I posted this request in another forum, but have yet to get the kind of recommendations I'm looking for, so hopefully I'll have better luck here...

I just finished the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning and am now looking for another really epic series to get into. I've heard lots of great things about the Kate Daniels series, but for now, I'm looking for more series in the lines of Fever and Harry Potter, where an ordinary person rediscovers him/herself (really grows as a character) and ends up saving the world while making friends/enemies along the way with plenty of world building and amazing plot arcs that stretch throughout the series. Both Fever and HP featured main characters who initially had no clue about their powers or anything supernatural, but ended up becoming entangled in a whole heap of adventures/conspiracies. I loved both series for its world building, plot twists (everything unraveled at a nice pace), characters you ended up really caring for, and just plain addictiveness. Both made me lose sleep/sanity until I gobbled them all up. Now I'm looking for something just as addictive/suspenseful that makes you lose sleep over, with the main character starting out ordinary/clueless. So if anyone has any recs, please share them with me. Thanks!

P.S. I prefer book series focusing on one main character instead of multiple (makes it much more personal) like HP and Fever

 

You don't need to talk down on me -your last sarcastic remark was really rude. I clearly said a series similar to Fever and HP where the focus is on one main character who starts out relatively simple, with no clue of his/her magical surroundings. The two series are very different, but they do have that similar trait. Also, I didn't think to mention the books having to be in English because I assumed this was an English forum -I'm sorry for that mistake.

 

Yeah really, don't be rude Sesc!

OP, go read Dresden Files.

 

Codex Alera by Jim Butcher

 

OP: Twilight Saga.

(Troll grins).

 

southern vampire mysteries

 

What you want, is the basic plot line for nearly every scifi/fantasy book that exists... Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, The Belgariad by David Eddings are just two examples off the top of my head.

In fact, it more comes across as "I can't be fucked looking up good books, so I'll get people to tell me what to read." There are so many places you can find book recommendations, the thread here for example, not to mention the countless lists compiled by who knows when you google the subject.

Don't be lazy, and don't get really defensive when you're called on it.

 

The Wizard of Earthsea trilogy (trilogy, not further; the later books are...weird), and the Kingkiller trilogy (Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear so far, with the third to come) are absolute essentials.

It's not quite what you're looking for, I suspect, given that it's not someone ordinary discovering the extraordinary, but Kate Griffin's Matthew Swift books are thoroughly excellent.

 

Thanks so much for all the recs so far! I've heard of the Dresden Files, but it seems more of a detective series, correct me if I'm wrong. And I read somewhere that the Codex Alera series focuses on more than one main character. But if it's mainly on one character, then I'll read it because I heard it's really good.

 

Perhaps try your hand at The Pendragon Adventure by D.J. Machale. The titular character most definitely starts out ordinary and evolves over the ten main series books, with a good degree of fantasy adventures, strong allies and friends, and a fairly good villain who endures through the midpoint without really collapsing in on himself like Voldemort did early on.

The only downside is that the perspective flips from time to time off of said character to introduce alternative narration or otherwise hammer out plot details, and that remains true from the start to the end.

Dresden Files is detective intermixed with supernatural/fantasy, given the main character is a Wizard. Try perusing the first chapter or two at your local book store to see if you would be open to going any further than that rather than say "no" from the get go and terminate a potentially thrilling and satisfying journey.

 

Dresden Files is a detective series, sure...a detective who rides T-Rex into battle and goes toe to toe with beings that pose as old gods.

The Belgariad by David Eddings is a five book series worth looking in to, as is its five book sequel series, the Malloreon.

Raymond Feist is another great author, his first book Magician is the start of a truly epic series.

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini is worth looking in to. The fourth and final book in the series hits shelves in a few weeks.

If you're looking for less High Fantasy and more normal fantasy, the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix is a good one, as are his Old Kingdom and Seventh Tower works.

I can't recall the name, but there's this one fairly popular series about a young boy who finds out he's a wizard and goes on to many magical adventures in the wizarding world...

Better yet, you could always just mosey on down to your local bookstore and trawl the shelves for something to read. I hear they have a few decent ones in places like that.

 

Dresden Files is better, though they're written by the same person. I'd say it's more of an action/thriller series - one that focuses heavily on Dresden as a character.

 

Dresden Files does indeed have elements of detective stories (the main character is a PI) but that is barely scratching the surface - there is magic, politics, intrigue, Faerie Courts, and ridiculously good action scenes to be had as well. I think it's fair to say numerous DLP-ers are fans as we have a subforum dedicated to it here as well. Highly recommended.

I also second the recommendation for Codex Alera and recommend the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.

Other than that, your one main character stipulation makes this a bit tricky as many of the most well known, 'epic' fantasy series have multiple main characters and switch between their POVs often, including Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire. I think you're doing yourself a disservice by excluding them, but whatever.

 

As good as Dresden Files is, I think it's one of the few stories that don't hit the vague requirements of the OP. Dresden does not start as a guy who doesn't know about magic but rather as a full-fledged wizard. If she is only looking for farmboys or average Joe's discovering magic and a prophecy, Dresden Files is a bit far from that.

The Codex Alera series hits that on the nail though. Same with the Eragorn books, The Wheel of Time series and so on.

 

I think I'm going to start on the Codex Alera series since it sounds right up my alley at the moment. But a BIG thank you to everyone else's recommendations! I didn't really think I'd get too many since not many "epic" fantasy/urban fantasy series only focus on one protagonist. I prefer to read and grow alongside one particular protagonist rather than have multiple characters thrown at me -that's just my preference. But that doesn't mean I don't love/want to read about other characters, I just prefer one main POV.

 

But OP basically stated that she wants to read a story about a wizard named Harry. So we gave her one.

 

Further to my earlier post, I'm reading Tad Williams' The Dragonbone Chair at the moment, and that definitely fulfils your requirements. Good so far, and I've heard good things about the rest of the series.