Books about summoners

[moonfly7]

Gonna sound a bit strange, but recently I realised that in all of the books I read, and there are a lot, I've never once read a good story where the protagonists thing is summoning things to aid them. Unless it's demons.
Plenty of good books have awesomely designed summoners as side characters, like Sufficiently advanced magic, and Corpies. But I've never seen a story where the main character has these abilities.
So what I'm looking for specifically is stories where the main character's main thing is summoning creatures to aid him. Be it magical, science fiction, superhero, I don't care. My only rule is no demon summoning as that's the only kind I can actually find.

[The Glyphstone]

Pokemon sort of qualifies?

[Kitten Champion]

It's the entire basis for the Fate franchise. Mages summon high-class familiars called Servants that take the shape and conceptual powers of historical and mythical figures. Usually for the purposes of participating in a battle royale as part of a ritual to obtain an omnipotent wishing tool - the Holy Grail - but other iterations of the franchise have them summoned to defend humanity as a whole or just to live beside one another in everyday life.

[Fyraltari]

The Jojo series does that I think? Also Yu-gi-oh sorta.

[moonfly7]

It's the entire basis for the Fate franchise. Mages summon high-class familiars called Servants that take the shape and conceptual powers of historical and mythical figures. Usually for the purposes of participating in a battle royale as part of a ritual to obtain an omnipotent wishing tool - the Holy Grail - but other iterations of the franchise have them summoned to defend humanity as a whole or just to live beside one another in everyday life.

Could you give me a link or a full title perhaps?

[Ibrinar]

Seeing the title I wanted to say Bartimaeus but Bartimaeus is the MC not his summoner. And a demon.

Hmm an summoner MC who doesn't summon demons and probably not just some summoned familiar either because that is basically once and done. Hmm this is not easy.

What are the criteria does it have to be a magical summoning from elsewhere or would a controller of existing animals count like Taylor from Worm calling swarms of insects?

Edit: Fate isn't a book though, well fate zero has a book version I guess

[Kitten Champion]

Fate/Stay Night (A visual novel for PC and PS2, which has several routes that each constitute their own story-line)
Fate/Zero (A prequel to Fate/Stay Night)
Fate/Apocrypha (An alternative universe take on Fate/Stay Night)
Fate/Strange Fake (Another alternative universe take on Fate/Stay Night)
Fate/Grand Order (An alternative universe adapted into a mobile game)

I'm hesitant to post links because some of the legitimate releases are not in English, but can easily be found as fan translations if you're really interested.

While Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel, it also has a manga adaptation with an English release.

Similarly, the Fate/Grand Order game's story-line has a manga adaptation with an English release.

I believe you can find Fate/Zero in full in paperback and Kindle.

Fate/Strange Fake - for some reason - has got a full English release though the series itself is yet to be fully completed.

Fate/Apocrypha doesn't have an official English release... for some reason.

[moonfly7]

Seeing the title I wanted to say Bartimaeus but Bartimaeus is the MC not his summoner. And a demon.

Hmm an summoner MC who doesn't summon demons and probably not just some summoned familiar either because that is basically once and done. Hmm this is not easy.

What are the criteria does it have to be a magical summoning from elsewhere or would a controller of existing animals count like Taylor from Worm calling swarms of insects?

Edit: Fate isn't a book though, well fate zero has a book version I guess

It has to come from elsewhere. Not necessarily magic. It could be creating energy constructs or golems but you've got to materialize it to count in my book.

[Durkoala]

Seeing the title I wanted to say Bartimaeus but Bartimaeus is the MC not his summoner. And a demon.

Hmm an summoner MC who doesn't summon demons and probably not just some summoned familiar either because that is basically once and done. Hmm this is not easy.

What are the criteria does it have to be a magical summoning from elsewhere or would a controller of existing animals count like Taylor from Worm calling swarms of insects?

Edit: Fate isn't a book though, well fate zero has a book version I guess


Bartimaeus isn't a demon in the 'denizen from hell' sense, he's closer to being a djinn: a free-spirited and dangerous being with his own morality who is pressed into the service of a human magician. He's also one of several protagonists in the trilogy, one of which is a fledgling magician who summons and commands Bartimaeus and other beings to solve his problems, so I feel like OP should at least take a look at this series.

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series apparently came from a prompt of 'the Roman Empire with pokémon', so that might also be worth checking out.