Favourite Magic Systems – Top 5 Wednesday

Okay, I know this isn’t the topic for this week, but I missed that week and I really like this topic, so… we’re doing it.

If you don’t know, Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Thoughts on Tomes (who is one of my favourite booktubers btw). You can check out the Goodreads group for more details.

I’m rubbish at doing these in order of preference, so this isn’t necessarily the order of preference. I’m not even sure there is an order of preference. I just love these magic systems.

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Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise because it’s very well known, very well loved. But it’s cool. I was honestly skeptical about it at first because it sounds weird, but it works. It works so well. It’s very visual, very dynamic and it’s a hard magic system. So it has very well defined rules. I personally love both hard and soft magic systems and all the shades in-between, but for people who like hard magic systems, this one is amazing.

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

This is such a cool magic system. It’s definitely a soft one, but it’s so cool. It’s kind of like… shadow magic. Well, there are several different kinds of magic in the series. There’s the shadow magic that nobody really knows or understands much about. Then there’s also blood magic that we see some of the characters perform and it’s really creepy and dark. And there are also other elements that are hinted at but that we don’t know much about. But I’m loving it and I can’t wait for the next book. I’m mad that I have to wait until 2019.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This series combines several magic systems, some of them are hard magic systems and some of them are soft. There’s the Sympathy magic which is kind of sciency and has very well defined rules. Then there’s the rune magic, which is kind of related to sympathy, but not exactly the same and that also has clear rules. But then there’s the magic of naming and some other kinds of magics that we don’t know much about. And I just eat that shit up. I cannot wait for the next book, please I’ve been waiting for two years, end my misery!

The Darker Shades of Magic Series by V. E. Schwab

This is another series that combines several types of magic. The main magic system is an elemental one, which I’m a sucker for. But the coolest is the blood magic. Which is also considered one of the elements, but it has its own rules. I love this series, I love Victoria Schwab and I can’t wait for more stories in this world.

Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence

This is another series with a rather ambiguous magic system that has a lot of different aspects and we don’t understand most of them. It reminds me a lot of Nevernight both in terms of the magic system and in terms of the vibe of the story and characters. Nevernight is more of a YA series, and it is a very dark story, it just has that YA vibe, whereas this series is an adult series. But they’re both awesome and if you enjoy one, chances are you’ll also enjoy the other.