Benedict Jacka's Blog, page 87
January 27, 2012
Encyclopaedia Arcana #3: Types of Magic
Mages usually categorise each other in one of three ways. The first is by affiliation – whether they're Dark, Light, or independent. The second is how trained and experienced they are – apprentice, master, or somewhere in between. Finally they categorise other mages according to what their magic can do – a fire mage, an ice mage, and so on. These categories of magic are referred to as types.
Magic Types
The simplest way to understand the types of magic that mages use is as little boxes with spells in them. If you're a fire mage you get sorted into the box marked 'fire', and you get to use fire spells. This is how most new adepts and apprentices see things.
Over time they start to notice that this model doesn't quite fit. For a start, different mages can use different sets of spells: one fire mage may be able to use a spell that another fire mage can't. Another issue is 'hybrid' mages. In the elemental family there are air mages, and there are lightning mages. But some air mages can use lightning, and some lightning mages can fly. Some people deal with this by calling mages who have some traits of both 'storm mages' – but then storm mages have different abilities, too.
In fact every mage is different. Since magic is personality, every mage's abilities are unique, determined by their inner self. No two mages have exactly the same abilities, any more than any two people have exactly the same natures.
Continuous, Not Discrete
In mathematics there's a concept called discrete and continuous. Discrete things are individual units that can be counted, like people or houses or trees. Continuous things aren't individual units and can't be counted, like a distance or a time. Discrete things can't be divided any further – half a tree isn't a tree, and half a person isn't a person. But a continuous thing can be divided any way you want. The width of your computer screen is continuous – you could say that it's 12 inches, or twelve 1-inch lengths, or one 11-inch length plus two 0.5-inch lengths, or 30.48 centimetres, and none of those is the 'right' way to measure it.
The types of magic are continuous, not discrete. There's no point at which someone stops being an air mage and starts being a lightning mage – there's just a big fuzzy in-between area where they're not exactly one or the other, a bit like the question of when it stops being 'afternoon' and starts being 'evening'.
In practice it's even more complicated than that, because mages differ in so many ways. So an air mage might have the ability to use lightning, but only in stormy conditions; on the other hand, they might be able to fly in clear weather just fine. Then they might be poor at gate magic, only able to transport themselves, but unusually good at creating light; however they can't use hardened air although they can call up storms . . .
Trying to sum all that up would be a nightmare, even if mages were in the habit of telling each other exactly what their magic can do, which they're not. So the descriptions that get used are simple ones like like 'air mage', 'fire mage', and so on. The difference is that experienced mages know how vague these descriptions are and don't make the mistake of assuming that two 'fire mages' will have the same abilities.
That said, the types of magic do have some traits in common. Future Encyclopaedia entries will look at them in more detail, starting with divination magic.
Hybrid Mages
One of the questions in the FAQ of Entry #1 was whether there was such a thing as 'hybrid' mages, and now that you've read this you should be able to guess the answer. It's true that there are mages who have some of the abilities from two or more magic types, but it's also true that they aren't really 'hybrids'. A storm mage doesn't see himself as being part air mage and part lightning mage: to him, the ways in which he can use air and lightning are two aspects of the same thing. From his point of view, it's air and lightning mages who are the 'hybrids' – and from his point of view, he's right.
January 22, 2012
SFX Weekender 3-5 February
For those who can make it, I'm going to be attending the SFX Weekender on the 3rd and 4th of February. Everything hasn't been finalised yet, but current plans are to do an early release of Fated. I'll be doing signings at the Forbidden Planet stall on Friday with Ben Aaronovitch, and taking part in a panel on urban fantasy on the Saturday morning. So if you'd like a copy of Fated before everyone else or if you just happen to be in the area, drop by and say hello!
January 20, 2012
Encyclopaedia Arcana #2: The Three Families
Mages divide the types of magic into three broad families: elemental, living, and universal.
Elemental Magic
Elemental magic is the magic of the physical world. The most well-known types of elemental magic are air, fire, earth, and water, but lightning and ice mages are also common, as are types of magic which most people wouldn't consider elements but which seem to fit better in the elemental category than any other, such as force. Elemental mages are the most common kind of mage by a long way, maybe more common than both of the other families put together.
Out of all the families, elemental mages are the best at directly affecting physical reality – they're the artisans, engineers, and soldiers of the magical world, and it's rare for them to come up against a physical problem they can't solve. That said, their way of solving that problem is unlikely to be subtle. Elemental magic is usually very obvious and attracts a lot of attention. Keep getting straight flushes in a poker game and you'll get some funny looks, but most people won't think you're using magic – they'll think you're cheating. Go flying down the high street and you'll get quite a different reaction.
