Tell me of the training montage equivalent in a book you've read.

February 13, 2013 2:52 PM

I've just read a section of a novel where the main character trains in a martial art and becomes mildly proficient in it. I realized that I LOVE reading that sort of thing, maybe more than I love a movie training montage (bring on the Mulan and the Dirty Dancing)(the learn how to dance montage is just a subset of the training montage, am I right?). Help me find more of these.

[I am about to very mildly spoil a part of the second book of Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle, so skip this extended part if you don't want that. The whole of the question is up above, anyway, I just want to give my recent example.]

[Seriously, the next paragraph. Move along if you don't want to know.]

I've just read the part in The Wise Man's Fear where Kvothe goes to visit the Adem and trains with them. In doing this, I realized that my love of training montages extends to books, because I loved this so much that I stayed up far too late last night to finish that section.

Can you give me examples of the same thing in other stories? Here's what I liked about it: The kata, the relentlessness, the exhaustion, and how Kvothe wasn't a rock star at it (though he did okay). Basically, I like reading sequences where someone learns how to do difficult things (that aren't magic) by working hard at it.

posted by hought20 to writing & language (22 answers total)

Taran Wanderer, part of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, has Taran learning the arts of the forge, the loom, and the potter's wheel. It's been a while since I read it, but I recall that that section is all about the hard and often heartbreaking work of learning how to master a skill.
posted by Greg Nog at 3:01 PM on February 13 [3 favorites]

I don't remember how long or short it is, but Ender's Game has a good section on learning a difficult Quidditch-like battle game against long odds.

Also, the boxing parts of Power of One are good.
posted by acheekymonkey at 3:03 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]

Also the Hornblower series where a teenage boy must learn to be a sailor in the Royal Navy.
posted by acheekymonkey at 3:08 PM on February 13

Helm
posted by procrastination at 3:08 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]

Seconding Taran Wanderer (and this phenomenon in general, which I also totally adore.) You would probably love the same bits of L.E. Modesitt's Recluce series as I do - it's basically a whole set of books where each protagonist is some sort of totally mundane middle-class professional - a carpenter, a blacksmith, a low-ranking soldier - as well as a magic user, and a big chunk of all of the books involves them just perfecting their crafts. The writing is rough as hell in the first one (and skip the second entirely; seriously, just skip it) but the rest are perfect.
posted by restless_nomad at 3:09 PM on February 13 [2 favorites]

The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley
posted by mogget at 3:21 PM on February 13 [2 favorites]

I just thought of another example for myself! Alanna, by Tamora Pierce.
posted by hought20 at 3:27 PM on February 13 [3 favorites]

The Light Bearer, by Donna Gillespie
posted by redfishbluefish at 3:40 PM on February 13

The Heinlein juveniles Space Cadet and Starship Troopers.
posted by Jahaza at 5:23 PM on February 13

Small Vices by Robert B. Parker.
posted by bac at 5:23 PM on February 13

If you haven't read Tamora Pierce's other books, definitely give them a try. The first or second Keladry (Protector of the Small) book also has a great training montage if I remember right.
posted by MsMolly at 5:57 PM on February 13

I loved His Majesty's Dragon for the schooling/training stuff you described.

The setting is the Napoleonic Wars but then add dragons with human crews for aerial warfare. The main character is a Navy officer who gets swept into the world of dragon-captaining unexpectedly. He has to scramble to cram in a ton of learning and training to catch up to his new peers.
posted by cadge at 6:33 PM on February 13

Each of Peter Brett's books (Warded Man, Desert Spear, Daylight War) do this in an interesting way. About half of each book shows one of several main characters became influential adults, including their training in the skills that make them influential, and then the other half of each book advances the overall storyline of the series. So you get these training scenes in each book, you get overlapping perspectives of the same events (a la Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow), and you get overall plot advancement. I think he's done it very well so far.
posted by slide at 7:13 PM on February 13

Divergent by Veronica Roth is pretty much a book-long training montage.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:52 PM on February 13

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.
posted by gudrun at 9:59 PM on February 13

The first half of Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is about a boy being trained as, well, you probably can guess. It is awesome, as is the rest of the trilogy.
posted by Skyanth at 2:52 AM on February 14

Yeah, The Blue Sword has a fantastic training scene like this, followed by a fantastic "putting it into action" scene. The whole book is really good, but that section is very good.
posted by OmieWise at 5:45 AM on February 14

I have been meaning to read Robin McKinley for a very, very long time. I think I'll bump The Blue Sword up to book after next. A Prydain re-read is necessary after that.

Thanks for all of the recommendations, y'all!
posted by hought20 at 7:44 AM on February 14

I have a fondness for Wandering Warrior by Da Chen, an off-beat children's/YA book, which is basically one long training montage.

Also, to echo some of the recommendations above, this is actually one of the many reasons I love Robin McKinley: her characters have to work to become good at something, rather than magically springing forth as a master/champion/THE ONE/whatever. She does it in most of her books - I remember being particularly enamored with it in Chalice, where the main character did have a special talent but was insecure about it and had to put in the work to become great. (Not martial arts or fighting, though.)

So this to say that if you don't love The Blue Sword (I love RMcK but that is not my favorite of hers), this type of learning montage is in many of her books.
posted by widdershins at 11:38 AM on February 14

The first half of Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is about a boy being trained as, well, you probably can guess.

That makes me think. The first half of The Day of the Jackal is basically a training montage.
posted by Jahaza at 12:40 PM on February 14

Sheepfarmer's Daughter, the first of the Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy by Elizabeth Moon, spends around 100 pages in boot camp learning to be a mercenary.

McCaffrey's Dragonsinger definitely has a lot of training throughout the novel.
posted by timepiece at 2:52 PM on February 14

The Blue Sword (I love RMcK but that is not my favorite of hers)

Another way to write the above is: "I am not a person whose opinion is fully to be trusted." ;)
posted by OmieWise at 5:11 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]