Dia Calhoun's fantasy novel Aria of the Sea (2000) is also about a young person's search for identity. Cerinthe, its heroine, struggles to become a dancer, only to find her true calling as a healer. Cerinthe, like Jonathon in Firegold, loses her mother. For both of them it is a pivotal event on the journey to selfhood.

Many fantasy stories tie the youthful identity quest to a journey, and the protagonist's subsequent initiation into a new culture or subculture. Mercedes Lackey's novels are noted for such themes. Arrows of the Queen (1987), Magic's Pawn (1989), and By the Sword (1991) are among the most popular. However, unlike Jonathon, Lackey's protagonists usually stay in their adopted surroundings and build a new life there.

Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword (1982) is a noted fantasy quest novel in which the young heroine goes unwillingly to a land of desert and mountains, only...