Ditto on the spoilers for the end of the series. On 4/14/2012 3:52 PM, Noah P. Melnick wrote: > Spoiler space > > More soldier space > > Still more spoiler space > > Yet more spoiler space > > And, for good measure, even more spoiler space > . > . > . > . > . > > Although Ray doesn't come out and say the Oracle of Aal is dead, it is at > least suggested in ACI that if not dead it can no longer see into the future > because we're now at the end of everything and it could go any which way (I > am paraphrasing of course). Although I am very curious to see how this all > plays out in Ray's universe it strikes me that an often common theme in > fantasy series is a transition away from times of magic and really > fantastical stuff to the end of magic, or prophecy, etc. Don't mean to imply > that any particular implementation of the notion is bad or unoriginal (or > that Ray is going to kill off magic), just rather noting a hint of > commonality of theme. I don't think I've ever read a fantasy series that > goes the other way, e.g., where the characters begin an age of great magic, > prophecy and fantastical stuff rather than hearing legends of one or ending > one. Tolkien ends with the era of magic ending. Brooks began with the magic > largely having been lost. Jordan the same. Goodkind seems to have gone > there and looks to continue to be doing so. Martin's legends are of those > who did such great things his current characters think of those ancient > vanquished does as fairy tales... > > Just a few examples, but has anyone thought about this before? Why is the > age of magic and what have you always ending rather than beginning?
REF's has stated that one of the main themes of the Riftwar Saga is how the Greater Path magic came to Midkemia. If you've read the gaming material for Midkemia, you'll see how the Kingdom of the Isles map in the gaming time frame doesn't quite match up to the current map. That should be remedied by Magician's End. Several fantasy series have the "magic gone" theme often implying that the upcoming era will become modern day Earth (e.g. Tolkien) or the previous era was modern day Earth (e.g. Brooks). I'd make the argument that a high-magic use world doesn't necessarily imply great prophecy or fantastic adventures--you could roughly end up with a world much like today that runs on magic instead of science in that case. I'd also make the argument that in a "magic can do anything world", you'd end up with too many "powerful magic could have solved that problem" plot holes. This is not to be confused with a "pervasive magic" world or a "magic system with consistent rules" world. I'd probably say that both of Jim Butcher's series have elements of high magic (although more in the background in the earlier books). Ditto for Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. The early books of Glen Cook's Dread Empire series has very high magic, but I'm not sure it's the best read for most. Several people have recommended Steven Erickson's Malazan series, which I believe details a high magic world. -Ray
