The Sword and Laser discussion
Favorite Systems of Magic
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Jacob
(new)
Mar 30, 2012 01:02PM
One of my favorite parts of starting any new "sword" book or series is seeing what system the author has come up with for how magic works in their world. I was wondering what some of the more interesting or unique systems you all have read in the fantasy books. Some of my favorites I can think of off the top of my head are the Mistborn's use of metal-fueled magic, Brent Week's color based magic system, and sympathy from the Patrick Rothfuss books.
reply
|
flag
I've liked the magic system used in CS Friedman's Magister series, which comes at a very high price.
I would say my current favorite systems of magic are those present in R. Scott Bakker's fantasy novels. I don't know that I could summarize the various magical systems/schools in his books, but there is a wiki that does a pretty good job.http://princeofnothing.wikia.com/wiki...
I also love the simplicity of the "will and the word" system employed by David Eddings and Leigh Eddings in the Belgariad and the Mallorean.
Random wrote: "I've liked the magic system used in CS Friedman's Magister series, which comes at a very high price."Good call, and great a great trilogy.
Oh, I forgot about the Eddings series. I liked that quite a bit. Both of these series you two mentioned sound very interesting
Jacob wrote: "Oh, I forgot about the Endings series. I liked that quite a bit. Both of these series you two mentioned sound very interesting"If you have never read either of these authors, I would highly recommend them. R. Scott Bakker's fantasy novels are quite complex and easily rank as some of my favorite fantasy novels of all time.
I think that pretty much any magic system Brandon Sanderson creates is brilliant. He actually makes it really difficult for me to read fantasy that just uses your standard 'elemental' magic. I really like that his magic systems have strict rules. It makes it more believable.
Shane wrote: "I really like that his magic systems have strict rules. It makes it more believable."And more like science in my opinion.
Are the David Eddings books the ones that have the threads that magicians can see, touch, twist and manipulate? I always though that was cool and sort of matrix-y.
I liked the magic systems in The Runelords series by David Farland. The Endowments and the implications of that system of magic was well done.
I have to agree that Brandon Sanderson is a genius when it comes to creating magic systems. In each book series he introduces a completely new and complex system unlike anything I've read before. Allomancy has to be my favourite though. Clever, so very clever!
Matthew wrote: "Are the David Eddings books the ones that have the threads that magicians can see, touch, twist and manipulate? I always though that was cool and sort of matrix-y."In the Belgariad and Mallorean series, sorcery was performed by means of the will and the word, focus the will and release it with a word. In the Elenium and Tamuli series, magic is performed by uttering a prayer to a Styric deity along with performing specific finger movements.
You might be thinking of the way Robert Jordan describes magic in the Wheel of Time series. He frequently uses the idea of threads of different elements and weaving these threads together. I don't know that those who can channel are able to literaly see the threads they are weaving.
Roger Zelanzy's magic systems has always been my favorites. I also think Jim Butchers Dresden files magic is pretty cool...
My favorite recent system of magic is the urban magic in Kate Griffin's Matthew Swift series. Magic that is inherent to urban landscapes, rather than traditional earth magic (which still works in this world, just outside of urban areas.)
The better systems feel almost like another character in the story. They have strengths & weaknesses, they have an interesting & rich history, and, of course, they have secrets. Some of the least interesting systems have just felt like a cover for plot holes.
Another vote for Brandon Sanderson here. Allomancy (mistborn series) and BioChroma (warbreaker) were very clever and well defined systems. Not read The Way Of Kings series yet, so cannot comment on that one.Brent Weeks and the system his Prisim series was also clever & interesting ... light-based magic that results in a physical manifestation of one of various types of "Luxin" ...
Also seem to remember liking the system in The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, but its been a while since I read those.
I prefer a more science/natural aspect to magic. One thing I have found that distracted me even in books like the Harry Potter series was some of the arbitrary rules that get applied. I definitely like Harry Potter as a series and it wasn't done badly, but too many systems seem to just change to handle the current plot situation.In my book, I approached magic as if the characters were basically interacting with energy and gravity fields. You want to move something with magic, the gravitational field around it needs to be adjusted. Heat/cold is exciting or slowing the atoms of what is being manipulated.
