There exists, dear reader, a particular sort of story that has enchanted hearts since the first tale was told by firelight—the story of an ordinary soul plucked from obscurity and thrust into extraordinary purpose. In the realm of urban fantasy, where magic hides in subway tunnels and ancient powers lurk behind coffee shop counters, the chosen one trope flourishes with remarkable vigor.
What follows is a carefully curated collection of the finest urban fantasy novels featuring protagonists marked by destiny, each one a doorway into worlds where the mundane and the magical dance together in the most delightful fashion.
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
In the telephone directory of Chicago, under “Wizards,” one finds but a single entry: Harry Dresden. This rather sardonic professional wizard serves as our guide through a city teeming with vampires, faeries, and creatures that would make sensible folk lock their doors at night.
Harry is no chosen one in the traditional sense—no prophecy named him, no ancient text foretold his coming. Yet fate has selected him nonetheless, placing him again and again at the center of supernatural conflicts that would unmake the world. Beginning with Storm Front, readers discover a universe where magic operates according to strict rules, and where one stubborn wizard in a leather duster stands between Chicago and darkness absolute.
The series spans now eighteen novels, each building upon the last with the architectural precision of a master storyteller who knows precisely where every brick must fall.
Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth
What becomes of chosen ones after they have saved the world and the cheering crowds have gone home? This is the question Veronica Roth poses with considerable skill in her adult debut, and the answer, it must be said, is rather more complicated than fairy tales would have us believe.
Ten years after five teenagers defeated the Dark One on the outskirts of Chicago, Sloane and her fellow heroes find themselves adrift in a world that no longer needs saving. The victory has left them scarred in ways both visible and hidden. When circumstances suggest their enemy may not be quite so vanquished as presumed, these weary champions must once again take up their mantles.
Roth examines trauma, destiny, and the heavy toll of heroism with the same unflinching gaze she brought to her earlier works, yet here rendered with the nuance of mature fiction.
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Clary Fray believed herself an ordinary young woman in New York City until the night she witnessed a murder invisible to all other eyes. This singular event tumbles her headlong into the hidden world of the Shadowhunters—warriors descended from angels, sworn to protect humanity from demons.
The discovery that she herself carries Shadowhunter blood, that her mother has concealed an entire supernatural existence from her, transforms Clary’s understanding of everything she thought she knew. Clare constructs a mythology of considerable depth, weaving angel and demon, warlock and vampire into the familiar streets of Manhattan with admirable craftsmanship.
The Mortal Instruments series that follows offers readers a sprawling adventure where destiny and choice intertwine like vines upon an ancient wall.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Young Peter Grant, a probationary constable with the London Metropolitan Police, encounters a ghost at a crime scene and promptly finds himself apprenticed to the last wizard in England. One imagines this was not covered in his police training.
What follows is a most delightful marriage of procedural detective work and magical investigation. Peter navigates a London where rivers have goddesses, where the ghosts of the past mingle with the living, and where ancient powers operate according to rules as strict as any law of physics. Aaronovitch writes with the wit of one who loves his city dearly and the precision of one who understands that the best fantasy feels utterly real.
The series has grown to encompass numerous novels, each expanding the magical landscape of a London most tourists never see.
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
Crescent City gleams with neon light and ancient power, a metropolis where angels rule alongside demons, where shifters and fae walk streets lined with nightclubs and temples. Into this world Sarah J. Maas introduces Bryce Quinlan, a half-fae woman whose grief over a devastating loss propels her into a murder investigation that will reshape her understanding of her own significance.
The novel stretches to nearly eight hundred pages, yet readers report the story moves with remarkable swiftness once the central mystery takes hold. Maas has crafted a chosen one narrative disguised as a murder mystery, revealing Bryce’s true importance in revelations that arrive like lightning strikes.
This marks Maas’s venture into adult fiction, and she brings considerable emotional weight to questions of destiny, sacrifice, and the terrible cost of power.
Hounded by Kevin Hearne
Atticus O’Sullivan appears to be merely a pleasant bookshop owner in Tempe, Arizona. In truth, he is a two-thousand-year-old Druid—the last of his kind—who has spent centuries hiding from a Celtic god with a rather significant grudge.
The Iron Druid Chronicles, beginning with Hounded, follow Atticus as his peaceful existence shatters spectacularly. Hearne brings multiple pantheons crashing together with evident glee, mixing Norse, Celtic, and other mythologies in ways both scholarly and tremendously entertaining. Atticus himself provides narration of considerable charm, accompanied by Oberon, his Irish Wolfhound, whose telepathic commentary on sausages and French poodles offers regular moments of levity.
Here is a chosen one defined not by prophecy but by simple survival—the last of something precious, carrying forward knowledge and power that would otherwise be lost to the ages.
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Mercedes Thompson repairs automobiles in the Tri-Cities of Washington State. She also happens to be a walker—a skinwalker who can transform into a coyote at will, a gift inherited from her Native American heritage. When a young werewolf appears at her shop, beaten and desperate, Mercy finds herself drawn into conflicts between supernatural factions she has spent years avoiding.
Briggs constructs her supernatural world with admirable attention to detail, distinguishing between various types of shapeshifters, explaining the politics of werewolf packs, and revealing the fragile detente between the supernatural community and human society. Mercy herself provides a protagonist of considerable appeal—practical, capable, and refreshingly reluctant to embrace any sort of prophesied destiny.
