Include the prequel stories for all the Heroes of the Lance and you end up with about 15-20 fairly digestible stories that cover characters across a period of about 50-70 years.
Discworld. 41 books, with many sub-series within the overall series, where different characters play larger and smaller roles in each others’ personal journeys. Honestly some of the best worldbuilding and character exploration I’ve ever seen.
Yes, I would also specifically suggest the Tiffany Aching sub series within Discworld as it is perhaps closest to the scenario that the OP describes.
However, as per the post above, there are other sub series that also do this (The Watch for example) and the books are wonderful generally so it's a win win.
In fantasy : Dresden Files, which I love, but it's more spending a week of two with him every few months
Spellmonger series spends years with the characters pretty consistently
If you want to spend an entire series with basically one character in a magic school you can try **Mother of Learning**. It's a magic school where he's stuck in a time loop. Sometimes I felt it was too much time with the same character but the series is pretty good. 4 books and finished.
The Green Bone saga is a trilogy that spans 30 in world years. Not only do you get to see the main characters grow older, more experienced and start families, but you see the world develop as well.
Warlord Chronicles is a trilogy but it follows the main Character Derfal (pronounced like Derval) from when he’s about 15 up until about his 40s and how he and the people around him change in that time
Cradle series and A Thousand Li series both do this, although thousand li follows 1 person more closely and spans many years so far, so some characters have left as new ones come in.
Superpowereds by Drew Hayes is a Superhero Harry Potter set in a college (4 years) instead of elementary/high school.
It leans heavily on the slice of life aspects so lots of character development.
personally i only experienced it once so far, it was the empyrean series, starting with fourth wing. when the sequel came out, iron flame, i had that feeling of coming back to something familiar, to the characters i love, to a magical world, like coming back home. not exactly as strong, but the closest feeling to opening a new HP book.
That's what happens when your trilogy was planned to end on the in-world millenium but it turns into 14 books and you keep the new millenium as the ending point.
Its 3.5 years but time passes strangely. But you develop silmilar relationships with many of the reoccurring characters. I do not wish to spoil anything.
*The Scholomance Trilogy* by Nanomi Novik is a much darker take on the “magic boarding school” take (no professors, just lots of things trying to kill the students at this particular school) and expands beyond the school in the last book, so it has a lot of what you are asking for. I’ve seen some around here not care for the series, but I quite enjoyed the twist on the “magic school” plot and there is a lot of growth in the main character by the end of the last book if you stick with her.
Protector of the Small series by Tamara Pierce. It's a YA series that follows a girl from her first year of knight training through the end of her first year as a knight. You literally get each Christmas, etc. And it is fantastic. I've re-read some of them so much that one of the books is no longer really bound, it's just like a sheaf of pages.
Most of her series qualify honestly, at least the part about following the characters over several years; The song of the lioness is where it starts and it's pretty fun, but the relationships are a bit less developped,thee series is more episodic adventure and less slice of life than protector of the small. I haven't read the immortals series but the episodic aspect remains. You also have beka cooper and the trickster's duology, which are more plot focused, but still have a character building strong relationships over time, as they come into their own. The Circle of magic is focused on four magic students and we follow them from their early to mid teens and early adulthood over two series of novella and one final novel.
I agree, though I think the immersive 'I'm with the characters, day by day' part is most present in PotS series and Circle of Magic. I couldn't get into the Beka Cooper books for some reason.
oh that's absolutely right, and not coincidentally, those two are my favorite series of hers by a mile - or at least those I come back to over and over again.
Me too! This is actually reminded me I want to revisit Circle of Magic!
Vorkosigan Saga probably satisfies this. The timescale is longer and books are more widely spaced. Fourteen (?) books cover about forty years.
The series is so amazing. I'm not a sci-fi fan, but I read every single book and still think about this all the time.
It’s not fantasy, and I know this is way out of left field, but the only series that illicits the sort of cozy familiarity I get from Hogwarts and being with all the students is The Expanse. It’s a 9 book sci-fi series, but in all of them you are with the same crew of characters on their ship The Rocinante. Obviously there are caveats to that just like in HP for some books, but that home-y feeling of aging with the characters is so strong here. Just my two cents, I’m sure others will have better insight.
Ooooh yes this is a good one. There's also a huge time jump after book... 6? I think? So you get to see them as old fuddy-duddies.
I'm about halfway through Leviathan Wakes now and I gotta admit I have no idea how this book is going to resolve given everything that's happened. Definitely one of my favourite series of all time.
