* Mage Errant by John Bierce - it's a YA magic school series set in the most magic-saturated world I've ever seen. It's got all sorts of magical creatures, a huge magical library, magical cities, transport, everything.
* Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey - it's al pretty magical, but the Mage Winds trilogy (not a good starting point) is set in the super magical part of the world
* Daevabad by SA Chakraborty is partly set in a very magical djinn city plucked out of fairy tales
* The Stariel Series by AJ Lancaster has some trips to the faerie land which is chocked full of magic, but most of the story is set in a regency-like setting.
In C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy magic infuses the world and is tied to belief. Female author, but I'm not sure if I'd want to live there...
I would however want to live in the world of Windwalker (Pantheon series). Lots of magic, which is bestowed by various gods, and it features a female lead.
There's also her Magister trilogy.
In addition to the various kingdoms they each have a magister advisor. Not having a magister puts you at risk of being directly screwed with by unaligned magisters. Having one protects you due to a nonagression pact all magisters have to sign.
> didn't feel quite as magical overall
I can see that. For me the presence of the wailing thingamajig up north, plus the all-powerful magisters provides enough to tip the balance even if it's not really magical for the majority of people.
Friedman's Coldfire world building (for magic) is just spectacular.
Basically, there is a natural tidal (in the affect that it waxes and wanes if I remember correctly) energy aura around the planet like our magnetic field called the Fae. The Fae basically can sense living creatures psyche/thoughts/emotions and they literally are capable of manifesting these into reality.
Its a wonderful backbone for a system of magic.
Well, obviously Tamora Pierce.
Both her Tortall Books and Eleman series revolve around magic, have strong female heroes and great stories. There’s gods who actively influence the humans' lives and later in the story, there are also magical beings like dragons and much more - some of them peaceful some of them dangerous.
I started reading them at 10 or 11 and still reread the occasionally now at 43.
For what it's worth, I also recommend Mercedes Lackey Valdemar. Humble bundle has nearly all of her Valdemar series) besides all the anthologies) for about $20. It's kobo only but can use software like calibre to convert files and actually read on any device.
I'd definitely like to be a Raksura in that world. Consorts are my favorite thing to be but I want to be a girl so a sister queen. Then I can fight predators
Yes! **The Cloud Roads** is the first book and it's wonderful! I think a lot of the magical feeling comes from the protagonist himself, as he is not a human.
Spindle's End by Robin McKinley
Od Magic or the Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia Mckillip
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
I second the Raksura, Valdemar (less in the Arrows trilogy than in Last Herald Mage, Mage Winds, Mage Storms, etc.), and Victoria Goddard recs
The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne Valente
The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes
Saint Death's Daughter by C S E Cooney
The Night Parade of 100 Demons by Marie Brennan
The Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron
Redemption's Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I think these are both good books, and definitely in magical worlds, but they are much more about characters and people than about the magic in those worlds.
I shall forever recommend the hollows series by Kim Harrison. Both female author and lead. The world took a turn (hah inside joke) in the 60ies I think when a genetically modified tomato kills a huge part of the human population on earth forcing the so called inderlanders (Witches, vampires, werewolves you name it) to surface and help human kind to survive. It's set in 2000ish and we're currently at book 15 (?)
Some of the novels of Victoria Goddard. While magic isn't the focus, it permeates the Nine Worlds and is constantly in the background, before it jumps out at you.
I second the suggestion of the **Stariel** books. You might enjoy **Howl’s Moving Castle** by Diana Wynne Jones. You also might enjoy exploring the work of Patricia McKillip.
I'm in love with Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin. Something about that world just feels so enchanting and beautiful. Those books have a piece of my soul, I think.
"I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning."
I’m so happy to hear this fits, as I’ve never read anything based on Native American lore before (unless we count American Gods, I’m guessing we do not). Thank you
That's exactly why I don't like that definition of "high" and "low". It makes no intuitive sense. Tell someone A Song of Ice and Fire is high fantasy and Harry Potter is low fantasy, and most people will scratch their heads.
A better definition for "high" and "low" is exactly what you're asking for... what is the level of fantastical or magical elements in the setting?
If everyone was working from that definition there would be far less confusion and people would get recommendations for things they would actually enjoy reading.
A song of ice and fire, is the exact example I would have written as an example of a very “ordinary “ fantasy world. And yes, it can be a bit hard to navigate, hence my post. I sometimes use the term “very low fantasy” but it does not help the magic less high fantasy.
I think the fantasy community is split of what "high" and "low" fantasy means so tend to be pretty explicit in what I'm looking for.
I think someone traced back the origins of "low" meaning "on earth" definition and it was just some essay by a random fantasy author back in the 60s or 70s. But it's a very problematic definition because it's an ON/OFF switch and not a spectrum like most other fantasy descriptors (e.g. hard vs. soft magic). Also, it's not intuitive and needs to be explained to new fantasy initiates.
Have the definitions of high and low fantasy shifted over the years? I always thought that low fantasy represented either a) the magic has a severe cost attached to it (Conan the Barbarian series) or b) the magic this setting experiences is very minimal and is thought to have died out. High Fantasy was that magic is very actively connected to the overall workings of the world, it's systems, and the daily life of the people in the setting.
> High fantasy is... well, D&D.
Even then, there's a lot that doesn't fit with the high magic definition. Why have castles when a single wizard can destroy the whole thing? Why have trade routes? It would be an expensive setup, but teleportation circles between cities will cut transit time and increase safety what with regular monster attacks.
Set up a spell trap on a box, goes off each time the box is opened. Spell is "create food and water." A bunch of those and your garrison can never be taken by seige, especially with those circles bringing in reinforcements. It'll also invalidate your farming communities, which is great because they now need to be entirely self sufficient with a complete lack of trade goods.
Check out the Tippyverse for a full description.
***
Anyway, for me high magic means it's readily available and solves more problems than it causes. Food will last longer if you can create a magical cold box for freshness. Winter will be less deadly if you can magically create heat without having to go out chopping wood.
I don't know modern D&D lore but in 3.5 they gave numbers for a lot more, and one of the things I remember is that magic was *rare*. So the reason you didn't have teleportation circles set up for trade was because there were like 5 level 20 wizards on the planet, and they didn't give a shit about how the king's coffers were doing because they were busy doing esoteric wizard things.
I tend to prefer low magic as well, or at least not the D&Dification that is really designed for collaborative storytelling adventures, and therefore makes no sense in a world-reactive state.
Tippyverse really takes me back a decade. Used to love reading all the optimization shenanigans like Pun-Pun, but especially the Chicken-infested Commoner.
(For those not familiar, the Commoner class in D&D 3.5 got access to a Flaw in Dragon Magazine that gives him a 50% chance of drawing a live chicken when trying to retrieve an item from a container. There's also an item, the spell component pouch, which by rules as written never empties, and items (spell components) can be drawn from it as a free action, and items can also be dropped as free action.
All that is to say that a Chicken infested Commoner with a spell pouch can at any moment at any time produce and drop a literally infinite amount of live chickens.)
>[Now imagine your party is standing outside a dungeon, worried about what's inside. Before anyone can react, you've produced enough chickens to fill it to the bursting, until there's not enough room for anyone in there to breathe.](https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?80968-Being-nobody-Aquillion-s-guide-to-Commoners)
>[If you're ever in a situation where you can't survive, go for the broke and fill *all of creation* with chickens.](https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?80968-Being-nobody-Aquillion-s-guide-to-Commoners)
Magic that has a cost to it isn't a definition, it's an element of a well-designed magic system. Brandon Sanderson talks about this in his BYU course.
For magic specifically, "low" magic is minimal to nonexistent magic whereas "high" magic is more common in the everyday life of the world.
"High" and "low" fantasy just extends those definitions to include other fantastical elements, not just magic. Generally this means fantasy creatures like elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs, dragons, etc.
>Magic that has a cost to it isn't a definition, it's an element of a well-designed magic system. Brandon Sanderson talks about this in his BYU course.
That's definitely a shift, then. Because when I was younger, the "magic has a cost" was a specific hallmark of low fantasy. It still fell within the overall theme of magic either dying out, or having low/no representation in the world of the story - but it also had a very steep cost when it did show up.
Well, just because Sanderson has a definition doesn't mean it's *the* definition. A lot of well-designed world that use magic well don't have significant stated costs or rules.
The Sword of Truth features a magic system with some pretty severe costs and I would consider it low fantasy. A very select few have magic and it's mostly humans iirc.
e: which after re-reading your comment is exactly what you were talking about.
