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Fantasy books with an interesting "soft magic" system? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 days ago by BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee to c/books@lemmy.ml

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The title pretty much says it! I'd like to explore that idea a little and would love to hear y'all's recommendations. This thought was originally inspired by lord of the rings, but I'm also currently on a little nostalgia trip by reading The Sea of Trolls and the soft magic system in that is pretty fun

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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sanderson, who coined the terms, describes Potter as being a pretty good example of a mixed magic system.

Which makes sense to me. The spells they learn at school are a pretty hard magic system. But then things like "the power of love" are more reminiscent of a soft system.

[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago

Thank you, I do think this was mentioned in the article I linked, and it does seem like Harry Potter is a good example of a mixed system. In my mind what makes it a soft system more fundamentally is how the author is inconsistent and the way magic is never really restricted by rules, even if there is a lot of focus on classes and how the spells are conjured, etc.