Honestly Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas fits. It's more a medium magic system, if that makes sense. Instead of not clearly defined rules it more just has ever changing, very simplified, rules.
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2024
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A bit unconventional, and certainly not high fantasy, but: John Dies At The End by David Wong.
Basically any physics books
Hmmm.
- „The dark is rising“ Series by Susan Cooper
- „The Moon of Gomrath“ by Alan Garner
- „The Innkeepers Song“ by Peter S. Beagle
- „Stardust“ by Neil Gaiman
- „The Night Circus“ by Erin Morgenstern
- „Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke
Those were on top of my head. There are probably many many more. Also check out other books by the authors I mentioned.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Not exactly an answer to your question, but I wanted to put in a pitch for one of my favorite talks about magic in fiction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeb_mSOgrVg
The Lord of the Rings and "The Last Unicorn" are the only works of fiction I'm aware of that have magic that works the way TF is describing it.
I appreciate it nonetheless. I'm gonna check it out here in a few, thanks!
Maybe Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy? I feel like it fits the soft magic definition somewhat
And it’s also fantastic
"The Realm of the Elderlings" in general I'd say.
Check out The Last Unicorn.
Malazan Book of the Fallen is fairly soft due to complexity and overlapping systems. A dozen or so themed sources of magic(warrens), several older sources of power (holds) and several powers specific to certain species.
Some characters can access several of these sources and one character semi-accidentally creates a supplemental system that might be more rules based. Geographical location matters and the warrens/holds are also physical realities separate from the main one with their own hazards.
Also, there are mysterious elder entities and there's always the possibility of ascending to godlike powers through a parallel system of high houses roughly aligned to warrens and mysterious buildings but defined by an in-universe tarot deck that can be altered...
Malazan is everything but soft. Its magic system and the world building in general look like what a programmer with a degree in reddit history would build
How are you defining "soft" in this case? It seems you and I have very different ideas of what that term means, and I'm curious about your perspective.
Haha! My definitions are arbitrary now that I think about it. Tons of gray area, since it's all fiction to begin with.
My definition of 'soft' would be any magic system that lacks exact rules or a concrete cause and effect relationship with scale. Flexible power from a vague connection to a god, planet of origin, or elemental source would be soft. Even softer if there are dozens or hundreds of vague sources with unpredictable effects.
Specific, quantifiable effects from a concrete source (a specific spell, ritual, or x amount of a substance) would be hard.
I'm more of a sci-fi guy but I listened to Joe Abercrombies The First Law trilogy as audio books and holy shit was it great. Ended up devouring the 3 standalone books and the following Age of Madness trilogy that plays out in the same world. Very dark stuff and I believe fits within the requested "soft magic" setting.
what makes a magic system soft. just not a lot of it like lotr?
https://habitwriting.com/hard-magic-vs-soft-magic/
Hard Magic System: A type of magic that has specific rules that the reader understands and which limit a magic user in what they can do.
Soft Magic System: A type of magic that–though rules may apply to it–does not have specific limits that are expressed to or known by the reader or audience.
Basically how much readers are exposed to the mechanics of the magic system, and thus how realistic or constrained-to-reality the magic seems. Harry Potter and LotR are probably more in the soft magic category, whereas Brandon Sanderson's novels have good examples of hard magic.
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.
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.
The Chronicles of Amber. By Roger Zelazny
The Riftwar Cycle might fit. The magic system starts off with the users having a hard understanding of how magic works only to learn how soft and pliable it really is.
That said, this series is like 30+ books and is put it at half of them being really good and half being a grind while nearly all of them are dated in fantasy style.
The Priory of the Orange Tree might fit what you are looking for. I've only learned the term soft magic just now so I might be wrong but magic in that world is mysterious and feels similar to Lord of the Rings. However there's multiple types of magic and one of the main characters understands a bit more about one of those types and thus knows a bit about its limitations iirc so we as the reader are introduced to those a bit. Overall I'd say it probably fits.
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
Howl's Moving Castle - the book showcases it a lot better than the movie. Kind of kiddish but that makes it a fast read, and I really appreciated the magic system.
Don't miss out on the other loosely-related books in the trilogy, they're just as cozy.
Read them all :)
The magician by Lev Grossman
Magician (and the rest of the riftwar cycle) by Feist
Might not be what you’re looking for but check out “Lord of the Mysteries”
A serial web story by Wildbow named "Pact" has a pretty interesting soft magic system with a decent amount of depth.
Description of Magic System
All characters who can use magic in the story are not able to lie on penalty of their magic power being greatly reduced. The magic system is based around tiny spirits who listen to and judge people. There are powers in 3s, power in performance, powers in name, yet despite this the magic system still feels ad hoc, like you can make magic happen that you would not normally be capable of if you are just smart enough, poetic enough, and persuasive enough to the spirits...
Magical beings feel Eldritch, actively dangerous, and typically very clever. The ones who are clever typically have very good mental models of what makes humans tick, yet clearly do not fall under the same rules.
Might be worth taking a look at David Zindell's "The Ea Cycle".
Did someone say The Wheel of Time? I recently read the first two books and it seriously has me hooked. Definitely has a softer magic system similar to LotR, at least so far! I definitely recommend.
The wheel of time is the greatest fantasy series ever written and i will die on this hill
You must hate women. Those characters are often terrible in that series
I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion
Because you are willing to die on that hill of the greatest series. The women in that book are not well written and most of them are kinda shit. The greatest fantasy series of all time should be better than that and you must hate women if you can ignore that to die on your hill
Can you perhaps provide an example? The vast majority of the women in WoT are strong, independent, and capable. The main female characters that start out timid or "weak" experience amazing growth over the series. Are there shitty women in the series? Yes. There are also shitty men in the series. There are over 1000 named characters throughout the series and (in my opinion) Jordan did an amazing job in the sheer diversity of types of characters portrayed.