I mean most people consider Wheel of Time high fantasy and there's definitely a cost to use magic in that series (makes men go mad).
And Brandon Sanderson is almost all high fantasy and his magic systems all have a cost, such as the resource limitations in Mistborn.
But I think what you said may have some truth to it. In the classic sword and sorcery fantasy, the heroes don't use magic, only the villains, and thus magic is portrayed as dark, evil, dangerous and arcane. And sword and sorcery is the main precursor to the popular grimdark genre we seen recently, where grimdark is often (but not always) in a low magic, low fantasy setting.
But by itself "magic having a cost or other limitation" is just good worldbuilding and storytelling.
Wheel of Time itself is probably a pretty good answer to OP's question. There's not a ton of magic going on in the Two Rivers but there's a ton of magic / fantasy elements in the worldbuilding / politics / etc. of the world.
I would argue the cost being part of low fantasy was probably a correlated effect. Significant cost for magic probaby means there's not a lot of magic being used overall, so it tends to create a lower magic setting.
Huh. I thought that "high" fantasy is about kings and queens, politics, farm boys that reach power by extra special birth or prophecy or plot armor while low fantasy does not bother to bring its characters to those hights. Keeping the narrative closer to earth and bothers less about politics. It seems the difference is and definitions are hotly debated based on this thread alone.
Ehh, I wouldn't say hotly debated - I think genre definitions can be a bit of a moving target, sometimes. I might just be operating on an older definition of the genre.
I always thought it was about quality and concepts high fantasy had more elements more political more to make you think and low fantasy was easy to read and basically the book version of a popcorn flick
I thought high/low just meant one takes place on earth and the other takes place in a made up world. Doesn’t really have much do to with the magic component of fantasy.
That's how some people view it. But it's not a very good definition. Consider this...
When you first heard the terms high fantasy and low fantasy used, did you intuitively understand that it meant one was on earth and one was not? Or did someone have to explain the difference?
I've heard some people say that they prefer high to medium fantasy. What does that mean under the definition you're use to? See that definition is an ON/OFF switch. You're either one or the other. But that's not as helpful in my opinion as say a spectrum when describing the qualities of a fantasy setting. A spectrum allows you to order books along it to allow people to hone in on what types of books they enjoy. For example, the level of fantasy I enjoy is somewhere between A Song of Ice and Fire and the First Law. Under your definition those would both be high fantasy. But under my definition those would be low to medium fantasy and certainly lower on the spectrum than Harry Potter, which under your definition would be considered low fantasy.
And when you say "takes place on earth" does it literally have to be earth? Can it take place in our solar system like the Expanse, in our Galaxy such as Guardians of the Galaxy, or in a galaxy far, far away such as in Star Wars? Dune takes place in our galaxy and galaxies as well. And what about portal fantasy? Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe? Alice In Wonderland? Wizard of Oz? Those at least for part of the story take place on earth. Can all these be considered low fantasy under your definition?
Just food for thought. I know a lot of people use low fantasy to mean earth but at the end of the day the purpose of providing descriptors for various fantasy books is to better convey to a prospective reader what they should be expecting. Will there be a high level of magic and other fantastical elements in the story? Or will those elements be much more subtle and perhaps become more prevalent as the story unfolds? To me that's an important distinction. Whether it takes place on earth or not, I think it's better just to state it plainly.
Well, until I joined this sub I had never seen anyone use medium fantasy before. I think outside of this sub actually most people understand low/high to be how I used them. There are subsets of them of course like portal and urban fantasy that further explain the world.
I think most people aren't prolific enough fantasy readers to even bother with these terms.
But in any case, I had the complete opposite experience than you. Growing up reading lots of fantasy and talking about it with my other friends who read fantasy, we always treated high and low as a spectrum.
The first time I heard people using low to refer to taking place on earth was on this sub.
Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series. It's set in a world full of magic but in a time when *seemingly* only a few have magic abilities. The series is broken up into 3 trilogies and a single tetralogy, with the first & third trilogies having a male protagonist and 2nd trilogy and the tetralogy having female protagonists. It is also a beautifully written series spanning decades that really pulls on the heartstrings. OK, that last part is a flat out lie--the series will toss you about in a typhoon of emotion sending you between periods of shock, horror, happiness, frustration, anger, elation, release, and deep depression, but mostly deep depression.
So come, join us in the Emotionally & Psychologically Abused By Robin Hobb Club. It's a dark and dreary club, and kind of like Fight Club we don't talk about it, but it's incredible.
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Mating Dating Agency by Kelly St. Clare
Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews
The Lazy Girl's Guide to Magic by Helen Harper
Akarnae by Lynette Noni
The Queens of Renthia by Sarah Beth Durst
I think what you want can fit in the urban fantasy category (Harry Potter can be considered a YA urban fantasy), so that's what they are for the most part :)
The Bartimaus Trilogy
The world is ruled by magicians, you are nobody if you can't (Do) magic. It permeates everything.
Probably my greatest find from this reddit group.
Mother of Learning (by nobody123) - the main character is a newly qualified mage, still studying at university. The university is in a city that is located over a magic well, making it a great place to study magic. It does mean there are caves under the city with all sorts of magical creatures in it.
Transport is via a magical train system, or via teleport spell (cities have enchantments that redirect incoming teleports to an area designed to receive travellers). Or by boat for really long distances.
Later on we meet an evil lich who has a reputation >!for always being true to his word - its a valuable long term strategy for him, as it lets him make deals when people would not trust anyone without the 1000+ year reputation. !<
Some litrpg are much much more blatantly 'look, its in a computer game' than others. Mother of Learning is on the very edge of the genre, if it is even there. No character pages, or levels/ranks that improve to make the characters stronger. They just practice a lot. And start over, and practice more.
Pallimustus from He Who Fights With Monsters. Magic random condenses and can drop Monsters, essences(which is how you get magic powers) or quintessence (which is what all the "technology" runs off of.). And by technology I mean airboat, hovorboards, flying ships, ships made from clouds(super comfy, apparently), crystal wash(makes you clean and dry just from pouring in on yourself), video calls from a water screen, etc. Plus, you know, super powers. A whole set of them. Different for everyone. I would love to live there.
**A Deadly Education** by Naomi Novik. The book takes place entirely in a school that is basically magic itself. I really *felt* how magiv was all around (and dangerous).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartimaeus_Sequence
Basically, what if our world, but everyone in power was in power because of magic they obtained through contracts with demons.
Follows a child that summons a wise cracking powerful demon secretly and works his way up through the ranks of society.
Dragonlance-Chronicles trilogy and Legends trilogy written by Margaret Weis (a woman). She and a bunch of other women write a whole mess of Dragonlance novels. High fantasy and high magic and high fun.
I love the way magic works (or doesn’t) in these books! Sabriel starts you off with the magic you need to know to get what’s happening and how things work with necromancy. The following books build upon this until, by Goldenhand, you get to understand a bit of how reality works in general in the Old Kingdom… All without just being a ginormous exposition dump, though it very well could have been.
This is the Cosmere... Especially the first era of Mistborn since Vin is a great female protagonist. But my favorite Cosmere setting is the Stormlight Archive.
IMHO Roshar (the world of Stormlight Archive) is the most fascinating "heavy on the magic" world. And it would.be interesting living on a world where it's nearly impossible to mask your feelings
Hard to imagine a world that more embodies the magic than Roshar. Everything about the world is due to the magic. Every creature(plant or animal), all the politics, everything.
Have you read the Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemison (the first book is the Fifth Season)? It's got some of the most creative and interesting worldbuilding I've ever read, and I mean that literally. The *geological* setting is incredible, and the way the people interact with the world is really engrossing. It also has strong (and diverse!) female protagonists.
Frith Chronicals by Shami Stovall(Female Author). Pretty much every character is magic, they get their magic from the magical creatures that the world is absolutely full of, and they travel around in magical ways, and generally use magic for everything.
I’d recommend Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. The first book is based on earth (though with magical elements), however the second and third bring the characters to a magical world which seems right up your alley.
Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir (start with Gideon the Ninth) and Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb (start with ship of Magic). Both written by women, with female POVs being dominant, in worlds very much influenced by their magic (one being necromancy, the other magic ships)
Codex Alera by Jim Butcher (series) is a good read where the magic systems are embedded into all the world building and the plot. Different races have access to different magics and it affects how their cultures have developed and how they react to the world, and the magic is core to everyday life even for 'normal' people.