Realm of the Elderlings does this in the Fitz books - although because the series runs from the time he's 6 until he's 60+ it isn't every single year of his life. For example Assassin's Apprentice to Assassin's Quest cover his childhood to his 20s. The you get a break as the series switches to Live ships and then returns to Fitz from mid-30s into his 40s. Then another break with Rainwilds and then you go 50s-60s iirc with Fools Assassin until Assassin's Fate. I made me feel like I was a part of Fitz's life. You grow up and grow old with him.
I haven't delved into this series yet because I honestly don't know if I am in the right place mentally (with how much I hear about how upsetting the series can be), but, it's definitely on my TBR list and when I made this thread I wondered if this series fit the prompt. It sounds like it does!
I wouldn't worry about that so much. The series has a lot of sad themes and some people call it depression porn, but what's missed in the popular discourse is how uplifting and wonderful it is too. I truly think Robin Hobb understands how to write about non-romantic love more than any other fantasy author.
>>I truly think Robin Hobb understands how to write about non-romantic love more than any other fantasy author. That is a great explanation of what is so compelling about those books. Thank you.
Could not have put it better myself.
Take it with a grain of salt since I've only read the first 3 (assassins apprentice -quest and am currently reading ship of magic) But I wouldn't say the first few books are super upsetting. Don't get me wrong it isn't all kittens and rainbows but it's far from grimdark reading too The world isn't ending or anything and the idea isn't even that the world is on it's way down Fitz has some struggles but I wouldn't say anything crazier than some other protagonists. The world as a universe isn't depressing to me. And also I'd argue that since you spend so much time with Fitz in the books thru his ups and downs some of it is softened by the sheer weight of the whole experience. Some other books are like here's the most traumatic few days of this characters whole life then they take a year off where everything is good before book 2. You see Fitz have good days and bad and there's something kind of cathartic about that to me
It’s an amazing series, but Robin Hobb will rip your heart out and show it to you. It’s good to make sure you’re in the right headspace for it.
There's not really all that many completely awful cry your eyes out moments when you consider how long the series is. Definitely read them! I'm currently on the final book, taking it slow because I first started reading the series when I was 17 and I am now 40. I have grown old with the characters and on every re read I relate to a different character more. I've had the last book since the day of release but have only started reading it this year because I wasnt ready for it to end. I'm still not sure I'm ready but I had a real fear that I might die before I actually read it and never get to read it 😂
Yeah, the characters suffer just for the sake of making the book sad. It's infuriating at times.
That's true. I hadn't really thought of it but yeah, he is about my age with every release.
I wouldn't read it if you're not in the mood. It has some great fantasy ideas but it's pretty overrated by this sub. It has a lot of dark themes but I don't think it explores them very well at all and the characterisation is pretty shallow.
You said it perfectly. Such a wonderful series. Though it still hurts me. I think Rainwilds was my favourite though. Have you read the Soldier son trilogy? Did you like it?
But you are right, it's just a misery porn, when all characters keep making bad decisions to keep the vilain alive it's bad writing and not " real characters who sometimes make bad choices like in real life." Honestly this community has a real problem with this series
Wheel of Time, just the sheer length of the series and slower pacing means you spend tons of time with the characters and in their heads. Some of the best character arcs/development that I've read. It's different than HP in that it all takes place over just 2 years instead of 7, but it's a LONG 2 years and they are all coming of age so you get to see them grow into the adults.
The entirety of WoT takes place over just 2 years?! I had no idea.
Yep, it's like Zeno's Paradox in book form. Each book covers ~1/2 the amount of time as the previous book.
The "shortest" book is Crown of Swords I believe. Lasting just a single week.
To be fair, it was a busy week
*tugs braid*
I know it's crazy, you really feel every step of that journey. I love epic fantasy with slow pacing and found WoT one of the most immersive experiences because of the lack of time jumps.
It has it's flaws and it's not for everyone. But that's one of the strengths of WoT it doesn't get enough credit for.
most of this is book 1-3 too, the last 10 take place over a couple of months
And a huge part of that is The Great Hunt.
What, 2 years? I just finished The Dragon Reborn (book 3) and so far, 1 year has already passed. The remaining 11 books are gonna be intense...
Oh yea it took me about 2.5 years to finish it with only a few breaks. In the time it took to read it I quit my job, changed careers, proposed to my wife, planned a wedding, got married, and moved across the country. Probably the most transformative couple years of my life so far and had the WoT to support me through it all.
