How do you like your magic?

[S]

^Yeah. Too much goodness becomes bit boring at times. Shades of grey bring out characters and make them more identifiable with lesser mortals :)

[Gabe]

I find it really fascinating how there are so many different takes on the role of magic and how it is percieved. Personally, I like the concept of different classes of magic, where a line is drawn as to the capabilities of what an individual can do with the magic they have studied (i.e. Conjurors, Illusionists, Necromancers).

I thought that Markus Heitz had an interesting spin on magic in his "Dwarves" series, where magic was a naturally occuring elemnts in the land that had to be harnessed and was something that had limitations in how much magic a wizard could use before having to "recharge". I also like the concept where not everyone has the ability to wield magic, making it more of a talent that one is born with; an innate ability if you will. It leaves more to be desired for the few who actually have the ability to harness the magic and use it, as opposed to a bunch of half-cocked wizards running wild through the countryside!

[Kit★]

I'm pretty open to any idea of magic really. If it was a question of which kind of magic I myself would rather use, I'd have to say something simple, like the magic in Harry Potter, say the word, wave your wand and you're good to go. But as far as believability while I'm reading about it, I'd have to say it's slightly more 'realistic' if the magic takes energy to use, varying amounts based on what your doing, but it's not just free to use it willy-nilly whenever you want. Otherwise, I'm not picky, whether it's elemental sort of magic, or magic words, or think the thought and it happens kind of magic, I'm not picky. :)

[Damali]

I think I'm on topic...

Does anyone have a problem with a god as a POV?
I think the problem I'm having is that they have so much power that either it makes their problems irrelent, or over the top.
The recent N.K. Jemisin novel has a god POV, and I struggled to get through it, while I enjoyed the first two in the series.
Fallon's The Immortal Prince has a god POV and although I've loved all of Fallon's books and characters, this book was surprisigly unremarkable for me.

I love religion in books, and have no problem with it, but for some reason, it makes the plot less believeable and interesting to me when the POV has all this power, so much power that it cripples the plot, IMO.

It's like when Q showed up on Star Trek Voyager, I was yelling at Janeway to ask him to get them home. But she never did. Come on now. Who would not ask that?

[Mach]

I don't like gods in stories, the problem is one, that they have so much power that i don't get how they can have all these problems as a god. The second issue i have with this is that they act like humans. It makes the story hard to believe.

[Terry]

I don't mind gods in stories as long as they're done well. I also don't mind them acting like humans after all most times it's put out there that the humans were made in their likeness. I translate that to mean more than just appearance. However, the best stories for me about gods are when the so called gods aren't really gods, just men and women so powerful that people began to call them gods. A story that does this incredibly well is Black Sun Rising. One of my favorite trilogies.

[Traci]

That's one of the things I like most about Jemisin's writing, atleast in the first two books I haven't read the last yet, she does a good job imo of having her god characters act like gods (as if we would know how they would act). They just seem less human to me.
In The Immortal Prince the god characters are actually humans who got transformed by godlike powers, a little different and a little easier to both write and read for.
I blame the movie Clash of the Titans (the orginal) but I actually love god characters. Mythology of any kind.

[J.A.]

Many ancient worshiped gods do actually come across rather human in their myths and legends, so I don't necessarily expect fictional god characters to all be inscrutable alien forces of nature. I tend to suspect modern readers being jaded by both are advanced technology (makes limited-scope gods less impressive) and the success of omnipotent-based god religions across the world makes it harder to accept "humanized" gods for a lot of readers.

I liked the take in both Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (powerful and very dangerous, yet still constrained by setting factors, though they weren't really POV characters for the most part, though I could see how it could have been made to work even if it apparently didn't in the third book judging by the above).

I also liked the take in American Gods where the gods are (view spoiler)[not quite as powerful anymore because they are constrained by people's fading belief in the them, and heck the primary POV character doesn't even realize he IS a god for most of the book (hide spoiler)]. A bit different angle but it worked for the most part.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, *good karma*]

Damali wrote: "I think I'm on topic...

Does anyone have a problem with a god as a POV?
I think the problem I'm having is that they have so much power that either it makes their problems irrelent, or over the top..."

I know what you mean. It's like The Redemption of Althalus. One of the major characters is a Goddess. So much of the stuff in the book makes NO SENSE when you think about the fact that she's a goddess.


(Of course, almost none of the book makes any sense if you don't back track and read a completely unrelated series that he wrote previously.)

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

I don't really like when one of the characters is uber-powerful. I just read a book like that, and it was annoying being reminded about how powerful she was every five minutes. Snore!!

[Chris]

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "I don't really like when one of the characters is uber-powerful. I just read a book like that, and it was annoying being reminded about how powerful she was every five minutes. Snore!!"

Agreed. Once characters achieve that god level of power, without consequence...some of the intrigue is just lost.

[Terry]

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "I don't really like when one of the characters is uber-powerful. I just read a book like that, and it was annoying being reminded about how powerful she was every five minutes. Snore!!" I agree, and if he's that powerful he's needs to have some serious flaws like Chris says.

[Traci]

As a main character I might agree. As a villain definitely. The villain has to have a weakness that makes sense so that he can be defeated. And there has to be a logical reason why a super powerful bad guy doesn't slaughter all the good guys. Not a super powerful god like character but an example would be the raptors in Jurassic Park. No way would anyone get away from them.
But as a mentor or disinterested side character or as a distant manipulator sure a god like character works for me.
I also tend to read the pnr with immortals too, although I haven't read one in awhile.

[Chris]

Traci wrote: "As a main character I might agree. As a villain definitely. The villain has to have a weakness that makes sense so that he can be defeated. And there has to be a logical reason why a super powerful..."

...in spite of my views on god characters generally, I do think I could accept a Raptor god. Purely on the basis, of course, that nothing could be more terrifying...

[Traci]

Lol.
Yeah, not quite sure where I was going with that...
But, you know the T-Rex would be a god, the raptors the demonic minions. :)

[Bill]

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "I don't really like when one of the characters is uber-powerful. I just read a book like that, and it was annoying being reminded about how powerful she was every five minutes. Snore!!"

It depends on how it is done. There is a Sci-Fan series I read ages ago The Gaea Trilogy by John Varley. One of the main characters was a 'Goddess' who controlled the world. The 1st book, Titan, won a Locus and was nominated for a Hugo.

I remember loving all of the reproductive possibilities of the Centaurs (both human and horse bits were fully functional) which was gone into in some detail. I retain many images from this series which I read in the early '80's. Packed up, I look forward to re-reading these.

[Teresa]

I like magic that is subtle, not over-used, and a more than a little mysterious. If a crystal ball is used as a kind of telephone, then in my opinion it might as well be a telephone. The same thing for any other magic that is used for mundane purposes. To my mind, it should cost too much to use it, to use it that way, but the costs should not be written down and explained too much, because the characters should never know exactly what they will be. Magic, even the kind that is used for benign purposes, should be dangerous, unpredictable.

Otherwise, for me, it doesn't feel magical at all.

I think that is why a god as a POV character would be difficult for me to enjoy. It would take away too much of the mystery. As a secondary character -- a dangerous companion for the other characters -- there is a better chance that it would work for me.

Still, anything can work if it is done well.

[Trace]

Chris, I agree with you. It's the flawed abilities that I like. I don't want to read about a perfect character with perfectly controlled powers.