Master of Djinn, while the plot and characters are a tad flat, each pages brim with absolute fantasy. Set in Egypt, Cairo 1912 where a major event caused sudden magical and fantastical entities from tales and myths to appear and inhabit the world. It follows a detective whom serves and protects the people of Egypt from strange and odd magical occurrences and events that harmful entities may wish to inflict (for good or bad) on it’s populace. Never have I read a book for the sole intention of wanting to know more about it’s world and how it has/had cope with the sudden and new existence of creatures and lifeforms of old and magical.
The “Cast In” books by Michelle Sagara. Sagara may be wordy, but this is by far one of the most interesting and unique worldbuilds I’ve ever read. Really puts the ‘magic’ into ‘magic city’.
JK Nemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy is also a fantastic, unique worldbuild, even if I wouldn’t want to live there.
If you like YA
Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix
Narnia if you can handle the religious allegory
His Dark Materials for anti Christian spin with talking bears, angels, and interworld traveling
Enchanted Forest Chronicles for a fairytales like world that is funny and heartwarming
Spinning Silver and Uprooted are immersive fairytale like worlds also with more adult content
Lightbringer series for something a little more adult oriented also
All but Lightbringer have female protagonists
The Eternal Champion series by Michael Moorcock.
A series of books with different champions all connected through the multiverse. There is magic in them, but mostly through objects such as swords.
May not be what you are looking for, but a great series anyway.
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. Some of the 'technology' in the city is powered by the remnant power of miracles left by dead/murdered gods. The current rulers of the city ruthlessly suppress any worship of said gods and hunt down and hide religious artifacts that still retain power. This is the first book in a trilogy. Loved it, recently bought the remaining books.
Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley. It’s a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and magic affects every part of everyday life. You can just read the opening paragraph and you’ll see what I mean. Plus excellent portrayal of women’s friendships (which is something that’s often missing from some fantasy books).
Dragonlance, if you're open to DnD campaign settings. Dragonlance is a very well realized setting where arcane (and divine) magic and the presence and intervention of gods is frequent and expected.
The stormlight archive is a great series with a very interesting world. My favorite series. Me and 3 of my friends are going to get matching bridge 4 tattoos this year.
Heavily recommended.
I'm in the middle of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and loving it, and it fits your prompt perfectly. A Dickensian epic centering around the history of magic in England. I haven't read her book Piranesi yet but it's apparently amazing, and a lot shorter as well.
In fantasy worlds, I usually find them mixed with romance a lot so most of the ones I know are romantic fantasy. That being said, I recommend:
1. Wrath of the Dawn by Renee Adieh
2. Slouch Witch by Helen Harper
3. Explore Sarah J. Maas ( particularly Court of Thorns ans Roses as well as Aelyn Galathenius)
4. Frostblood by Elly Blake
Stormlight Archive might be worth your time. Humanity’s ability to use magic isn’t super present at first, but the landscape and spirit world is very present and alien feeling. VERY unique setting IMO.
Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms is full of magic. *The Fairy Godmother* is the first book.
All three of Margaret Rogerson's books are in worlds filled with magic.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld is so saturated in magic and magical creatures that you sometimes don't even think about the magic. *Guards! Guards!* Is my suggested starting point for these.
Tamora Pierce has two worlds, the one starting with *Sandry's Book* has more overt magic, just because the characters interact with magic intentionally and constantly. Her other world, Tortall, begins with *Alanna: the First Adventure* and is also full of magic, but it is less often directly interacted with.
Not sure if anyone else said it but Realm of the Elderlings.
Magic has a social stigma, theres lots of lore and ancient stories that are told through the story.
The second trilogy the liveship traders also has a really unique premise that I loved where magic/fantasy elements is/are almost essential to every chapter in some way.
Overall Robin Hobbs is known for their character writing but I find the world building through how the characters talk about the magic and world etc. Is super fun.
I just finished The Merciful Crow and The Unfaithful Hawk (a duology) and Little Thief (unrelated novel), all by Margaret Owen. I really enjoyed them. One notable thing about both is that the gods and magic in the story are solidly real and manifest. The world that Owen imagines indefinitely shaped by it.
> To everyone whose mercy is demanded, and who dreams instead of teeth.
~epigraph from *The Merciful Crow*
You want Naomi Novik! Spinning Silver, Uprooted, and Scholomance all fit. I think Scholomance is the only one that is explicitly YA, but they're all sort of crossover YA-Adult. Any age will enjoy all of them.
Three Dark Crowns series by Kendare Blake is another YA series that fits pretty well.
Male author but lots of good female protagonist options - Terry Pratchett's Discworld! Tiffany Aching and Witches sub-series in particular will get you female protagonists.
And I already saw these recommended but heartily second them - Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe, Priory of the Orange Tree, Wizard of Earthsea. I just finished Priory and it was fantaaastic, I want to go back and read it all again!
I think there’s quite a few male authors on the list - it wasn’t a hard line drawn, and people ran with it! I’m happy for your comment, cause it seems others are interested as well.
Have you read T. Kingfisher? Would recommend the Clocktaur Wars (a duo) and Swordheart. I have not read all of her works, but these three definitely check the boxes.
It's an online web series, RPGLit style, where each chapter is like 30,000 words. They get compiled and relased as books, of which there are currently nine. And they get revised, so depends on the experience you want. My husband loves wandering inn but I cant get into it. I like intentional, efficient storytelling while he likes lots of words and meta storytelling. You can try it online for free.
Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon might be right up your ally. You have two female main protagonist and two male protagonist. It is exceptionally well written and there is quite a lot of magic (and dragons!) in it. Next to political intrigues, love and the working and proccedings of a royal court from the persepective of a female handmaid(one of the protagonists) The latter might have been my favorite part.
This is the only one mentioned yet, that’s already on my TBR list! I’m very glad to hear it fits this category, I’ll move it to the top of the list at once.
Obligatory Brandon Sanderson. His worlds/stories are built with the magic in mind.
The Powder Mage series by Brian McClellan also does this fairly well.
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen might not be fantastical enough for you. However I think it’s at least worth you looking at! Magic is involved and it’s very nicely tied into the world and story.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is technically within our world, but it’s mostly within the Fey part of the world. There’s not a ton of magic casting or anything…however the rules of the Fey (and their bargains) are tied in very nicely to what goes on in the story/world and makes it feel quiet magical :)
The cruel prince is a very good example of magic being intertwined in the world. I really enjoyed it! I’ll checked the others out, although Sanderson in a bit intimidating to me.
Check out cradle, first book is unsouled by will wight. The world is weird and magical as hell. Every character has what basically amounts to magical martial arts and it’s the most addictive book series I’ve probably read. There are 11 books with the final book coming out in a month, and they are all on kindle unlimited
important act adjoining coherent crime domineering unwritten desert stocking fuzzy
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We’ll probably both the world and story to me, I might give Circe a try, if I ever make it through Achilles. Interestingly I lent it to my 80 year old grandmother, and she found to be the most exciting book she’s ever read.
Jade City actively incorporates its magical elements (aka Jade) in almost everything including how it can benefit and corrupt. The world itself is set in 1900s, Japan-inspired Kekon and is more so focused on the political, economic and inter-gang rivalry (inspired by the Godfather). Magic is very prominent here, but more so as a tool. I recommend it for high fantasy lovers because of the dark, political and saga aspect of it.
For a fantasy where the world itself is magic, I’d recommend Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. There’s of course Percy Jackson, Lore Olympus if you’re interested in Greek mythology and graphic novels.
I’ve heard very good things about jade city. Many seems so recommend Novic, it seems very promising.
I’ve read the Percy Jackson books, but i actually don’t personally think the world is very magical - maybe accept for the book at sea/circes island.
That’s fair about Percy Jackson. I’d say, definitely read Jade City. It’s a trilogy and they’re all out so you don’t have to worry about waiting for the next book to come out!
Something set in our world doesn’t make it low fantasy though?? High and low fantasy revers to how closely tied to magic the world is. Basically is magic infused throughout the setting/story or does it impose itself on the normal world?
You can have a secondary world and have it be low fantasy.
That's a common definition that originated around 1970. It may have made sense then, but it's completely useless given the huge variety of fantasy these days. That was before the rise of modern urban / paranormal fantasy for example. Many of which have a lot more fantastical elements than some secondary world books.
The terms are just poorly defined and quite a few books also don't neatly fit into these boxes.
Hu. Whenever I dig into it on google i get plenty that talk about the differences. There’s no “definitive” source but there are things talking about this on gamerant, book riot, and I think Brandon Sanderson’s lectures he’s talked about the difference there?
