It seems like we’ve all embraced the concept of comfort reads (and comfort shows/movies) lately, particularly over the last few tumultuous years. There are cozy mysteries, domestic fantasies, stories where nothing bad happens, books that focus above all on kindness and caring—the kind of tales we turn to and share whenever we need to feel better about the world. Well, I’d like to acknowledge another type of story that belongs in this category: Competence porn. I find that competence porn can be really, really comforting (and I’d welcome more of it, so if you have any recommendations, please mention them in the comments!).
If you know what I’m talking about, you probably don’t require much convincing. If you don’t, I’ll break it down for you: What the hell is competence porn?
The term was coined by John Rogers, creator of the TV show Leverage—one of our best examples of this particular type of storytelling. If you’re not familiar with Leverage, the show is about four professional thieves with distinctive skill sets who team up with a mastermind planner to get revenge on rich and powerful assholes who take advantage of people and ruin their lives for profit. (It’s extremely gratifying.)
Rogers wanted a shorthand way to talk about the very specific kind of satisfaction that we feel when watching folks competently handle complex situations using the kinds of specialized skills and expertise that we can all appreciate (even if we can’t personally replicate them), and he came up with “competence porn.” It’s about both the process and the outcome, and the comforting safety net of knowing that whatever challenge arises, the whole thing is in, well, extremely competent hands. Of course there are different permutations and varieties and genres involved, but we can lay out some basic ground rules—a formula for the type of story we’re talking about, for the sake of discussion.
First of all, we need experts: People who are so good at their craft that they can improvise and rise to any challenge, adapting to any obstacles or changes in the plan. We start with our mastermind, the genius who sees how all the pieces fit together, the big picture-seeing visionary with the top-down view, who keeps everyone calm even when the shit hits the fan. This mastermind is watching out for the team and also for us, the audience, providing the safety net we need. Knowing that this genius is around, thinking ten steps ahead, we feel safe enough to commit to enjoying the antics that will play out, as suspenseful as they may be, and we can allow ourselves to invest in and care about the characters, in spite of the massive risks they’re taking.
Next we need a team of specialists. Sure, you can absolute argue for something like the John Wick franchise being competence porn based around a single character (he certainly is competent!), but I tend to prefer stories built around the satisfaction that comes from seeing a team or group of extremely competent people synthesizing their skills and learning to work together. It’s thrilling in the same way as watching a big dance number with complex choreography, or really great improv comedy acts, with everyone hitting their mark at the exact right time—or if they didn’t, their team covered seamlessly, and the audience will never know. Thought that was a fatal blunder? Think again—either the misstep will be revealed to be intentional, or it will be used to the team’s advantage, so that everything turns out even better than expected. There’s just something incredibly satisfying about watching a group of people so perfectly attuned to one another that they can accomplish something none of them could alone.
Now, these team members need to be people who can solve problems within their area of expertise by thinking outside the box and coming up with just the right trick, hack, or workaround. They’ve seen every iteration of how things could go, and they have all that experience to call upon, as well as the ability to improvise and quickly shift to new variations rather than sticking rigidly to one original idea or plan.
Oh and speaking of the original idea? Well, actually, there tend to be dozens of “original” ideas: Plans A through Z have been careful considered and will often come up in comical discussion between characters. In the very first episode of Leverage, computer expert Hardison asks if it’s time to go to plan B, and mastermind Nate tells him, “Technically, that would be plan G.” When Hardison asks how many plans there are, “Is there like, a plan M?” Nate assures him that yes, he has thought that far ahead, but unfortunately, “Hardison dies in plan M.” This kind of banter is de rigueur between team members, particularly when they’re under pressure—this light repartee graces the conversation of recent competent teams like the Crows in Shadow and Bone, or Lockwood and his associates in Lockwood & Co.
When it comes one-upsmanship with one another over who’s the MVP of a particular caper or which variation of the plan is best, it’s generally best to have a good dose of smartassery all around. There may be some examples of competence porn that don’t draw on this type of humor, but for me, there’s nothing drearier than a story that takes the action so seriously that nobody can ever crack a joke—no matter how high the stakes are, there should always be room for a little fun or a quick quip.
So, who do we need on our team? Well, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Leverage begins with a mastermind who brings together a hacker/tech expert, a hitter (the muscle), a master thief proficient in everything from cat burglary to safe-cracking to picking pockets, and a brilliant con artist (aka: the grifter). As is often the case in these stories, the team members start out as loners who don’t play well with others, but as they learn to cooperate professionally, they eventually find themselves growing into friends, and even family. The plots are often, but not always, capers (think The Italian Job, or Ocean’s Eleven). Depending on your goals, your ideal team might include a driver, a demolitions expert, a magician, a forger, or a really good librarian. Whatever the situation calls for, they’ll be the best in their field, and probably have a bone to pick with powerful (often corrupt) individuals and institutions.
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System Collapse
Because “competence porn” isn’t quite a genre and examples that tick most of the boxes above aren’t marketed as such, it’s always a delight to recognize one of these types of stories—and perhaps it would be best to call it a team dynamic instead of a genre (depends on how strict you are about labels). I’ve seen examples spring up all over the place in newer science fiction and fantasy stories, and I couldn’t be happier. Hyper-competent Murderbot learns to work with others (multiple times) and everything comes together when they learn to trust each other in Martha Wells’ Murderbot series. Galadriel “El” Higgins, from Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy, works her team of wizards hard because it’s the only way to stay alive—but together, they thrive. Even the day-to-day grind of working in local government that we see on Parks and Recreation is incredibly fun to watch because Leslie Knope and her team (regardless of their attitudes toward their jobs—looking at you, Ron Swanson…) are actually all fantastic at what they do.
There’s something so very gratifying about watching people live up to their full potential—getting to see all the hard work they put in pay off, not just in their private satisfaction but as part of a group of similarly talented, driven people who have dedicated themselves to their craft, and a shared goal. It’s not unusual to dream about being outstandingly good at something, and in the end there’s a level of pure enjoyment that comes from seeing someone doing something they love, perform flawlessly, and win the day.
As I mentioned up at the top, I’m always searching for new books, shows, movies (or anything else) that fits into the category of “competence porn,” so I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and favorite examples of hyper-capable teams of rogues, professionals, and/or unlikely heroes—please share in the comments.
Rachel Ayers lives in Alaska, where she writes cabaret shows, daydreams, and looks at mountains a lot. She has a degree in Library and Information Science which comes in handy at odd hours, and she shares speculative poetry and flash fiction (and cat pictures) at patreon.com/richlayers.
Cherryh’s Foreigner books. Bren is the undisputed leader but his Assassins Guild support team, his staff support team, and his allies are as competent as can be imagined, despite numerous obstacles.