The series now spans over a dozen novels, each deepening the world while maintaining the essential charm of its mechanics-savvy heroine.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Shadow Moon emerges from prison to discover his wife dead and his life in ruins. A mysterious stranger calling himself Wednesday offers employment of an unusual nature, and Shadow soon finds himself traveling across America, meeting individuals who are not precisely what they appear to be.
Gaiman has crafted something extraordinary—a meditation on belief, on the immigrant experience, on the very nature of America itself, all wrapped in the clothing of a road trip with gods. The old deities, brought to these shores by generations of believers, now struggle against the new gods of technology and media.
Shadow himself seems an unlikely chosen one, yet his journey proves central to a conflict that has been building since the first ships crossed the Atlantic. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, American Gods stands as a landmark of contemporary fantasy.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
Kate Daniels works as a mercenary in an Atlanta transformed by magical catastrophe. Magic and technology now take turns functioning—when magic surges, machines fail; when it recedes, spells fizzle. Into this unstable world, Kate navigates with sword and sarcasm, hiding secrets about her own heritage that would mark her for death if revealed.
The Kate Daniels series, written by the husband-and-wife team publishing as Ilona Andrews, delivers action, romance, and mystery in equal measure. Kate carries the burden of a chosen one without the comfort of knowing her destiny—she knows only that powerful forces would destroy her if they understood what she truly is.
The series builds across multiple books, each revealing more of Kate’s history and the apocalyptic conflict her very existence may unleash.
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
In Moscow, a secret war has reached uneasy truce. The Night Watch, composed of Light Others, monitors the activities of Dark Others, while the Day Watch performs the inverse duty. Anton Gorodetsky, a mid-level Night Watch operative, finds himself unexpectedly central to events that threaten this delicate balance.
Lukyanenko brings a distinctly Russian sensibility to urban fantasy, exploring questions of moral ambiguity with philosophical depth. The Others—vampires, shapeshifters, magicians—exist in shades of grey rather than stark opposition. Anton’s journey from minor player to figure of significance unfolds across multiple novels, each structured as interconnected novellas that build toward larger revelations.
For readers seeking urban fantasy with genuine intellectual weight, the Night Watch series offers rewards quite unlike its Western counterparts.
Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
October “Toby” Daye is a changeling—half-human, half-fae—working as a private investigator in San Francisco. Fourteen years spent transformed into a fish (a particularly unpleasant curse) cost her everything: her mortal family, her career, her place in both worlds. When an old friend is murdered and places a dying curse compelling Toby to find her killer, she must return to a magical community she has spent years avoiding.
McGuire constructs fae society with elaborate care, drawing on Celtic and European folklore while creating something distinctly her own. Toby’s journey across the series transforms her from reluctant investigator to figure of increasing importance in the politics of Faerie. The series has earned multiple Hugo Award nominations, a testament to its sustained quality.
Here is destiny that operates not through prophecy but through the accumulation of choices, each book building toward revelations about Toby’s heritage and significance.
Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
Catherine Crawfield hunts vampires with single-minded determination, seeking the undead father responsible for her difficult existence. When she encounters Bones—a centuries-old vampire bounty hunter—the alliance that forms between them transforms everything Cat believed about her purpose and her nature.
The Night Huntress series blends urban fantasy with paranormal romance, delivering action and heat in equal measure. Cat discovers herself to be something unprecedented—neither fully human nor vampire—and her unique nature proves central to conflicts between supernatural factions.
Frost maintains the central romance across the series while expanding the supernatural world and the threats Cat and Bones must face together.
Jade City by Fonda Lee
The island nation of Kekon guards jade with zealous care, for this mineral grants those with proper training extraordinary abilities—enhanced strength, perception, and combat prowess. Two great clans, No Peak and Mountain, vie for control of Janloon, the jade-rich capital, and the rivalry between them threatens to ignite into open war.
The Green Bone Saga defies easy categorization—part family drama, part martial arts epic, part crime thriller, all wrapped in secondary-world urban fantasy. Lee has created something genuinely original, earning the World Fantasy Award and a place on TIME’s list of the greatest fantasy novels ever written.
The Kaul family of No Peak clan serves as our window into this world, and their struggles with duty, honor, and the terrible cost of power resonate with the force of classical tragedy.
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Verity Price leads a double life in Manhattan—competitive ballroom dancer by day, cryptozoologist by night. Her family has spent generations studying and protecting cryptids, the supernatural creatures living hidden among humanity, from the murderous attentions of the Covenant of St. George.
The InCryptid series offers urban fantasy of considerable wit and imagination. McGuire draws cryptids from folklore worldwide while inventing many of her own, creating an ecosystem of supernatural beings far more diverse than the usual vampires and werewolves. The Price family serves as protectors and advocates, standing between the cryptid community and those who would see them exterminated.
Verity’s adventures extend across multiple novels, each introducing new cryptids and expanding the scope of the family’s protective mission.
Why Chosen One Stories Endure
The chosen one narrative persists because it speaks to something fundamental in the human experience—the hope that ordinary individuals might possess extraordinary significance, that purpose might find us even when we have not sought it. In urban fantasy, this ancient pattern takes on particular resonance, for these stories place magic within reach, hiding it just behind the familiar surfaces of our own world.
Each book on this list offers a different answer to the eternal question of destiny versus choice. Some protagonists embrace their roles with enthusiasm; others resist until resistance becomes impossible. Some are marked by prophecy, others by circumstance, still others by the simple fact of their unusual natures.
What unites them all is the fundamental optimism at the heart of the chosen one narrative—the belief that individuals matter, that heroism remains possible, and that the world contains wonders waiting to be discovered by those with eyes to see.
