I know many don’t love the ending narrative (I do though), but Lightbringer’s magic system-the mechanics, the impacts on character and world and cultures-is as good as anything in the genre.
Sword of Kaigen has been my favorite so far. I’m in the middle of Mistborn and while I like it, I don’t really care about how the action or magic is written. Feels very much like video game input, Sword of Kaigen did it in such a way that made it feel important to the characters with every moment.
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. I happened upon this from my wife's collection and was pleasantly surprised at not just the magic system but the story and how well integrated the two are.
I loved the magic system of another series from Robert Jackson Bennett, The Founders Trilogy. Super interesting magic system that's basically rewriting an items code to make it behave differently. Really awesome and inventive.
Loved The Tainted Cup! Will be among the finalists for book of the year for me for sure. Magic can so simple, yet so complicated...and that is what makes it so special. Lots of great magic mentioned here.
Brian Naslund's Blood of an Exile has a super magic system! It's similar to Mistborn where you ingest moss and different types do different things. It's packed with humour too, and if you've liked Richard Swan's Empire of the Wolf Trilogy, it's got a similar darkness as the trilogy progresses. Oh, plus dragons!
The series I love and would recommend to anyone is The Spellmonger series. The magic system in that series is soft but has some rules to it. In the first book the magi use spells for seeing far away, causing enemy weapons to rust, knots come undone. Later they create battle automatons, have magical tools for summoning and transporting items, and have control over animals. A simple way it was explained was, it’s like computer programming; if you know the rules you can create a lot of programs (spells).
Great video and a great list. A magic system I always really liked is Green Lantern. I know, I know, not technically fantasy or a book, but hear me out. User can only access the power through a conduit item (the power ring). The power is limited by requiring a recharge. The user is limited by their will and what their imagination can form from Green Light and it has a hard weakness in the colour yellow. It is simple to understand, has limitations that avoid any deus ex machina and is really well balanced. *braces for onslaught of "that isn't a proper magic system!"*
I’m on the more liberal side of the “What qualifies as magic?“ debate, but superpowers are absolutely magic. I think as the book and manga communities have had more crossover in recent years, more and more people are coming to accept alternative approaches to magic.
Great video, I been looking into magic systems while researching for my own book. This helped me out a lot, and just bought your book as well. Looking forward to getting it and discover the magic system in it and how it is used.
I love the system from the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks. The splitting and manifesting light in to Luxin where the different colours have different properties is very cool.
Fun video 🎉 I loved that naming was indicative of the philosophies of Plato and Confucius 🤪 I love the bonding magics of The Elder Empire and the Gardners working behind the scenes to manipulate power struggles. And yes WAR ETERNAL!! What is it with you and eating unnatural things? 😉🤣 The magic of Dragons of Terra is brilliant. Half emerging technology and half dragons who are intimately woven through the ecosystem. Dresden and all of its magics 🤪 Apprentice Adept which is all about balance and conservation of raw magic. Super cool.
Hard magic systems: "How much pewter does the main character have to burn in order to store enough strength with Feruchemy?" Soft magic systems: "What colour is the lightning coming from their fingers?" Another banger of a video mate!
I am sooo curious to discover your magic system, it sounds unfairly cool 👀 Some of my favourite magic systems can be found in The Risen Kingdoms series by Curtis Craddock, Soul Cage by LR Schulz and The Crimson Court by Brendan Noble!!
When it comes to magic systems I like: 8. Winds of the Forelands 7. Lightbringer 6. Stormlight Archive 5. Powder Mage 4. Codex Alrea 3. Mistborn 2. Demon Cycle 1. Wheel of Time
I remember reading eragon as a kid, and loved the way magic worked. I cant say if thats because i was new to fantasy. It was a long time ago, and dont really remember much. Do you have any thoughts about that one?
