YA Fantasy. Boy is a former slave with no given name, who gets an infection from falling on a rusty pitchfork. Lot of worldbuilding. Read around 2016-2018, new release.

[Obvious]

This was probably sometime 2016-2018, and it was a newly released book. It was a hardcover book I took out from the children's section of my local library (US east coast), English language publication.

It wasn't just generic high fantasy, there was A LOT of worldbuilding going on here. That was one of the most compelling parts of the story. I think something to do with floating islands. Can't remember the rest.

The boy had no name because he was a former slave. The book may have begun "in medias res" with him escaping the place where he was enslaved.

He got the injury in an encounter with one of the other main characters, a girl who was either a healer, an alchemist, or a wizard in training (it was one of those three, I don't recall which), who was on her own journey, staying at a farm, and thought he was a thief because he tried to hide from his former owner(?) in some hay.

He got a lot of focus from the narration despite having no powers or special abilities at all. I think one of the book's major themes was that 'anyone who wants to be a hero can be'.

I don't remember the actual plot of the story.

This is probably a spoiler below, but it was a really memorable scene and not very plot relevant:





There was a really satisfying scene after the main antagonist had been defeated, where the pirates (or maybe sailors, or the crew of an airship?) he had been cooperating with bestowed the name 'Hero' on the protagonist.

[Kris]

Obvious, I added a few details to the header/topic title. You can update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website or app. (On the Mobile website, click the "Desktop version" link at the bottom of the page.)

[Obvious]

Kris wrote: "Obvious, I added a few details to the header/topic title. You can update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website ..."

Thank you

[Rainbowheart]

The Wings of a Falcon?

[Obvious]

Rainbowheart wrote: "The Wings of a Falcon?"

Not it. There are a lot of similarities here, but the hero of the book I'm thinking of didn't really have any lifelong companions like Oriel and Griff there. The world overall had more of a 'plot' and more fantastical elements.

Also, it was from the 2010s.

[Genesistrine]

Maybe The Edge Chronicles 11: The Nameless One: First Book of Cade?

[Obvious]

Genesistrine wrote: "Maybe The Edge Chronicles 11: The Nameless One: First Book of Cade?"

Not it, the protagonist of that book clearly has a name.