Bujold’s Vorkosigan books. Miles, his family members, his professional colleagues are as competent as can be, sometimes notwithstanding adverse impacts on Miles’ personal life.
Sanderson’s Mistborn: The Final Empire. Close to an SF Oceans Eleven, as the team fights … and attempts to steal from … the immortal Lord Ruler.
A lot of Military sci-fi falls into the competence porn category, I’m thinking especially of David Weber and the Honor Harrington series. Regardless of the trappings, reading about people great at their jobs is a delight.
For Fantasy, I think you might like any of the series by Ilona Andrews. They (it’s a wife & husband team), primarily do urban fantasy/paranormal romance, but in all their series (Kate Daniels, Innkeeper Chronicles, Hidden Legacies, etc) – the protagonists and their families (biological and found) are full of competent, quippy, and likeable characters.
It’s interesting that this article frames “competence porn” as being about teams, since the examples I’m used to thinking of (e.g. Andy Weir’s The Martian) are about competent individuals.
Piggybacking on @3, a large portion of Heinlein’s novels tend to fit this description, though he has a tendency to combine an entire team into a single individual that is a financial genius, expert attorney, multi-disciplinary engineer, and exceptional pilot or something like that.
The original Mission: Impossible TV series (from the ’60s/’70s) was straight-up competence porn.
@3 I love the Martian! But I do think it’s a different dynamic/story tool to have a competent individual overcoming the odds, verses a team that has to work together because all their skill sets will be required at some point in the story. The “pass the baton as needed” part of the story is missing if you are focused on one character (not to say those aren’t good stories too).
I was a big fan of Money Heist on Netflix if you haven’t gotten a chance to watch it. The first series was better than the second but even that one was pretty solid.
I highly recommend the Rogues of the Republic trilogy by Patrick Weekes. The Palace Job is the first one. Fun and funny fantasy heist stories centered around a snarky and highly competent team.
This idea is one of the reasons the character of Thrawn in Star Wars is so fascinating. He is very good at figuring out what his opponents are up to and coming up with ways to counteract their plans.
Also in the Star Wars galaxy, the X-Wing books feature very competent pilots, spies, and saboteurs going on missions.
I think a lot of Ursula Vernon’s T. Kingfisher books are competence porn. The Paladin series has great characters who are very competent forgers and warriors and perfumers and medical examiners and heads of religious orders.
@@@@@#5
Yes, came here to say the same.
Also, Apollo 13 was pure competence porn. Those short-sleeve & tie wearing, chain smoking slide rule huggers had those astronauts backs!
Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club mysteries would fit right in.
@10 I think her romances have too much introspection to count as competence porn. They are good at their jobs but since there’s often a screw up with the relationship, it doesn’t hit the same as pure competence.
Tanya Huff’s Confederation/Peacekeeper books are Mil SF competence porn but Space Marines and it becomes a contemplation about what happens after a war is over.
I think Kate Elliot and Mira Grant/Seanan Mcguire can go into competence porn territory.
Criminal Minds is definitely a TV example with the bonus of being pretty while they do it.
Paul “Lester Dent” Ernst’s Avenger series is a venerable example. Justice, Inc leader Richard “the Avenger” Benson’s best skill* is stumbling over fellow crime victims whose skills, aptitudes, and resources compliment his. Benson is also adept at recruiting said fellow victims.
* His grim determination to achieve goals regardless of situation may be his worst, because bullying his way onto a plane is what gets his wife and daughter murdered in a particularly horrible (if off stage) way.
Lies of Locke lamora.
If you like “Leverage”, it’s worth giving “Hustle” (its British predecessor) a look.
Definitely counts as competence porn, with bonus Robert Vaughn in a generally brilliant cast.
Star Trek (when done well) rides a lot on this, as part of its general optimism-driven philosophy; Starfleet crews are well-trained, fully-dedicated, highly-professional, and generally have access to the best equipment and information Starfleet can provide.
The A-Team also deserves mention as a foundational text, focusing as it does on “a crack commando unit” turned soldiers of fortune
Agents of SHIELD was another good one, when the team was firing on all cylinders. “Release the ferrets.”
A lot of shonen anime/manga also have this, if only as a way of showing off the respective Secret Techniques of their characters; Naruto and Bleach are the classics, but Girls und Panzer also uses it later on (and in the movie) in the service of showing off just how good Ooarai’s team has become after their earlier status as laughingstocks.
On the military SF-side of anime, the good seasons of Full Metal Panic owe a heavy debt to The A-Team (just listen to this music), and Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans also draws from this well, with Tekkadan being en entire organization of battle-hardened John Wicks compared to the stultified, overly-formal, and doctrine-driven show-military of Gjallarhorn.
Many roleplaying games can be seen as competence porn: in many, each character gets something they are good at.
Classic Traveller is something of an exception, as one can emerge a one-term wonder without skills who is somehow less valued by society than they were before setting out. Friends keep their Other friends from rolling twice on personal development in term one.
Back during the heat of the lockdown (remember COVID?) I read an article about competence porn being a trend in shows that people were seeking out with “Star Trek: the Next Generation” being singled out as the signature example. At the time I found myself remembering how that was indeed one of the main reasons I watched the show back in the day. It really was joyous just watching people who were good at their jobs get some serious shit done (particularly since I was working for an utterly incompetent idiot at the time). It made sense that the show was popular again at a time when people were feeling especially vulnerable and powerless about their circumstances and lord knows the guy running the country at the time was a walking train wreck. Given how the world is still a mess without a sign of any hope I can easily see the continued appeal of the genre.
Pretty much every pulp hero fits this description.
All the books in The Steerswoman series fit the bill, specially the second and third ones. Not only Rowan, but most characters we get close to are very, very good at what they do, be it being nomadic swordsmen (and swordswomen!) or being basically scientists. Following Rowan’s trains of thought when she’s figuring something relevant to the plot is some of the most satisfying things I’ve ever read!
I remember first hearing someone use ‘competence porn’ for Martha Wells’s work. I’m not sure it was for Murderbot.
To me competence porn can be a single person or maybe just a few people. But what really does it for me is when the person hits adversity or the failure of plan A, and comes up with plans B and C and D. That is, they just won’t give up and that fits Wells’s characters to a T!
Everyone (besides the main party) in Orconomics!
In terms of thievery, the anime Lupin the Third has it to some degree or another, but my favorite example from anime is a somewhat obscure series from a few years back called The Great Pretender, about a team of con artists.
On the political side, Cliopher Mdang in The Hands of the Emperor, and his governmental reforms.
It’s interesting to see “competence porn” becoming a positive term; ISTR it originally being a slam pointing at the improbability of the competence shown (just as much porn is … improbable) — the hero didn’t even need a plan B because plan A always worked. One of the … strongest … examples of this sense of the word was Frankowski’s Conrad Stargard books, which were a supersizing of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court with more arrogance and less humanity. I don’t recommend those books to anyone; by contrast, some of the above are heading for Mt. TBR.