As far as 'promises' from the magic... we're told, over and over, that wildlings are insanely dangerous because they will usually try to do something and not realize it'll just blow everyone up. Except then, half the main characters are "wildlings" and all it really is is, a super-power. Basically everyone in school gets taught "you can't do this" and thus they can't do it, but if you're never taught anything, then you can just wish for anything you want and it will work. There's never a danger, never a downside, never a fulfillment of the 'promise' that there's some downside to being a wildling. it's just a way Jordan wrote that all his main characters can be awesome without putting in any actual effort or trying.
I read the description and the videos time stamps and thought to myself WHERE IS THE WAY OF KINGS?! WHERE IS THE SURGEBINDING!?!? It’s still a cool magic system though
Have u read webnovels- Lotm and Shadow slave, those for me are one of the most interesting magic systems. both are so good now I am trying to search something similar in normal literature.
Can't believe the Malazan world is not here. Erikson builds complex layers of magic systems. First one learns of the Warrens as the predominant magic source for humans, but later one finds that there exists a predecessor system called the Holds. But there is also the Tanno spirit system, a kind of mystic, holistic source. Then there are the nature magics, earth magics. There are Elder Races whose Warrens are specifically racial (the Omtose Phellak of the Jaghut for example). There is even one Warren that is created by an Elder Race just to make them immortal (and shambling, undead at the main timeline of the stories) so they would have the power and longevity to pursue a genocidal war against another Elder Race. It doesn't get better than this.
Name of the Wind is cool. I'm learning Hebrew and anciently naming was much different. Names of people had meaning and were tied to people's identity. Often people would go through a big life altering event and change their name. I.E. Jacob had an experience encountering God and his name was changed to Israel or Abram after he encountered God changed his name to Abraham. In many ancient places like Egypt and other middle eastern areas they believed knowing someone's true name you gained control over them. Basically the magic system is tied to a lot of ancient historic beliefs.
@@the_fools_tale He has taken his magic from Wizard of Earthsea, any idiot can see that. Another UA-camr proclaiming to be a expert that again shows himself as clueless.
Brandon Sanderson doesn’t do magic systems, he presents superpowers with pseudoscientific explanations behind them. All these powers are held up by the satisfying internal logic that he has constructed in order to implement them in his stories but in the end they are narrative devices that appeal to the sci-fi brain. There is nothing magical about his systems as the magic is necessarily taken out of them in order to create internally-consistent pseudo-technology that characters his stories use in interesting and often innovative ways. At the absolute minimum a magic system should feel magical. Sanderson’s creations feel scientific.
I mean, you're not wrong. But there's also something magical about being able to "fly" in both Mistborn and Stormlight, or transforming one thing to another in Stormlight. In the reader's perspective, yes, it would feel like the the explanation could take out the magic in them. But look at it in the perspective of someone in-world who doesn't know anything about how it works. It would be like watching a magic show; you know there's a trick but you're awed or baffled or "how the fck did he do that?"ed enough to call it magic.
@@myribstellmesheslying This is an in-story perspective though rather than that of the reader. It’s a matter of a phenomenon being perceived as magic, rather than actually being magic. A sci-fi story can present the clash of a spacefaring civilisation with that of a primitive pre-industrial society and the primitive side will most likely view the mysterious invaders as being in possession of awesome magical powers, even though the reader knows that it’s just the classic case of sufficiently advanced technology appearing as magic to those that are unfamiliar. To me as a reader, Sanderson’s creations come across as sufficiently advanced science/technology with a fantasy veneer.
I kept thinking that this system would have been better used in a superhero setting. Now it has been "used up" on a setting that is not optimal for it.
I agree with your analysis but disagree with your conclusion. I don’t think a magic system being hard, even extremely hard, makes it stop being magic. In the writing sense at least, magic is, I think, best defined as the collection of fantastical elements in a story. All the things that don’t pass for something in our world. Investiture doesn’t exist in our world, so it’s magic. Most super powers and a lot of sci-if tech are also magic. We’re at a point in genre fiction where the lines between science fiction and fantasy are growing ever closer to nonexistence. Sanderson’s magic systems not feeling magical to you is something I understand and even oftentimes agree with. But I’d say it’s backwards-thinking to say it’s not a magic system. (Backwards-thinking as in literally going against the direction fantasy is moving in).
