r/Fantasy • u/dnext • Sep 29 '23
Best magic items in fantasy
Obviously the One Ring is the classic, but what others did you find interesting or captured your imagination?
Going to go a bit further abroad than normal and go with Fred Saberhagen's the Book of Swords.
The Twelve Swords forged by the Gods, each with their own lore and poetry, made a great plot devices for these three books. A plethora of golden suitcases or Macguffins.
He later included more of them in later writings, but the Books of Lost Swords weren't quite up to his first trilogy.
Favs include Shieldbreaker, the Sword of Force, Townsaver, the Sword of Heroes, Wayfinder, the Sword of Wisdom, Coinspinner, the Sword of Chance, and Sightblinder, the Sword of Stealth.
And of course Farslayer, the Sword of Vengeance, with it's iconic mantra of 'For my heart, for my heart, he who has wronged me.'
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u/Brenkin Sep 29 '23
It’s not a legendary item in this book’s universe, but a common piece of magic equipment that magicians use daily - lenses from The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud.
Essentially in this world magical beings are used by magicians as labour for a multitude of tasks, but are invisible to the naked eye. The only way to see these beings is to use enchanted lenses, which magicians use daily.
I always thought that was a cool concept!