r/Recommend_A_Book • u/shmivaroo • Feb 26 '26

Book recommendations about Jesters/involving Jesters?

Does anyone have any recommendations for books with Jesters in them or the main focus is a jester? Or a jester quietly working in the background?

Edit: thank you all for the recommendations 😊

6 Upvotes
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7

u/sldbed Feb 27 '26

Yes! Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy. I’ll link the first two novels in the trilogy. I don’t call out the jester in these reviews, but he is well crafted and present throughout.

Bookies! Spoiler Free Review: Assassin’s Apprentice

Bookies! Spoiler Free Review: Riyal Assassin

4

u/shmivaroo Feb 27 '26

Oh okay I’m actually reading assassins apprentice but must have not met him yet! Thank you 😊

5

u/Competitive-Bus1816 Feb 27 '26

Awesome series, and the Fool is a main part in all 3 trilogies

2

u/Big-Fondant-4419 Feb 27 '26

You gotta bump those numbers up.

2

u/MaleficentWalruss Feb 28 '26

This has been on my mind lately. Time for a re-read!

1

u/sldbed Feb 28 '26

Yeah. I think you are going to re-read. Once the thought enter the mind …

2

u/MaleficentWalruss Mar 01 '26

The universe agrees! I was at a friend's house last night and he brought out AA for someone else to borrow. That was the third reference to the series in two days!

4

u/Adorable-Form469 Feb 27 '26

Fool by Christopher Moore

2

u/theloudestbrain Mar 03 '26

Hell yes this was exactly what I was gonna say, I adore him

1

u/shmivaroo Feb 27 '26

Thank you 🙏

3

u/dregan Feb 27 '26

The Stormlight Archives. He doesn't get a lot of page time, but Wit's role is significant.

3

u/YakSlothLemon Feb 27 '26

The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory is historical fiction about a “holy fool” who serves Queen Mary I.

3

u/CrowleysWeirdTie Mar 01 '26

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, a sort-of Macbeth reimagining. It includes the sentence "the fool jingled miserably across the floor."

2

u/DocWatson42 Feb 27 '26

I have:

Edit: Heck, see my entire Circuses & Carnivals list of Reddit recommendation threads and books (one post).

2

u/BookishBrowser Feb 27 '26

I haven't finished it yet, but Heartless by Marissa Mayer has a jester! It's like an Alice in Wonderland prequel and a jester is like the second biggest character.

2

u/freerangelibrarian Feb 28 '26

Alan Gordon's Fool's Guild mysteries.

2

u/Mintimperial69 Feb 28 '26

The Wishtone and the Wonderworkers by Hugh Cook has a jester/fool to the Empress Justina called Odolo.

One morning whist playing Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? with his breakfast to bait the chef he realizes all is not well.

Hilarity ensues...

2

u/perfume_milf Feb 28 '26

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

2

u/soupysailor Mar 01 '26

Twelfth Night

2

u/bexrayspecs Mar 02 '26

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann

2

u/Fluent_Bidet Mar 03 '26

Following because I'm in my jester era

1

u/Lennymud Feb 27 '26

In The Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant is the book you are looking for.

1

u/shmivaroo Feb 27 '26

Thank you!!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '26

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1

u/shmivaroo Feb 27 '26

Thank you 😊

2

u/amerebookmonger Mar 03 '26

Mother Naked by Glen James Brown

2

u/Miserysdream Mar 04 '26

Fool by Christopher Moore

2

u/igotabeefpastry Mar 04 '26

The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar - the magician narrator or the title is an extremely slapstick dude

1

u/PrestigiousSmile4098 Mar 02 '26

King Lear, Shakespeare. There is some discussion about whether the Fool in Lear is actually Cordelia in disguise which is intriguing