I don't think I like magic systems much. Explaining them too much takes the magic out of the world. The ones I like best are the soft ones were there really is only an origin story like in LOTR.
I know what you mean. I love the hard systems because it's fun to see how inventive at the magic mechanics authors get. Unless it's directly tied to the narrative, it's not really necessary and too much can take away that layer of mystery that makes the story just as enjoyable. However, whatever the system they choose, authors just need to implicate it well.
I disagree with including king killer chronicle. Both his magic systems have being ripped off from other series. The Word one comes from Wizard of Earthsea by Usula Le Guin, how you can not include that I don’t know. The sympathy has come from Lyndon Hardy’s Master of the five Magics, Patrick shouldn’t be praised for things he didn’t create but copied.
Naming and sympathy are pretty much a common part of lots of mythology and folklore and book series even other than Earthsea. Earthsea may have popularised Naming for example, but claiming Kingkiller stole from that is like claiming GRR Martin stole dragons from Eragon...
I know many don’t love the ending narrative (I do though), but Lightbringer’s magic system-the mechanics, the impacts on character and world and cultures-is as good as anything in the genre.
I love the way you flip the books as you present it
Sword of Kaigen has been my favorite so far. I’m in the middle of Mistborn and while I like it, I don’t really care about how the action or magic is written. Feels very much like video game input, Sword of Kaigen did it in such a way that made it feel important to the characters with every moment.
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. I happened upon this from my wife's collection and was pleasantly surprised at not just the magic system but the story and how well integrated the two are.
I loved the magic system of another series from Robert Jackson Bennett, The Founders Trilogy. Super interesting magic system that's basically rewriting an items code to make it behave differently. Really awesome and inventive.
I knew all of these but flames of Mira so now it’s on my tbr! Great video
Loved The Tainted Cup! Will be among the finalists for book of the year for me for sure. Magic can so simple, yet so complicated...and that is what makes it so special. Lots of great magic mentioned here.
It’s so good. It’ll definitely be high in my ranking too!
Brian Naslund's Blood of an Exile has a super magic system! It's similar to Mistborn where you ingest moss and different types do different things. It's packed with humour too, and if you've liked Richard Swan's Empire of the Wolf Trilogy, it's got a similar darkness as the trilogy progresses. Oh, plus dragons!
The series I love and would recommend to anyone is The Spellmonger series. The magic system in that series is soft but has some rules to it.
In the first book the magi use spells for seeing far away, causing enemy weapons to rust, knots come undone. Later they create battle automatons, have magical tools for summoning and transporting items, and have control over animals.
A simple way it was explained was, it’s like computer programming; if you know the rules you can create a lot of programs (spells).
Another fantastic video! Thank you! And great editing!
Great video and a great list.
A magic system I always really liked is Green Lantern. I know, I know, not technically fantasy or a book, but hear me out.
User can only access the power through a conduit item (the power ring). The power is limited by requiring a recharge. The user is limited by their will and what their imagination can form from Green Light and it has a hard weakness in the colour yellow. It is simple to understand, has limitations that avoid any deus ex machina and is really well balanced.
*braces for onslaught of "that isn't a proper magic system!"*
I’m on the more liberal side of the “What qualifies as magic?“ debate, but superpowers are absolutely magic. I think as the book and manga communities have had more crossover in recent years, more and more people are coming to accept alternative approaches to magic.
Great video, I been looking into magic systems while researching for my own book. This helped me out a lot, and just bought your book as well. Looking forward to getting it and discover the magic system in it and how it is used.
I love the system from the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks. The splitting and manifesting light in to Luxin where the different colours have different properties is very cool.
Big fan of Kevin Hearne's A Plague Of Giants magic system(s). How you get your magic to the regionalism of it and the powers themselves.
Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman was excellent for a different kind of magic system. Fantastic series.
Fun video 🎉
I loved that naming was indicative of the philosophies of Plato and Confucius 🤪
I love the bonding magics of The Elder Empire and the Gardners working behind the scenes to manipulate power struggles.
And yes WAR ETERNAL!! What is it with you and eating unnatural things? 😉🤣
The magic of Dragons of Terra is brilliant. Half emerging technology and half dragons who are intimately woven through the ecosystem.
Dresden and all of its magics 🤪
Apprentice Adept which is all about balance and conservation of raw magic. Super cool.
Hard magic systems: "How much pewter does the main character have to burn in order to store enough strength with Feruchemy?"
Soft magic systems: "What colour is the lightning coming from their fingers?"
Another banger of a video mate!
That’s a great way of putting it haha! Thank you
I am sooo curious to discover your magic system, it sounds unfairly cool 👀
Some of my favourite magic systems can be found in The Risen Kingdoms series by Curtis Craddock, Soul Cage by LR Schulz and The Crimson Court by Brendan Noble!!
When it comes to magic systems I like:
8. Winds of the Forelands
7. Lightbringer
6. Stormlight Archive
5. Powder Mage
4. Codex Alrea
3. Mistborn
2. Demon Cycle
1. Wheel of Time
The Founders trilogy magic system is cool as hell too. RJB is so creative.
Oh how could i forget The Warded Man and Dragonblood Assassin.
Yes Sword of Kaigen 😫😭🥺 which has what is likely my favorite scene in any book ever.
The Tainted Cup was such a good book! I just finished it and I want more. Now. Please.
The Green Bones Saga, from Fonda Lee, has an interesting Hard Magic system in jade.
I remember reading eragon as a kid, and loved the way magic worked. I cant say if thats because i was new to fantasy.
It was a long time ago, and dont really remember much.
Do you have any thoughts about that one?
Read all but flames of Mira!
Malazan should be in here. Warrens, holds, etc... a bit tough to get your head around at first --- kind of like magic would be to non-wielders.
As far as 'promises' from the magic... we're told, over and over, that wildlings are insanely dangerous because they will usually try to do something and not realize it'll just blow everyone up.
Except then, half the main characters are "wildlings" and all it really is is, a super-power. Basically everyone in school gets taught "you can't do this" and thus they can't do it, but if you're never taught anything, then you can just wish for anything you want and it will work. There's never a danger, never a downside, never a fulfillment of the 'promise' that there's some downside to being a wildling. it's just a way Jordan wrote that all his main characters can be awesome without putting in any actual effort or trying.
If you like the tainted cup MS I think you’d love foundryside!
It’s shot up my tbr after this!
Honestly can’t believe you didn’t at least mention the magicians
What!? No Orogenes from Fifth Season?? Fun list. Thank you.
I read the description and the videos time stamps and thought to myself
WHERE IS THE WAY OF KINGS?! WHERE IS THE SURGEBINDING!?!?
It’s still a cool magic system though
Have u read webnovels- Lotm and Shadow slave, those for me are one of the most interesting magic systems. both are so good now I am trying to search something similar in normal literature.
why does everyone forget about eragon? I thought the language bases system based on physical energy was really nice.
Can't believe the Malazan world is not here. Erikson builds complex layers of magic systems. First one learns of the Warrens as the predominant magic source for humans, but later one finds that there exists a predecessor system called the Holds. But there is also the Tanno spirit system, a kind of mystic, holistic source. Then there are the nature magics, earth magics. There are Elder Races whose Warrens are specifically racial (the Omtose Phellak of the Jaghut for example). There is even one Warren that is created by an Elder Race just to make them immortal (and shambling, undead at the main timeline of the stories) so they would have the power and longevity to pursue a genocidal war against another Elder Race. It doesn't get better than this.
Name of the Wind is cool. I'm learning Hebrew and anciently naming was much different. Names of people had meaning and were tied to people's identity. Often people would go through a big life altering event and change their name. I.E. Jacob had an experience encountering God and his name was changed to Israel or Abram after he encountered God changed his name to Abraham.
