SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I feel in the mood to read something that simply has a lot of magic in it. Lots of magic combat with fireballs or freezing arrows perhaps, or magic being used regularly for more mundane purposes... anything with a world or story that where magic isn't just some rare commodity or storyline tool, but frequently in active use.

Seeing the clever and deep things some authors do with magic in their novels has always been one of the greatest parts of the genre for me, but I'm curious now about examples of fantasy novels (whether deep or light reading) with worlds or stories where it's just plain everywhere.

If I had to think of examples... say Magician by Raymond E. Feist (more particularly in the 'Magician: Master' part), or perhaps the Codex Alera (beginning with Furies of Calderon) by Jim Butcher. But I should say, I was hesitant on whether to even give examples, because I'm not necessarily looking for books like those I've already read... if you have any in mind at all that seem to fit the idea, I'd be glad to hear of them. (I feel like half the reason one joins a book club is to make oneself read things outside one's normal established interests, after all. Or at least, that was my motivation!)

Thanks in advance!

Perhaps take a look at The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump? Pretty much everything we have thanks to science has an alternate magical version so there's a ton of everyday magic use.

ETA I should say this one is definitely light reading.

The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne has lots of magic all the time. Light and fun. First one is Hounded.

Master of the Five Magics and sequels by Lyndon Hardy.

Aerulan wrote: "Perhaps take a look at The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump? Pretty much everything we have thanks to science has an alternate magical version so there's a ton of everyday magic use."

That sounds really good!

check out these lists~https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8...

I don't remember it super well, but I think magic was pretty ubiquitous in the Coldfire Trilogy.

You might also take a look at the Books of the Raksura series that begins with The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells. They are fantastic books, some of my favorite worldbuilding!
It's set on a fantasy world where many many different cultures/species all coexist. Magic (both spells and natural forces) is pretty ubiquitous among many of the peoples though it's utilized differently by the various sorts.
The main characters are nonhuman shifters who are inherently magical and able to change between sort of human shaped and winged versions of themselves.

There's also P.C. Hodgell's Kencyrath series beginning with God Stalk, not everybody has magic but it's very common particularly little charms and things like that, though the main character Jame has an unstabilizing effect on a lot of it.

An oddball one would be The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson. The magic uses chalk diagrams and mathematics. When I read about it I couldn't figure out how this could be suspenseful but those chalklings were actually a bit freaky. The way that the diagrams were made was interesting. They had to learn common diagrams and techniques but people tended to have strengths and weaknesses.

Sarah Anne wrote: "An oddball one would be The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson. The magic uses chalk diagrams and mathematics. When I read about it I couldn't figure out how this could ..."

I really love The Rithmatist!

I did too. It was such a fun book :)

Trike wrote: "The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne has lots of magic all the time. Light and fun. First one is Hounded.

Master of the Five Magics and sequels by Lyndon Hardy."

I second the recommendation. Hounded is indeed a fine story as is the Case of the Toxic Spell Dump. You can't go wrong with either one.

Thanks much for all the suggestions! Seems like I'll have a lot of material to check out.

@Aerulian: That seems like a really fascinating read. I haven't actually read much in the way of historical fiction, and I think it was something that I had meant to correct at some point or other. This seems like a good excuse to.

@Trike: I'll definitely have to check out Master of the Five Magics. Lots of the reviews are talking about the magic system so that's always interesting for me. As for Hounded... well, I'm reading book 2 of the Parasol Protectorate right now (first book is Soulless by Gail Carriger), which does a great job of poking fun at all the tropes of the werewolf/vampire genre. Great books so far, but thanks to them I'm not sure I could take a werewolf MC particularly seriously right now lol. I expect that I'll check it out anyway, but probably after I'm done with the Parasol Protectorate.

@C. Thanks for the suggestions! I've actually read The Name of the Wind. I think I read the second book too... but it's been a while. I haven't read (or even heard of) any of the others, and The Amulet of Samarkand seems particularly interesting. (It reminds me - but only very vaguely - of the events of Magician: Master.) Sounds like it might have some interesting intrigue in it.

