Best use of Magic

[jthome27]

Name the series that, for you has the best use of magic. Also, does this series immerse this system of magic into the plot really well? For me, and this is going to be a popular one as this is a Sanderson fan site, it has to be by far the Wheel of Time (I know I'm guilty and this seems cliche) I just absolutely LOVED Aes Sedai, their politics, the white tower, channeling and the black tower!

Name your favorite magic system and why!

[Ketek]

Mistborn and its Metallic Arts. Heavily constrained by rules, but that was what made it such a good system; it didn't allow for deus ex machina without good reason. 

[jthome27]

I actually just started to listen to the first book in the Mistborn series last night! I hear great things about it and so far so good! Gotta love Michael Kramer!

[Delightful]

Of Sanderson, the Metallic Arts and Forgery are my favourite, though Lightweaving is also awesome.

 

[PorridgeBrick he/him]

Metallic Arts. I loved how Harmoniously the magics fit together, and how well each of them fit into the world. Behind that would be Awakening in Warbreaker.

[Ketek]

Ah yes, Forgery. That's a very good shout too. 

 

Awakening is nice, but it didn't quite hit me. Has a lot more potential than the Metallic Arts though, although the latter is probably more combat-oriented.

[Briar King]

The magic in Malazan is wicked cool and important.

[Tempus]

Lightbringer - very cool and interesting system. Nice and logically laid out, easy to follow, easy to infer, fun to rattle around in your head.

[Quiver he/him]

Not the best, but I love the ambiguity there is to the magic in A Song of Ice and Fire.

[LSU Tiger he/him]

The magic in Malazan is wicked cool and important.

Brandon's awesome, but I suspect he'll get plenty love here. I'm throwing in with Malazan.

Edited April 30, 2014 by LSU Tiger

[Swimmingly he/him]

Malazan all the way. With Malazan magic, there IS always another secret.

[-Deleted-]

I can't believe I'm the only one saying this, but Words of Radiance. Not only did it bring us closer to tying all the magic systems in Roshar and the Cosmere together, but the magic is so weaved into the story, it actually caused supporting characters to exist (Pattern and Syl). The magic is also what led all of the major battles, is the reason two of our main characters survived the fall that caused 100 pages of story to exist, and it is also a main component of most of the plot twists and is the thing slowly uniting all of our characters.

[AerionBFII he/him]

Im very fond of the Talent magic in the Night Angel and the magic in the Lightbringer Series Magic both by Brent Weeks.

 

The Auger abilities in the Licanius series is also very cool.

Edited May 17, 2015 by WEZ313

[Cracknut he/him]

Metalic Arts, Awakening and Forgery are some of the best magic-systems ever imho.

Malazan has it's ups and downs but still up there as well.

Brent Weeks is doing fine as well, especially in Lightbringer.

One that I can't see in this topic is Patrick Rothfuss and even if his magic-systems aren't as unique, the way they are executed and put into the world is phenomenal(yes I used that word ).

Powder Mage Trilogy has good stuff as well.

I'm forgetting something here...

[the Gleeman he/him]

Wheel of Time's one power is pretty sweet, but I'm a WoT fanboy soooo....

 

The metallic arts are, in my opinion, Sanderson's best magic system, but Awakening and Surges are also well done. 

[Tyson]

Symphany - Name of the Wind 

[Bort he/him]

Thanks to the Gleeman for reminding me of one of the greatest magic users that ever lived... Miracle Max. I was just considering which magic system would be best, and while I still can't decide, I do feel Miracle Max deserves at least a mention.

 

I mean, who else can revive someone from being mostly dead with a chocolate coated chestnut?

[Dunkum he/him]

Sanderson tends to be really good at this (and I'll cite Awakening, from Warbreaker as a favorite there).  for others:

 

The magic system in Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books is pretty good, and one of the few times I've actually seen "magic Words" type magic make sense.  Specifically incatations and such are done in the language that that world's god used when creating and naming everything (as opposed to garbled Latin, say).  I also like the aspect of it where knowing the name of a thing allows you to wield power over it.

 

another I liked is the endowments system from David Farland's Runelords series, which works similar to Hemalurgy in some ways.

 

and finally, I'm a fan of L.E. Modesitt's Recluce books for the Order/Chaos magic, which, when I read it anyway, seemed rather unique among most of the systems I had seen.

[Jit he/him]

Apart from Sanderson works, my top three would have to be in no particular:-

Malazan

Lightbringer

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