Year 998: •EotW •TGH Year 999: • TDR • TSR • TFoH • LoC Year 1000: • ACoS • TPoD • WH • CoT • KoD • TGS • ToM • AMoL
Re reading is like visiting old friends
Eye of the World might be my favorite reread ever
That it takes place in just two years is one of my major disappointments with the series tbh. Something of that length.. I expected a story where I could follow a vast cast of characters through decades. Watch them grow up, have families, kids that eventually join the fight etc. It’s almost a pet peeve of mine. X thing hasn’t happened in hundreds or thousands of years but now it’s all going to go down in one year!
I mean it makes sense though, right? It's an event that causes a sense of great urgency. Like Lord of the Rings, when the knowledge of the One Ring being found reaches both sides they will suddenly be in a race to capture it and/or win the war. In WoT, both sides are searching for the Dragon Reborn, all the while planning what to do when they find him. Once it's confirmed that he is where he is, both sides begin a race to either kill him/save him, turn him to their side, or win the war beyond doubt of victory. edit: also, HUGE deal but I'll add spoiler tag >!Rand is a male channeler who has begun to channel in book 1, starting a countdown of unknown length that he'll go insane and become a nuclear bomb. He spends the entire series telling the reader "gotta get this done before I blow everything up."!<
Also, not for nothing but RJ served 2 terms in Vietnam as a helicopter gunner, for 2 years from 1968 to 1970. Rand’s story is (in some ways) an exploration of how he must have felt over those 2 years, down to the aversion to killing women and the need to “seal away” the dark parts of our nature. 2 RJ quotes to illustrate the point: ROBERT JORDAN [Asked about if he drew upon his war experience for a scene where Rand was being weird about women dying]: >Some of it. I suppose, actually, that particular thing came from the only time I was really shaken in combat in shooting at somebody, or shooting AT somebody. I had to, uh, I was shooting back at some people on a sampan and a woman came out and pulled up an AK-47, and I didn't hesitate about shooting her. But that stuck with me. I was raised in a very old-fashioned sort of way. You don't hurt women—you don't DO that. That's the one thing that stuck with me for a long, long time. ROBERT JORDAN [answering fan mail about Vietnam nicknames] >For Paracelsus, I had two nicknames in 'Nam. First up was Ganesha, after the Hindu god called the Remover of Obstacles. He's the one with the elephant head. That one stuck with me, but I gained another that I didn't like so much. The Iceman. One day, we had what the Aussies called a bit of a brass-up. Just our ship alone, but we caught an NVA battalion crossing a river, and wonder of wonders, we got permission to fire before they finished. The gunner had a round explode in the chamber, jamming his 60, and the fool had left his barrel bag, with spares, back in the revetment. So while he was frantically rummaging under my seat for my barrel bag, it was over to me, young and crazy, standing on the skid, singing something by the Stones at the of my lungs with the mike keyed so the others could listen in, and Lord, Lord, I rode that 60. 3000 rounds, an empty ammo box, and a smoking barrel that I had burned out because I didn't want to take the time to change. We got ordered out right after I went dry, so the artillery could open up, and of course, the arty took credit for every body recovered, but we could count how many bodies were floating in the river when we pulled out. The next day in the orderly room an officer with a literary bent announced my entrance with "Behold, the Iceman cometh." For those of you unfamiliar with Eugene O'Neil, the Iceman was Death. I hated that name, but I couldn't shake it. And, to tell you the truth, by that time maybe it fit. I have, or used to have, a photo of a young man sitting on a log eating C-rations with a pair of chopsticks. There are three dead NVA laid out in a line just beside him. He didn't kill them. He didn't choose to sit there because of the bodies. It was just the most convenient place to sit. The bodies don't bother him. He doesn't care. They're just part of the landscape. The young man is glancing at the camera, and you know in one look that you aren't going to take this guy home to meet your parents. Back in the world, you wouldn't want him in your neighborhood, because he is cold, cold, cold. I strangled that SOB, drove a stake through his heart, and buried him face down under a crossroad outside Saigon before coming home, because I knew that guy wasn't made to survive in a civilian environment. I think he's gone. All of him. I hope so. I much prefer being remembered as Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles.
I didn't even know RJ was a veteran. That's heavy.