I haven’t read nearly all of the books, but ISTM that some of the later Liaden books qualify; the characters occasionally get near-supernatural help, but often they have to rely on skill-dependent improvising when a situation pickles on them.
Nero Wolfe; the chief thinker and organizer. Supported by leg man Archie Goodwin, aided by Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, Orrie Cather, and the cook Fritz Brenner for logistics.
@27 It can be tricky to differentiate between good competence and bad competence. Plan A always working is not a good sign. I think another one is if other characters aren’t allowed to be equally competent, especially antagonists. If the story feels like it’s twisting itself around so the protagonist can succeed then it’s probably not good competence.
Gen I-can-do-anything-I-want Eugenides from The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner! He can steal anything, from a stone to a country, but he’s so good at his “job” noone fully understands exactly how good he is.
I almost listed that series! I especially enjoy the first and third novels. But I feel like it later became “follow this partially-blind narrator through the story until suddenly the truth is revealed to be different than you’ve thought for the whole novel” and the conflict ends with what feels kind of like a deus ex machina – the feeling went from competence to ignorance for me. (To be fair, I haven’t re-read the last couple novels once I got that feeling.)
“Global Frequency,” a comics miniseries by writer Warren Ellis and a variety of artists.
Each issue of the series is a single self-contained story, focusing on the Global Frequency, a proactive, independent, international intelligence agency consisting of 1,001 people, ranging from computer hackers, scientists, astronauts, and military specialists to burglars, memetic researchers, stage magicians, and parkour athletes. Each member has a special high-tech cell phone, and if it rings, they’re expected to drop everything and spring into action, because their skills may be the key to preventing disasters, terrorist attacks, alien brain-rewiring memes, city-destroying space weapons, and more.
It’s interesting to see “competence porn” becoming a positive term; ISTR it originally being a slam pointing at the improbability of the competence shown
Not originally, see the post:
The term simply means “this is fun to watch”.
Here’s Rogers’ original use of the term in 2009: http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/08/leverage-204-fairy-godparents-job-post.html
Related, something I’ve occasionally wondered:
We like stories about underdogs winning. We like the small band of rebels taking on the oppressive empire – they’re the underdog because they’re militarily weak. We like the lone hero taking on the vast corporation – he’s the underdog because he’s financially weak. Or you can have underdogs who are physically weak – literally small and not very strong, like David vs Goliath – or socially weak – maybe a member of a marginalised group. Even intellectually weak – the evil genius being defeated by a hero who isn’t a genius himself.
Could you have a story about an underdog whose weakness is that he’s incompetent? And not have it turn into a comedy? Has anyone written one?
I came here expecting Leverage to be cited and I was not disappointed :)
@3 @5: The Martian is indeed centered on the main character who does a lot of MacGyvering on Mars, but I feel it also qualifies because both the ground crew on Earth and Mark’s original crew do a lot of problem-solving and troubleshooting both with Mark and around him.
Star Trek: Discovery and, to a slightly lesser extent, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds have a lot of competence porn.
On the anime / manga side, I feel like One Piece qualifies: most of the main crew have one specific job that they are very, very good at, even if sometimes that job is just “fight”.
Most of Mercedes Lackey’s recent work is pure competence porn – be it spies or a minor noble masterminding moving himself and hundreds of his subjects thousands of miles away. Most of her main characters are highly competent and practical.
Hard to top the examples already given. Here are a few perhaps less than perfect examples (avoiding spoilers) off the top of my head:-
– The assassin, code-named The Jackal, in Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal is utterly cool and competent, and works through his assignment with ruthless efficiency and professionalism.
– In a very similar vein, both Major Valeri Petrofsky and MI-5 officer John Preston in Forsyth’s The Fourth Protocol are utterly competent, and well-matched.
– The FBI, particularly their forensic scientists, in both Manhunter and the remake, Red Dragon, both based on Thomas Harris’s novel, are Apollo 13 level competent. The bit where the technician figures out the writing on the toilet paper is brilliant: ‘You’re so sly, but so am I.’
These are all one-offs, of course, but still pretty competent folks!
I would submitt Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series. While it does focus on Irene and her super-competence there is a lot wraped up in her learning to trust the people she’s working with and leaning on their strengths.
Also sounds to me like this is related to the Heroine’s Journey, in that frequently you have one “mastermind” who’s competence is “planning” bringing together a group to best utilize each set of skills.
@35 The books about the founding of Valdemar are more of a how-to than a proper plot with supposed possibility of failure.
The Phule’s Company series by Robert Asprin is about taking a military branch full of losers and turning them into an overwhelming force. Related, the Guards books in the Discworld series.
Sherlock Holmes is more or less an archetype of this.
There was a fashion a decade or so ago for tv shows about extremely competent people with extremely off-putting personalities: House, Bones, and Sherlock come to mind. Not always, though: the lead in Burn Notice was competent and also had people skills.
Most recently, in fantasy fiction, is “Legends & Lattes” by Travis Baldree. Orc Viv, retired from adventuring, assembles a team of exactly who she needs for setting up the first coffee-shop in the city.
A lot of ‘competence porn’ books however take their normally infallible protagonist (eg Locke Lamora, Vlad Taltos), and put them in situations where they lose, because if they didn’t lose at first, how else would they manage their final act triumph-over-adversity?
@32: My recollection, as I stated, is that the post, TV Tropes, and other cites of 2009 might be half correct; Rogers may not have been aware of the history, but I recall the term from well before then. (e.g., the Conrad Stargard books date from the 1980’s.) Words do change, and even invert, over time; cf Charles II praising Christopher Wren’s work by calling it “pompous” and “awful”. (I know there’s a genre story — ISTR by Poul Anderson built on such language flips, but I’m blanking on the title.)
Lots of comic books are about putting together the best team for the job at hand; as soon as I read the title and premise, I started hearing The Avengers (Marvel) theme in my head:
“But let’s do a head count here: your brother the demi-god; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and YOU, big fella, you’ve managed to p*** off every single one of them.”
See also: almost every X-Men or Justice League pastiche.
@@@@@ 44 – That sounds like Poul Anderson’s “A Tragedy of Errors”.
The Brennan Monster in Larry Niven’s Protector could be considered omni-competent. Not really human any more, but still never at a loss in any situation.
A humorous example is Nick Pollotta and Phil Foglio’s novel Illegal Aliens, which is told mostly from the POV of a UN sanctioned first contact team so damned competent that when alien contact is confirmed, they effectively become the first planetary government of Earth in a matter of minutes through preexisting agreements mostly authored by the FC team themselves — much to the UN member-states’ dismay… (ie, “We really signed that?” “Yeah, well nobody thought it would ever happen…”)
The humans actually involved in the first contact are an alien-shanghaied New York street gang, the marvelously named Bloody Deckers, who are in their own way, just as frighteningly competent as the FC team, with the emphasis on frightening.