@Jeremy: I thought I'd read something by that name until I pulled it up and didn't recognize it at all lol. So I'm only just looking at it now. Another one of those books where the reviews say the world/system was great, and the story less so. That seems to happen quite a lot... different talents I guess. "Magic" that is actually a species reflecting humanity is an interesting concept though. I'll probably check it out when I'm done my teaching practicum... don't want to add anything too dark to my plate just yet, heh.

@Aerulan Cloud Roads does seem very interesting, yes. The things being said in the reviews are quite intriguing. I love the idea of a totally non-human world (and actually having it feel that way). I've toyed with how to do such a thing in pen & paper roleplaying before. Your description of God Stalk made me think of the main character of Spellwright by Blake Charlton. The story uses a system of linguistic magic, and the dyslexic main character tends to have a "misspelling" effect on it.

@Sarah Anne: As a math teacher in training, I feel like I'm probably obligated to read that one now lol. .....and I just realized that Rithmatic is meant to be a pun. Gah. Okay, I definitely have to read this one. (Also I still haven't read a single book by Sanderson... I keep meaning to, but somehow don't get around to it. Guess I should fix that too.)

Chris wrote: "@Trike: I'll definitely have to check out Master of the Five Magics. Lots of the reviews are talking about the magic system so that's always interesting for me. As for Hounded... well, I'm reading book 2 of the Parasol Protectorate right now (first book is Soulless by Gail Carriger), which does a great job of poking fun at all the tropes of the werewolf/vampire genre. Great books so far, but thanks to them I'm not sure I could take a werewolf MC particularly seriously right now lol. I expect that I'll check it out anyway, but probably after I'm done with the Parasol Protectorate."

He's not a werewolf, he's a Druid. His lawyers are werewolves and vampires, though. One team works by day, the other by night. Which should give you an idea of how seriously the book takes its subject matter. But also, he talks to his dog. Who talks back.

Master of the Five Magics is one of the earlier examples of Hard Fantasy. Pretty much everything people enjoy about literary magic systems created by guys like Brandon Sanderson comes from Lyndon Hardy.

Trike wrote: "Master of the Five Magics is one of the earlier examples of Hard Fantasy. Pretty much everything people enjoy about literary magic systems created by guys like Brandon Sanderson comes from Lyndon Hardy."

The hard magic systems being created today feel far far far more based in pen&paper games and video games where hard rules are necessary than whatever another author may of written. Not to ignore that it is indeed hard fantasy and people might like it, but I don't think the causation line is very clear at all.

L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Children Prospero Lost, Prospero In Hell, and Prospero Regained.

Patricia A. McKillip's The Bell at Sealey Head, or In the Forests of Serre, or The Book of Atrix Wolfe, or Winter Rose. all stand alones.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and Riddle-Master are also magic intensively -- the Riddle-master is a trilogy in which it grows.

All of Diana Wynn Jones' books, especially the Chrestomanci ones.

Aaron wrote: "Trike wrote: "Master of the Five Magics is one of the earlier examples of Hard Fantasy. Pretty much everything people enjoy about literary magic systems created by guys like Brandon Sanderson comes from Lyndon Hardy."

The hard magic systems being created today feel far far far more based in pen&paper games and video games where hard rules are necessary than whatever another author may of written. Not to ignore that it is indeed hard fantasy and people might like it, but I don't think the causation line is very clear at all. "

Yes, I've often said Sanderson basically writes D&D modules, but the literary aspect of that sort of thing descends directly from Hardy. Also, Sanderson and Rothfuss and others have mentioned Hardy specifically.

The Darwath series by Barbara Hambly

The Time of the Dark

Schooled in Magic by Christopher Nuttall

Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon

Al "Tank" wrote: "Trike wrote: "The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne has lots of magic all the time. Light and fun. First one is Hounded.

Master of the Five Magics and sequels by Lyn..."

Has there never been an audiobook production of that series? I pretty much only do fantasy on audio.