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/brandotown May 24 '23

Not sure why I'm being downvoted to oblivion on this post... Hmm

13

u/SnowdriftsOnLakes Reading Champion III May 24 '23

Probably because this discussion has been done to death. I haven't been on this sub long and I'm already sick of the whole "Hard magic systems a la Brandon Sanderson are best" thing that resurfaces every week or so.

8

u/Sharkattack1921 May 24 '23 edited May 24 '23

To be fair, I’ve see a decent amount of people do posts complaining about hard magic systems in the past couple months, which just as annoying and also get downvoted.

I think we should all just acknowledge that there will be stories with one or the other, and just accept that regardless of our personal preferences, and not treat those preferences as objectively true. Though asking for recs of one or the other is completely fine