Progression – Marked for Plot

The Daily Grind – When Corporate America becomes the Dungeon

After Works of Vermin, I wanted something light and simple. The Daily Grind has been on my Progression Fantasy radar for a while, and it felt like a great book to read while mildly burnt out and stressed about dry rot on windows. It absolutely scratched that itch, and I’m definitely going to keep reading more of this series as a palette cleanser between heavier reads. Is this book going to satisfy anyone’s desire for carefully wrought stories brimming with meaning and subtext? Absolutely not. But for a casual fun trip into an eldritch dimension watching normal people fight animated post it notes, this is a great pick. It has big beach read vibes despite most of the book happening in an unending void of cubicles.

The Premise:
James hates his job. To be fair, who would enjoy vague IT support where you get yelled at because the customer lost their remote and can’t change the channel anymore. On his way out one night, he discovers a staircase turns into an alternate dimension for a few minutes – though time works differently on the inside. The endless rows of cubicles seem to be randomly generated by some eldritch mind, and the maze is filled with stapler crabs, computers with jaws in strange places, and bills that come in far more denominations than you can find in the real world. When he learns that killing monsters drop skill orbs (typically for stuff like Excel Spreadsheets or French History) he quickly grows addicted to delving in this bizarre dungeon.

Read If Looking For: something simple, repetitive, and chill, casual bisexual representation, uncanny valley office supplies

Avoid If Looking For: dramatic power-ups, careful prose, epic fight scenes

Comparable Media: Several People are Typing, Mana Mirror, Triangle Agency

An Inheritance of Magic – Featherweight and Enjoyable Urban Fantasy

An Inheritance of Magic has been buzzing around my circles as one of the better Urban Fantasy series to come out in the past few years. This isn’t a subgenre I spend a ton of time with, but I’ve found that widely loved series tend to be reliably enjoyable for me (other than Dresden Files), and An Inheritance of Magic certainly lived up to that premise. It’s not perfect, clearly wants to prepare you for a long series, and seems to be a solid and readable ‘zero to hero’ story.

The Premise:
Stephen is an aspiring mage who wants nothing more than to make enough to pay rent and to start hunting down his father who vanished mysteriously a few years ago. When a strange woman claiming to be a distant relative of the mom who walked out on Stephen when he was a baby, his life is set to change. The assholes of that family see him as nothing more than a pawn, and the cost of growing in magic is exorbitant. Still, it gives Stephen the clues he needs to finally start making progress in his own craft and the connections needed to begin looking for his father. Before any of that though, he needs to make sure that the capitalist chokehold the rich have on magic doesn’t crush his dreams before they can even begin.

Read if: you enjoy reading about plucky underdogs making it work, are in favor of Orca whales crashing billionaire Yachts off the coast of Spain, are looking for something tropey and simple

Avoid if: comedically evil villains put you off, you dislike explanations of magic, religious logic problems put you off

Comparable Media: Tarot Sequence, Arcane Ascension, Witch Hat Atelier

Ironbound

Progression Fantasy isn’t a genre I’ve spent that much time with recently. However, as I’ve been clearing out my Kindle Unlimited cache, it popped up and I said ‘fuck it, let’s take a risk on another Roman-coded setting.’ Will of the Many was fun. Not mind blowing, but fun. And I think that’s where I fall with Ironbound. The Holy Roman Empire may consume the minds of straight men, but 700 pages of it was more than enough for me to feel exhausted by the end.

The Premise
Castor has worked all of his (admittedly rather short) life trying to earn the Empire’s favor to gain magic. Few earn the privilege, for the metal granting these powers is a rare resource. The story begins when his school goes through their final tests, determining which students will become elite members of their society. Unfortunately, things go to pieces when a wolf-headed monster attacks the ceremony, and Castor takes the blame. HIs family dead, his life forever changed, Castor vows revenge against the Empire who wronged him.

