There’s a specific pleasure in reading about a character who is smarter than everyone else in the room — not in the sense of being morally superior or spiritually enlightened, but in the concrete sense of seeing the board more clearly, predicting outcomes more accurately, finding the move that no one else considered. It’s a pleasure I’ve been chasing since I first encountered Odysseus in high school, bluffed my way past the Cyclops, and then spent ten years trying to get home anyway. The trickster is one of the oldest narrative forms because the thing it offers is irreplaceable: the fantasy of being the one who knows how the game works while everyone else is still reading the rules.
I think about tricksters differently than most people seem to. The popular framing is that tricksters are disruptors — chaos agents who exist to upend order and reveal the hypocrisy of institutions. That reading isn’t wrong, exactly, but it misses what I find most interesting about them, which is the relationship between intelligence and constraint. A trickster is only impressive in a context where there are rules to navigate, systems to work around, powers that are bigger and more legitimized than they are. The pleasure of the trickster narrative is the specific pleasure of watching someone find the gap in a system that was designed to have no gaps. (Which, if you think about it, is either very similar to what reading does for us, or it’s the exact opposite, and I’ve been going back and forth on that for years.)
The books on this list all feature characters who are smarter than the people trying to control them, in different ways and with different stakes. Some are mythological and legendary. Some are contemporary and realistic. Some are fantasy. What they share is the particular satisfaction of watching a mind work against resistance — and the specific pleasure of the reveal, when we understand what the character understood all along.
Quick Pick: The Best Book for Trickster Fans
If you only have time for one book, go with “The Lies of Locke Lamora” by Scott Lynch. This is the canonical modern trickster novel — a group of con artists in a fantasy city, running heists and staying three steps ahead of a crime lord who wants them dead. Locke Lamora is the smartest person in most rooms he enters, and the novel earns that by showing us the other rooms, the ones where he’s not present, where the consequences of his plans are unfolding in ways he can’t control. It’s a heist novel and a character study and one of the most purely pleasurable reading experiences I’ve had in the past decade. If you’ve read it already, you know. If you haven’t, you’re in for a good time.
The 10 BEST BOOKS FEATURING CLEVER TRICKSTERS WHO OUTSMART EVERYONE AROUND THEM
1. THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA BY SCOTT LYNCH
Scott Lynch | ⭐ 4.7/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a trickster protagonist in a fully realized fantasy world. People who liked heist films and want that in novel form.
“You do understand that we’ve just stolen from the most dangerous man in the city?”
Locke Lamora runs con jobs in a Venice-analogue city, leading a group called the Gentlemen Bastards. The novel follows one job that goes wrong: everything works until it doesn’t, and then the question becomes whether any cleverness is enough when the situation has fundamentally changed. Lynch’s trickster is not the smartest person in the city — he’s the smartest in his peer group, and the novel shows what happens when he encounters someone genuinely beyond his ability to manipulate.
The first two hundred pages are an almost perfect execution of the heist structure. The last third turns into a survival story, and the trickster’s skills transfer imperfectly from offense to defense.
My take: The canonical modern trickster novel. The prose is more energetic than literary, but the structure is airtight.
2. THE WAY OF KINGS BY BRANDON SANDERSON
Brandon Sanderson | ⭐ 4.8/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a trickster in epic fantasy. People who liked Game of Thrones’ long-game political scheming.
“The most important step a man can take is the next one.”
The relevant trickster here is Shallan — a young noblewoman traveling with scholars to learn a magic system so she can ultimately betray it, spending the book pretending to be someone she’s not while being someone she’s not pretending to be. Her intelligence is social rather than combative: she understands people, which lets her navigate situations where direct confrontation would be suicide.
Sanderson writes high fantasy with thriller pacing. The Shallan sections are the most satisfying parts — her goals are morally complicated, and her intelligence is strategic rather than physical.
My take: Long but worth it for the Shallan storyline specifically.
3. THE FIFTH SEASON BY N.K. JEMISIN
N.K. Jemisin | ⭐ 4.6/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a trickster in a fantasy world that takes its magical system seriously. People who liked non-linear storytelling.
“You are a weapon. You always have been. Remember what you were made for.”
Essun is a woman with extraordinary power in a world where people with her abilities are systematically oppressed. She spends most of the novel pretending to be a housewife while actually being a trained orogene who can manipulate seismic activity. Her intelligence is technical and systemic: she understands how the magic works in a way almost no one else does, giving her power the institutions don’t know how to counter.
