Hi! This Rec League request is from me (Amanda) and I thought it was a good tie-in for Halloween.
I was thinking about how much I enjoyed Slouch Witch when we recently featured it on sale. I loved the flip of having a main character who felt mediocre in their magic or honestly was happy doing the bare minimum. It was a refreshing departure from the “chosen one” stories that I mainly see out there.
So please give me more!
Sarah: I think there are a number of mediocre magic users in the Discworld series, but I’d need someone much more fluent in the books to help me figure out how many and which.
Elyse: Please stand by while I page Rich!
Sarah: I am unsure about this rec and wish I could ask Catherine, but the Celia Lake books are very quiet magic. Not lazy or disinterested, but not necessarily full of the most powerful people, either.
Elyse: He said any book featuring Rincewind applies.
Sarah: Yes! Possibly some of the witches in the Tiffany Aching series, but I’m happy my foggy, murky memory was on the right track.
Which books would you recommend? Tell us in the comments!
As to Pratchett, any book with Granny Weatherwax. And/or Tiffany Aching.
I don’t know that I’ve ever read a “lazy” witch besides Slouch Witch. What I have read is books where the protagonist consciously chooses a lower status/lower pressure type of magic to practice. Gretchen Galway’s Sonoma Witches series features Alma, a plant based magic practitioner in a metal and mineral powered world. Of course, as the series progresses, her powers expand and she gets more chosen book by book.
Thinking about this, especially in relation to Pratchett’s Witches, I would never call his witches lazy, so much as I would call them not showy or perhaps restrained, using headology and moral fiber rather than “tremendous cosmic power.”
I’m also thinking Sangu Mandanna’s witchery might be restrained or low key if not actively lazy. (Ox AND a moron?)
My sleep is tremendously f-ed up right now, which is why it’s taking me 3 comments to trickle out this info. Molly Harper has a newish series that features a reluctant magic user who’s suckered into moving to a magical island. Harper has two books so far in the Starfell Point series, Witches Get Stuff Done, and Big Witch Energy. The first book was ok, but I haven’t been motivated to read the second. I prefer her vamps.
Also, would Ann Aguirre’s Fix-It Witches paranormal rom-com series qualify? To be honest, I DNFed book 1, not because it was awful but because I just couldn’t get into it. To be honest, “lazy” or even just low stakes witchery doesn’t appeal to me personally.
One of my favorite short story collections is Tanya Huff’s “Third Time Lucky” about an extremely lazy witch (she’s the most powerful wizard in the world but just wants to be lying in the sun): “There’s a lot of responsibility involved with being the most powerful wizard in the world, and Magdalene wants nothing to do with any of it.”.
Along similar lines (chosen one, but lazy) Tanya Huff’s “The Gales” series (Enchantment Emporium, The Wild Ways, The Future Falls)
I Love the Enchantment Emporium! Time for a reread – thanks Katharina!
The Pratchett witches are IMO the opposite of lazy, it’s just that magic is more incidental and that they chose to do what they do (especially Tiffany Aching), but the books examine what it means to be “chosen” vs making a choice.
As for another exploration of magic I can recommend the Circle of Magic book series by Tambora Pierce – not witches per se but about craft magic (thread magic! Fire! Plants!) instead of more wizard type magic. It’s still not exactly “lazy” though; the main characters are mainly just doing the best they can.
Ottfried Preußler’s The Little Witch is a German children’s book that asks the question what really defines a “good” witch, and not as a measure of power.
Optimal Delusions by Amber Fisher is a cozy mystery instead of romance (although there’s some flirting that may continue in the series?). It gives off the same general vibe as the Slouch Witch books did for me!
Not romances but T. kingfisher has a few YA novels featuring lower powered magicians – A Minor Mage, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and Illuminations are all sort of in that vein.
Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood! I’m currently reading it, and it’s delightful, about a London bookseller who’s also a witch and is so burnt out while living among non-magic people that she’s barely been using her magic for years, other than to make tea and summon pastries from the kitchen (big mood). Yet, to quote the blurb, “when her 30th birthday brings a summons from her coven, and a trial that tests her worthiness as a witch, Belle risks losing her magic forever.”
“Belladonna Blackthorn hasn’t lost her magical spark . . . but she hasn’t seen it in a while, either.”
@Jen: I have an interview with Lucy Jane Wood for the podcast next week!!
Maybe not exactly the vibe, but I’ve been rereading Lauren Dane’s Diablo Lake books. I like that the magic is subtle and all about nurturing their community and staying connected with their land. There’s some high stakes drama, but handled at the human level.
@DonnaMarie – thank you for this rec! I was chasing my tail about whether it qualified but I agree with you, especially with the subtle community magic.
I am not sure it’s the right vibe both because I barely remember them and also because I haven’t read Slouch Witch, but it is possible the White Trash Warlock series would do? I don’t think the main character is truly lazy, but I believe he at least started off as kind of underpowered, and not super interested in doing any more magic than he absolutely has to. But iirc he winds up having to do a lot, and being more special than he thought, so it may be too high stakes.
Would The House Witch series by Delemhach work? The main character isn’t lazy, but his power is limited in a way that makes him seem underpowered compared to others and his main goal is comfort. Of course, his power ramps up before the end of the story, but that would be spoilers…
It’s available on Kindle unlimited, but was originally published on Royal Road.
The recent Sarah Hawley books have this sort of fish-out-of-magic elements, esp the first one, in which the main character is looked down upon bay her family for ‘not’ fulfilling The Prophecy-
About Celia Lake’s Albion books, I wouldn’t describe any of her main characters as lazy, but you are right that her books aren’t about a Chosen One or even about powerful people throwing their power around. The best way I can describe it is good people, using their abilities for good. These aren’t great wizards or superheroes; they are ordinary people, of various social classes, abilities, and skills, whose world and skills happen to include magic in a variety of ways.
The books are generally quiet, and the conflicts tend to remain on the personal, human level. That’s true even in the more recent books set behind the scenes during WWII; they’re not about a single hero saving the day/world/universe, but about individual human beings doing their best to help the war effort. It’s very like the real world, but with magic instead of or alongside technology… and just like technology, the magic has limitations.
@Katharina I had never read Third Time Lucky but it is amazing and I loved it, thanks so much for the rec! Exactly the vibes I needed.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley’s heroine isn’t looking for the big chaotic chosen one role – she does the baking for her family business, dates one of the line cooks who prefers his motorcycle to sorcery, and sunshine is her magical element. Part of her selfcare is to lay out in the sun.