I also like it when there are misconceptions by normal people about how things work, since not everyone in our world has a grasp of physics, not everyone in a fantasy world would understand how magic actually works.
I really like Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files" system. Particularly since there are draw backs to be a powerful Wizard. Response of technology, the soul gaze and so on. It makes it feel, at least to be authentic.
Always had a soft spot for how Ursula Le Guin handled it in the Earthsea books. Everything in creation has a true name, and to manipulate it requires knowledge of that true name, so wizardry is largely the memorization of lists of true names. I think Joe Abercrombie basically riffs on this system for his First Law series.
I personally love Ursula K. Leguin's system in the Earthsea trilogy. The fact that every being and thing in existence has a "true name" and by learning it you can then control it. It's just so simple, but it makes sense.
I really like the 'warrens' system in Steven eriksons Malazan books, drawing power in different flavours from them and the various mages having affinities for different ones..
I'm another one for Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - though in my case, it's the way he makes the words for the 'spells'. I just love how the actual term doesn't matter, it's what you put behind it.
I also really like Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovitch) because it shows that magic is HARD.
I also really like Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovitch) because it shows that magic is HARD.
The first thing that came to me when I read the title was Warhammer. I love the side effects when you failed a spell. I have to look for the exact quote, but there is one about your brain walking off and killing everyone around you. Lovely.
What about Stephen Donaldson's Covenant Books/...that was some good magic stuff as well...
I'm partial to the magic system in Earthdawn, the roleplaying game. It's logically constructed, keyed to the underpinnings of the game world, and nicely complex. Suffice to say that it's well done enough that players have gotten into magic theory discussions in character, that have gone fairly deep into the Laws of Magic. Every magician is a lawyer, always looking for that new interpretation or loophole.
Not a fan of complex magic systems, because as everyone knows"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!"
— Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius
And I had enough science in school :)
I'm a big fan of sympathy from Rothfuss's Kingkiller series. It just screams quantum entanglement and conservation of energy. I like the way that he played the whole "true name" magic system as well, it's simple and elegant and limited enough that you don't feel like it will get out of control.Sanderson is obviously great at magic systems, and I'm always willing to give his books a try if only for that reason.
I liked Butcher's magic system in the Dresden Files, but I loved it in Codex Alera. Then again, I'm a sucker for
Adrian wrote: "...Brent Weeks and the system his Prisim series was also clever & interesting ... light-based magic that results in a physical manifestation of one of various types of "Luxin" ... "I loved the Luxin system. I thought that the different combinations of the colours and how powerful different drafters were was pretty cool. The side effects of using too much also turned out to be pretty interesting...
Sky wrote: "I'm a big fan of sympathy from Rothfuss's Kingkiller series. It just screams quantum entanglement and conservation of energy. I like the way that he played the whole "true name" magic system as well, it's simple and elegant and limited enough that you don't feel like it will get out of control."
I am a massive Rothfuss fan so this is a no-brainer for me. There are just so many good things about these two systems and they are extremely interesting to me. I especially like the mind separation part of sympathy.
It seems like I should get into some of Sanderson and Butcher's work from what's been said here, looks like a couple of these will be next on my list.
Also, I find Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series has an interesting elemental magic system. The different flavours of elemental magic and how they manifest themselves is a pretty cool way of doing things, I thought.
Sanderson's early book Elantris has an interesting system. I wonder how he feels about working on the Jordan series because I thought the system in that was too easy--it was all upsides like great power and long life, but no downsides.And I second the vote on Erikson's Malazan books--everything he writes is complex, and the magic system based on Warrens, Holds and Decks is layered and interesting.
Patrick Rothfuss magic system based on a mix of science and connection between mind and element is fantastic. Brandon Sanderson is just mindblowing. But one of the greatest ever is from a series by a french writer call Pierre Bottero. Magic is actually call the art of drawing, which is used by practitioner by going a in sort of mind dimension in which they create the're magic by imagination. It's kind of hard to describe rapidly but it's one of the best concept I've seen.
What was interesting for The Death Gate Cycle (Weis and Hickman) was that there were two different magical systems involved, and it's even tackled in the appendix.