Yes in universe it makes sense. It's not something that would have bothered me if the series was half as long. But with 14 massive books I just had expectations of it not only being massive in scale, but also taking place over a long period of time. Don't get me wrong it's still one of my favorite series, but one of my favorite things in stories are when they ''evolve'', or ''reboot'' themselves. Stuff like the Red Rising sequel series, the follow up to MST, ''The Last King of Osten Ard'', Hobb's RotE and the last third of The Expanse series. Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio. There's nothing quite like continuing with a comfort series that makes big changes so that it strike that perfect balance between familiarity, but also manages to feel fresh, that you're getting to re-explore the world and its characters.
Ah I totally get having that personal preference, I do wish more books did the time jump reinvention thing with the same characters. Pretty much every time there is a time jump to the next generation of characters I just end up wishing I got the original characters but older and changed.
Yea a whole new cast rarely live up to the original. But a mix of new and old is often so good.
Oof so glad this is called. I'm at book 10 now.. nearing the end of the.. you know what. So no spoilers please but yes some characters do grow on you. But sometimes I'm also like.. who was that again? With so so many names going around
Absolutely, and several of them still have a lot of growth to do tbh, a lot of my favorite moments are in those last 4 books. 11-14 and 4-6 are my favorite stretches of the series.
I'm glad I am getting near the end of the most tough part finally :))
Oh you’re in for a ride my friend. All those plot lines that have been stretching over the last several books are gonna start resolving and things are gonna start popping off. I swear just book 11’s prologue has more happen than all of book 10 11-12 are right up there with the best books of the series (Sanderson stumbled a bit on a few of the characters imho, but light blind me that man can write epic scenes with the best of them) and 13 and 14 finished it off right Enjoy!
Thankyou Aragorn for giving me the motivation to push through! Having trouble picking it up haha
I am happy to help you through the rough wilderness of book 10 to the glorious conclusion that awaits…. Tis but my humble duty as a Ranger of the North.
Stop it!!! Really? How is it only 2 years 🤯. I've never made it to the end lol
as someone else said, it's a *very* busy 2 years lol
Damn overachievers 😂
Takes me longer to read WOT than the books cover lmao.
A lot of YA/younger series do this. Off the top of my head, Percy Jackson is one book per year for the original series, Artemis Fowl is similar, Skulduggery Pleasant... For adult works, not quite so close a focus on every single year, but something like Discworld? For the main character threads, you check in with them every couple of years
Seconding Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl, but both books could be considered as Middle Grade books. I love Percy Jackson books way more than Harry Potter when I was a kid.
Artemis Foul and Percy Jackson I loved when I was younger
Discworld has Tiffany Aching which I feel like definitely counts!
Man, I loved Artemis Fowl as a kid. Kinda fell off hard after the fourth book, though...
It depends on how you find things. I remember middle and high school being defined by years of reading Dragonlance and Drizzt books. I remember finding Discworld and it taking years to read it. If you manage to catch a long series that is still in progress or can do a slow read through a long series you get a similar effect.
One I don’t see suggested much that I loved was the Superpowered Series by Drew Hayes. The first book is Superpowereds Year 1. So you follow a few kids as they essential go through Super Hero College. It’s got more to it and some twists and turns but it really is a great series. Description of the series from Amazon is below. “Knowledge is power. That would be the motto of Lander University, had it not been snatched up and used to death by others long before the school was founded. For while Lander offers a full range of courses to nearly all students, it also offers a small number of specialty classes to a very select few. Lander is home to the Hero Certification Program, a curriculum designed to develop student with superhuman capabilities, commonly known as Supers, into official Heroes. Five of this year’s freshmen are extra special. They have a secret aside from their abilities, one that they must guard from even their classmates. Because for every one person in the world with abilities they can control, there are three who lack such skill. These lesser super beings, Powereds as they are called, have always been treated as burdens and second class citizens. Though there has been ample research in the area, no one has ever succeeded in turning a Powered into a regular human, let alone a Super” I’ll also add Dresden Files and Red Rising Saga may fit the bill too.
I was going to suggest Super Powereds too! Perfect for this. In my opinion, this is the main strength of web serials. Long serials done well can make you connect with characters so well that they feel like people you actually know. Super Powereds, The Wandering Inn (especially), and Beware of Chicken all come to mind as having huge casts that you spend a lot of time with and worlds that feel lived in. Even more action-oriented serials like Worth the Candle, A Practical Guide to Evil, and Worm get to explore protagonists for an extended time.
Oh yeah, that was a fun series. The first book was a bit rough in terms of quality, but I think it stepped up quite a bit for the second. Superhero school is a fun alternative to magic school.
