Comments on: The Anti-Magic Fantasy Story http://douglas.nerad.org/journal/2005/08/27/the-anti-magic-fantasy-story/ Every Band of Freaks Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:07:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Mookee http://douglas.nerad.org/journal/2005/08/27/the-anti-magic-fantasy-story/#comment-2082 Mookee Sat, 27 Aug 2005 18:34:46 +0000 http://douglas.nerad.org/journal/projects/writing/ideas/the_anti_magic_fantasy_story.html#comment-2082 There was a series of books that sort of dealt with this ... not really the banning of magic, but that was woven in the plot. The problem is I can't remember what the hell the name of the series was. I read the first one, it started out great, but the ending was horrible and I declined to read the rest of the series. <p> If I remember correctly, everyone was a sorcerer of some sort, and people were born with specific magic abilities. Some of them were offensive, some defensive, some were healers, etc. The idea was to have the right combination in any circumstance. An offensive guy would kick your ass, but was defenseless without assistance. You get the idea.<p> The main character is born with no magical ability whatsoever. Generally, these children are killed at birth, but for some reason they don't kill him and he lives. Turns out something happens at the end where it's significant that he has no magic ability (go figure on that one).<p> Anyway, in the end, some space/time portal, whatever, shows up and insert modern day technology with tanks, etc. It turns out this magic planet is the only planet in the universe with magic and the general with the tanks wants to take it.<p> It goes downhill from there. That being said, I think one of the big turnoffs was the combination of modern day technology with present day technology. I don't really like the mix in fantasy ... I'll not say it doesn't work at all. For example, "the force" in the Star Wars movies could be considered "magic," and they pulled that off pretty well...<p> That was way longer than intended, sorry about that. There was a series of books that sort of dealt with this … not really the banning of magic, but that was woven in the plot. The problem is I can’t remember what the hell the name of the series was. I read the first one, it started out great, but the ending was horrible and I declined to read the rest of the series.

If I remember correctly, everyone was a sorcerer of some sort, and people were born with specific magic abilities. Some of them were offensive, some defensive, some were healers, etc. The idea was to have the right combination in any circumstance. An offensive guy would kick your ass, but was defenseless without assistance. You get the idea.

The main character is born with no magical ability whatsoever. Generally, these children are killed at birth, but for some reason they don’t kill him and he lives. Turns out something happens at the end where it’s significant that he has no magic ability (go figure on that one).

Anyway, in the end, some space/time portal, whatever, shows up and insert modern day technology with tanks, etc. It turns out this magic planet is the only planet in the universe with magic and the general with the tanks wants to take it.

It goes downhill from there. That being said, I think one of the big turnoffs was the combination of modern day technology with present day technology. I don’t really like the mix in fantasy … I’ll not say it doesn’t work at all. For example, “the force” in the Star Wars movies could be considered “magic,” and they pulled that off pretty well…

That was way longer than intended, sorry about that.

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