Literature

One suggestion that is repeated often is the Cradle series by Will Wight. The prose is a bit sparse, but the characters are well realized and believable. A lot of people find it funny, too. Another suggestion that has much heavier prose, and some mild pacing issues is Bastion by Phil Tucker. Bastion recently had a book two release, the series is that new, but the setting and themes are very clear and indicative of progression fantasy as a whole.

This may be me speaking, but to me, progression is all about not giving up, facing hardship, and becoming better for it. Both of these book series hold these themes heavily.

Cradle:

Sacred artists follow a thousand Paths to power, using their souls to control the forces of the natural world.

Lindon is Unsouled, forbidden to learn the sacred arts of his clan.

When faced with a looming fate he cannot ignore, he must defy his family's rules...and forge his own Path.

Bastion:

Reborn without memories, Scorio learns that he is a Great Soul, a legendary defender of the ancient city of Bastion. That within the hallowed halls of the Academy and under the stern eyes of the underworld’s greatest instructors he will enjoy enormous privilege, rediscover unique and wondrous powers, and one day return to the millennium-old battle against their infernal foes.

Until he is betrayed. Singled out and sentenced to die for crimes he can't remember, Scorio is hurled to his doom—and forgotten.

But from even the dimmest spark an inferno may one day rage.

Clawing his way back from oblivion, Scorio vows to return to the Academy at any cost. To emerge from the ruins and within those golden walls defeat his elite classmates in a quest to ascend the ranks and change the course of history. For only then will he learn about his forgotten past, and why his enemies have rightly feared him since the day he was reborn.