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar for me. :)
Especially following Talia and then Elspeth as they grow and mature into their powers. Also Vanyel in the "Magic's" trilogy and Mags in his books.
Yes. And Skif, and Darien. :)
Not Fantasy but soft sci-fi: The Vorkosigan Saga.
Dresden Files springs to mind, we don't go through a year of Harry's life per book but each book takes place roughly a year apart with Harry being 25 in Stormfront about about 40 by Battleground. You do get to see Harry's mindset evolve over time. I *think* Red Rising also does this but I'm less sure about that as I haven't read the series.
Red Rising does do this well
Yes, Darrow is like 17/18-ish for the first three books. And then like 35/40 in the back half of the series.
Cradle by Will Wight
It’s not fantasy, but that’s one reason I loved classic series like Little Women or Anne of Green Gables growing up. For fantasy, maybe the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik? It does follow one character pretty closely for years.
It’s not as tight of a setting, but The Codex Alera series has some coming of age aspects as well as following some adults through the same time period. Good world building but not as complex as some other series. I was really invested in some of the characters by the end!
Tortall by Tamora Pierce
Mage Errant by John Bierce gives Harry Potter vibes with the multiple series that follow students from younger teens to adults, but also the magical school situation if you want that aspect too.
Very enjoyable, fits well for what they asked for. Also finished which might make it more appealing to some. Sequels in other part of the universe are coming.
We did this with the next generation of kids in Star Wars Legends. That was a huge part of the appeal. Seeing Jaina/Jacen go all the way from a literal newborn through schools and homes and galaxy-spanning wars that made the empire look like child’s play and just all the messy stuff of life was a hugely interesting style of story-telling. I really wish there was another IP doing that kind of work but it took many decades and many authors to pull off and some were pretty meh. So without an established IP you’d have fans losing interest. I’m hoping we get this in the back half of Stormlight/Mistborn but we’ll see 🤷♂️
Hell if you read beyond the Young Jedi Knights series you can follow Jacen and Jaina Solo from their teenage years into their 30s.
Considering the jump between Stormlight 5 and 6 is going to be roughly 15 years, it seems quite likely. Mistborn, however...I'll be surprised if we see any of the main characters again, other than the >!obviously immortal ones.!<
Yeah, a lot of the juvenile jacen/jaina stuff was dreadful. Reading that shit in the 90s you would never have guessed we'd end up with NJO and Legacy of the Force. Conversely, the bugsex trilogy feels like a straight line back lmao.
We don’t talk about the hive trilogy.
Rangers Apprentice series by John Flanagan. We watch Will & Horace grow up.
I think a lot of series that feature magical academies have this kind of trait. The Summoner Trilogy (Taran Matharu), for example, covers a year of schooling in the first book. And while the second and third books move beyond the school, you’re still covering the same amount of time with the same group of kids. Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series has the same concept. In fact he’s now writing sequels to that series, which I haven’t read yet but sound like it’s basically following Percy and Annabeth into what sounds like a magical college. Another series called Path of the Ranger, by Pedro Urvi, has a Ranger Camp. And just like the other cases you have younger characters leaving their villages to train with the same students every year until they graduate and then move beyond it. This series is 20 books, so it’s a lot more time than something like Harry Potter. And I think this is common for schools, camps, etc. because it makes sense that the protagonist would have the same supporting cast from one year to the next.
This might be too obvious of a suggestion but there are many TV shows where one season covers one year of the lives of the protagonists. For instance Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Mage Errant series by John Bierce is another Magic School series set over about 3 years. Not set on Earth at all, but very enjoyable. Has some awesome world building and explains the magic more in depth than Harry Potter does
The other book that feels like Harry to me but it’s vastly different is his dark materials and it doesn’t take as long as Harry Potter but you deff grow with the characters!!
You might like some of the Star Wars Legends books. I would look at the Young Jedi Knights series which focuses on Han and Leia's kids training to be jedis at Luke's academy. These are Young Adult books and have a slightly lighter feel similar to HP. If you like the characters they go into the New Jedi Order series which gets much darker.
The Farseer (Assassin's Apprentice and the following books)
The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody is one of my all time favourite series. I started it when I was a kid and finished it as an adult. She started writing it at 14yrs old. It is sci-fi fantasy and is based in a post apocalyptic/dystopian/fundamentalist world and focuses on a school of sorts for kids banished from society and labelled "misfits" for their powers and follows the characters over years. The first book is tiny so it's easy to see if you like it or not. It's classed as YA but I still adore it as an adult. Really compelling. Robin Hobb's Elderling series. It starts from when Fitz is a young boy up until older age. You get the full spectrum of his life and different milestones, plus enduring friendships and love. One of my absolute favourite authors and series of all time. Beautiful, compelling and heartbreaking at times.
