Give me your best recs for when magic backfires on the main character(s)!
For example.. in an attempt to break a curse, the magic entrapped a character somehow, or extended or worsened the original curse, maybe it ultimately killed the character despite their best of intentions, etc..
Thank you!
by rouxstermt
15 Comments
The Broken Earth series has a lot of this.
Check out the Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin
The Worst Witch comes to mind…
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Vita Nostra by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko
The Darkover books are rife with magic backfiring.
Wizard of Earthsea
When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. The main character spends the whole book resolving a huge magical mistake he makes at the beginning.
ilona andrews – kate Daniels series starts with Magic Bites. Magic conflicts with modern technology; comes and goes and usually not conveniently.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
The whole premise of Wheel of Time is a spell gone wrong, but it’s not exactly against the MC. Everyone and everything is affected.
Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama
Expiration Date by Tim Powers
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: Set in England during the Napoleonic Wars, the titular pair try to restore English magic to what it was in the country’s fabled past. There are plenty of unintended consequences.
And at risk of repeating what’s everyone else is saying: The Wizard of Earthsea is literally so good. One of my favorite books of all time.
Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. Starts with A Deadly Education.
Not a book but this prompt reminds me of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch cartoon series
Immediately made me think of The Magicians by Lev Grossman. This sort of this happens in each of the 3 books but the one that springs to mind is in book one when a seemingly innocent classroom prank ends up granting the classroom space access from another dimension (weirdness ensues)