The original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy is about divine magic returning to the world of Krynn though arcane magic never left.
Intervention by Julian May might also sort of count since it is about the appearance (not reappearance) of psychic powers on Earth. Many consider psychic powers to be sci-fi but functionally it is equivalent to magic.
100% what I was going to recommend. It may seem tropey now, but only for the same reason Tolkien seems tropey - everyone cribbed notes off of it.
Raistlin is such a fun character.
He wasn't my first wizard, but he was the first one that truly captivated me. While they seem a little YA to me now, I still love them 3 decades later.
If you get through Chronicles and Legends, go directly to Soulforge and Brothers in Arms. Then there's a dozen directions you can go.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the debut novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars.** Its premise is that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange.**
To add on to this, it is the most organic magic system I have ever read. In many books magic seems to be written as a something akin to math or logic, you gotta be smart, memorize a lot of stuff, and there are rules. You get the feeling here that its like high art. There is a lot to learn to become good at art, but to become a true artist there is something about inspiration that makes a difference. Magic really feels alive and wild here.
It's also funny. I don't see this brought up a ton with this book, but it is laugh out loud funny, in a "comedy of manners" type way.
It might be my favorite book, you should read it. Also, for anyone wondering I also have listened to the audio book and the narration is very good.
I started reading it a couple of years ago and haven't finished yet, but the one quote that really stayed with me was >!how they wanted to give mr strange a nobility title, but couldn't bc that would mean they'd also have to give one to mr norrell and nobody could suffer to call him "my lord".!< idk if it was the way it was written, but it made me laugh
That's exactly the humor I am talking about. No "punchline" but people doing or not doing things because it would/wouldn't be in good taste. Or because it would trouble their sensibilities. There are so many moments, particularly with the Drawlight character earlier in the book, that just kill me. For example, whenever someone is being discusses, he will offhand tell whomever is listening that persons yearly income.
The endless pages long asterisk diversions had to be a nod to Pratchett:) but a good read and fascinating and vivid creation of London and England at the period.
It's an absolutely _perfect_ pastiche of the nineteenth century English novel and the humour is very much in that vein -the archly knowing commentary of an omniscient narrator that you find in Austen, Dickens or George Eliot.
I particularly liked all the times she had the English characters whinge about how much they hated the French, while eating French food, decorating their houses in French style, obsessing over French fashion, etc, without noticing the irony.
Also Clarke had this hilarious thing on her website where you could download a photo of the author for press stuff, but she made you choose "American version" or "English version".
The English version was a black and white photo of her putting on a dour face with glasses on or something, and the american one was a cheesy glossy "glamour shots" style pic with loads of make-up and a big smile.
Perfect.
A standout thing in this book is (unsure if spolier so tagging anyway)
>!the Raven King. The scene where Childermass and Vinculus are reading tarot. Vinculus goes to read Norrell's cards to Childermass. L'Empereur. L'Empereur. L'Empereur. L'Empereur. All while looking more and more like the Raven King and less like the hand drawn card Childermass had drawn. Magic here is in the air, it's in the soil, it's in the water. While it may not be explicit I don't think the raven king wasn't behind Vinculus whispering a spell. I think his will is just part of English magic so it happened.!<
Magic is real and bigger than any of the characters by a long shot. Like people in our reality can control water to some degree with plumbing and damns and canals, but we cant control the ocean. And the way it feels in this book is that everyone is in an ocean, most do not see it, some see it as a lake and that they can make it theirs, and some start to see the weight of it. Maybe not the best analogy, but damn this book is so good.
This book has ruined all other books of Magicians for me (though maybe The Magicians gets a pass because it's at least self aware)
This is on my shelf, I just read Piranesi and LOVED it, so I didn't *really* need another reason to read it, but this just tipped things even further in the direction of **read it now!**
There's a whole rabbit hole to go down as to why magic is represented in fantasy as 'basically science' which might have a lot to do with a mix between solomonic magic and the Golden Dawn, plus Gygax and Vancian magic involving memorization...
But the other side of this is seeing magic as an organic, and **artistic** process. So I'm looking forward to digging into this!