If interested, do try and find the original TSR paperback, as reprint editions lack Phil’s Foglio’s chapter-head illustrations, which are worth the price of admission on their own.
#35/38: Agreed that not all of Lackey is competence porn, but quite a lot of her material does fit that mold, notably: the Tarma & Kethry adventures, most of the stand-alone Valdemar novels, the “500 Kingdoms” series, and virtually all of the “Elemental Masters” series (with a few odd exceptions and variants – the last of the Sherlock Holmes cluster is very, very odd).
Part of the reason for this may be that one of the classic fairy-tale templates (on which most of the Elemental Masters books are based) is pretty much pure competence-kink fare: the protagonist wins through precisely because he or she is, in fact, the sensible third son, or the sensible scullery maid, or the sensible farmer’s boy who succeeds where careless or willfully self-centered predecessors have failed.
I will second the BBC Hustle, it’s a wonderful ensemble cast with nicely intricate heist plots, and they explain the mechanic well too.
I’d say that Halt And Catch Fire qualifies too, as the cast are impressively competent at their work, if not their social interactions.
Another example is Penn and Teller, where they will often do a complicated I’ll u so, and then deconstruct it to show exactly how much work it is.
@48 See also Nick Pollotta’s three “Bureau 13” novels, about a team of agents of a secret government department investigating supernatural threats to the US.
Admiral “Black Jack” Geary, in Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet series, is not only super competent, but humble, honest and loyal as well. A great space opera series.
Wow, I’m thrilled with all the suggestions! I knew there had to be more out there.
@7 yes! I started this at a time when my brain couldn’t handle subtitles but I want to get back around to it!
@15 I just finished the first Locke Lamora book recently and book 2 is on hold from the library… Loved it, what a wild and unexpected ride.
@16, @50 Okay I am looking this up immediately, it is in my near future. And good point about Penn and Teller, I’ve seen snippets and it does scratch the same itch.
@17 Agents of SHIELD was definitely best when it fell into this groove. Sometimes I felt like they all just got really bogged down with their human emotions and baggage and I was like, guys, get back to work, seriously.
@18 LOVE this idea about RPGs… though I’m not sure my necromancer in my current campaign is all that competent XD
@30 That IS what works about those books, isn’t it?! Well, they are pretty fun anyway but, yeah, love Gen!
@46 I agree that the whole “bring the team together” dynamic really works with superheroes, it’s why I love a good crossover. But I also think there’s a slightly different flavor when you have a team of super powered individuals, vs. so called “normal” (or maybe “obsessive”) people who have backed some innate talent with hours and days and years of refining their skills. Of course representation of these characters changes and I don’t think the superhero team dynamic can be discounted, but it’s also kind of its own thing. :)
Thank you, everyone who commented with suggestions!
@33: I’m having trouble turning away from imagining your competence-deficient hero with a physical disability which isn’t what you meant. Elric treats his anemia with herbs. Claudius was physically disadvantaged but turned out competent (citation needed).
And you’re looking for a story that isn’t comedy. On the other hand, you don’t specify that the hero wins. Or that we like them. Are they really the hero?
Nadia Pym (Marvel, comics version), and retrospectively her father Henry, are brilliant scientists with bipolar disorder. They’re difficult to share a world with, frankly. But Henry’s usually dead these days. I say “usually” because it’s comics. Nadia tends to be successful.
Doctor Who sometimes has more confidence than competence, but that usually is indeed played as comedy.
I think I remember the princess in “Aztec Century” fouling up, um, royally. But how? Gone.
Handing an important job to a bumbler may be a tragedy. So that opens up Greek theatre and much of Shakespeare, if I knew anything about it. Well, I suppose “Richard the Second”.
A couple of ways for an incompetent central character to come out a winner are for the bad guys to exhaust themselves trying to outfight or outsmart them and it’s like water off a duck’s back, or that the fallible underdog has friends. Bonus if the antagonist isn’t expecting that, but you can’t count on it. A Voldemort type has a good theoretical understanding of human affection and how to exploit it, though the Volster is allergic to it in person. That last is a factor in “A Wrinkle in Time” as well.
Or the bad guys aren’t even aware that an incompetent protagonist is walking into their plot and wrecking it. Perhaps because it’s obviously certain death and failure, they don’t bother to defend against someone doing it anyway.
Referring to Peter Anspach’s well-known advice to Evil Overlords, entries 30, arguably 31, 38, 47, and 64 refer to appropriate Overlord responses to incompetence, including one’s own.
I suggest Rachel Neumeier, perhaps especially the Deaths Lady and Tuyo series.
I particularly like competence porn when it focuses on people we don’t often see. In the past, it’s focused on one particular type of person (in pulp sci fi, Mission Impossible and Bourne movies, etc. – even Ghostbusters) often at the expense of others. I’m loving being able to read and watch it focusing on all kinds of people, even some people who aren’t people. :-)
Oh, and a subgenre of competence porn I love is books from the POV of scientists. Parts of The Expanse, The Martian, The Left Hand of Darkness, Dune, even Frankenstein.
Granny Weatherwax
All of Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut books – The Calculating Stars, The Fated Sky, and The Relentless Moon – are superb examples of competence porn. She has NASA astronauts, among others as her consultants plus other beta readers who bring their own areas of expertise.
Three more for the competence porn pile – and YAY for all the fine people doing fine things very finely indeed.
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots was just so refreshing as it came out during the pandemic and was about the hench-person for a supervillain winning against the superhero not a hero and the whole structure of superherodom with the power of spreadsheets!
In the military-esq SF, although it’s the Space Coast Guard, K.B. Wagers’ NeoG series starting with A Pale Light in the Black is excellent competence porn.
And last but not least in either size or scope, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., particularly his current Grand Illusion series is political fantasy about what happens when someone who really knows what they’re doing, even if they don’t believe they do, taking on the system and sometimes winning – also sometimes losing because the deck is stacked so high against. But definitely competence porn catnip especially if you have fantasies about politics actually working for the people.
@momo89, I was going to mention Eugenides from the Queen’s Thief books, too. And the character has so much more depth because he DOES make mistakes; some colossal ones. But he never quits, he just keeps making plans. And is usually ten steps ahead of everyone else, including the reader.
@17 Cybersnark, thanks for mentioning AoS – a series that’s been chronically underestimated.
I think someone mentioned Bones – I’d also nominate White Collar.
Um, David Weber’s Honorverse? Honor herself, of course, but notably Anton Zilwicki, Victor Cachat, and Kevin Usher?
