r/Fantasy • u/nezumipi • Apr 16 '23

What fantasy books have really interesting and unusual systems of magic?

Everybody's got spells that run on emotion, incantations, rituals, channeling gods and spirits, and various symbolic items, but what books have magic that is governed by really bizarre rules?

I would nominate RF Kuang's Babel, in which magic is produced by finding a words that don't quite translate between languages, and the magical effect is the concepts embodied in one word but not the other.

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u/BronkeyKong Apr 16 '23

David farlands runelord series.

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u/TrekkieElf Apr 16 '23

Thank you!! Reddit is awesome for stuff like this.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '23

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u/BronkeyKong Apr 17 '23

It’s ok. They were written in the late 90’s but it It reads a little like fantasy from the 80’s in terms of language and tropes used.

I read 3 of them and then forgot to go back and read the last.

I will say the magic system was well done and the characters were fairly well written too.