Elemental magic tends to be well-suited to combat. All elemental mages have at least some natural ability to hurt people and break things, even if it's not what they specialise in. More importantly they can use shields, which give them a good natural defence against magic (and against most other things too). As a result, most battle-mages are elemental mages.
Living Magic
Living magic is the magic of living creatures and covers life and death, thought and emotion, and shapeshifting. While most mages can affect living creatures one way or another, living magic can alter them directly.
Living magic is completely unable to affect inanimate objects in any way, which means mages of the living family are much more limited than elemental mages in what they can do. An air mage is always surrounded by his chosen element – no matter where he goes, there's air. (If there's not, he probably has bigger problems to worry about.) A mind mage, on the other hand, can only affect creatures that have minds. If he's on his own, he's kind of stuck. Living mages also can't directly protect themselves from physical harm in the way that elemental mages can.
That said, living mages have a few things going for them. When it comes down to it most important things in the modern world tend to involve dealing with other people one way or another, and that's what living mages specialise in. Living magic also tends to be harder to detect than elemental magic, and living mages can blend in with ordinary people more easily than mages from the other families (although part of that is probably because living mages tend to be more social). Finally, while living magic can only affect living creatures, it's very good at affecting living creatures and within their field living mages outshine everyone else by a long way.
Universal Magic
Universal magic is the rarest, the strangest, and the most poorly-understood of the three families. It covers abstract concepts like divination, time, space, and chance.
More than any other family, universal mages of different types don't have much in common with each other. A fire mage and a water mage and an ice mage might use different elements, but in a lot of ways they're very similar – they can all shield, they can all gate, and they can all hit things with their magic until it breaks. On the other hand a time mage, a space mage, and a diviner have wildly different abilities. Some types of universal magic such as space can actually affect the physical world even better than elemental magic can (at least in specific areas) whereas other types like divination can't affect the physical world at all.
If there's one thing universal mages have in common it's that they can do things no-one else can. A fire mage can put out a fire, but so can a water mage, or an air mage, or a guy with a fire extinguisher. But no-one except a diviner can look into the future, and no-one except a time mage can speed up or slow down the flow of time. Unfortunately this comes with a drawback: universal magic is the weirdest and most alien of the three families, and integrating it with a human mind isn't easy. One of the reasons universal mages are rare is that a lot of universal novices never make it out of apprenticeship, whether for voluntary reasons (they give up their talents out of sheer exhaustion and go off to live a normal life) or for involuntary ones.
January 17, 2012
Website is complete!
Construction of the website is finished! There'll be more added over time, but all the major changes are done. Thanks to everyone who's helped out by giving feedback!
January 13, 2012
Encyclopaedia Arcana #1: Introduction to Magic
Beginning apprentices and other newcomers to the magical world tend to have two big questions about magic. The first is the why – what it is, where it comes from, and why some people can use it when others can't. The second is the how – what works and what doesn't, and what you can expect when dealing with a mage.
The first question is harder but also much shorter to answer, so we'll deal with it first.
What Magic Is
The traditional answer is that magic is connection. A mage is a person who has an attunement to one particular aspect of the world around them: they perceive that aspect more clearly and directly than other people and over time they can learn to control it. The aspect can be something elemental like air or heat, something connected to living beings like life or thought, or an abstract concept such as chance or time.
The type of magic a mage is connected to is based on their inner nature – their personality, character, and soul. You could say that someone's magic is an expression of their inner self, but it's just as true to say that someone's magic is their inner self – certainly mages can't survive without their magic and in the rare cases where it's separated from them they don't live long. The mage's nature determines the kind of magic they can use, not vice versa – there's no way to use fire magic without having the personality of a fire mage. This doesn't mean that mages of a certain type are all the same, but the type of magic that someone can use always reflects a profound truth about the kind of person they are.
Magic Types
The best way to think of the magic types is as a spectrum, like this:
Each point on the spectrum is a particular way to use magic. Normal people can't see the spectrum at all. Sensitives can see it, but aren't on it. Adepts are a point on the spectrum: they can use magic in one and only one way.
Mages are a little circle on the spectrum. They have access to all the ways of using magic within that circle. That circle might overlap with the circles of other mages, in which case they can use some of the same spells, but usually the circles don't overlap at all. Some mages have slightly wider circles, some have slightly narrower ones, but one thing that's always the same is that a mage's circle is always very, very small compared to how big the whole spectrum is. Even the most multitalented mage can never learn to use more than the tiniest fraction of all the spells out there.