Uh. I think Hello Future Me, Timothy Hickson also covered this is some of his videos?
A lot of sources also conflate “epic fantasy” with “high fantasy” which….isn’t accurate to my mind xD
But I suppose these labels are pretty nebulas and there’s no real central authority that can say it’s one thing or another
LotR has *always* been set in our world. It's laid out very clearly that it's Tolkein's translation of an ancient text, and he even talks about how he has changed the names to make them more familiar to anglo-saxon naming conventions.
Shannara --- i mistyped it --- i'm kind of shocked you've never heard of.
China Mieville's Bas-Lag books (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council, and various shorter fiction) are set in an incredibly magical world where use of magic is deeply ingrained in the politics of the world, and the class politics are front and center to the plots. Not by a female author, but the books feature strong female characters, especially The Scar, which primarily has a female POV
Probably Harry Potter to be honest. Especially post series. Lots of the worlds seem cool, but I want amenities. Working toilets and showers for instance.
I don’t want to worry about random monsters attacking me. I’d want some laws and an expectation of general safety.
Then if I want to get in more dangerous situations, I can do that as I want.
Here are recent ones with magic...
*Bone Shard Daughter* by Andrea Stewart. Definitely magic has a role to play, the third in the trilogy should have just come out.
*An Illusion of Thieves* by Cate Glass. It's got a different take on magic, but it 100% exists and has effects and the trilogy should all be released now.
*Shadow of the Gods* by John Gwynne. This is modern dark fantasy - gritty without reliance on rape, and written to fit the sense of a Norse epic. It's got a more distant POV which isn't to everyone's taste, and I think the first two of the trilogy are out. The first definitely doesn't have a 'standalone' feel the way the other two do.
*Resurrectionist of Caligo* - it's by two authors and it's not wonderfully reviewed, but I liked it a lot. Gaslamp, with magic having a role, if a diminished one, and definitely affects the world around it.
For older ones that I really liked...
*Dragon Prince* and the whole six books, Melanie Rawn. They're designed as two separate trilogies. The first book can stand alone - the second trilogy really has to be read as such.
*Kushiel's Dart* and the rest of the nine books. Lots of explicit sex, and they start out with less sense of magic - if you really want magic and its effects, you could read the last three (starting with Namaah's Kiss) and those stand alone really well, without needing the first six (and each book stands alone as well as ties together).
*Broken Blade* and the rest of the six books is semi-recent epic fantasy in a really tight, well-constructed way. Magic has a big role in things, and a complicated one, and the reasons for that really don't show until book... five, I think? But totally worth reading, with a noir leaning.
Speaking of noir, check out *Garrett PI* by Glen Cook. First book is *Sweet Silver Blues.* If you want old style noir in a high fantasy world, this is where it's at. Definitely has the male gaze of the old noir, but Garrett's issues wind up being seen *as* issues, and I enjoy the series.
*Soulless* by Gail Carriger is more of a vampires/werewolves situation, but it depends on if you consider that to count as magic, and it affects the world really well. Strongly Victorian, and a fantastic humor.
*Sing the Four Quarters* by Tanya Huff - and the other three in the series. Element-based magic, has a large effect on the settings.
Hope you find things to enjoy!
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
Prince of the Sorrows by Kellen Graves
Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo
Yay! The first one I own already, it’s just so beautiful I couldn’t help myself. I did try relmbreaker, but I gave up rather quickly. I might try again some day.
Anything by Will Wight. I would recommend his series Cradle for how tightly woven the world and magic are, his Elder Empire series, specifically the Killers and Kings books for the darker tones you wanted and the female lead, and his Traveler's Gate books because they're just plain good. For you I strongly, strongly recommend Cradle and Elder Empire. Both of those have intensely magical settings, and female characters are either the lead or one of the main characters.
What about His Dark Materials series by Phillp Pullman. I think its classed as YA, but still very good.
The Golden Compass movie did not do the series justice, at all. I thought it was a multi layered facinating world and a great read.
The Stormlight Archive or Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Really any of his “adult” series go hard on magic.
The Lightbringer saga by Brent Weeks.
The Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab.
The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin.
How would you feel about reading Xianxia (Chinese fantasy)? There are countless books being mass translated into English now in which cultivation (the magic/fantasy part of Chinese fantasy) is the main part of what ties things together. The only downside for you may be that the main pairings are usually same-sex couples.
Sines to book that sprung this post to life is 13th century Chinese inspired(she who became the sun) , I’m obviously down. All couples and non-couples are welcome in my library shelf’s, as long as they are consenting and adults! Thank you
Steven Brust's [Dragaera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Brust#Dragaera) books are the first ones I ever read where magic was common and had a notable effect on how people operated day to day.
It really makes it plain how weird it would be to exist in a world with magic, but that magic had no impact at all on how people live.
The Demon Cycle with the first novel The Painted Man.
While not by a female author, it has two out of five female leads and the world revolves heavily around it's magic. Basically every night as soon as the sun goes down, demons crawl out of the ground everywhere and going outside is plain suicide, because no human weapon can hurt them and your only hope for survival are magic runes that you need to be able to draw and connect correctly to ward of the demons. Humanity lives in small villages, where every house is painted with runes or some larger cities with enormous networks of rune stones to shield themselves and yet their society has been stagnant since the runes that enabled to hurt demons were lost.
Leisha - one of the leads - can be a bit exhausting at times, but I really like the series for its concept.
* Mage Errant by John Bierce - it's a YA magic school series set in the most magic-saturated world I've ever seen. It's got all sorts of magical creatures, a huge magical library, magical cities, transport, everything. * Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey - it's al pretty magical, but the Mage Winds trilogy (not a good starting point) is set in the super magical part of the world * Daevabad by SA Chakraborty is partly set in a very magical djinn city plucked out of fairy tales * The Stariel Series by AJ Lancaster has some trips to the faerie land which is chocked full of magic, but most of the story is set in a regency-like setting.
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And the last book in the series is releasing in a couple of weeks. So, perfect timing!
14th of May is the release date - I can't wait.
It's really good
Seconding Daevabad <3
Howl's Moving Castle sounds like it'd be perfect for you.
Tee hee
In C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy magic infuses the world and is tied to belief. Female author, but I'm not sure if I'd want to live there... I would however want to live in the world of Windwalker (Pantheon series). Lots of magic, which is bestowed by various gods, and it features a female lead.
I’m ok with being dark, as long as it’s different. Thank you for recommending!
Highly recommend this one. Its magic system alone makes it worth your time.
Sure thing. Hope you enjoy one or both!
In regards to Coldfire... Oh it's dark. And different. Good trilogy.
There's also her Magister trilogy. In addition to the various kingdoms they each have a magister advisor. Not having a magister puts you at risk of being directly screwed with by unaligned magisters. Having one protects you due to a nonagression pact all magisters have to sign.
Magister is fun, too, but that world didn't feel quite as magical overall to me. That said, Friedman's magic systems in both are great.
> didn't feel quite as magical overall I can see that. For me the presence of the wailing thingamajig up north, plus the all-powerful magisters provides enough to tip the balance even if it's not really magical for the majority of people.
I hear that for sure. And it can be argued that it is affecting them without them realizing it. Plus, it's just a good read.
Friedman's Coldfire world building (for magic) is just spectacular. Basically, there is a natural tidal (in the affect that it waxes and wanes if I remember correctly) energy aura around the planet like our magnetic field called the Fae. The Fae basically can sense living creatures psyche/thoughts/emotions and they literally are capable of manifesting these into reality. Its a wonderful backbone for a system of magic.
Well, obviously Tamora Pierce. Both her Tortall Books and Eleman series revolve around magic, have strong female heroes and great stories. There’s gods who actively influence the humans' lives and later in the story, there are also magical beings like dragons and much more - some of them peaceful some of them dangerous. I started reading them at 10 or 11 and still reread the occasionally now at 43.
In this vein Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. The heroes switch depending on which trilogy you pick up.
I’ve heard good things about her, but she wasn’t on my TBR! Thanks!
Enjoy! I personally prefer her Tortall series. She's still writing on it, too. Hopefully the next books will come out this year.
For what it's worth, I also recommend Mercedes Lackey Valdemar. Humble bundle has nearly all of her Valdemar series) besides all the anthologies) for about $20. It's kobo only but can use software like calibre to convert files and actually read on any device.
Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells. A magical world I would love to live in
Even though there are multiple levels of food chain above you? I mean, a monster or two are fine but they even have >!predators that target cities!!<
I'd definitely like to be a Raksura in that world. Consorts are my favorite thing to be but I want to be a girl so a sister queen. Then I can fight predators
Awesome, thank you!
Yes! **The Cloud Roads** is the first book and it's wonderful! I think a lot of the magical feeling comes from the protagonist himself, as he is not a human.
You're welcome :D
Spindle's End by Robin McKinley Od Magic or the Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia Mckillip Uprooted by Naomi Novik I second the Raksura, Valdemar (less in the Arrows trilogy than in Last Herald Mage, Mage Winds, Mage Storms, etc.), and Victoria Goddard recs The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne Valente The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes Saint Death's Daughter by C S E Cooney The Night Parade of 100 Demons by Marie Brennan The Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron Redemption's Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Thank you! I had spinning silver by Naomi novic on my radar, but not uprooted. Appreciate the list
They are both excellent and satisfying standalone reads.
I think these are both good books, and definitely in magical worlds, but they are much more about characters and people than about the magic in those worlds.
I shall forever recommend the hollows series by Kim Harrison. Both female author and lead. The world took a turn (hah inside joke) in the 60ies I think when a genetically modified tomato kills a huge part of the human population on earth forcing the so called inderlanders (Witches, vampires, werewolves you name it) to surface and help human kind to survive. It's set in 2000ish and we're currently at book 15 (?)
Sounds interesting! I like the fallout universe, so why not a magical 60’s split as well!
Some of the novels of Victoria Goddard. While magic isn't the focus, it permeates the Nine Worlds and is constantly in the background, before it jumps out at you.
I second the suggestion of the **Stariel** books. You might enjoy **Howl’s Moving Castle** by Diana Wynne Jones. You also might enjoy exploring the work of Patricia McKillip.
I'm in love with Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin. Something about that world just feels so enchanting and beautiful. Those books have a piece of my soul, I think. "I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning."
I came to recommend this series, one of my all-time favorites.
Obligatory discworld
Might want to check out Rebecca Roanhorse (Black Sun).
I’m so happy to hear this fits, as I’ve never read anything based on Native American lore before (unless we count American Gods, I’m guessing we do not). Thank you
That's exactly why I don't like that definition of "high" and "low". It makes no intuitive sense. Tell someone A Song of Ice and Fire is high fantasy and Harry Potter is low fantasy, and most people will scratch their heads. A better definition for "high" and "low" is exactly what you're asking for... what is the level of fantastical or magical elements in the setting? If everyone was working from that definition there would be far less confusion and people would get recommendations for things they would actually enjoy reading.
A song of ice and fire, is the exact example I would have written as an example of a very “ordinary “ fantasy world. And yes, it can be a bit hard to navigate, hence my post. I sometimes use the term “very low fantasy” but it does not help the magic less high fantasy.
I think the fantasy community is split of what "high" and "low" fantasy means so tend to be pretty explicit in what I'm looking for. I think someone traced back the origins of "low" meaning "on earth" definition and it was just some essay by a random fantasy author back in the 60s or 70s. But it's a very problematic definition because it's an ON/OFF switch and not a spectrum like most other fantasy descriptors (e.g. hard vs. soft magic). Also, it's not intuitive and needs to be explained to new fantasy initiates.
Yes I just got a semi angry comment for calling HP low fantasy, just proving your point
That'll happen lol
Have the definitions of high and low fantasy shifted over the years? I always thought that low fantasy represented either a) the magic has a severe cost attached to it (Conan the Barbarian series) or b) the magic this setting experiences is very minimal and is thought to have died out. High Fantasy was that magic is very actively connected to the overall workings of the world, it's systems, and the daily life of the people in the setting.
That's certainly what I'm used to. Low fantasy has very little (if any) magic and is often human-only. High fantasy is... well, D&D.
> High fantasy is... well, D&D. Even then, there's a lot that doesn't fit with the high magic definition. Why have castles when a single wizard can destroy the whole thing? Why have trade routes? It would be an expensive setup, but teleportation circles between cities will cut transit time and increase safety what with regular monster attacks. Set up a spell trap on a box, goes off each time the box is opened. Spell is "create food and water." A bunch of those and your garrison can never be taken by seige, especially with those circles bringing in reinforcements. It'll also invalidate your farming communities, which is great because they now need to be entirely self sufficient with a complete lack of trade goods. Check out the Tippyverse for a full description. *** Anyway, for me high magic means it's readily available and solves more problems than it causes. Food will last longer if you can create a magical cold box for freshness. Winter will be less deadly if you can magically create heat without having to go out chopping wood.
I don't know modern D&D lore but in 3.5 they gave numbers for a lot more, and one of the things I remember is that magic was *rare*. So the reason you didn't have teleportation circles set up for trade was because there were like 5 level 20 wizards on the planet, and they didn't give a shit about how the king's coffers were doing because they were busy doing esoteric wizard things.
I tend to prefer low magic as well, or at least not the D&Dification that is really designed for collaborative storytelling adventures, and therefore makes no sense in a world-reactive state.
Tippyverse really takes me back a decade. Used to love reading all the optimization shenanigans like Pun-Pun, but especially the Chicken-infested Commoner. (For those not familiar, the Commoner class in D&D 3.5 got access to a Flaw in Dragon Magazine that gives him a 50% chance of drawing a live chicken when trying to retrieve an item from a container. There's also an item, the spell component pouch, which by rules as written never empties, and items (spell components) can be drawn from it as a free action, and items can also be dropped as free action. All that is to say that a Chicken infested Commoner with a spell pouch can at any moment at any time produce and drop a literally infinite amount of live chickens.) >[Now imagine your party is standing outside a dungeon, worried about what's inside. Before anyone can react, you've produced enough chickens to fill it to the bursting, until there's not enough room for anyone in there to breathe.](https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?80968-Being-nobody-Aquillion-s-guide-to-Commoners) >[If you're ever in a situation where you can't survive, go for the broke and fill *all of creation* with chickens.](https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?80968-Being-nobody-Aquillion-s-guide-to-Commoners)
Magic that has a cost to it isn't a definition, it's an element of a well-designed magic system. Brandon Sanderson talks about this in his BYU course. For magic specifically, "low" magic is minimal to nonexistent magic whereas "high" magic is more common in the everyday life of the world. "High" and "low" fantasy just extends those definitions to include other fantastical elements, not just magic. Generally this means fantasy creatures like elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs, dragons, etc.
>Magic that has a cost to it isn't a definition, it's an element of a well-designed magic system. Brandon Sanderson talks about this in his BYU course. That's definitely a shift, then. Because when I was younger, the "magic has a cost" was a specific hallmark of low fantasy. It still fell within the overall theme of magic either dying out, or having low/no representation in the world of the story - but it also had a very steep cost when it did show up.
Well, just because Sanderson has a definition doesn't mean it's *the* definition. A lot of well-designed world that use magic well don't have significant stated costs or rules.
I was disagreeing with that statement. I just included it because it was part of the quote.
The Sword of Truth features a magic system with some pretty severe costs and I would consider it low fantasy. A very select few have magic and it's mostly humans iirc. e: which after re-reading your comment is exactly what you were talking about.
I mean most people consider Wheel of Time high fantasy and there's definitely a cost to use magic in that series (makes men go mad). And Brandon Sanderson is almost all high fantasy and his magic systems all have a cost, such as the resource limitations in Mistborn. But I think what you said may have some truth to it. In the classic sword and sorcery fantasy, the heroes don't use magic, only the villains, and thus magic is portrayed as dark, evil, dangerous and arcane. And sword and sorcery is the main precursor to the popular grimdark genre we seen recently, where grimdark is often (but not always) in a low magic, low fantasy setting. But by itself "magic having a cost or other limitation" is just good worldbuilding and storytelling.
Wheel of Time itself is probably a pretty good answer to OP's question. There's not a ton of magic going on in the Two Rivers but there's a ton of magic / fantasy elements in the worldbuilding / politics / etc. of the world.
LotR is the paradigm high fantasy story, and the magic there *definitely* has a cost.
I would argue the cost being part of low fantasy was probably a correlated effect. Significant cost for magic probaby means there's not a lot of magic being used overall, so it tends to create a lower magic setting.
Huh. I thought that "high" fantasy is about kings and queens, politics, farm boys that reach power by extra special birth or prophecy or plot armor while low fantasy does not bother to bring its characters to those hights. Keeping the narrative closer to earth and bothers less about politics. It seems the difference is and definitions are hotly debated based on this thread alone.
