One interesting element of progression fantasy books is when dangerous actions have actual consequences for the main character.
For instance, when the main character’s party is fighting a powerful enemy, and an important member of the team dies. And not the kind of death that is easily recovered from. But the permanent kind.
I know that this is difficult for an author to do. They invest a lot of time building a character and getting readers to like them. But when it’s done well, it makes the story more real.
The truth is, many of these fantasy worlds are dangerous places. Things are constantly trying to kill them. If they survive any encounter easily, there’s a lack of tension there. And if they just barely escape with their life every time, that writing style gets tiring after a while. So, every once and a while, someone we (the reader) like has to get seriously hurt or killed.
I’m listening to a book called Rune Seeker now that has some real deaths. I applaud the author for doing that. This made me like the book more.
He Who Fights With Monsters also has a main character die. But of course, they bring her back a few books later. But you don’t know that for a while, so the team has to deal with grief. Later, another core team member dies, for good.
And with Cradle, I guess the main character loses an arm. That becomes a plot device later on when he gets an artificial powerful arm, but the loss of the arm does make the danger real.