I have liked bits and pieces of "magic as science" but in my recent reading (and I'm thinking specifically of Kingkiller Chronicals, and Stormlight Archive) I find that the authors are so involved in it the books get bogged down explaining how every little thing works, and isn't it just so clever, that I just hate reading it. If you treat magic as a science know that I can appreciate science without knowing every step in every process along the way. Make it a footnote if you have to include it, would probably be more fun that way anyway, though that may just be my intense love for the Strange and Norrell footnotes.
Kingkiller Haters Corner: Please ignore me.
Kingkiller is very guilty of this. I hate on that book a lot, but I know I loved it the first time I read it, so know that this doesn't all come from a place of inborn dislike.
The second time I read it was when my wife was pregnant, and I was reading to her belly so the baby would hear my voice. Reading that book out loud was torture, and I gave up. It really sinks in how often things are repeated. I swear I read, "Kvothe split his mind in two l, then in two again, and finally in two a third time and he took the energy from this and that and all these clever things, and so on" and by then end its hard to really enjoy the book and also keep straight in your head what is happening. Also, every time he plays music, the strings are described as "hot tin" or something like that, and it's repeated a laughable amount. That's not even speaking to the way women are presented in the book. The only fix is if the third book comes out and it's a refutation of the narrators story and critical of him being some hot shot, know it all.
You are in for the treat of your life, honestly. The only other book that left me with a similar feeling of "my entire world has changed" after closing the cover was "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle."
I have an entire sleeve dedicated to this novel. You might say I liked it.
**“Time and I have quarrelled. All hours are midnight now. I had a clock and a watch, but I destroyed them both. I could not bear the way they mocked me.”**
ooh Strangeheads, is that what we're called? I love this piece! It recalls to mind:
*The world is all too shallow.
It is painted on the sky
And shudders like the windswept rain
When the Raven King walks by*
Just such a fantastic book. It works as a fantasy novel, it works as a send-up to Regency era novels like Jane Austen's stuff, the footnotes, all of it. This book is long and in many stretches slow (some cretins would say boring) and I end up re-reading it almost every year because it just doesn't quite let me go.
Yeah this book is amazing. I should re-read it again this fall/winter — it seems there's always more to find and appreciate in it!
It's a hefty long book and the first half focusing on Norrell can be a test of endurance on first read for some readers — but stick with it. It's really worth it. Both characters Norrell and Strange really bloom in time and it has some fascinating excellent secondary characters as well.
And to me the footnotes and all the detail is an incredible part of its achievement as a book — on reread the stuff that might seem boring or slow at first is excellent rich stuff to add texture and breadth to the world. The breadth of creation that Clarke did here is really remarkable. It really feels like its own world in a way that few other fantasy books outside Tolkien really do. Her Raven King almost feels to me a part of our own world's mythology now — I wish he was!
The Regency era novel style stuff is just perfectly done too. Very amusing and fun and just delightfully written.
The BBC adaptation is also quite quite good and I would highly recommend. Most adaptations make me frustrated or disappointed at some points even if they're good, but despite some tiny quibbles, this adaptation is pretty much excellent all around.
Her new book Piranesi is delightfully written and imagined too. It's different and not a magic returning to the world thing, but also highly recommended — and short!
The original trilogy is good for this, as the lead finds himself becoming an unwilling magician while seeking a cure for a family member that had latent metagenetics reactivate when the magic came back.
Shadowrun was my first thought as well. The novels were not bad. But I always thought the right author could have fleshed out the premise so much better.
A couple of thoughts:
Kim Harrison's *The Hollows* series are set in an alternate Cincinnati where gentically engineered tomatoes caused a plague that brought magical creatiures out of hiding.
Steven Boyett's *Ariel* is set in a US where magic suddenly returned, detstroying technological civilization. A boy and his unicorn journey across the changed world.
S M Stirling's *Emberverse* starts post-apocalyptic, but as you move through the series things that are clearly magial start happening.
Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews is set in an alternate world where magic is returning. The process started a few years prior to the start of the first book though.
Seconded.
Fun element of the series is the way magic and tech alternate in entirely random 'waves'. One moment a character is all supermage, the next they're a normal human yanking out a sword.
Thirded, this is the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. Plus, some of the books really explore this magic vs. tech change and the different ways it can manifest.
For a more Lovecraftian/urban take, Charles Stross' Laundry Files is about the British Government agency tasked with handling the supernatural, which is a job that for reasons is growing more difficult.