A great deal of Eric Flint’s (may he rest in peace) 1632-verse involved characters doing things competently, to include characters in The Grantville Gazette (a big thank you to his widow Lucille for leaving the website up for so long), as well as the hard copies and Ring of Fire Press.
And absolutely Sir Terry Pratchett’s Guards – just reread “Nightwatch.”
Wouldn’t L. Sprague De Camp’s “Lest Darkness Fall” fit this as well?
+1 to @8 Tapley’s suggestion of the Rogues of the Republic trilogy by Patrick Weekes. I’ve read it described as “Leverage meets the Wizard of Oz”, but I think there’s a healthy dose of Firefly in there, too. The first third of the first book is bringing the team together. The rest is pure heist. Oh, and magic, shapeshifters, talking artifacts, and so on.
Not typically my genre but I think of Michael Connelly’s Bosch series. I get the satisfaction and comfort in reading about successful quests- probably because- using myself as an example- I’m not an expert at anything in particular.
I thoroughly enjoy the “EarthCent Ambassador Series” by E.M. Foner. Though the humans are not the most competent of the galaxy menagerie, everyone ultimately is working for the common good and with reasonable success. It’s consumption is most definitely “comfort food”.
Seconding @26’s suggestion of The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. Cliopher Mdang almost single-handedly reforms an entire empire, seemingly by just being stubbornly competent, mostly because the mail home to his family is too slow.
To me personally, the Greatcoats series by Sebastien de Castell fits the prompt.
Thanks forr all the other great recommendations
Eric Frank Russell developed a reputation for stories of “clever Earthpeople outwitting powerful aliens,” often involving the ingenious use of limited resources. I’m thinking in particular of his novel The Space Willies, in which the protagonist creates great disruption among his alien captors with a piece of wood, a nail and a piece of bent wire.
I tend to think of the early Tom Clancy novels (Red Storm Rising, Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, etc.) as competence porn. Towards the end he started moving a little too much toward the superman “I can do it all” model.
Good call with Jack Ryan! And Mary Pat and her husband of course. Super competent, always fun to see how the overcome the major challenges.
Naomi Niagara from the Expanse is extremely competent, as is Bobbie Draper.
I am currently rewatching Foyle’s War. Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle is the very definition of competence. No one escapes detection once he is on the case and he never backs down from pursuing people in power.
Nathan Lowell’s Solar Clipper novels have a certain element of this, crossed with the cozy genres. Jerry Boyd’s Bob & Nikki series qualifies as well, I believe. I hope indie published recommendations are ok here.
KM Herkes Restoration series Controlled Descent, Flight Plan, Weaving in the Ends, and Novices – problem solving, different experts, and Found Family! Also a bit Hopepunk as well! Also funny, snarky, sweet, and there is knitting.
The Sector General series?
Nathan Lowell’s Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series is definitely Competence Porn, focusing on the routine and not-so-routine operations of merchant starships, often from the POV of the enlisted crew. The first three volumes probably count as “Cozy Comfort Reads,” as well, as the protagonist finds himself in a supportive, environment of competent individuals who encourage him to excel.
Some of Heinlein’s juveniles count as Competence Porn, particularly Tunnel in the Sky.
Pretty much everything that Nathan Lowell writes is competence porn. And also comfort reads. I particularly liked The Wizard’s Butler.
One of the eight thousand reasons why I love Star Trek is because it’s usually competence porn. Captain Kirk is a tactical genius, Spock knows everything, and Dr. McCoy can cure anything. Scotty can fix anything, Sulu can pilot through anything, and almost everyone on the ship is just really stunningly good at whatever their job is.
Thinking about it, most of the things I love best are competence porn, from the Heinlein books I loved as a child, through the mysteries I read as a teen, to my most recent fave: the quiet competence of Cliopher Mdang in Victoria Goddard’s wonderful The Hands of the Emperor. Even my guilty pleasure, the Anita Blake novels by Laurell K. Hamilton, features a main character who’s the best animator of her time and the best killer of rogue supernaturals.
Thanks! Now I have another way to think about what I like. :-)
Kvothe seems overly competent, but in a frustratingly satisfying way.
Mike Ehrmantraut. That’s all.
This is a children’s book series, but I remember Artemis Fowl being this way. You start with a child genius/criminal mastermind and his extremely competent bodyguard. Then add characters like a skilled-yet-unconventional fighter, master thief, a technological genius, and some basically military/police officers into the mix.
My favorite was The Eternity Code, which gathers all these characters to recover stolen goods from a very powerful and criminal businessman.
Out of genre, but thriller writer Barry Eisler writes books that are almost all competence porn: his heroes are assassins and government covert agents and the like all of whose superpower is being really good at their jobs (and really careful in their planning). It can be incredibly gratifying to watch. (Often the twist comes not in their failures, but in their starting to question which side they ought to be on.) A good starting place is Inside, Out, in which it’s said of a person escaping a trap: “what is he, a vampire?” and the answer is nope, just really, really good at what he does and careful about thinking things through.
This is a different flavor of competence porn than you’re talking about, but I like the Japanese series Supreme Skills. Two teams are challenged to make, e.g., a top that will spin the longest, or a set of discs with the least amount of friction, and we get to watch the process of designing, machining, and testing them. It’s very much about watching smart people collaborating and being good at what they do. (There doesn’t seem to be any place it’s streaming in the U.S., alas, though you can find occasional episodes on YouTube.)
Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat books. The stories are incredibly contrived but it doesn’t matter because they’re just so much fun. But, he’s a solo operator. The team aspect is not present here.
For teams, I like a recent Harry Dresden had a recent book that fell into the heist category but I won’t say anything else to avoid spoilers.
I was surprised to scroll down this far and not see anyone mention Jack Vance, whose heroes, at least outside of the Dying Earth stories, are often incredibly competent and many steps ahead of their conflicts/nemeses. His Demon Prince’s books are a great example as is the Durdane trilogy.
@84 There are a few Stainless Steel Rat books where Angelina and their children also play important roles.
Perhaps there is no better example of “Competence Porn” than some comic-book superheroes. Batman is supremely competent. Superman even more so, but he is virtually indestructible. That would tend to make someone confident and competent.
The distinction between “competence porn” stories (and yes, I adore Leverage) and others can parallel the difference between British reality shows seen as “comfort watches” (e.g., The Great British Bake-Off or The Great Pottery Throw Down) versus American reality shows. Most people have commented that the difference lies in the escalation of drama in American shows (indeed, editing the shows and structuring them to maximize it) and the more kindly and friendly British shows. This is true, but limited. (There are numerous competence-porn shows on Food Network, notably Chopped, which always seems embarrassing when they have people introduce themselves by awkwardly trying to talk smack. Forged in Fire, despite the name is really entirely about competence and mutual respect, and the participants are almost ridiculously polite and have been praised for helping each other.)