FAQ
Here are a few of the most common questions that new apprentices usually ask.
Q. Can I learn to use a different kind of magic?
A. Yes, you just have to change your entire personality.
Q. Which type of magic is the strongest?
A. Which tool in a toolbox is the best?
Q. Are any of the magic types inherently evil?
A. No. Some are inherently dangerous and make it very easy to do unpleasant things to people, but there are good and bad mages of every type.
Q. Is it possible to have 'hybrid' mages who are a mix of two types?
A. Yes and no – see Entry #3.
January 10, 2012
Publishers Weekly Review
A nice starred review of Fated from Publishers Weekly.
Jacka's extremely promising urban fantasy series starter introduces cheeky British diviner Alex Verus, who's caught in the middle of a conflict between Light and Dark mages over an ancient magical weapon. Alex can not only see all possible futures but can often choose which ones to make real, so both sides want to use him as a tool. Alex, alienated from other mages because he has developed empathy for the beings around him, refuses to take sides. To save himself and his dependents—Luna, a lonely, cursed young woman, and Starbreeze, an ancient air elemental who's "dumb as a sack of rocks"—he's forced to think and move nimbly through London and its associated magical realms. Jacka deftly invents the rules of magic as he goes along, creating an emotionally satisfying story arc and a protagonist who will keep readers coming back.
January 9, 2012
Alex Verus Series: Release Dates
Here are the provisional release dates for the UK and US editions of the first three books of the Alex Verus series.
Fated
UK release: March 1st 2012
US release: February 28th 2012
Cursed
UK release: June 7th 2012
US release: May 29th 2012
Taken
UK release: September 6th 2012
US release: August 28th 2012
January 6, 2012
Encyclopaedia Arcana: Introduction
This is the intro to what's going to be a long-running series of posts, the Encyclopaedia Arcana. I'll post a new entry most Fridays. Sometimes the Friday slot may be taken up by something else, but usually it'll be an Encyclopaedia article.
I've been working on the universe in which the Alex Verus series is set for a long time, and I have a lot of details worked out about it (and I mean a LOT). Some of this information makes it into the novels, but mostly it stays beneath the surface. Most often the reason it's kept back is because it isn't necessary to enjoy the story – you might understand the situation a little better if you knew all the background, but not that much (definitely not enough to make it worthwhile to break up the pace of the story). Another reason I don't talk about it in the books is because it's very much the 'foundations' of the series and isn't a natural topic of conversation – everything you do on a daily basis might depend on gravity, but that doesn't mean you think about it much. And often it's just not relevant to what's happening at the time.
A final interesting reason is to do with the books' first-person perspective. Alex is pretty well-informed as mages go but there are still plenty of things he doesn't know about. For instance, shields and shielding are incredibly important to elemental mages since so much of a duel between two elemental mages revolves around breaking through the other mage's defences. But since Alex isn't an elemental mage, can't use shields, and doesn't fight duels, it's not very important for him, and so he never talks about it.
The Encyclopaedia Arcana articles will cover all the little bits of information and description that for whatever reason don't make it into the books (or are only described briefly). Absolutely nothing in these articles is necessary to understand and enjoy the novels – it's all extra.
Why I'm Writing These Articles
If these articles are completely unnecessary to follow what's going on in the books, why write them? Well, there are several reasons.
First, it's fun. I've spent a long time constructing the world Alex Verus lives in and I like writing about it. It's also a good way of giving me ideas – doing the work to codify this stuff often throws up possibilities that I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't done the work to flesh it out.
Second, it gives an introduction to the series for people who haven't read the books (and hopefully a way to get them interested). Once I've written a couple of dozen of these and filled them out and added an index they'll also work as a way of explaining things which the books don't make immediately clear. So if you want to know what's up with the whole Dark mages and Light mages thing, you can look up the article.
Finally, it's something extra for readers who've finished all the books that are available and want more. I'm one of those people who loves to know about the physics and rules and details of the worlds of my favourite authors, so I'm writing the kind of thing that I like reading when other authors do it.
As I write this I've got a rough list of possible Encyclopaedia posts on a file on my computer. It's currently about 30 items long, so at a rate of one a week (allowing some breaks when the Friday post is taken up with something else) that should keep me going for most of a year. Feel free to chime in in the comments section if you have any requests!
And I think that covers about everything. Entry #1 of the Encyclopaedia will be an introduction to magic.
December 29, 2011
First post
So this is my blog. It'll be used for information about my current series of books, the Alex Verus novels: Fated, Cursed, and Taken. The site's still under construction, so watch this space.