In many ancient places like Egypt and other middle eastern areas they believed knowing someone's true name you gained control over them.
Basically the magic system is tied to a lot of ancient historic beliefs.
Ohhh that’s interesting! I didn’t realize it had historical influence
Name of the Wind took this from a Wizard of Earthsea
I hadn't realised Wizard of Earthsea was released before ancient times. That's so cool!
@@the_fools_tale He has taken his magic from Wizard of Earthsea, any idiot can see that. Another UA-camr proclaiming to be a expert that again shows himself as clueless.
I will never stop saying that New Spring doesn't belong there! 😁
Brandon Sanderson doesn’t do magic systems, he presents superpowers with pseudoscientific explanations behind them. All these powers are held up by the satisfying internal logic that he has constructed in order to implement them in his stories but in the end they are narrative devices that appeal to the sci-fi brain. There is nothing magical about his systems as the magic is necessarily taken out of them in order to create internally-consistent pseudo-technology that characters his stories use in interesting and often innovative ways. At the absolute minimum a magic system should feel magical. Sanderson’s creations feel scientific.
You know what? I like this take
I mean, you're not wrong. But there's also something magical about being able to "fly" in both Mistborn and Stormlight, or transforming one thing to another in Stormlight. In the reader's perspective, yes, it would feel like the the explanation could take out the magic in them. But look at it in the perspective of someone in-world who doesn't know anything about how it works. It would be like watching a magic show; you know there's a trick but you're awed or baffled or "how the fck did he do that?"ed enough to call it magic.
@@myribstellmesheslying This is an in-story perspective though rather than that of the reader. It’s a matter of a phenomenon being perceived as magic, rather than actually being magic. A sci-fi story can present the clash of a spacefaring civilisation with that of a primitive pre-industrial society and the primitive side will most likely view the mysterious invaders as being in possession of awesome magical powers, even though the reader knows that it’s just the classic case of sufficiently advanced technology appearing as magic to those that are unfamiliar. To me as a reader, Sanderson’s creations come across as sufficiently advanced science/technology with a fantasy veneer.
I kept thinking that this system would have been better used in a superhero setting. Now it has been "used up" on a setting that is not optimal for it.
I agree with your analysis but disagree with your conclusion. I don’t think a magic system being hard, even extremely hard, makes it stop being magic. In the writing sense at least, magic is, I think, best defined as the collection of fantastical elements in a story. All the things that don’t pass for something in our world.
Investiture doesn’t exist in our world, so it’s magic. Most super powers and a lot of sci-if tech are also magic. We’re at a point in genre fiction where the lines between science fiction and fantasy are growing ever closer to nonexistence.
Sanderson’s magic systems not feeling magical to you is something I understand and even oftentimes agree with. But I’d say it’s backwards-thinking to say it’s not a magic system. (Backwards-thinking as in literally going against the direction fantasy is moving in).
I don't think I like magic systems much. Explaining them too much takes the magic out of the world. The ones I like best are the soft ones were there really is only an origin story like in LOTR.
I know what you mean. I love the hard systems because it's fun to see how inventive at the magic mechanics authors get. Unless it's directly tied to the narrative, it's not really necessary and too much can take away that layer of mystery that makes the story just as enjoyable. However, whatever the system they choose, authors just need to implicate it well.
I disagree with including king killer chronicle. Both his magic systems have being ripped off from other series. The Word one comes from Wizard of Earthsea by Usula Le Guin, how you can not include that I don’t know. The sympathy has come from Lyndon Hardy’s Master of the five Magics, Patrick shouldn’t be praised for things he didn’t create but copied.
Naming and sympathy are pretty much a common part of lots of mythology and folklore and book series even other than Earthsea. Earthsea may have popularised Naming for example, but claiming Kingkiller stole from that is like claiming GRR Martin stole dragons from Eragon...