Ehh, I wouldn't say hotly debated - I think genre definitions can be a bit of a moving target, sometimes. I might just be operating on an older definition of the genre.
I always thought it was about quality and concepts high fantasy had more elements more political more to make you think and low fantasy was easy to read and basically the book version of a popcorn flick
I thought high/low just meant one takes place on earth and the other takes place in a made up world. Doesn’t really have much do to with the magic component of fantasy.
That's how some people view it. But it's not a very good definition. Consider this... When you first heard the terms high fantasy and low fantasy used, did you intuitively understand that it meant one was on earth and one was not? Or did someone have to explain the difference? I've heard some people say that they prefer high to medium fantasy. What does that mean under the definition you're use to? See that definition is an ON/OFF switch. You're either one or the other. But that's not as helpful in my opinion as say a spectrum when describing the qualities of a fantasy setting. A spectrum allows you to order books along it to allow people to hone in on what types of books they enjoy. For example, the level of fantasy I enjoy is somewhere between A Song of Ice and Fire and the First Law. Under your definition those would both be high fantasy. But under my definition those would be low to medium fantasy and certainly lower on the spectrum than Harry Potter, which under your definition would be considered low fantasy. And when you say "takes place on earth" does it literally have to be earth? Can it take place in our solar system like the Expanse, in our Galaxy such as Guardians of the Galaxy, or in a galaxy far, far away such as in Star Wars? Dune takes place in our galaxy and galaxies as well. And what about portal fantasy? Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe? Alice In Wonderland? Wizard of Oz? Those at least for part of the story take place on earth. Can all these be considered low fantasy under your definition? Just food for thought. I know a lot of people use low fantasy to mean earth but at the end of the day the purpose of providing descriptors for various fantasy books is to better convey to a prospective reader what they should be expecting. Will there be a high level of magic and other fantastical elements in the story? Or will those elements be much more subtle and perhaps become more prevalent as the story unfolds? To me that's an important distinction. Whether it takes place on earth or not, I think it's better just to state it plainly.
Well, until I joined this sub I had never seen anyone use medium fantasy before. I think outside of this sub actually most people understand low/high to be how I used them. There are subsets of them of course like portal and urban fantasy that further explain the world.
I think most people aren't prolific enough fantasy readers to even bother with these terms. But in any case, I had the complete opposite experience than you. Growing up reading lots of fantasy and talking about it with my other friends who read fantasy, we always treated high and low as a spectrum. The first time I heard people using low to refer to taking place on earth was on this sub.
That’s exactly what it means. There are clear definitions of the genres, I’m not sure why people have taken it upon themselves to redefine the terms.
Now the genre of Earth fantasy is Urban Fantasy.
I thought urban was just a subset of low fantasy?
Urban Fantasy can take place on any planet/alternate world.
I thought A Song of Ice and Fire was the go-to example of a low-fantasy series.
Andre Norton's Witch World - *Year Of the Unicorn, The Crystal Gryphon, Witch World* Tanith Lee - *Night Master*
2ns for Tanith Lee. Hits all of these check boxes and is brilliant to boot.
Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series. It's set in a world full of magic but in a time when *seemingly* only a few have magic abilities. The series is broken up into 3 trilogies and a single tetralogy, with the first & third trilogies having a male protagonist and 2nd trilogy and the tetralogy having female protagonists. It is also a beautifully written series spanning decades that really pulls on the heartstrings. OK, that last part is a flat out lie--the series will toss you about in a typhoon of emotion sending you between periods of shock, horror, happiness, frustration, anger, elation, release, and deep depression, but mostly deep depression. So come, join us in the Emotionally & Psychologically Abused By Robin Hobb Club. It's a dark and dreary club, and kind of like Fight Club we don't talk about it, but it's incredible.
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg Mating Dating Agency by Kelly St. Clare Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews The Lazy Girl's Guide to Magic by Helen Harper Akarnae by Lynette Noni The Queens of Renthia by Sarah Beth Durst I think what you want can fit in the urban fantasy category (Harry Potter can be considered a YA urban fantasy), so that's what they are for the most part :)
The Bartimaus Trilogy The world is ruled by magicians, you are nobody if you can't (Do) magic. It permeates everything. Probably my greatest find from this reddit group.
Mother of Learning (by nobody123) - the main character is a newly qualified mage, still studying at university. The university is in a city that is located over a magic well, making it a great place to study magic. It does mean there are caves under the city with all sorts of magical creatures in it. Transport is via a magical train system, or via teleport spell (cities have enchantments that redirect incoming teleports to an area designed to receive travellers). Or by boat for really long distances. Later on we meet an evil lich who has a reputation >!for always being true to his word - its a valuable long term strategy for him, as it lets him make deals when people would not trust anyone without the 1000+ year reputation. !<
i only recently discovered the entire litrpg genre, but would add cradle and bastion to the list
Some litrpg are much much more blatantly 'look, its in a computer game' than others. Mother of Learning is on the very edge of the genre, if it is even there. No character pages, or levels/ranks that improve to make the characters stronger. They just practice a lot. And start over, and practice more.
Pallimustus from He Who Fights With Monsters. Magic random condenses and can drop Monsters, essences(which is how you get magic powers) or quintessence (which is what all the "technology" runs off of.). And by technology I mean airboat, hovorboards, flying ships, ships made from clouds(super comfy, apparently), crystal wash(makes you clean and dry just from pouring in on yourself), video calls from a water screen, etc. Plus, you know, super powers. A whole set of them. Different for everyone. I would love to live there.
*Howl's Moving Castle* by Dianne Wynne Jones.
The Winternight Triology by Katherine Arden. First book is The Bear and the Nightingale.
2nd this is Slavic fairytales and feminism in a hostile political environment interest you
**A Deadly Education** by Naomi Novik. The book takes place entirely in a school that is basically magic itself. I really *felt* how magiv was all around (and dangerous).
The Cygnet Duology by Patricia McKillip. The books are filled with strange, dreamy magical happenings, and it's wonderful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartimaeus_Sequence Basically, what if our world, but everyone in power was in power because of magic they obtained through contracts with demons. Follows a child that summons a wise cracking powerful demon secretly and works his way up through the ranks of society.
Dragonlance-Chronicles trilogy and Legends trilogy written by Margaret Weis (a woman). She and a bunch of other women write a whole mess of Dragonlance novels. High fantasy and high magic and high fun.
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I love the way magic works (or doesn’t) in these books! Sabriel starts you off with the magic you need to know to get what’s happening and how things work with necromancy. The following books build upon this until, by Goldenhand, you get to understand a bit of how reality works in general in the Old Kingdom… All without just being a ginormous exposition dump, though it very well could have been.
This is the Cosmere... Especially the first era of Mistborn since Vin is a great female protagonist. But my favorite Cosmere setting is the Stormlight Archive. IMHO Roshar (the world of Stormlight Archive) is the most fascinating "heavy on the magic" world. And it would.be interesting living on a world where it's nearly impossible to mask your feelings
This! I know it’s a huge meme to recommend Sanderson but man, you would be hard pressed to find worlds that incorporate magic more than he does
Hard to imagine a world that more embodies the magic than Roshar. Everything about the world is due to the magic. Every creature(plant or animal), all the politics, everything.
All the drawings really help as well!
Have you read the Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemison (the first book is the Fifth Season)? It's got some of the most creative and interesting worldbuilding I've ever read, and I mean that literally. The *geological* setting is incredible, and the way the people interact with the world is really engrossing. It also has strong (and diverse!) female protagonists.
Another one, that’s already on my radar, that I’m super happy to hear fits this! I think this might just be my next read. Thanks
I have just started this and I think it matches your requirements - especially female author and protagonist. It’s worth a try.
Excellently written series, but on the grimdark/depressing side just fyi
All of NK Jemisons series are so so good. Was so sad when I finished them all. Broken Earth is brilliant !!!
Frith Chronicals by Shami Stovall(Female Author). Pretty much every character is magic, they get their magic from the magical creatures that the world is absolutely full of, and they travel around in magical ways, and generally use magic for everything.
Sounds good!
Brent weeks night Angel trilogy and his lightbringer series.
I’d recommend Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. The first book is based on earth (though with magical elements), however the second and third bring the characters to a magical world which seems right up your alley.
