Summary

A strong magic system is a fundamental part of any successful fantasy book series . However , somelengthy fantasy account book series deserving perpetrate todemonstrate more unique thaumaturgy systems than others . Book series such as these call for magic systems that are often subordinate upon a sure gimmickthat , out of linguistic context , is fabulously unusual . However , the author builds a complex scheme and world around that idea and captures readers with a engrossing story about legerdemain . In most examples , the measure of an efficient magic scheme is that it consist hard rules that are not contradicted .

However , authors have been known to effectively explicate how their principal characters can break the rule of the magic system . In other case , the mystery surrounding magic in a mount signify that the point of how it works are never clear to the reader . It might make for a good story , but the author will be hard - pressed to convince the great unwashed that they even bonk how their wizardly system work . However , some of the best examples only enter a version of conjuring trick that is fun to read about and has never been seen before in literature .

It can be tempting to think the in effect fantasy release of 2024 have already reach shelf , but there are even more exciting books get in this year .

The covers of Mirrored Heaven, The Fury of the Gods, and Children of Anguish and Anarchy

10Mistborn

By Brandon Sanderson

Despite continuing to tote up to the magic system , Sanderson organically present young ways that magic can be commingle and adapted .

The elementary type of magic used by the characters in theMistbornbooks is Allomancy , whereina genetically gifted user can swallow and"burn"a specific type of alloy to temporarily gain a specific supernatural ability . There are 16 unlike types of metallic element Allomancers can use , each of which grant a certain power . Most Allomancers can only burn one kind of metal , and are sleep together as"Mistings . “However , the rare"Mistborn"can burn down all types of metal , making them some of themost powerful characters in theMistbornseries . These title are derived from the supernatural mists that cover the Final Empire .

Word

Duology book covers

handout day of the month

The Final Empire

2006

The Silmarillion book cover

The Well of Ascension

2007

The Hero of Ages

Fantasy Books With Unique Magic Systems

2008

The admixture of Law

2011

Kelsier and Mistborn book covers

Custom image by Yeider Chacon

shadow of Self

2015

The Bands of Mourning

Babel book cover

2016

The Lost Metal

2022

Collage of Bone season book covers

Therefore , Sanderson coiffe up a class-conscious , comprehendible magic system with exonerated formula . However , he then preface two more magical disciplines : Feruchemy and Hemalurgy . The former is base on get out wizard power from oneself ( after store it over sentence ) while the second , more grave type is drawing big businessman from someone else . At the commencement of the second part of theMistbornseries , Sanderson introduces Twinborn character , who can use Allomancy and Feruchemy together . Despite continuing to add to the magic system of rules , Sanderson organically acquaint Modern style that magic can be merge and conform .

9Babel, Or The Necessity Of Violence

By R. F. Kuang

Babelis currently merely anamazing standalone phantasy book of account , with it being unreadable if Kuang will write more stories go under in this domain . However , it is fairly encompassing with the feel of an heroic fantasy serial publication and a brilliant magic organization suit to its 19th - century donnish setting . InBabel , a fictional institute based at the University of Oxford instruct and practices a linguistic magicwhere scholars engrave a Logos in one language and its translation into another on dissimilar side of a silver bar to produce a specific effect ( abstemious , explosion , geomorphologic reward , etc . ) .

Babel : Or the Necessity of Violence : An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators ' Revolution

Different magical outcome are dependent upon the somewhat unlike connotations each word has in its respective language . However , the snap is that the practitioner must be a aboriginal speaker system of one of the lyric . Because of increased communications between European countries at the time the novel is set , European linguistic communication have evolved to become nearer to their words imply exactly the same thing . Therefore , the institute colloquially known as"Babel"turns to the British Empire ’s colony to recruit talker of other languageswho can farm more word combinations .

The covers of Clockwork Angel, City of Bones, and Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare

Custom Image by Yailin Chacon

Babel’sstory is about the immature people brought from the colony to Oxford to hear a magic that is only used to further British imperialism . Kuang , an Oxford alumna herself , design an telling magic systemlike no other . Babel’smagic is incredibly intriguing and answer the purpose of its story .

8The Bone Season

By Samantha Shannon

The Bone Seasonis Shannon ’s still - in - onward motion larger-than-life saga that blend dystopian sci - fi with fancy . The first book , The Bone Season , bring out readers to teenage Paige Mahoney , a clairvoyant and a dreamwalker who works in the criminal Scheol of 2059 London by using her great power to retrieve data from people ’s minds . In this future , most of Europe is ruled by the Republic of Scion , which has hold all clairvoyants affected . Clairvoyants are individuals who can connect to the aether and draw upon the intent of the dead , sourcing their specific magical abilities .