Speaking as a motivational psychologist, the underlying driver is whether you are celebrating or appealing to the Influence motive or the Achievement motive. Everyone’s got them (plus the third, the Affiliation motive) to greater or lesser degrees, but they are very stable, and define what pushes your emotional hot-buttons.
Achievement motive is about doing things better: getting a charge out of increasing efficiency or innovating, and people with a lot of this tend to seek and use goals to test their progress. Fun jobs for people possessing primarily this motive include: engineers, accountants, (shorter-cycle) sales people, research scientists.
Influence motive is about having an impact on or influence on others; getting your satisfaction by seeing others react to you in some way. This can include leaders, coaches, ministers, therapists, longer-cycle consultative salespeople, and the like.
Note that early SF is very much tailored for (and often written by) the Achievement motivated engineers and scientists, and the stereotypical “Analog Story” is often about solving a technical problem. The “New Wave” and “soft SF” was and is more about social and interpersonal issues, and showed a corresponding shift in Influence focus among its writers. Neither is inherently superior to the other in objective terms; they are appealing to different audiences. (A similar pattern – and conflict – exists in mysteries, between “hard-boiled” noir mysteries and “cozies” traditional mysteries. Both are good, but you can get people arguing passionately how one is and one is not.)
Competence porn is very much Achievement motive in focus. So instead of seeing conflict among people (which can produce significant impact, however negative), it’s about solving the problem. The Martian is the most clear-cut case of this I can think of in recent years, but a number of people have pointed out that Heinlein definitely had that in many of his earlier stories. Leverage is about solving problems and overcoming obstacles to pull off something unusual.
Of course, there’s more to it than that. Popular writers often appeal to multiple motives. Leverage has the satisfaction of “bringing down the big evil guy,” typically corporations, which is a positive Influence motive theme. Some of the British shows (notably Pottery) have introduced elements of teaching, which is another positive Influence theme. Leverage and GBBO also have an openly Affiliative component: the friendship among participants and the growing friendship and love among the Leverage team as well.
Because too much of Hollywood is all about the Influence motive – and the more selfish Influence motive, at that, looking for “big booms” rather than interpersonal insight – we don’t get enough competence porn, but there is definitely a place for that in our culture. Too many Achievement motivated people just go into their basements and do their own DIY projects instead!
@20> Pretty much every pulp hero fits this description.
Hah, I was just thinking that Doc Savage fit the bill for “Teamwork Competence Porn” quite well.
Discovery had a couple of anti-competence shows: Canada’s Worst Handyman and Canada’s Worst Driver [1]. While this very easily could have been a comedy show about laughing at inept people doing things badly, the two shows took a different path. The idea was that ideally participants would learn from their guided experiences [2]. Generally speaking, with some notable and in a couple of cases terrifying exceptions, participants did.
1 Inspired by foreign versions, I think.
2 Actually, a problem for Worst Driver, as host Younghusband was supposed to be an average driver used in various examples, but he too got better than he had been.
I also really enjoy this genre, and Leverage is definitely a paradigm of it. I will definitely be looking up a bunch of the works commented here. A few other examples I haven’t seen mentioned:
The TV show The Pretender, which is about a genius boy kidnapped and raised by The Center. He grows to have the ability to become anyone and escapes, moving around helping people who have been hurt or unfairly punished, finding the bad guys’ secrets and generally trapping them into confessing in unique or embarrassing ways. Meanwhile also looking for traces of his family and avoiding the Center’s headhunters trying to bring him back. Very like a one-man Leverage, now that I think about it.
The anime Case Closed/Detective Conan features high school detective Shinichi Kudo, who gets caught spying on a transaction by a shadowy organization and is force-fed a poison that’s supposed to be fatal and undetectable. Instead, he shrinks down to a gradeschooler and has to make a new life for himself while protecting his identity, solving mysteries by using his best friend’s PI father as a mouthpiece, and trying to track down the organization to get his body back. He’s not perfect, but has an unbeaten record of solved cases that have stumped other detectives and the police. He also runs up against Kaitou Kid, the Moonlight Magician, a scarily competent thief who focuses on jewels but always returns them, and has been known to assist in capturing more dangerous criminals. It’s one of the longest-running anime/manga series, and if you want to get into it I suggest starting with the movies, especially #3, 8, or 14.
Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series is fantasy focusing on Tavi, a boy who doesn’t seem to have any power over the elements like everyone else, so must rely on his wits and determination to get through the challenges he faces. As he grows up, he discovers and hones other skills, cultivates relationships, and unearths his heritage, ending up using them in surprising/unexpected ways to great effect when trying to save his homeland from invasion.
Finally, if you just want short form scifi fiction abut cool people or humans in general, I recommend the subreddit “Humanity, F*** Yeah”, especially their must reads: https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/must_read/ Not all are postiive, but most are about humans facing and overcoming challenges of dealing with space/aliens/supernovas/invasions/what have you in incredible ways.
@31: Good call. I was going to say Warren Ellis’ Global Frequency, which John Rogers adapted as a pilot for a TV series before moving on to Leverage. I still think it would make great TV.
Can I just point out that this is a form of theism-fandom? We–I count myself as a huge fan of Competence Porn (CP)–are essentially looking for a plot wherein the author’s unseen hand lines up all ducks and cats by the end. That’s basically theism, right, the invisible clock maker?
This genre’s being stan’d by people who know there’s an unhidden* hand at work in this machination and so it’s just the soothing of a safely-mothered world for people who believe there’s no such thing IRL. A kind of “deus ex typewriter.” This is not any criticism of us CP fans, just how I extrapolate from my habit.
*You picked the book, movie, show, etc by the, author, director, actor, or other clear label on the “cover.”
I’ll throw in Army of the Dead and its prequel Army of Thieves on Netflix. (that is also my recommended viewing order too).
The Liaden Universe books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller feature many types of extremely competent individuals. Theo Waitley, Daav, Jeeves, a Tree that changes human lives; they overcome their differences and use their individual competences to solve major, life or death problems, and create found families from former enemies, those from other universes, sentient machines, norbears and the like.
Beware of Chicken is a fun isekai competence porn webnovel. Instead of being the hero, the protagonist takes up farming and turns out to be surprisingly good at it.
Thinking back to the dark ages (of TV…) a series with similar plotlines to “Mission Impossible” (checking – 1959) was “Mand and the Challenge” First show (was it even called a pilot back then?) was this myserious organization that puts a bunch of guys in putatively dangerous situations – and the denouement was chosing the “extermely competent” who becomes the protagonist for the rest of the series. He assembles a team of “extremely competent people”, and they solve all sorts of (not necessarily nefarious) problems, as a team. But he’s the driver, no question.