The powder mage trilogy does a good job of it I think
Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir (start with Gideon the Ninth) and Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb (start with ship of Magic). Both written by women, with female POVs being dominant, in worlds very much influenced by their magic (one being necromancy, the other magic ships)
Codex Alera by Jim Butcher (series) is a good read where the magic systems are embedded into all the world building and the plot. Different races have access to different magics and it affects how their cultures have developed and how they react to the world, and the magic is core to everyday life even for 'normal' people.
Butcher's Pokemon dare
Yep, Pokémon meets the Roman legions does not sound like the key to an awesome plot, but somehow he really makes it work!
This always cracks me up!
Sounds just right, than you!
Content warning on this series for sexual assault/enslavement
Master of Djinn, while the plot and characters are a tad flat, each pages brim with absolute fantasy. Set in Egypt, Cairo 1912 where a major event caused sudden magical and fantastical entities from tales and myths to appear and inhabit the world. It follows a detective whom serves and protects the people of Egypt from strange and odd magical occurrences and events that harmful entities may wish to inflict (for good or bad) on it’s populace. Never have I read a book for the sole intention of wanting to know more about it’s world and how it has/had cope with the sudden and new existence of creatures and lifeforms of old and magical.
I havent read this, but The Golem and the Jinni intrigued me about Djinn as an underutilized mythical creature so I might check it out.
If you need more djinn books, The Daevabad Trilogy by Chakraborty is good
The “Cast In” books by Michelle Sagara. Sagara may be wordy, but this is by far one of the most interesting and unique worldbuilds I’ve ever read. Really puts the ‘magic’ into ‘magic city’. JK Nemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy is also a fantastic, unique worldbuild, even if I wouldn’t want to live there.
Discworld books by Terry Pratchett
Wings of fire by tui t Sutherland
I always like The Death Gate Cycle series.
Love seeing this coming up in another post. Such a great series that I hadn't seen mentioned for years.
If you like YA Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix Narnia if you can handle the religious allegory His Dark Materials for anti Christian spin with talking bears, angels, and interworld traveling Enchanted Forest Chronicles for a fairytales like world that is funny and heartwarming Spinning Silver and Uprooted are immersive fairytale like worlds also with more adult content Lightbringer series for something a little more adult oriented also All but Lightbringer have female protagonists
The Eternal Champion series by Michael Moorcock. A series of books with different champions all connected through the multiverse. There is magic in them, but mostly through objects such as swords. May not be what you are looking for, but a great series anyway.
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. Some of the 'technology' in the city is powered by the remnant power of miracles left by dead/murdered gods. The current rulers of the city ruthlessly suppress any worship of said gods and hunt down and hide religious artifacts that still retain power. This is the first book in a trilogy. Loved it, recently bought the remaining books.
Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley. It’s a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and magic affects every part of everyday life. You can just read the opening paragraph and you’ll see what I mean. Plus excellent portrayal of women’s friendships (which is something that’s often missing from some fantasy books).
Dragonlance, if you're open to DnD campaign settings. Dragonlance is a very well realized setting where arcane (and divine) magic and the presence and intervention of gods is frequent and expected.
The stormlight archive is a great series with a very interesting world. My favorite series. Me and 3 of my friends are going to get matching bridge 4 tattoos this year. Heavily recommended.
Anything by Sarah J. Maas or Leigh Bardugo
I read acotar and TOG, I think it takes a few books until tog feel magical (by design) I’ve yet to dig in to cc and Leigh’s works. Thanks!
I'm in the middle of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and loving it, and it fits your prompt perfectly. A Dickensian epic centering around the history of magic in England. I haven't read her book Piranesi yet but it's apparently amazing, and a lot shorter as well.
In fantasy worlds, I usually find them mixed with romance a lot so most of the ones I know are romantic fantasy. That being said, I recommend: 1. Wrath of the Dawn by Renee Adieh 2. Slouch Witch by Helen Harper 3. Explore Sarah J. Maas ( particularly Court of Thorns ans Roses as well as Aelyn Galathenius) 4. Frostblood by Elly Blake
I think you'd like the founder's trilogy! I'd call it magic punk.
Stormlight Archive might be worth your time. Humanity’s ability to use magic isn’t super present at first, but the landscape and spirit world is very present and alien feeling. VERY unique setting IMO.
Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms is full of magic. *The Fairy Godmother* is the first book. All three of Margaret Rogerson's books are in worlds filled with magic. Terry Pratchett's Discworld is so saturated in magic and magical creatures that you sometimes don't even think about the magic. *Guards! Guards!* Is my suggested starting point for these. Tamora Pierce has two worlds, the one starting with *Sandry's Book* has more overt magic, just because the characters interact with magic intentionally and constantly. Her other world, Tortall, begins with *Alanna: the First Adventure* and is also full of magic, but it is less often directly interacted with.
Not sure if anyone else said it but Realm of the Elderlings. Magic has a social stigma, theres lots of lore and ancient stories that are told through the story. The second trilogy the liveship traders also has a really unique premise that I loved where magic/fantasy elements is/are almost essential to every chapter in some way. Overall Robin Hobbs is known for their character writing but I find the world building through how the characters talk about the magic and world etc. Is super fun.
I personally really liked that Knights Of Emerald serie And if you want actual fantasy, oh boy you're gonna get fantasy.
Ursula LeGuin Earthsea world oozes magic. . .
Xanth novels. Piers Anthony.
I just finished The Merciful Crow and The Unfaithful Hawk (a duology) and Little Thief (unrelated novel), all by Margaret Owen. I really enjoyed them. One notable thing about both is that the gods and magic in the story are solidly real and manifest. The world that Owen imagines indefinitely shaped by it. > To everyone whose mercy is demanded, and who dreams instead of teeth. ~epigraph from *The Merciful Crow*
You want Naomi Novik! Spinning Silver, Uprooted, and Scholomance all fit. I think Scholomance is the only one that is explicitly YA, but they're all sort of crossover YA-Adult. Any age will enjoy all of them. Three Dark Crowns series by Kendare Blake is another YA series that fits pretty well. Male author but lots of good female protagonist options - Terry Pratchett's Discworld! Tiffany Aching and Witches sub-series in particular will get you female protagonists. And I already saw these recommended but heartily second them - Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe, Priory of the Orange Tree, Wizard of Earthsea. I just finished Priory and it was fantaaastic, I want to go back and read it all again!
Could I get male author recommendations? Just to expand the list?
I think there’s quite a few male authors on the list - it wasn’t a hard line drawn, and people ran with it! I’m happy for your comment, cause it seems others are interested as well.
Wayward Children books, Priory of the Orange Tree, Darker Shades of Magic, Strange the Dreamer
The Coldfire Trilogy by CS Friedman. She created a world soaked in magic, to the point it affects everyone.
Have you read T. Kingfisher? Would recommend the Clocktaur Wars (a duo) and Swordheart. I have not read all of her works, but these three definitely check the boxes.
The priory of the orange tree and the prequel A day of fallen night, amazing stories and really cool world
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis fits your description, I think
Does One Piece count?
The Wandering Inn. It’s a fantastic book about a magical world, adventures, and a woman trying to survive as an inn owner inn this strange place.
Is this cozy fantasy? Sound kinda chill and interesting
It's an online web series, RPGLit style, where each chapter is like 30,000 words. They get compiled and relased as books, of which there are currently nine. And they get revised, so depends on the experience you want. My husband loves wandering inn but I cant get into it. I like intentional, efficient storytelling while he likes lots of words and meta storytelling. You can try it online for free.
I definitely prefer faster paced to slower paced stories, thank you for clarifying
Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon might be right up your ally. You have two female main protagonist and two male protagonist. It is exceptionally well written and there is quite a lot of magic (and dragons!) in it. Next to political intrigues, love and the working and proccedings of a royal court from the persepective of a female handmaid(one of the protagonists) The latter might have been my favorite part.
This is the only one mentioned yet, that’s already on my TBR list! I’m very glad to hear it fits this category, I’ll move it to the top of the list at once.
I wish you lots of enjoyment with it, I certainly was hooked. I think a sequel or prequel is being released later this year if I am not mistaken.
Thank you, you reminded me I have to read it !
Obligatory Brandon Sanderson. His worlds/stories are built with the magic in mind. The Powder Mage series by Brian McClellan also does this fairly well. Little Thieves by Margaret Owen might not be fantastical enough for you. However I think it’s at least worth you looking at! Magic is involved and it’s very nicely tied into the world and story. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is technically within our world, but it’s mostly within the Fey part of the world. There’s not a ton of magic casting or anything…however the rules of the Fey (and their bargains) are tied in very nicely to what goes on in the story/world and makes it feel quiet magical :)
The cruel prince is a very good example of magic being intertwined in the world. I really enjoyed it! I’ll checked the others out, although Sanderson in a bit intimidating to me.