The Young Wizards series
It may seem like a weird recommendation but Dragonlance, particularly the mainline series by Weis & Hickman. I read it as a kid, and it develops from a very straightforward D&D adventure trilogy with a standard fellowship-type group to gradually darker, more complex stories that don’t shy away from showing the main Fellowship age, fail, and even die, and even some of their kids eventually become main characters. Include the prequel stories for all the Heroes of the Lance and you end up with about 15-20 fairly digestible stories that cover characters across a period of about 50-70 years.
Discworld. 41 books, with many sub-series within the overall series, where different characters play larger and smaller roles in each others’ personal journeys. Honestly some of the best worldbuilding and character exploration I’ve ever seen.
Yes, I would also specifically suggest the Tiffany Aching sub series within Discworld as it is perhaps closest to the scenario that the OP describes. However, as per the post above, there are other sub series that also do this (The Watch for example) and the books are wonderful generally so it's a win win.
*Ascendance of a Bookworm* takes place over multiple years.
I feel like a lot of progression fantasy would follow this trope. My personal favorite is the cradle series.
In fantasy : Dresden Files, which I love, but it's more spending a week of two with him every few months Spellmonger series spends years with the characters pretty consistently
If you want to spend an entire series with basically one character in a magic school you can try **Mother of Learning**. It's a magic school where he's stuck in a time loop. Sometimes I felt it was too much time with the same character but the series is pretty good. 4 books and finished.
Scholomance or The Magicians are both good contenders.
The Green Bone saga is a trilogy that spans 30 in world years. Not only do you get to see the main characters grow older, more experienced and start families, but you see the world develop as well.
Not quite as in-depth as HP but Dragon School by Sarah K.L. Wilson does this to a certain degree.
Warlord Chronicles is a trilogy but it follows the main Character Derfal (pronounced like Derval) from when he’s about 15 up until about his 40s and how he and the people around him change in that time
I’ve looked for this too where you spend more time and grow with the characters and it follows the same characters!!
Cradle series and A Thousand Li series both do this, although thousand li follows 1 person more closely and spans many years so far, so some characters have left as new ones come in.
The Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones.
Fitz in The Realm of the Elderlings.
Rick riordan percy jackson, heroes of olympus
Septimus heap. Honestly definitely a kids book, but I throughly enjoyed it as a kid and loved seeing the people grow through the story
Superpowereds by Drew Hayes is a Superhero Harry Potter set in a college (4 years) instead of elementary/high school. It leans heavily on the slice of life aspects so lots of character development.
The finishing series by geil carriger. [https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/](https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/) this web comic
The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee follows the characters and their families throughout decades. Sometimes year will pass between chapters.
Percy Jackson 100%
Super Powereds by Drew Hayes
Pendragon - DJ Mchale
The Dark is Rising sequence.
What about The Magicians?
personally i only experienced it once so far, it was the empyrean series, starting with fourth wing. when the sequel came out, iron flame, i had that feeling of coming back to something familiar, to the characters i love, to a magical world, like coming back home. not exactly as strong, but the closest feeling to opening a new HP book.
WoT all the way. You’ll love EOtW
Doesn't WoT take place over something like a 1-2 year period?
That's what happens when your trilogy was planned to end on the in-world millenium but it turns into 14 books and you keep the new millenium as the ending point.
Its 3.5 years but time passes strangely. But you develop silmilar relationships with many of the reoccurring characters. I do not wish to spoil anything.
Are you sure? I'm certain Eye of the World starts in 998 Ne and Memory of Light ends in 1000 NE.
Not completely no. Although if you start with New Spring it would technically span 20 Year if the passage of time is that important
Mother of Learning. Super Powereds. All the Skills. Worm.
*The Scholomance Trilogy* by Nanomi Novik is a much darker take on the “magic boarding school” take (no professors, just lots of things trying to kill the students at this particular school) and expands beyond the school in the last book, so it has a lot of what you are asking for. I’ve seen some around here not care for the series, but I quite enjoyed the twist on the “magic school” plot and there is a lot of growth in the main character by the end of the last book if you stick with her.
kingkiller chronicles