Most of the time, fantasy books center on triumphant heroes vanquishing monsters. That’s not always the case, though. One of the most intriguing modern literary fantasy trends is the emergence of stories that show the terms “monster” and “hero” aren’t mutually exclusive.
From cowardly goblins forced to find their bravery to reluctant dragons who’d rather be napping on their horde, the best fantasy books where monsters are the protagonist cover a wide range of species and creatures. Each offers a unique subversion of traditional fantasy tropes thanks to its shift in perspective to a nonhuman central character, and all of them prove that, sometimes, monsters make the most entertaining heroes.
The New Era Online Series By Shemer Kuznits (2017-2021)
There are several fantasy LitRPG’s where monsters are the heroes, and few stand out like Shemer Kuznits’s New Era Online series of novels. Being turned into a goblin would be a nightmare for most fantasy heroes, but it is particularly disastrous for Oren, a powerful player in the titular virtual reality world. After being betrayed in book 1, 2017’s Life Reset, Oren finds himself not only trapped in the game, but in the body of a goblin. Human players are now threats, while the monsters he previously fought are now his potential allies.
Watching Oren apply his knowledge of New Era Online to the creatures that players normally dismiss as disposable enemies gives the series a unique spin on fantasy LitRPGs, as well as the wider literary genre. Rather than simply leveling up into a stronger goblin, he builds a community, develops its defenses, and gradually turns a group of low-level monsters into a genuine power. That town-building element gives the LitRPG mechanics in the New Era Online series a different purpose, while Oren's perspective exposes how arbitrary the distinction between hero and monster can be.
Leech By Hiron Ennes (2022)
There is something immediately unsettling about making a parasitic organism the protagonist of a fantasy novel, and Hiron Ennes’ 2022 book Leech takes full advantage of that discomfort. The mysterious Interprovincial Medical Institute, a parasitic hive-mind, has existed for generations by inhabiting human bodies and effectively replacing doctors. When one of its “physicians” dies in a host at an isolated château, another incarnation arrives to investigate. Instead, the Institute discovers that a rival parasite has entered the world and threatens the delicate system it has created.
As a protagonist, the Institute is clinical and cold yet strangely benevolent despite its monstrous nature. It may invade human bodies, but it also protects humanity. Ennes uses that contradiction to dismantle the assumption that a being like a supernatural parasite must, by definition, be a villain. Some moments of truly grotesque body horror and speculative Gothic fantasy combine to make Leech a delightfully strange reading experience, while the unique perspective of a parasitic hivemind gives familiar concepts such as medicine and death a fresh perspective. For readers who want their monster heroes to remain genuinely unsettling, Leech is the perfect choice.
The Jig The Goblin Trilogy By Jim C. Hines (2004-2008)
A group of adventurers entering a dungeon usually means trouble for the monsters living inside it, especially if those monsters are goblins. In Jim C. Hines’ Jig The Goblin Trilogy, the situation is reversed. The hero of the trilogy is Jig, a small, cowardly goblin who gets captured by a party of adventurers and forced to guide them through the underground world he calls home. That simple reversal gives the trilogy a lot of charm and a hilarious satirical tone throughout.
The Jig The Goblin trilogy is especially satisfying because Jig isn’t secretly a mighty warrior waiting to discover his true potential. He’s nervous, physically unimpressive, and his grand quest is simply staying alive. Still, endless situations force him out of his comfort zone and create a satisfying and effective heroic arc. Hines makes the fantasy dungeon trope far more interesting by shifting perspective to its inhabitants, making the Jig The Goblin books essential reading for anyone bored with the standard “heroes enter a dungeon and kill monsters” setup.
Vainqueur the Dragon Series By Maxime J. Durand (2019-2022)
The titular protagonist of Maxime J. Durand’s fantasy LitRPG novels, the ancient dragon Vainqueur Knightsbane, has little interest in becoming a better person. He likes treasure, and his ideal day involves sleeping on top of his enormous hoard. However, his priorities change when a would-be thief, Victor, becomes his unwilling minion and introduces him to the world of classes, levels, and quests. Vainqueur soon realizes that adventuring is an excellent way to acquire more treasure, turning the traditional fantasy relationship between dragon and adventurer completely upside down.
Unlike many other fantasy books where the heroes are monsters, Vainqueur never stops behaving like a dragon. He remains greedy, self-centered, and frequently terrifying, but Durand uses the LitRPG format to make this a source of comedy and give him genuine growth. Instead of watching an adventurer work toward defeating the dragon at the end of a dungeon, readers follow Vainqueur as he approaches the world like an adventurer himself, with the ever-overwhelmed Victor left to clean up the mess afterward. This makes the Vainqueur the Dragon series a lighthearted fantasy adventure read that will appeal to any fans of the genre, even if they have no experience with LitRPGs.
The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break By Steven Sherrill (2000)
Author Steven Sherrill’s 2000 novel The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break is definitely one of the strangest fantasy books out there, but it’s also incredibly satisfying. Set five thousand years after the events of Greek mythology, the Minotaur of legend has traded the labyrinth for a far more mundane existence. Known simply as M, he works as a line cook at a restaurant called Grub's Rib and lives in a trailer park in the American South. His appearance remains monstrous, but his problems are ordinary. He is lonely, struggles to connect with people, and spends much of his life trying to make sense of the world without being swallowed by it.