And of course, from the pulps, how about the Lensmen? Sure the culmination is Kimball Kinnison , but he has the rest of the Lensmen as support, plus he had at his back the almighty Arisians, who :”created” him, to begin with. And Boskone weren’t a patsy opponent.
More recent is Julie Czerneda’s Trade Pact Universe series, with Jason Morgan, a human who falls in “love” with Sira, a member of the Clan (telepathic/telekinetic/etc.) non-humans. Morgan has quite a team he works with.
@ 4.olethros6
Yes; say what else you will about Panshin’s Heinlein in Dimension, his ‘Heinlein individual’ captured this as well as one could, I think. (Note how seldom his protagonists says ‘I think’ or ‘I believe’ about a well-defined, physical, problem—it is something real scientists and engineers say a lot—but that’s why it’s porn.)
The beginning of John Sladek’s Engineer to the Gods:
*Later: ‘…one-draught novels with the aid of the extra verb keys.’
@3 and @6 The Martian immediately came to mind, but the team of Grace and Rocky in “Project Hail Mary” is wonderful competence porn as well. Every failure brings them together to figure something out. And if you haven’t read it, may I STRONGLY recommend the audio book!
Harry, Ron & Hermione?
You don’t know competence porn if you haven’t read The Hampster Princess by Ursula Vernon. There is no problem that Harriet can sort out
Going old school, almost everything by E.E. “doc” Smith is competence porn. The Skylark series doesn’t have much of the team aspect, but there’s the main duo and other competent people show up (the female leads need not apply–these are very sexist old books). The Lensman series creates a whole group/category of people, all on the same team, who are all hypercompetent by definition, vetted as such by the near-all-knowing Mentor of Arisia. And his lesser known series about the d’Alembert family is about an extended family of spies who are also circus performers and who come from a high gravity world so they’re all super strong, super fast, and super durable.
Not quite as old but still pretty way back (70s), Lin Carter did this ridiculous series, very consciously doing pulp turned up to 11, about Zarkon, Lord of the Unknown, and his group of plucky sidekicks, the Omega Crew, each of which had some amazing talent.
I can definitely tell who read the article and who didn’t–the ones who didn’t are all mentioning stories about single hypercompetent individuals.
The first ANT-MAN movie had this, even though the hero’s team had some Surprise Moments where their decisions didn’t always make sense but they could vamp till ready with the best of them.
I think the original Stargate series could be called competence porn too, considering the SG1 team
@47 “Protector” is a great example.
@85 Kirth Gersen from Jack Vance’s “Star King” etc.
A competence porn sub fetish: The Well-Written-Contract a la Elizabeth Moon’s “Trading in Danger”
I can think of so many shows this might apply to including: Numbers, The Mentalist, etc. But I’m struggling to think of books besides those already quoted.
Then I realized that a series I call a ‘guilty pleasure’ as it doesn’t really make me think too hard (perhaps because the characters are all so clever!) is Charlaine Harris’ Gunnie Rose series. Far less romance than most of her other works (especially less than Sookie) but the western sci-fi flair is obviously so Firefly it can’t be by accident; and yes it has witty banter.
Which then made me think that perhaps Drizzt and crew or Dragonlance books could also apply?
Ironically these series are also in my guilty pleasures bucket. Groups of people hanging out, solving problems, getting in trouble, and making fun of one another (plus brooding cause you gotta have a mage or dark elf that is evil and broody but kind of good sometimes too; ah the anti-hero, a personal favourite of mine).
I appreciate that I now have a categorization for Murderbot. So thank you!Previously I used to tell people it was just witty sci-fi that even non SF/F readers would love.
The broad genre of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese “isekai” (meaning “another world”) novels and their visual adaptations deal in this trope in spades.
Generally, our protagonist is an ordinary person of no importance living a dull and taxing daily life, but they have one passion in life (tea, accounting, make-up, herbal remedies, baking, book-making, a book or video game*, etc). After dying unexpectedly (usually of overwork or an unfortunate traffic accident) their soul is reincarnated into the body of a prominent figure in a fantasy world (usually royalty or nobility in a traditional monarchy system). Often, the individual they’ve transmigrated into is a character in their favorite book or video game, giving them privileged knowledge of future events that allows them to make seemingly prescient decisions and future arrangements. That’s the crux of the genre—and it will often address their passion in life as well, which coincidentally affords them great merit and opportunities for success.
Perhaps the book-maker has arrived in a world where the printing press hasn’t been invented yet; or the accountant arrives in world of fantasy politics where the kingdom’s taxes are being embezzled by bad actors; or the tea expert arrives in a world where tea is not yet popular among the nobility. The desire to live a more glamorous life while being appreciated for our passions and enjoying greater insight & competence than everyone around us (albeit sometimes due to privileged knowledge that has little to do with our skills) is compelling. Protagonists vary from hyper-independent to deeply committed to improving their relationships with the people around them, and surround themselves with competent individuals to improve or avert their anticipated dreary fate. I’ve lost dozens, maybe hundreds of hours to reading Isekai and its close relative, the “Villainess” genre (which is often but not always also isekai), where a character transmigrates into an unhinged or deeply misunderstood female character of a game or book who has been cast as an antagonist, and when she starts acting normally everyone around her is impressed by her very normal and well-adjusted behavior. 🤣
It’s hard to list all the good ones, but some to get you started are:
Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmother (competent fashion designer)
The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter (competent accountant)
The Duchess’s 50 Tea Recipes (competent tea enjoyer)
Ascendance of a Bookworm (competent librarian, book- and paper- maker)
I’m in Love with the Villainess (competent baker and video game enjoyer)
Also, they often have romantic themes. As long as we’re doing wish fulfillment the protagonist should get their ideal partner, right?
Thanks for this article! It was very illuminating.
A new series, starting with The Captain, by Will Wight is a sci-fi/fantasy version of this. I heard someone describe it as getting together a group of people who would all be the hero-protagonist if it were their story specifically. One character literally uses the power of friendship as his source of power, the joke of which is played up very well.
The Cradle series, by the same author, starts with the characters relatively weak but becomes beauuuuutiful competence porn by the end of the series.
I’ve always been fascinated by Heist stories and I think I finally found out why. They’re almost the perfect archetype of a competence porn story. And that’s what I was really looking for. Also why I love Dr. Stone so much. I know it’s more individual, but that’s why I also enjoy a lot of Isekai stories where someone hyper-competent has some cool plans and utilizes their otherworldly knowledge to execute them. The competence and progression is what I like, not the power fantasy.