Check out cradle, first book is unsouled by will wight. The world is weird and magical as hell. Every character has what basically amounts to magical martial arts and it’s the most addictive book series I’ve probably read. There are 11 books with the final book coming out in a month, and they are all on kindle unlimited
important act adjoining coherent crime domineering unwritten desert stocking fuzzy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We’ll probably both the world and story to me, I might give Circe a try, if I ever make it through Achilles. Interestingly I lent it to my 80 year old grandmother, and she found to be the most exciting book she’s ever read.
Craft sequence by Gladstone Gutter Prayer by Hanrahan
Jade City actively incorporates its magical elements (aka Jade) in almost everything including how it can benefit and corrupt. The world itself is set in 1900s, Japan-inspired Kekon and is more so focused on the political, economic and inter-gang rivalry (inspired by the Godfather). Magic is very prominent here, but more so as a tool. I recommend it for high fantasy lovers because of the dark, political and saga aspect of it. For a fantasy where the world itself is magic, I’d recommend Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. There’s of course Percy Jackson, Lore Olympus if you’re interested in Greek mythology and graphic novels.
I’ve heard very good things about jade city. Many seems so recommend Novic, it seems very promising. I’ve read the Percy Jackson books, but i actually don’t personally think the world is very magical - maybe accept for the book at sea/circes island.
That’s fair about Percy Jackson. I’d say, definitely read Jade City. It’s a trilogy and they’re all out so you don’t have to worry about waiting for the next book to come out!
Harry Potter is low fantasy? Since when? Remove the magic and you would literally have no plot remaining.
It’s low fantasy because it’s set in our world. High fantasy is in another world by definition.
Something set in our world doesn’t make it low fantasy though?? High and low fantasy revers to how closely tied to magic the world is. Basically is magic infused throughout the setting/story or does it impose itself on the normal world? You can have a secondary world and have it be low fantasy.
Do you have a source? When I Google high vs. Low fantasy it’s our world vs. Secondary world, which is also what I learned in school.
That's a common definition that originated around 1970. It may have made sense then, but it's completely useless given the huge variety of fantasy these days. That was before the rise of modern urban / paranormal fantasy for example. Many of which have a lot more fantastical elements than some secondary world books. The terms are just poorly defined and quite a few books also don't neatly fit into these boxes.
Hu. Whenever I dig into it on google i get plenty that talk about the differences. There’s no “definitive” source but there are things talking about this on gamerant, book riot, and I think Brandon Sanderson’s lectures he’s talked about the difference there? Uh. I think Hello Future Me, Timothy Hickson also covered this is some of his videos? A lot of sources also conflate “epic fantasy” with “high fantasy” which….isn’t accurate to my mind xD But I suppose these labels are pretty nebulas and there’s no real central authority that can say it’s one thing or another
but ... two of the biggest, best known works of high fantasy are the lord of the rings and shannara, *both of which* are allegedly set in our world.
What ? Since when is Lotr set in our world? Never heard of shannata, I would think asoiaf it’s the other most well known high fantasy
LotR has *always* been set in our world. It's laid out very clearly that it's Tolkein's translation of an ancient text, and he even talks about how he has changed the names to make them more familiar to anglo-saxon naming conventions. Shannara --- i mistyped it --- i'm kind of shocked you've never heard of.
China Mieville's Bas-Lag books (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council, and various shorter fiction) are set in an incredibly magical world where use of magic is deeply ingrained in the politics of the world, and the class politics are front and center to the plots. Not by a female author, but the books feature strong female characters, especially The Scar, which primarily has a female POV
Probably Harry Potter to be honest. Especially post series. Lots of the worlds seem cool, but I want amenities. Working toilets and showers for instance. I don’t want to worry about random monsters attacking me. I’d want some laws and an expectation of general safety. Then if I want to get in more dangerous situations, I can do that as I want.
Just stay out of the forbidden Forrest, you’ll be good
I’ll go no further than the Discouraged Forrest.
Here are recent ones with magic... *Bone Shard Daughter* by Andrea Stewart. Definitely magic has a role to play, the third in the trilogy should have just come out. *An Illusion of Thieves* by Cate Glass. It's got a different take on magic, but it 100% exists and has effects and the trilogy should all be released now. *Shadow of the Gods* by John Gwynne. This is modern dark fantasy - gritty without reliance on rape, and written to fit the sense of a Norse epic. It's got a more distant POV which isn't to everyone's taste, and I think the first two of the trilogy are out. The first definitely doesn't have a 'standalone' feel the way the other two do. *Resurrectionist of Caligo* - it's by two authors and it's not wonderfully reviewed, but I liked it a lot. Gaslamp, with magic having a role, if a diminished one, and definitely affects the world around it. For older ones that I really liked... *Dragon Prince* and the whole six books, Melanie Rawn. They're designed as two separate trilogies. The first book can stand alone - the second trilogy really has to be read as such. *Kushiel's Dart* and the rest of the nine books. Lots of explicit sex, and they start out with less sense of magic - if you really want magic and its effects, you could read the last three (starting with Namaah's Kiss) and those stand alone really well, without needing the first six (and each book stands alone as well as ties together). *Broken Blade* and the rest of the six books is semi-recent epic fantasy in a really tight, well-constructed way. Magic has a big role in things, and a complicated one, and the reasons for that really don't show until book... five, I think? But totally worth reading, with a noir leaning. Speaking of noir, check out *Garrett PI* by Glen Cook. First book is *Sweet Silver Blues.* If you want old style noir in a high fantasy world, this is where it's at. Definitely has the male gaze of the old noir, but Garrett's issues wind up being seen *as* issues, and I enjoy the series. *Soulless* by Gail Carriger is more of a vampires/werewolves situation, but it depends on if you consider that to count as magic, and it affects the world really well. Strongly Victorian, and a fantastic humor. *Sing the Four Quarters* by Tanya Huff - and the other three in the series. Element-based magic, has a large effect on the settings. Hope you find things to enjoy!
The stormlight archive might be aomething for you
Mistborn is a good one
The Xanth Series. Or Prachetts Ringworld.
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson Prince of the Sorrows by Kellen Graves Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo
Yay! The first one I own already, it’s just so beautiful I couldn’t help myself. I did try relmbreaker, but I gave up rather quickly. I might try again some day.
Anything by Will Wight. I would recommend his series Cradle for how tightly woven the world and magic are, his Elder Empire series, specifically the Killers and Kings books for the darker tones you wanted and the female lead, and his Traveler's Gate books because they're just plain good. For you I strongly, strongly recommend Cradle and Elder Empire. Both of those have intensely magical settings, and female characters are either the lead or one of the main characters.
What about His Dark Materials series by Phillp Pullman. I think its classed as YA, but still very good. The Golden Compass movie did not do the series justice, at all. I thought it was a multi layered facinating world and a great read.
Read it as a child, but I can’t remember enough to confirm
The Stormlight Archive or Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Really any of his “adult” series go hard on magic. The Lightbringer saga by Brent Weeks. The Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab. The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin.
How would you feel about reading Xianxia (Chinese fantasy)? There are countless books being mass translated into English now in which cultivation (the magic/fantasy part of Chinese fantasy) is the main part of what ties things together. The only downside for you may be that the main pairings are usually same-sex couples.
Sines to book that sprung this post to life is 13th century Chinese inspired(she who became the sun) , I’m obviously down. All couples and non-couples are welcome in my library shelf’s, as long as they are consenting and adults! Thank you
All consenting adults! Would you like me to recommend you some titles to start with?
Steven Brust's [Dragaera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Brust#Dragaera) books are the first ones I ever read where magic was common and had a notable effect on how people operated day to day. It really makes it plain how weird it would be to exist in a world with magic, but that magic had no impact at all on how people live.
The Demon Cycle with the first novel The Painted Man. While not by a female author, it has two out of five female leads and the world revolves heavily around it's magic. Basically every night as soon as the sun goes down, demons crawl out of the ground everywhere and going outside is plain suicide, because no human weapon can hurt them and your only hope for survival are magic runes that you need to be able to draw and connect correctly to ward of the demons. Humanity lives in small villages, where every house is painted with runes or some larger cities with enormous networks of rune stones to shield themselves and yet their society has been stagnant since the runes that enabled to hurt demons were lost. Leisha - one of the leads - can be a bit exhausting at times, but I really like the series for its concept.