This disconnect is what makes The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break so effective. Despite being the same fearsome beast from the legend of Theseus, M’s story in Sherrill’s book is less about violence than isolation and the difficulty of existing as an outsider. Instead of transforming the Minotaur into a conventional hero, Sherrill explores what happens when a monster tries to be a normal person in everyday society. The result is a melancholy, unusual fantasy novel that proves a monster protagonist does not need to be traditionally heroic to be compelling.
The Rising World Series By Martha Wells (2023-2025)
Central protagonist Kai has already died by the time Martha Wells’ The Rising World series gets underway. In 2023’s Witch King, the powerful demon prince is resurrected and forced to investigate his own murder, while also confronting the political and supernatural forces surrounding it. The fact that Kai is a demon rather than a goblin, orc, or dragon is especially fascinating even among fantasy novels where monsters are heroes. Despite demons often representing corruption, temptation, or an external supernatural threat in conventional fantasy, Wells refuses to make Kai's species a shorthand for evil.
Having readers experience the world's politics and conflicts through a demonic character makes the Rising World novels truly unique. Kai can be formidable and frightening without being positioned as a villain, while his friendships and loyalties provide an emotional core whose strength defies expectations. It’s one of the most sophisticated variations of the monster-hero premise out there, and Wells' detailed worldbuilding and distinctive approach to fantasy storytelling make it difficult to put down.
The Heartstrikers Series By Rachel Aaron (2014-2018)
Where the Vainqueur the Dragon series features a draconic hero who revels in the tropes of his species, Rachel Aaron’s Heartstrikers novels take the opposite approach. Central hero Julius Heartstriker is a dragon, but that does not mean he wants to behave like one. Set in a world where dragons and magic have returned to Earth, Julius would much rather stay in his room playing video games than manipulate humans, accumulate wealth, or engage in the ruthless politics his family expects of him.
From the moment 2014’s Nice Dragons Finish Last, the first book in the series, begins, Rachel Aaron uses Julius to challenge almost every fantasy dragon stereotype. Tendencies towards greed, domination, and violence are replaced with empathy and a desire to avoid conflict. Despite the inherent comedy in the premise, however, the Heartstrikers novels are a genuinely thrilling supernatural adventure involving dragons, spirits, and magical politics.
The Lot Lands Trilogy By Jonathan French (2018-2021)
Half-orcs occupy a very different place in traditional fantasy from dragons or powerful demonic entities. They are generally built to be nameless enemies to be slaughtered by the dozen by heroes on the journey towards the main antagonist. They are physically imposing and aggressive, though never in a way that has a tangible impact beyond the villages they terrorize. Jonathan French’s The Lot Lands novels turn that literary fantasy tradition on its head by making half-orcs responsible for protecting the very human settlements that would normally distrust them.
The first novel, 2018’s The Grey Bastards, introduces readers to Jackal and his fellow half-orc members of the titular group. Their methods are brutal, their language is crude, and morality is questionable, but they perform a vital role by keeping worse threats away from the communities beyond their territory. That tension gives French's The Lot Lands trilogy much of its personality. The half-orcs never become sanitized versions of traditional heroes, and that’s why they work so well as protagonists. They remain messy, violent characters, but their loyalty and courage become their defining strength, demonstrating how arbitrary the boundary between hero and monster truly is.
The Orcs Series By Stan Nicholls (1999-2011)
Since the days of J.R.R. Tolkien and even earlier still, no fantasy species feels as synonymous with the term “monster” as orcs. That’s what makes the Orcs: First Blood and Orcs: Bad Blood trilogies by author Stan Nicholls so immediately interesting, as it gives them names, personalities, and reasons to fight that don’t involve serving a dark lord. Orcs: First Blood follows Stryke and the Wolverines, a group of orc warriors whose perspective changes the familiar human-versus-orc conflict into something considerably more complicated. Their lives have much more value than simply being slayable obstacles standing between a heroic adventurer and his destination.
The biggest strength of the Orcs novels is that they force readers to reconsider who actually deserves the label of "monster." Stryke's warriors can be brutal, and Nicholls doesn't pretend otherwise, but their violence exists within a culture and a set of loyalties that become increasingly understandable. The persecution of orcs becomes a central theme as the series progresses too, and by the time the trilogy concludes, Nicholls has transformed a familiar fantasy enemy into a fully realized people. It’s absolutely a must-read for those who enjoy subversive fantasy novels where monsters are the heroes, and is incredibly influential across the wider subgenre.
Grendel By John Gardner (1971)
Few fantasy books have done more to demonstrate the possibilities of a monster protagonist than John Gardner's Grendel. The 1971 novel takes the creature from the epic Viking saga Beowulf and makes him the narrator of his own story. Instead of experiencing Grendel through the eyes of the warriors who fear him, readers follow his observations of humanity and his growing obsession with the meaning behind the world around him.
The genius of Grendel is that John Gardner avoids telling a simple redemption story. Grendel remains violent and dangerous; the change lies in the reader's understanding of him. The monster who exists as an embodiment of evil in Beowulf becomes a complicated, intelligent, and deeply troubled figure who misunderstands humanity just as much as humanity misunderstands him. Gardner combines mythology and philosophy to turn one of fiction’s oldest monsters into the center of a truly tragic tale. More than five decades after its publication, Grendel remains one of the deepest fantasy novels with heroes who are monsters.