I think some of the stories about competent people miss the second word of “competence porn.” For a story to qualify, I think it needs both to allow the reader to enjoy the competence but also that the competence is how the character is successful. For example, many Star Trek plots hinge not on the crew’s competence (yes, they wouldn’t succeed if they were incompetent but for these stories, it’s necessary but not sufficient) but rather them being enlightened or able to see past their pre-conceptions or other uplifting quality. Same with romances (usually), it’s not being good at what they do that gets the protagonist(s) to their happily ever after but personal growth or communication or whatever.
This isn’t to say those are bad stories or that they aren’t enjoyable, just putting them into a different category than “competence porn.”
Interesting – I’ve read a large proportion of the books suggested so far, and can see this is possibly my favorite subgenre, but I’ve never recognized the connection before. A few more throughts: I was going to nominate James White’s Sector General too till #75 beat me to it. Some of Kim Stanley Robinson’s books – the Mars series, and The Ministry for the Future (if only…). Pratchett’s witches, especially Granny Weatherwax (I see #58 said that already) and (in the later books) Tiffany Aching – I think a lot of series establish the “confidence porn” dynamic only a book or two in (Bren Cameron is a good example – Cherryh shows him flailing a lot for the first few novels). Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden novels, especially the professional pilot’s guild. Many of Elizabeth Moon’s books (more military SF); Lindsay Buroker’s Star Kingdom books, for another indie pick that’s semi-military. Melissa Scott’s Silence Leigh in Five-Twelfths of Heaven and its sequels; Randall Garrett’s Sean and Lord Darcy (mysteries lean toward competence porn, as I think someone said higher up); Poul Anderson’s Flandry, and Nicholas van Rijn, and Steve and Virginia in Operation Chaos; and let us not forget the immortal Kimball Kinnison, star Lensman!
@8, @64 Oooh bumping Rogues of the Republic way up my list!
@79 I always kind of thought Kvothe just somehow lucked into the best teachers in whatever area he floundered into… lol
@83, @88 Interestingly, I thought about mentioning the late phases of reality TV shows when there are group challenges, and the majority of the competitors have been eliminated, and you have a pretty much elite group of bakers, blacksmiths, or drag artists working together to create something that none of them could do alone, and they are all stellar at their chosen craft! Definitely hits the same or at least similar spot.
@108 oh this is fascinating about Isekai! I have the most minimal familiarity with manga and Ascendance of a Bookworm has been on my TBR list for unrelated reasons and I see it will have to move closer to the top… Thank you for this analysis/comparison, I know there are myriad manga genres that I barely understand and now I’m going to be looking out for these! :)
@110. Interestingly, while Dr. Stone started out as more individualized, Senku himself would be quick to dismiss that idea; he’s surrounded by people every bit as perceptive, inquisitive, passionate, and capable as he is; Kaseki the craftsman, Chrome the explorer, Gen the mentalist, Great Detective Suika, even Kohaku (who considers herself just the muscle) just reinvented writing. (That’s part of his whole thesis; science is a group effort, it doesn’t belong to any one person).
Gideon the Ninth (first of the Locked Tomb series) could fall into this. Each of them (with the possible exception of Gideon) are extremely good at their brand of magic, combat, etc. Each has a chance to succeed… (spoiler)but not a good one; once they start working together that improves considerably(/spoiler). Its got a different feel, for sure. But I’d include it.
Here are some others:
Royce and Hadrian of the Riyria series are exceptionally competent at their job (even if some of the plot is specifically not in their job description).
The characters of the Dresden Files (although Harry himself is a bit of a loose cannon).
The Craft Sequence books include not only competent characters, but a unique way that they in turn interact with the mystical world.
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/chris-hadfield/the-apollo-murders/9780316264730/?lens=mulholland-books
The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield: early 70s NASA mission controllers at their absolute peak.
I enjoy books like that too. A lot of military sci-fi definitely falls into that category: Weber, Kloos , Campbell are some of my favs.
Elizabeth Bear’s Whitespace books also have smart , competent characters. A joy to read , with a likeable smart protagonist, is “The Peacemaker’s Code” by Deepak Malhotra. I had a blast .😀
The TV series Scorpion from a few years ago might fit the bill.
@56: If I didn’t mention already, James White’s “Sector General” space hospital series is well supplied with competent characters, beginning as seen from the point of view of young Dr Conway, and especially once he discards a prejudiced attitude to the Federation’s police and military force, the Monitor Corps. The stories do usually involve medical and other misunderstandings, but people get their work done. In the second of the stories, Conway has an important and large-scale and unprecedented assignment which needs resources besides medical, so we get to see him having meetings with the senior hospital staff who can make it happen. That’s all that it takes.
(I’m a bit late but – )
Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series is full of competent people thinking around corners.
And, somewhat out of genre, Nora Roberts’ Bride Quartet – four women who run a high-end wedding business, and do it very, very well. I sort of shrug at the romances, but I love reading about how they handle the business.
Two of Ellen Kushner’s books – Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword did it for me, especially because the second book features female heroes. Most of my other recommendations would be under the Mystery / Thriller category rather than speculative fiction but some series such as Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels are both.
Long before Leverage, and with similar traits, was Vengeance Unlimited. It only lasted one 16 episode season – IIRC the only reason it aired at all was due to it being available during a writer’s strike.
Still not sure why they has so little faith in it – considering the way Leverage took off, perhaps it was just too far ahead of its time. Better than it had any business being, and sadly overlooked over the years. Now it seems to only be available in the Internet Archive. The hero, a dryly humorous Michael Madsen, never even carried a gun, and generally caused the baddies to do themselves in, in strikingly creative and unexpected ways.
The thing that made me realize I loved competency porn was how addicted I was to watching youtube videos about airplane incidents. My favorites were the ones where everyone came out alive! Montour Pilot, Green Dot Aviation, and Disaster Breakdown are good for this, although less people survive in that last channel.
I was just googling this genre because it’s the best description I can think of for several books I like re-reading from time to time. The ones I’m thinking of mostly focus on a female lead rather than a team, though. One is Trickster’s Choice/Trickster’s Queen (2-book YA fantasy series), which features an extremely competent young lady raised by a spymaster who finally gets the scope for her talents in a neighboring nation, where she eventually becomes part of a strong team putting the rightful ruler on the thrown. Another is The Grand Sophy, a classic Regency novel about a third culture kid coming to live with her London relatives and fixing everyone’s problems, sometimes with a pistol in her hand! (though sadly some of the racism of the era makes it into the book unchallenged) The last half of the final book of the Twilight fits this genre, too – uber-competent female lead takes on challenges and wins, alongside strong collaborators. They are kind of comforting, though I wonder if the time I spend re-reading would be better spent learning a useful and impressive skill myself!
ETA: Oh, and Enola Holmes – those six books feature a very competent young woman as well as a satisfying emotional/relational arc. And the other common thread of these four books/series is that the characters also have all the money/physical resources they could want for their exploits.