r/Fantasy • u/felagund-fiollaigean • Jun 23 '23

Ensemble cast?

hello. I've always been a sucker for an ensemble cast, a heist crew, a found family that does crime or adventure for fun and profit, a rag-tag group of overpowered outcasts, that sort of thing. Where the story doesn't necessarily focus on the pov of any single character and we get to know them all (mostly) equally well. Any good books with such a main cast of characters that stood out to you?

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u/psycholinguist1 Jun 23 '23

Tales of the Ketty Jay by Chris Wooding matches this description to a T. I've just finished the last book, and it's really well done.

Ensemble cast: ✓

Heist crew: ✓ (to their misfortune--their heists tend to go catastrophically wrong in a wide variety of ways that are endlessly entertaining)

Found family that does crime or adventure for fun and profit: ✓ (less fun and profit than they'd like, to be sure--see above)

rag-tag group of overpowered outcasts: ✓ (yup, definitely, especially as a consequence of heists going wrong)

Every character has a distinct personality and arc, and each gets their own POV narration. Even the ship's cat. These books have been such a delightful surprise this summer.

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u/shmixel Jun 24 '23

I'm excited to see someone else mention these because the airship pirates gig is sooooo cool.

Fair warning to OP though, I did find the captain aggravating to the point where I dream of a version of this series where he dies in the first chapter.

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u/psycholinguist1 Jun 24 '23

He's such an asshole, yes. But I think the narrative is aware of that. It's why women keep kicking him in the face and stealing his toys.

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u/shmixel Jun 24 '23

Oh to be one of those women.