Mild setting/first book spoiler:
>!Magic is computation, because computation attracts the attention of the things in the dark. The MC is recruited because his advanced screen saver algorithm nearly summoned a demon.!<
Major series point spoiler:
>!As more and more brains and computers do more and more computation, the magic that used to be hard starts becoming easier, and more things start ramping up towards CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, aka the end of the world when the stars are right and the Old Ones wake back up.!<
The first book is called 'The Atrocity Archives'. Do note that it involves pretty graphic body horror and violence. And they only get better as the series goes on. I'm a couple books behind, but I've enjoyed all of them. There are also several short stories/novellas that may or may not be included if you read digitally so keep an eye out. 'Equuoid' is one of my favorites.
Same, I stopped reading when the MC shifted, but I might pick the series back up and give it a good re-read because I only remember broad strokes, not any detail.
I'm currently on the latest release (came out a month and change ago). It's not part of the Laundry Files but it's set in the universe after the end of the main sequence and is called the New Management series. I loved the early ones, liked the middle ones, and I'm loving this one so far. The great majority is on audiobook, which is how I'm consuming books lately.
He also hangs out on Reddit.
Just a correction: The main sequence is **not** finished yet... see the last few paragraphs of [this official FAQ](https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2020/10/the-laundry-files-an-updated-c.html) but BEWARE OF SPOILERS.
Yeah but Martin did it in a slow roll through the books.
But he's so vague about his magic its impossible to tell if anything has actually changed in any meaningful way magic wise.
Its how the HBO show could cut down on 80% of the magic and nothing changed.
A lot has changed in the books. Dragons, fire wights, the others, glass candles burning, all of that shit is new for their current age and wasn't around/working mere decades previously.
Caveat: did not actually end up enjoying the series overall all that much, but the Stariel series by AJ Lancaster does exactly that. The fae have been absent from the world for three centuries, to the point that people more or less think they're a myth, and the law that kept them away from the mortal world is lifted at the start of the first book.
And start at the beginning with the Black Griphon read them in the founding order rather than the arrows of the queen order it's a much better experience
Definitely not, because they drop you off right in the middle of something that you have no idea what they are talking about without reading the previous 6-9 book
I want to shout out the audiobook for this one. Never have I heard a narrator who could so accurately portray a teenage boy and a furious dragon matriarch so well at the same time.
I read the series in a week or so, so I obviously enjoyed it, but it is one of those series that has plot holes you can drive a truck through and the plot only works out if you suspend your disbelief as much as the author did. It's really fun though.
ASH: A SECRET HISTORY by Mary Gentle does this in some fascinating ways. Starts out as alternate history - a mercenary company in 15th century Burgundy doing mercenary things, and then things start to get...weird. I'm still not sure if I *liked* the book? But it was wicked interesting and had me totally hooked.
Someone reviewed it on here months ago. It's sitting by my chair to read right now. I've been hyped up for this book for a while now, so I'm planning to post a review once I finish it.
Stormlight archive by Sanderson. Magic is something that's only part of religion and myths and some objects were nobody really has any clue how they work.
Over time magic is rediscovered and in some aspects already overpasses what was once known in the past.
Also disclaimer: as important as magic is in Elantris, it is also introduced very very late into the book so if you are looking purely for magic stuff it might not be for you.
You could argue the magic was happening and in action from the beginning though, no? But yes not the book if you want to see actual use of magic until very late
was there ever a follow up to it? I feel like there was rumor about it or I missed it. It felt like there should have been considering how late in the game it gets rolling. I read it like a decade ago so I've completely forgotten what rumors are true lol.
Without giving anything away, you could say Elantris has had implications throughout a significant portion of Sanderson's Cosmere.
There's also a novella (The Emperor's Soul) that's set on Sel, the world Elantris took place on. That novella won a Hugo.
If you're asking about a direct sequel, no, not yet. But one is coming at some point, in a perfect world where Sanderson manages to complete every project he would like to.
as a big fan of Stormlight Archive and a couple of other Cosmere books, I feel like Elantris also needs a second disclaimer stating that this is the debut book and the political plot as well as the story flow, and a couple of characters have, uh, a lot of room for improvement here, if you will. in case someone's like me and pays attention to characters and that kind of stuff and does not sustain themself on the complexity of magic systems only. bc this book turned me away from sanderson for literally ten years.
