Which fantasy book has the most powerful displays of magic (without getting cheesy)?
I watched the LOTR movies for the first time recently and was honestly underwhelmed by the magic it showed. What stories have the most powerful, impressive magic without getting ridiculous?
Dresden Files has some pretty good magic (cough Sue cough)
audibleofficial on
‘The Malazan Book of the Fallen’ series has some impressive magic.
ProofFinish9572 on
The magic in the Witcher books is pretty intense at times.
No_real_beliefs on
The Magician by Feist
ommaandnugs on
Anne Bishop Black Jewels series (trigger warning)
greenhootowl on
The Wheel of Time series has a really cool magic system
theclapp on
Define “powerful” (and, for that matter, “cheesy” and “ridiculous” :).
In Feist’s Magician series, in the distant past a group of magicians (I mean, like, all the mages in the whole society) combined their powers to deflect *another planet* that was on a collision course with their own.
In McGuire’s *Middlegame*, one magic user >!*rewinds time for the entire universe, like, several thousand times*, searching for a specific outcome of the future!<. They also know how to >!*change physical laws*!<.
In *The Library at Mount Char*, the MC >!*removes the sun and replaces it with another* (and then, having done so, quite casually fixes the orbits of the other planets in the system), and another character also does the “rewind time” thing, though a mere nine times.!<
In the Belgariad, the Orb of Aldur has the power to literally crack the world in half (which we know because it did so, some 4k years in the past), and also presents the MC with a plan to fix said crack.
Robotboogeyman on
My fave magic systems are from Lightbringer (the protagonist/antagonists have some pretty cool powers based on light/color) and Manifest Delusions (belief defines reality so any crazy delusion can be real, has a wide variety of powers but most a play on a psychotic delusion).
Earlyadopter35 on
I’m not sure if it is exactly what you mean by impressive, but there was a really interesting and rather unique magic system in Saint Death’s Daughter.
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The Second Apocalypse series by R Scott Bakker.
Dresden Files has some pretty good magic (cough Sue cough)
‘The Malazan Book of the Fallen’ series has some impressive magic.
The magic in the Witcher books is pretty intense at times.
The Magician by Feist
Anne Bishop Black Jewels series (trigger warning)
The Wheel of Time series has a really cool magic system
Define “powerful” (and, for that matter, “cheesy” and “ridiculous” :).
In Feist’s Magician series, in the distant past a group of magicians (I mean, like, all the mages in the whole society) combined their powers to deflect *another planet* that was on a collision course with their own.
In McGuire’s *Middlegame*, one magic user >!*rewinds time for the entire universe, like, several thousand times*, searching for a specific outcome of the future!<. They also know how to >!*change physical laws*!<.
In *The Library at Mount Char*, the MC >!*removes the sun and replaces it with another* (and then, having done so, quite casually fixes the orbits of the other planets in the system), and another character also does the “rewind time” thing, though a mere nine times.!<
In the Belgariad, the Orb of Aldur has the power to literally crack the world in half (which we know because it did so, some 4k years in the past), and also presents the MC with a plan to fix said crack.
My fave magic systems are from Lightbringer (the protagonist/antagonists have some pretty cool powers based on light/color) and Manifest Delusions (belief defines reality so any crazy delusion can be real, has a wide variety of powers but most a play on a psychotic delusion).
I’m not sure if it is exactly what you mean by impressive, but there was a really interesting and rather unique magic system in Saint Death’s Daughter.
Will of the Many- Islington