The Unconventional Heroes Books in Order

The Unconventional Heroes series is Estrella's flagship comedic fantasy. It begins with Timothy Walter Bolton, better known as Timmy, a Grand Necromancer whose life has become a statistical warning. Necromancers rarely die peacefully, and after one of his own creations tries to eat him, Timmy decides that a change of career might be wise.

Unfortunately his reputation is terrible, his castle sits on top of lightless chasms filled with horrors from beyond reality, and he has made enemies in every direction. Hope arrives in the form of a desperate council of mages. War is coming, and they are willing to offer pardons to the right kinds of criminals. All Timmy has to do is survive the missions they assign him.

To do that he assembles a team that no sensible planner would put on the same side. There is Katie, his ten year old apprentice who adores pink and dreams of becoming Supreme Necromancer. There is Gerald, a bureaucrat whose two main skills are paperwork and panicked screaming. Avraniel is an elf with a love of fire and a talent for property damage. Over time they are joined by Old Man, a semi retired legendary swordsman, Amanda, an ancient vampire with a complicated wardrobe, and Spot, a dragon who is far too enthusiastic about eating things.

Each main novel drops this group into a different crisis. Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf shows how they first come together while trying to earn Timmy's pardon and not get vaporised by the council that employed them. Two Necromancers, an Army of Golems, and a Demon Lord escalates the threats, from massed golems to beings that think of continents as chessboards. Later books send them against dragons, goblin hordes, crime lords, and the vast forces of an expansionist Eternal Empire.

The stakes are high, but the tone stays light. Timmy's castle is full of invisible ninja rats, cake obsessed eldritch horrors, and zombies that drip everywhere. Missions regularly end with craters where mountains used to be. Estrella uses that chaos to explore loyalty, anxiety, and the odd comfort of being part of a team that accepts your particular brand of strange.

You can start with the first Unconventional Heroes book and follow the war arc all the way through, or you can sample the side story collections if you want lower pressure adventures in the same wonderfully messy world.