The Bone Season

2013

Kingkiller Chronicle book covers

The Mime Order

The Pale Dreamer(prequel )

The Song Rising

Whishlist for Next Ninth House Book

Custom Image by Simone Ashmoore

2017

The Dawn Chorus(novella )

2020

Daughter of Smoke and Bone book covers

The Mask Falling

2021

The Dark Mirror

Collage of Earthsea book covers

2025

The Bone Seasonbook # 6

TBC

Lightbringer book covers

The Bone Seasonbook # 7

Paige ’s telepathic ability make her one of the rare types of clairvoyants . Meanwhile , the Rephaim are an immortal race of clairvoyant beings from an interdimensional otherworld who drain the aureole of clairvoyant man , run them on behalf of Scion . From these established humanity - building element , Shannon does not force the boundaries of her witching system that much but focuses on the on-going conflict between the dissimilar group . While it is an interesting magic system , its exploration is not the breaker point of the story .

7The Shadowhunters Chronicles

By Cassandra Clare

The world of Clare ’s is inhabit by a change of supernatural beings whose inheritance is fairly well - explicate , constituting tidy cosmos - building . The Shadowhunters are part human and part holy man , warlocks are human and demon , and faeries are angel and ogre . vampire and werewolves are mortal who are pretend by magical viruses , grant them certain abilities and weaknesses . Each group possesses inherent magical abilities that one would typically associate with them , base on other works of fabrication . This is except for the Shadowhunters , who are Clare ’s existence and the focus of the series .

serial publication

Books included

Shades of Magic book covers

Release date

The Mortal Instruments

City of Bones , City of Ashes , City of Glass , City of Fallen Angels , City of Heavenly Fire , City of Lost soul

2007 - 2014

The Infernal Devices

Clockwork Angel , Clockwork Prince , Clockwork Princess

2010 - 2013

The Bane chronicle

One book of 11 short history

2014

The Dark Artifices

Lady Midnight , Lord of Shadows , Queen of Air and Darkness

2016 - 2018

The Eldest expletive

The Red Scrolls of Magic , The Lost Book of the White , The Black Volume of the bushed

2019 - TBC

The Last Hours

chemical chain of Gold , Chain of Iron , Chain of Thorns

2020 - 2023

The Wicked Powers

The Last Billie Jean Moffitt King of Faerie , The Last Prince of Hell , The Last Shadowhunter

2026 - TBC

While they are naturally more skillful warriors , trained to fight demons who leak out into the workaday Earth from their own property , the Shadowhunters can also draw rune on themselves that temporarily give them advanced speed , forcefulness , etc . After set up the rules of her world , Clare invariably breaks thembut manages to in effect explain how this work out . Clary , Jace , and Sebastian have slightly different abilities due to Valentine give their mothers elixirs while they were pregnant . Clare produce a loophole for warlock and Shadowhunters not being able-bodied to have minor together with Tessa Gray , who has her own set of powers .

Additionally , regular humans can be release into Shadowhunters by drinking from the Mortal Cup ( one of the Mortal Instruments ) . The world also includes a complex creation mythology and many enchanted artifacts . Overall , everything makes horse sense within Clare ’s humans - building . She is impressively able to make normal and then break them while convincing readers that it all still act .

Fantasy duologies let in These Violent Delights , We track down the Flame , and Six of Crows offer up brief yet complex stories to fans of illusion literature .

6The Kingkiller Chronicle

By Patrick Rothfuss

Rothfuss ' plan trilogy withdraw plaza in a chivalric world where magic does exist , but due to its scarceness , most people are doubting and treat stories of supernatural beings as myths . The Kingkiller Chronicleis primarily about Kvothe ’s training and education to become a renowned warrior and magician , which he recounts to the character known only as the Chronicler within the framing gimmick of the story . In Temerant , the fictional continent where the chronicle takes billet , illusion has a scientific enactment where only those who have been extensively cultivate can use it efficaciously , creating the conditions of Kvothe ’s narrative .

The Name of the malarky

The Wise Man ’s Fear

The Lightning Tree(novella )

The Slow Regard of Silent Things(novella )

The Narrow Road Between Desires(novella )

2023

The Doors of Stone

Temerant includes some other magic element that are n’t extensively explain . There is a parallel Fae land , which go to the definition of the series ' two types of magic : the pedantic kind taught at universities and the more enigmatic kind that is only apply by the Fae . There are also the Chandrian , totally undefined entities whose only genuine characteristics are that they are powerful , evil , and of obscure beginning . Certain parts of the wizard organisation inThe Kingkiller Chronicleare shroud in whodunit , but this work in the setting of a reclusive prestidigitator recite his life sentence story .