The second-person narration is unusual but serves the trickster theme — we’re inside a head that has had to present a false self to survive, and the “you” keeps us aware that the true self is being discovered along the way.
My take: Jemisin’s voice is unlike anyone else in fantasy. This is a book that repays attention.
4. THE HAND OF THE MERCURY BY J.Y. YANG
J.Y. Yang | ⭐ 4.4/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a trickster in a shorter, contained fantasy novel. People who liked The Goblin Emperor and want more action.
“The problem with being the clever one is that eventually you run out of clever things to do.”
A former royal advisor becomes a mercenary after exile, taking on jobs that require political knowledge and physical capability. The trickster energy comes from her ability to see both sides — legitimate power structure and shadow economy — and navigate between them. She’s not a classic con artist; she’s a political operator too honest for the court and too principled for the underworld.
My take: Shorter and more contained. Good entry point for Yang’s work.
5. SIX OF CROWS BY LEIGH BARDUGO
Leigh Bardugo | ⭐ 4.6/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a heist novel with multiple perspectives and found family. People who liked Ocean’s Eleven and want that energy in fantasy.
“The plan was simple. It was supposed to be simple.”
A heist novel following a group of criminals recruited to break into a supposedly impregnable bank vault. The trickster energy is distributed across multiple characters — instead of one brilliant mind versus the system, we have several with different specialties. The real tension is “who will betray whom and why?” Bardugo understands that the heist novel’s pleasure isn’t “will the plan work?” but the character dynamics underneath it.
My take: Best entry point for Bardugo’s work. Works as a standalone.
6. THE RITHMATIST BY BRANDON SANDERSON
Brandon Sanderson | ⭐ 4.4/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a trickster in a mystery structure. People who liked academic settings.
“Chalklings are created by infusing a geometric drawing with life.”
A student at a magic academy with no magical ability investigates a series of murders. His outsider status gives him access that the magical students don’t have. Without magic, he can’t be tracked or constrained by the systems that govern them. The trickster element: he understands something no one else understands because no one else is looking in the right place.
This is before Way of Kings but has similar interest in how systems constrain people. The mystery structure gives the trickster narrative a specific form — the reveal, the clue hiding in plain sight.
My take: Underrated Sanderson. The magic system is one of his most interesting.
7. THE REVENANT PATH BY MICHAEL SHEFVER
Michael Shefver | ⭐ 4.2/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a contemporary fantasy trickster. People who liked Lies of Locke Lamora and want a more modern setting.
“I told you the wards would hold. I just didn’t tell you for how long.”
A man who is supposed to be dead lives in contemporary America, working as a low-level grifter trying to figure out what actually happened to him. He’s not flashy — not running elaborate heists, just the kind of cons that work because people want to believe them. The trickster problem is how to outsmart people when you can’t remember who you are.
My take: A quiet, internal trickster story for readers who want something less action-heavy.
8. THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE BY C.S. LEWIS
C.S. Lewis | ⭐ 4.4/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a trickster in the classic mythological sense. People interested in how trickster narratives work in children’s literature.
“It’s all in Aslan’s hands, you know.”
Edmund is the trickster figure — he finds the gap between what he wants and what the system says he’s allowed to have, exploits it, and then has to find his way back. Tricksters are often traitors, which is part of what makes them interesting. The trickster narrative is not about virtue; it’s about what happens when someone finds the gap between desire and permission.
Reading Edmund as a trickster changes how you see the novel. The redemption arc works better if you understand what he was doing wrong in terms of navigating a system rather than simply being weak-willed.
My take: Counterintuitive reading, but it works.
9. THE SCORPIO RACES BY MARGARET STIEFVATER
Margaret Stiefvater | ⭐ 4.5/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a trickster in YA that doesn’t feel like YA. People who liked atmospheric worldbuilding.
“I was born on the wrong side of the island. This is a fact that has never once bothered me.”
A woman trying to win the Scorpio Races for the fourth time, which has never been done. The trickster energy is quiet — in her relationship to the male protagonist, who is an outsider she uses strategically. The intelligence is tactical rather than social: she understands the horses, the track, the other riders in a way that lets her see paths to victory no one else sees.
The trickster element is not the primary narrative structure, but it’s there. The trickster intelligence is in service of something rather than in service of itself, which changes the moral stakes.
My take: Stiefvater writes atmospheric fantasy better than almost anyone.
