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Books like Mother of Learning

Domagoj Kurmaić · 2019 · Croatia · fantasy
★ 4.46 Goodreads · 18,518 ratings

Zorian, a talented but unremarkable student mage starting his third year at the academy in Cyoria, finds himself living the same month over and over, each time ending in an invasion.

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12 books for readers of Mother of Learning

Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Andrew Rowe · 2017 · US 98% match ★ 4.10 Goodreads · 28,377 ratings
shares: power progression, academic, inventive · speculative, earnest

Corin Cadence enters the spire, a tower whose trials grant magical powers to those who pass, hoping to find his brother, who went in five years ago and never came out.

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-

Tappei Nagatsuki · 2014 · Japan 95% match
shares: time loop, series starter, magic · speculative, plain prose

Subaru Natsuki, a shut-in, is suddenly summoned to a fantasy world, and finds that whenever he dies he goes back to an earlier point in time.

The Shadow of What Was Lost

James Islington · 2014 · Australia 95% match ★ 4.14 Goodreads · 105,224 ratings
Book 1 of 3 in Licanius
shares: school, mysterious, magic · speculative, earnest

Twenty years after the Gifted lost a war and were bound by the Tenets, Davian, a student at one of their schools who can't use his powers, discovers he can do something forbidden, and flees with his friends as an ancient threat stirs in the north.

The Riddle-Master of Hed

Patricia A. McKillip · 1976 · US 94% match ★ 3.98 Goodreads · 13,373 ratings
Book 1 of 3 in Riddle-Master
shares: puzzle, mysterious, series starter · speculative, earnest

Morgon, the farmer-prince of the small island of Hed, wins a crown in a riddle game against a ghost, and finds that the three stars on his forehead mark him for something he does not understand.

He Who Fights with Monsters

Shirtaloon · 2021 · Australia 94% match ★ 4.32 Goodreads · 55,109 ratings
shares: power progression, series starter, magic · speculative, plain prose

Jason Asano, an Australian office worker, wakes up in a magical world with a game-like system of powers, the gifts of a dark mage and a talent for annoying everyone he meets.

Alanna: The First Adventure

Tamora Pierce · 1983 · US 94% match ★ 4.27 Goodreads · 138,780 ratings
Book 1 of 4 in Song of the Lioness
shares: school, magic, series starter · speculative, earnest

Alanna of Trebond, who wants to be a knight, swaps places with her twin brother, who wants to be a sorcerer, and enters the royal palace as a page disguised as a boy.

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin · 1968 · US 94% match ★ 4.01 Goodreads · 378,902 ratings
Book 1 of 6 in Earthsea
shares: school, magic, coming of age · speculative, earnest

A young wizard on an island archipelago unleashes a shadow from the land of the dead and must chase it across the world to make himself whole.

Coiling Dragon

I Eat Tomatoes · 2008 · China 94% match
shares: power progression, magic, coming of age · speculative, plain prose

Linley Baruch, son of a fallen noble house in a world of magic and warriors, finds a ring with an ancient spirit inside and begins his rise.

Elantris

Brandon Sanderson · 2005 · US 94% match ★ 4.16 Goodreads · 375,928 ratings
shares: inventive, magic · speculative, earnest

A prince discovers he can heal the mysterious disease destroying his kingdom's magic, but the cure demands a terrible price.

The Way of Kings

Brandon Sanderson · 2010 · US 93% match ★ 4.66 Goodreads · 732,509 ratings
Book 1 of 7 in The Stormlight Archive
shares: inventive, magic · speculative, earnest

A soldier stripped of his rank and a scholar desperate to save her people bond over ancient magical armour as war engulfs a storm-ravaged world.

Blood Song

Anthony Ryan · 2011 · UK 93% match ★ 4.41 Goodreads · 94,249 ratings
Book 1 of 3 in Raven's Shadow
shares: school, magic, coming of age · speculative, earnest

A young man with a gift for singing magic discovers that his talent makes him valuable to warlords and dangerous to himself.

Seraphina

Rachel Hartman · 2012 · Canada 93% match ★ 3.94 Goodreads · 90,148 ratings
Book 1 of 2 in Seraphina
shares: mysterious, series starter · speculative, hopeful

In the kingdom of Goredd, where humans and dragons in human form keep an uneasy forty-year peace, Seraphina, assistant to the court composer, hides the truth about her mother, and a prince is murdered in a way that looks like a dragon's work.