Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hi all,

I'm looking for recommendations for books that have interesting/complex magic systems.

For instance:
Runelords - where rulers gain power by using magical branding irons to steal strength, wit, etc from others. The vassals are still alive but the powers are stolen from them (the ruler's increase in eyesight makes the vassal blind).
Mistborn - where casters use magical metals to gain powers (pewter can be channeled for enhanced strength, tin enhances senses).
Garth Nix's Sabriel,Abhorsen - where casters use bells for various powers (speaking to the dead)
Jim Butcher's Codex Alera - casters who are attuned to elemental forces tame/harness powerful "furies"

Thanks very much!

By the way, all of the above books are great. The magic systems help take the characters/storylines in interesting directions. If you haven't read them, give them a try (although the Mistborn books do peter out a bit after the first book).

Continue reading Brandon Sanderson if you haven't already. His books have unique magic systems to me. The Warded Man. I really liked the idea behind the title. Flesh and Fire is actually more like alchemy than magic but it's different.

I can recommend The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan if you're looking for a good magic system. It bypasses the other books I've read by far.

Hello to everybody. I have read the first 4 books of The Weel Of Time and although I found it a bit difficult to follow, I liked the magic system Jordan used. Simple enough, but compared to Steven Erikson's (Malazan Empire) system of Warrens it is a bit childish. I admit that it is VERY complex, and even people that read all 10 books could not comprehend it completely. I cannot describe it or analyze it in a few words here, but it is quite interesting because it is not based on any other system I know of and it is too complex for another system to be based upon.
I strongly recommend The Malazan Empire books, because besides the magic system it is a strong epic tale with grand scale battles and exciting intrigue. If anyone has read it and understood the Warren system, please give me some clues.

I'm simplifying but the way I think of warrens is (I'm on the 7th book and might be way off base) each warren is connected to a house, or holding, or whatever you wish to call them, and each house is ruled by a "god" and his court. Each character than has an affinity towards one or more. But....I've read a few things that make me question this theory. So maybe I'm not getting something...

Aren't you just loving this series?

This series is the best I have read untill now. It's the second time I am reading it, (first time I stopped at the 6th book) but nothing about this system was made more clear! I 've read some things over the internet, but they confused me more. Your theory is what one can think logically. But what exactly is a warren? A place of magic? A continent? A pathway? Or an entirely different plane? What I got is that the warrens are Krull's veins and that they all connect somehow to each other. But with Erikson and untill I reach the end I hold by doubts...

Yeah, K'rul is what messed up my theory. Not completely...but more like complicated it.

L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s fantasies all have pretty complex magic systems. Read them in published order, which isn't chronological order, as he reveals more about the system in that way. Recluse is my favorite, but the Corean Chronicles are very good, too.

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series has a couple of different magical systems in it. How they interact is interesting.

I see that while there is some complexity in the RJ's wheel of time series, the basic magic system is pretty simple. The complexity has been in the way that humans have imposed rules and then only taught their part of the system...

However i would agree that the way magic is handled and the characters journey through how they have accessed and used that magic is the most interesting element of the series.

From recent experience, one of the most interesting magic systems i have found is in the James Barclay "Chronicles of the Raven" novels. I have only read Dawnthief andNoonshade of the first trilogy but the magic system with it's different colleges and the way magic is integrated into the tactics of the eponymous mercenary unit but also the way it is used in mass warfare is very interesting.

If you want something a little different then check out Lawrence Watt-Evans and his Ethshar books. Start with the brilliant The Misenchanted Sword. This series of books is all about seemingly ordinary characters put in a fantastic situation by magic but also constrained by the rules of that magic. I've just read the 2nd in the series, With A Single Spell and it's almost as good.

He has also examined the situation where technolgy comes into contact with magic in his brilliant and original, The Cyborg and the Sorcerers and the The Wizard and the War Machine.

Mistborn was good, but I think I liked Elantris better and have spammed Sanderson to expand this world.

The Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts has an intriguing magic system, especially from Arithon's POV. There is an quasi-scientific vibration to it.

Yea Sanderson does an amazing job with every magic system he comes up with. All his books just have very interesting and complex magic systems. It's kind of why he is my favorite writer right now.

The magic system in The Magicians is very complex. It requires intense studying, lots of practice and great skill to use it. I thought it was a very interesting approach to magic.

Interesting article on magic systems in fantasy novels from io9;

http://io9.com/5866306/the-rules-of-m...

Thanks, Tyrone. I really dig the chart they put up.

Try looking up Philippa Ballantine's Geist. It's set in a lush high fantasy world were a dedicated Order of essentially mages protect humanity from demons (aka geists) who attempt to possess and destroy the world. The Order is made up of two complimentary types of mages: Actives (who wield magic) and Sensitives (who can `see' the Otherside) who enter into a psychic Bond together.

Reading Geist is strangely reminiscent of reading the Abhorsen trilogy and equally diverting, I recommend it without reservation.

By the way did you manage to finish the Runelords series? It's a great underrated series, heck I've contemplated on taking my brother's wit and endowing it to myself so I can pass Calculus. Anyway, I made it only halfway of Book 4: Lair of Bones before I grew tired of it and withheld finishing it for the time being. Did the later books get progressively better?

That was fun reading, Tyrone. Thanks.