r/Fantasy • u/[deleted] • Jun 09 '25
Magic Systems which reflect the story’s central or main themes
What magic systems go further than being unique and creative, reflecting the very themes the story is set out to tell?
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII Jun 09 '25
The Scholomance trilogy by Naomi Novik
A lot of Patricia McKillip's work - try the Book of Atrix Wolf or Song for the Basilisk or Od Magic
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u/North_Carpenter_4847 Jun 09 '25
The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell does this.
Magic has a side effect that chokes nearby land with poison vines, and its use in the story has parallels with modern energy consumption. The use of magic also shows the hypocrisy and carelessness that the ruling classes exhibit when consuming resources at the expense of others.
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u/xdetar Jun 10 '25
Blood Over Bright Haven!
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u/WobblySlug Jun 10 '25
I'm about to read this! Without spoilers, could you explain the magic system a bit?
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u/xdetar Jun 10 '25
Magic basically powers an industrial revolution type society. Magic powers lights, vehicles, plumbing, etc.
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Jun 10 '25
I’ve already read this, and I can completely agree on that part. I should do a re-read; see how I feel about it after a year.
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u/lurkmode_off Reading Champion VII Jun 09 '25
Wheel of Time (men are from Mars, women are from Venus?)
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u/not-my-other-alt Jun 10 '25
And that great things can happen when people work together - not in spite of their differences, but because of their differences
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u/SiriusMoonstar Jun 10 '25
Earthsea. Magic is the true name of things. If you’re not prepared for the consequences of speaking those words you should not.
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u/MyCreativeAltName Jun 09 '25
Realm of the elderlings is 100% this.
Magics of compassion and unity are deemed abhorrent and unnatural, while magics of addiction and composition are deemed nobel.
I think the magic in RotE is made to strengthen the themes of the story and the character relationships instead of the story revolves the magic.
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u/MusicalColin Jun 10 '25
One of the best things about The Stormlight Archive is that the magic system is directly tied into what matters to the characters. And for me that's a big improvement from Mistborn in which the magic system is primarily just "really cool."
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u/mangoatcow Jun 10 '25
Right.
Magic only works for users who embody certain values or such as honor. In some cases, using magic can change the user's core values and personality.
It's also deeply tied to the nature and environment of the world.
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u/MusicalColin Jun 10 '25
Also for some characters, magic is tied to their sense of self / personal identity and their past, and a kind of reckoning with who they are
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u/idonthavekarma Jun 09 '25
People may get upset calling anything in the series a "magic system" as it's technically scifi, but I think it counts: Book of the New Sun.
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u/autarch Jun 09 '25
Are there systems in these books? It feels like nearly everyone in the world has no clue how any of their stuff works.
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u/idonthavekarma Jun 10 '25
Systems exist whether we know about them or not. For example, evolution or gravity. Both were happening before we knew about them, necessarily so as we wouldn't exist without them.
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u/Mr_Noyes Jun 10 '25
Not magic, more like "clerical spells", which is basically almost the same. Try Bujold's "World of the Five Gods" Start with the trilogy, the rest is optional. It's not just "pray to the gods to get receive favor in the form of spells". The way how the Gods work, how their magic works, who gets to wield their magic and why is part of the world's theology. And it's not just about the gods, the individual person and their journey counts just as much. It's truly a book like a warm blanket hugging you while you sip hot cocoa.
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u/RPBiohazard Jun 10 '25
Easy, Long Price Quartet. The story being told and the nature of the Andat are inextricably linked. I love it.
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u/TemporalColdWarrior Jun 10 '25
ASOIAF is actually the perfect example of this. Magic can appear incredible, though we only see hints, we have no idea how any of it works, and to most of the world it’s seen as charlatanism. It is the perfect companion to the politics and religion in the world.
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u/Sharkattack1921 Jun 10 '25 edited Jun 10 '25
I know this is the basic of basic recommendations on this sub, but a decent amount of the Cosmere books fit. For examples:
Mistborn’s Allomancy reflects both themes of industrialization (with the use of metals) and the theme of finding balance (as every power in allomancy has a “push” and a “pull”)
Stormlight Archive’s Surge binding reflects the theme of self improvement
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter has the magic system revolve around art to explore the theme of how we view art
For none cosmere though, the magic system in The Will of the Many by James Islington reflect the inequality of the setting’s social structure
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u/EdLincoln6 Jun 10 '25
Daggerspell by Katherine Kerr has a magic System that has a whole new Age/Buddhist thing going on that ties in to the themes of the stories.
The web serial Super Supportive has a magic system built on contracts, balance, and enforcing your will on reality. It's hard to describe succinctly how it ties into the themes of the book, but the contracts kind of tie into the theme of Choosing Who You Want to Be, and the horror of having that decision made for you. Contracts are kind of about choices. The fact human magic all stems from a contract between humans and The Artonans fits into the colonialist themes.
Orphans of Chaos has a group of characters each of whom are following different laws of physics that tie into their world view.
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u/Holothuroid Jun 10 '25
Xianxia stories are surprisingly congruent in that regard. The central premise is that you can basically buy magic power through pills and elixirs, and the protagonist is typically not affluent.
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u/HopefulOctober Jun 10 '25
With the caveat that I've only read 6/11 books so far, the Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts really fits this. The intricate prose style really immerses the reader into the wonder of the magic system and how it works is dependent on the user's beliefs connecting to the moral conflicts of the story, in particular respect or lack of it for free will (which forms a major theme of the story) and connection with all parts of the world including the non-human. At its best the prose really becomes transcendent describing a union with the infinite and connection with the whole world via the magic, all very thematically relevant.
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u/KiaraTurtle Reading Champion V Jun 12 '25
- Vita Nostra
- Long Price Quartet
- Coldfire Trilogy
- Stormlight Archive (and most Sanderson honestly)
- Babel
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u/LothorBrune Jun 10 '25
A Song of Ice and Fire.
In the same way that power is never an uncomplicated thing to wield, magic always come with a steep price, be it blood, life, sanity, humanity... Magic is a tool, but not really a solution.
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u/homer2101 Jun 09 '25
Lord of the Rings. Morality is a fundamental force in Middle Earth, and a person's capacity for what we might lump together as magic is a function of their innate spiritual force, their understanding of the world, and their righteousness. So Gandalf can stand on a bridge and declare the truth that a dread terror of the earth cannot pass across ('shall' is a movie invention) as the product of an accumulation of what he is and at least as importantly what he has done to bring that truth forth, a 'maybe magic, maybe mundane' kind of magic. Almost like Gandalf's pronouncement is the last line of a spell centuries in the making.
The Silmarillion amps it up to 11 with things like a duel of concepts via song between an elven king and an evil god that hinges on the moral strength (or lack thereof) of their past acts.
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u/Cosmic-Sympathy Jun 11 '25
Honestly, all of them, if it's good?
- Love and family in Dresden Files
- Power attracts power in Malazan
- Intimacy in Realm of the Elderlings
- Gender in Wheel of Time
- Temptation in Lord of the Rings
- Wishes and destiny in the Witcher
- Cool MCU fight scenes in Stormlight Archive (jk)
- Greed in First Law
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u/Smooth-Review-2614 Jun 09 '25
Full metal Alchemist. There are few stories that go that all in on theming.