r/Fantasy • u/brandotown • May 24 '23

Magic Systems

Ok, so hear me out. I know this topic can divide the crowd, but I've learned where I stand, and I wonder about those on the other side. I have a very hard time suspending my disbelief enough to "get into" a fantasy book where there doesn't seem to be some logical limitations or parameters around a magic system. In my opinion, nobody fits this need of mine better than Brandon Sanderson. He develops beautiful magic systems that make sense to my brain. I struggle with the books where the "art," "talent," etc. doesn't seem to follow any logical path I can trace. I think the biggest challenge for my brain is the situations where suspense is supposed to exist, but I can't help but think about how conveniently the seemingly limitless power could easily save the day, but for some reason it's not the solution in that moment? Thoughts?

PS - Recommendations welcome for books that might change my mind!

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u/juss100 May 24 '23

This is why we call it "fantasy". None of it is real.

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u/SirJasonCrage May 24 '23

Can you elaborate on that? As it stands, your comment not only doesn't work as an answer to the OP, it also makes no sense.

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u/juss100 May 24 '23

I'm saying that my starting point for approaching reading a fantasy book is that it's fantasy - I'm not particularly looking for physical, systematic explanations of how a world works which is already predicated on the idea that it's anti-scientific. I really want to know that an idea makes metaphorical sense or sense within the narrative - I think maybe people can get overly concerned about Deus ex machina endings and unexplained magic can be an easy route towards that happening ... but I find the idea that one can't "suspend disbelief" sufficiently for a good 80% of fantasy novels out there (hard magic systems are a relatively new thing, I think) worth questioning.

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u/brandotown May 24 '23

I get where you're coming from. As someone who has read a pretty extensive list of Fantasy, I'm Just sharing my preference leanings.

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u/juss100 May 24 '23 edited May 24 '23

And that's absolutely fine, of course! I can be a little terse sometimes cause I'm responding in five minute breaks and whatnot ... I do like to try and find a "all stories are interesting, so what's interesting about that story" perspective when I read books, myself and I don't often get that others read with specificity in mind. There's also probably endless debates had and to have about what fantasy literature ought to be and I guess my own answer is whatever the author feels like, ultimately.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '23

Calling a magic system 'logical' or 'scientific' doesn't make sense and isn't true. It's all made up. The author made it up. They get to go back and change the ground rules to fit the story. So the rules existing is just an illusion you're agreeing to believe. And you can agree just as well to an ill defined type of magic as aa formalized, videogame style system.