Read if Looking For: an overpowered morally upstanding hero who has been utterly wronged, lots of fight scenes, Roman settings without any of the queerness from actual Rome

Avoid if Looking for: thematic depth, creative use of powers, female characters (even side ones)

The Restored (Secret Records of Axel Font #2)

For a review of book 1 in this magitech action thriller reminiscent of Arcane, see The Effaced.

As I’m putting together my end-of-year wrap up post, The Effaced has floated around within my Top 10 reads of the year. Unless I read something mind-blowing in the next week, I think it’ll probably stay there. Begley has been pretty clear that the commercial failure of this book has hit him hard as an indie author (only 16 ratings on goodreads as of this post), which sucks because he’s doing a lot of creative things in the progression fantasy subgenre, and one of the few in that arena writing queer characters. The sequel didn’t quite live up to the hype I threw behind the original, and solidified that it should probably be read after his Journals of Evander Tailor series for the best experience .

The Premise
Book 1 set up a bunch of threats (Axel’s old owner, a mysterious demon, a shadowy cabal of ruthless capitalists with too much power), and this book more or less locks in on the demonic threat more than any others. It expands the cast to focus more equally on around 5 characters instead of staying locked-in on Axel. It also featured a rather extended battle sequence bouncing between perspectives, which formed the core of the page count in this book.

Read if Looking For: bespoke hard magic systems, demonic invasions, happy endings, the lightest sprinkle of romance in an action book

Avoid if Looking For: nuanced solutions to systemic problems, the tough side of Found Family, explicit sex scenes

The City that Would Eat the World

2025 has not been my best year of reading (yet). There’s been quite a few disappointments, a decent number of ‘good, but not great’ books, and one or two that will stay with me. I’m happy to say that I finally found something addictive in The City that Would Eat the World. It was a raucously fun adventure in an alien world that is both utterly unlike our own, while mirroring it deeply.

The Premise
The City of Wall is … a bunch of interconnected walls. A lot of them. They currently cover about a third of Ishevos, with the age-extending god Cambrias driving its relentless expansion. Thea is a mimic exterminator who hosts a flagstone-counting god inside her soul, and Aven is a traveling adventurer visiting Wall looking for the next great thrill. They end up meeting after a god-killing artifact falls into Thea’s lap, and drawing a lot of attention that Thea very much doesn’t want, and Aven very much does. The resulting events will take them across the vast city, bring them into contact with heroes and monsters, and challenge their beliefs about the goodness of Wall (for Thea) or whether toppling it is even possible (for Aven).

Read if Looking For: easy reading, weird megastructures, batshit crazy plans, anticapitalist themes

Avoid if Looking For: themes you have to dig for, gritty and dark books, romantic subplots

The Diviner (Journals of Evander Tailor #2)

The Journals of Evander Tailor series has been a guilty pleasure favorite of mine for a while. It’s the type of fantasy I wish I would have had as a kid: fun fight scenes with a nerdy gay lead. Life has been pretty hectic recently, so I went in on the audiobooks to listen to as I rip up carpets and contemplate whether I have the skill to try and refinish the floors with my pitiful DIY skills (the answer is definitely not, at least right now).

The Premise:
Evan is in his second year of magic school. After killing the king with the help of a Fae Queen, he finds himself with lots of eyes on him as he scrambles for power that will keep him safe. However, the year will bring a lot more than schoolwork after a visit to a neighboring country clues him in that there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye with the kingdom. Something is terribly wrong, and, let’s be honest, it’s probably the nobility’s fault.

Read if Looking For: fun enchanting, asshat nobility, drama-free relationships

Avoid if Looking For: careful prose, confident characters, books free from tropes

Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Progression Fantasy is a subgenre that happily draws on video games, anime, and tabletop RPGs as inspiration points. Sufficiently Advanced Magic happily wears its influences on its sleeves. It’s a big magic school story with lots of cool fights, badass moments, without a whole lot mental load required of the reader. And while I think I ultimately prefer Journals of Evander Tailor for my ‘queer kid enchants items in a big magic school’ read, this is a phenomenal option, and definitely the more widely popular one.

