Looking for books with witty and clever main protagonist.

[Isaac]

I am looking for books recommendation that have a witty and clever main protagonist. The protagonist solve whatever problems or conflict with his wit not strength or super powers. He outmaneuver his opponents with strategy.

As for examples you can look at John Scalzi books, many of his books fit with my request. My fav of his book is Fuzzy nation and The Android's Dream.

[[deleted user]]

For scifi, some oldies such as Anderson's Ensign Flandry series or Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat series come to mind.

For fantasy, perhaps The Lies of Locke Lamora, about a con man/thief.

[Andrea]

There's the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold, the main character has a medical condition so his bones break easily and he's far smaller than anyone around him so he's only got his wits to get him out of (and often into) trouble.

My first thought was also Locke Lamora, probably most books where the main character is a thief you'll get that kind of personality, unless they are into mugging, usually they not only try to avoid a fight, they try to avoid even being noticed even when in full view.

[G.R.]

Another classic sci-fi example would be "Ender's Game."

[Andrea]

Hmm, the other fantasy trope I could think of is the magician's apprentice. Usually they haven't yet learned the magic skills yet so need to get by more on their wits, the Myth series by Robert Lynn Asprin comes to mind, if I recall correctly the first few books required him to do a lot of faking it. This particular series goes downhill in quality though, and for some reason, while the earlier books can still be found in stores, the later ones are impossible to find anywhere, but then maybe a lot of readers dropped out of the series in the middle and didn't pick up later on.

[Aubria]

I also thought of the Miles Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Also what comes to mind is Quantum Magician by Derek Kunsken.

[Michelle]

Me, too: Miles Vorkosigan was the first character to pop into my mind.

[Isabella]

Haven't read them for a long time so I'm not sure if Thief Harold (the hero) always succeeds by his wits alone but I enjoyed the fantasy series, Chronicles of Siala by Alexey Peyhov. There are fight scenes (which I tend to skim as they're pretty boring in most books) but there is some skilful thieving takes place.

[Bryan]

The first example that came to me is .
The main character is stranded on Mars and uses his resources to survive - it's basically a cross between MacGyver and Robinson Crusoe, on Mars.