5The Alex Stern Series

By Leigh Bardugo

Throughout Bardugo’sNinth HouseandHell Bent , the persona accomplish various magic through complicated and implausibly stir up ritual . One of the earliest case is prediction , where the members of the Skull & Bones house examine a ( unconscious ) individual ’s interior to predict the hereafter . The implication is that there are extensive guidelines for attain almost anything and that the characters will explain if it is relevant to the plot . It seems like almost anything can appear to cause a job for Alex — vampires , ghosts , etc . — but the story will provide an donnish explanationfor why this can happen .

Ninth House

2019

Hell Bent

Alex Sternbook # 3

in the end , Bardugo makes thaumaturgy disgusting in theAlex Sternbooks because she is exemplify a system where magic is only another tool of the elite to maintain their power at the disbursement of others . The world - construction also includes explanations for why trick is at its strongest in New Haven , as the secret social club are based out of Yale . Ninth Housedoes not have the exacting magic system because it will commonly justify any and all supernatural plot of land twists , but it is still morbidly fascinating .

4Daughter Of Smoke And Bone

By Laini Taylor

By the time of Dreams of Gods and Monsters , the last book in the master trilogy , Taylor has appropriate the mind of readers with one creative witching stipulation after another .

girl of Smoke and Boneintroduces a heap of seemingly random supernatural elements that come together into a great account . The protagonist Karou is an artistic creation bookman in Prague who was secretly advance by four chimeras . Karou pile up teeth for the chimeras for an nameless purpose , aided by portal doorsthat can take her anywhere in the reality . presently after the start of the story , Karou discover an ongoing warfare between the chimaera and seraphim races and the reliable purpose of the tooth she has been collecting .

girl of Smoke and Bone

Days of Blood and Starlight

2012

Night of Cake and Puppets(novella )

Dreams of Gods and Monsters

The magic system ofDaughter of Smoke and Boneis dependant upon the universe of various witching organism and resurrection;these thing exist in this world without justification , as one is n’t really need . The late books introduce other magical races and the power to steal souls and place them into unlike torso , as well as some origin myth . By the clock time ofDreams of Gods and Monsters , the final book in the main trilogy , Taylor has captured the mind of readers with one creative sorcerous judicial admission after another .

3The Earthsea Cycle

By Ursula K. Le Guin

A Wizard of Earthsea

1968

The Tombs of Atuan

1971

The Farthest Shore

1972

Tehanu

1990

tale from Earthsea

2001

The Other Wind

The Earthsea Cycleincludes some other type of trick governed by a different set of rules , including the Old Powers of the Earth , distaff conjuring trick , and Enigmatic Magic . The ample world of Earthsea also feature mythological creatures such as tartar who have their own power . Overall , Earthseais another instance of a series that stresses the grandness of not make magic lightly , illustrated by the protagonist accidentally propel catastrophe .

2Lightbringer Series

By Brent Weeks

The title"Lightbringer"conveys the most essential part of Weeks ' serial publication ' magic system . Certain character , foretell drafter , can harness light and create the substance Luxin , the property of which vary calculate on its color . Drafters who can only maintain one coloration of Luxin are call Monochromes , while those who can practice two are Bichromes , and those who can use many are Polychromes . Gavin Guile , the protagonist of the serial , is known as"the Prism"because he can exert every color on the spectrum .

The Black Prism

2010

The Blinding tongue

" Gunner ’s Apprentice " ( light fib )

The Broken Eye

The Blood Mirror

The Burning White

This constitutes a very interesting arrangement because it is based on a simple scientific concept that most people reading the novel can understand without difficulty . However , it is then presented through a fantasy lens . Weeks develops different facets of this complex body part with tincture of magicnot on the official spectrum of the circumstance ’s politics , as well as how citizenry with color blindness and people who can see colors ever more understandably rehearse Chromaturgy .

With the fantasy craze still in effect from Game of Thrones , it ’s a surprise that these fantasy novel have n’t made it to TV or film yet .

1Shades Of Magic

By V. E. Schwab

The essentials ofShades of Magic’ssystem are also conveyed in the title of respect itself . In one of Schwab ’s good illusion serial , magic populate everything and everyone . Certain locations serve as the sources of magic , which magicians learn to harness . Magical abilities crop up randomly ( it is not hereditary ) , and most conjuror can wield only one of five elements ( with rare case of those who can exert more , recalling other book series with a similar arrangement ) .

A Darker Shade of Magic

A assembly of tail

A Conjuring of Light

However , what makesShades of Magictruly distinctive is its circumstance of several parallel world , each with a different relationship with magic . The agonist is one of the few magicians knock-down enough to locomote between worlds . As he visits Red London , Grey London , White London , and Black London , the reader is exposed to malevolent and inert forms of magic , as well as the dissimilar ways it is rein in and treated by the human universe . specter of Magic’soverlapping categorizations are slightly confusing , but it is doubtlessly also one of the most unique magic system in fantasy lit .