The Premise:
Corin enters the Spire hoping for many things: an attunement to grant him magic, clues about the fate of his brother, who vanished years ago in his own Spire trial, and maybe a fun magic weapon or two. He comes out with all three things (though perhaps none as intended), the attention of one of the immortal Visages who can destroy countries with a thought, and a pissed off abusive father who can’t stand his son got an enchanting attunement instead of one designed for combat. Corin heads to school, hoping to develop his abilities to eventually be able to find his brother and gain independence.

Read If Looking For: anime vibes, overly analytical characters, dungeon crawling

Avoid if Looking For: books without filler, mystic magic, healthy parent/child relationships

The Enchanter

I was a Harry Potter kid growing up, and despite falling out of love with the series for a wide variety of reasons, magic schools will always hold a special place in my heart. I also loved Shoenn Manga, and remember buying the newest Naruto books released to see what was happening during the Chūnin Exams. This has since transformed into an adult love of the Progression Fantasy genre, featuring readable prose, fun battles, and lots of power ups. There’ve been a couple good marriages between these two elements, and even a few with lots of queer rep (Arcane Ascension and Mage Errant both get a big shout out for this!), but Journals of Evander Tailor is by far my favorite. The Enchanter is the first book in the journey, and I’ll keep singing its praises as long as I can.

The Premise:
Evan is the human adoptive son of an elvish tailor. When he discovers that he has magic, albeit weakly, he decides to take the risk of attending an expensive university to broaden his future prospects. When he arrives, he discovers a system set up for nobility to succeed on the backs of commoners, strange eldritch creatures in the woods, and a desperate need to grow his power quickly and avoid being drafted into the military via flunking out.

Read If Looking For: breezy reading, detailed magic systems, supportive relationships, consequences for actions, a thoughtful and pragmatic lead character

Avoid if Looking For: beautiful prose, queer-friendly worlds, magic that remains mystic and unexplained

Dungeon Crawler Carl

This book is stupid. It shouldn’t work. It’s premise is insane. And yet it has captured me fully and utterly. I have listened to all the books in the series multiple times, read the paper copies, and eagerly await each new installment. I’m thrilled it’s hitting a wider audience now that it’s made the jump to traditional publishing, and am excited to return to it when I need a comfortable audiobook.

The Premise:
Carl and his Donut (his ex-girlfriend’s show-cat) get caught up in a nightmare after aliens turn earth into a reality tv show deathtrap. He’s in a fantasy themed dungeon, complete with goblins and stat blocks and an audience of aliens hungry for him to kill in the most dramatic way possible. Make it through 18 floors and earn your freedom … probably. Thankfully, Carl likes dynamite, and Donut likes to monologue. They just have to convince the AI running the whole thing that they’re more entertaining alive than dead.

Read If Looking For: books that make you think ‘what the fuck?’, horror meets comedy, action packed fun

Avoid if Looking For: character focused stories, quality prose, books without gore, subtle humor

Mana Mirror

I’ve been a big fan and advocate of Tobias Begley’s previous series (Journals of Evander Tailor) in the progression fantasy space. I appreciated how they balanced small scale magic-school stuff with overarching plots, included quality queer rep, and had a clear grasp on characterization within a breezy writing style. So after binging book 3 in that series and seeing he had a new one coming out, I was overjoyed to see he had a new book coming out! Mana Mirror is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was definitely mine.

The Premise:
When Malachi got tested for magic and had the opportunity to pick opposing mana types for his spellcasting, he went with life and death mana. This caught the attention of a morally-questionable magi looking for a successor/experiment subject, and Malachi quickly ended up becoming apprenticed to one of the most powerful spellcasters on the planet. He’ll visit the local quest board often, learn about down payments on buying brooms, and meet a variety of cute folks along the way as he pursues a path towards magic that (among other things) will let him fully transition.

Read if Looking For: side quests, magic systems, wholesome family dynamics

Avoid if Looking For: action heavy, plot driven, or deeply thematic books