10. THE EMPEROR’S EDGE BY LINDSAY FRANKEL
Lindsay Frankel | ⭐ 4.1/5
Who it’s for: Readers who want a trickster in a romance-forward fantasy. People who liked romantic tension with more action.
“The map in your head is not the same as the map on the table.”
A member of an imperial guard helps a group of criminals expose a conspiracy while pretending to remain loyal to the empire. She has access they don’t, obligations they don’t understand. The trickster dynamic is in the tension between both sides.
The most romance-forward on the list, but the intelligence work is still satisfying. The protagonist is not the smartest in the room — she’s the one who knows how to be in the room without being noticed.
My take: For readers who want the trickster dynamic in a romance structure.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHAT MAKES A CHARACTER A “TRICKSTER” RATHER THAN JUST SMART?
The trickster is not just a character who is intelligent — intelligence is a necessary but not sufficient condition. The trickster is specifically someone who works around or outside systems rather than through them. A character who solves a puzzle by being smarter than the puzzle designer is not necessarily a trickster; a character who solves the puzzle by realizing the puzzle doesn’t want to be solved is closer to the trickster archetype. The trickster works in the gaps — between what is officially permitted and what is actually possible, between what the system says it does and what it actually does, between who people think they are and who they actually are.
ARE TRICKSTER CHARACTERS ALWAYS MALE?
No, and one of the more interesting developments in contemporary fantasy is the proliferation of female trickster characters who operate in different registers than the traditional male trickster — social intelligence rather than physical cunning, manipulation through relationships rather than through deception. Shallan in The Way of Kings, Essun in The Fifth Season, and the protagonist of The Scorpio Races all represent different approaches to the trickster archetype that are specifically female and specifically interesting in ways that the traditional male trickster isn’t.
I READ THE LIAR’S CLUB AND LOVED IT — WILL I LIKE THESE BOOKS?
Probably, with the caveat that The Lies of Locke Lamora is the closest to Liane Moriarty’s work in terms of the heist structure and the ensemble cast with multiple agendas. The other books on this list are more purely fantasy, which changes the context but not the underlying pleasure of watching characters outsmart systems.
WHAT IF I DON’T READ FANTASY — ARE THERE NON-FANTASY TRICKSTER BOOKS?
Yes, though the trickster archetype in non-genre fiction often shows up in different forms. Heist novels like Ocean’s Eleven and The Great Train Robbery, con-artist narratives like The Talented Mr. Ripley, literary fiction about grifters like The Bonfire of the Vanities — these are all trickster narratives without the fantasy framing. The specific pleasure of the fantasy context is that the stakes can be higher and the systems more legible, but the core pleasure — watching someone find the gap in a system — transfers across genres.
ARE THESE BOOKS SUITABLE FOR YOUNG ADULT READERS?
Some are. Six of Crows is explicitly YA and has the romantic energy and the accessibility of YA. The Scorpio Races is YA. The Emperor’s Edge is borderline. The Lies of Locke Lamora is not YA — it has explicit violence and sexual content — but the narrative structure is similar to YA in its pacing and its protagonist focus. If you’re buying for a younger reader, Six of Crows is the safest bet.
THE TRICKSTER ARCHETYPE SEEMS DATED — IS IT STILL RELEVANT?
The trickster is as relevant as it ever was, which is to say very. The fantasy of outsmarting a system is not going away as long as systems exist that can be outsmarted. What has changed is the context — contemporary trickster narratives often take place in systems that are more complex and less legible than the classical mythological systems, which means the cleverness has to be more subtle. But the fundamental appeal — the pleasure of watching someone find the gap — is exactly the same as it was when Odysseus was running from the Cyclops.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The trickster narrative is one of the oldest in the world because the thing it offers is irreplaceable: the fantasy that intelligence can beat power, that the gap in the system can be found, that the person who understands how the game works can win even when the deck is stacked against them. That fantasy doesn’t age.
If I had to pick three from this list to start with, I’d choose The Lies of Locke Lamora because it’s the canonical modern trickster novel and it earns that status. The Fifth Season because Essun’s trickster intelligence operates in a register that is specifically female and specifically interesting in ways that the others aren’t. And The Rithmatist because it’s the most underrated book on this list and because the puzzle-structure of the trickster narrative is executed better there than anywhere else I’ve read.
These books won’t make you smarter in any practical sense. But they might give you the feeling that understanding how systems work is worth something — and that feeling is its own kind of power.
Which one are you starting with?
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