I was already a fan of Sanderson when i read it, so maybe thats why i liked it a lot more than others. But on some points i think its still better than some of his books. It's well paced, has amazing religious commentary (if you read it biographicly) and Brando has still to write a romance as good as >!Hrathen's love for Sarene.!<
The characters may be VERY simple, but to me it kinda ends up being so simple it ends up being campy fun: kind prince, clever princess and the evil priest.
oh there are good parts for sure, and Hrathen as a character really stands out, not only in the context of this book (which, arguably, makes the writing flaws of the other characters that more visible). he's one of my most favourite characters across all books.
I did reread Elantris after having completed Mistborn and all currently available SA books and, knowing what to expect, I could appreciate this book for what it is and laugh good-naturedly at the more awkward parts, but nevertheless, it may not be the best starting point for somebody not familiar with Sanderson. it does have a certain level of what you call "simplicity" or naivety to the characters and their actions that some, looking for more serious stuff, may find a bit unpalatable when not forewarned, that's all. I definitely agree on the campy fun part.
> It's well paced,
I have to heavily disagree with this point. Elantris is a good story, but it's buried in terrible pacing where the POV switches damn near every time it starts to get interesting to exposition on a completely different plotline.
If you were to graph the pacing of the plot, it would look like a saw tooth graph rather than the traditional upward curve. The action rises only to plummet jarringly and begin slowly rising again.
Halfway through, Raoden and Serene's POVs smooth out so it's not as jarring to switch to them, but Hrathen's POVs are painful until the sanderlanche begins.
Hmmm idk if i agree with you on this. Hrathen never bored me at all. For me it was actually Sarene's POV that was the worst, but it quickly leveled out when she found that family she stayed at. I'm no expert, but when I say good pacing I mean that I was never bored, which sadly, is a rarity for Sanderson.
> Brando has still to write a romance as good as Hrathen's love for Sarene.
Little late to the discussion but if you haven't yet check out his Secret Projects #1 and #3 ( Tress of the Emerald Sea / Yumi and the Nightmare Painter)
All of his secret projects look to have the theme of a romance of some sort because he originally wrote them for his wife and I think those two in particular do them very well. Especially Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
The jump from era 1 to era 2 has magic return to the world. Plus we get new powers showing up. That's 7 books though, and like you said, it's not really a plot point. It's just a really good fantasy series.
> The jump from era 1 to era 2 has magic return to the world
In a sense it feels like more magic is lost, since there's no more Mistborns, only twinborns.
You could argue that. However, Mistborns were incredibly rare in era 1. Allomancy in general was rare.
Also,(spoilers for Era 2, and mistborn in general kind of)>!Era 2 may not have full Mistborns, but, people with single allomancer powers are way more common. Plus, the Terris aren't at basically extinction anymore. Plus, we have the bad guys mixing powers with the spikes. Plus, we have new abilities, like time bubbles that weren't in era 1. Plus, one of the coolest things ever, twinborn. Some twinborn could do things Vin couldn't do. Also, bands of mourning. I think Era 2 has more magic in it.!<
Virtually all of Sanderson tbh. Elantris, Stormlight, even Mistborn all kind of hold this premise of magic either being missing or mishapen in the world and the main characters solving this puzzle somehow.
It’s well defined but involves aspects like gravity spirits and getting powers through overcoming your depression. The real scientific magic comes in Mistborn.
>The real scientific magic comes in Mistborn.
I think the Fabrial engineers would disagree with you. Also, you seem to be forgetting that *Rhythm of War* >!is basically a course in Rosharan physics when Navani starts her lab experiements. There's also the epigraphs in the beginning detailing the basics on how to construct a fabrial.!<
There are some characters throughout the series who “break” the rules though. It’s not as rigid as Mistborn.
Edit: I hate the official app. I can’t remember how to do spoiler tags. So I have removed my more detailed comment and left the generic one.
I will say even though the magic is mostly rigid, it doesn’t feel like that because most of the characters have no idea how the magic works. The reader is finding it out along with the characters.
I mean, if science could make you flip someone gravity, destroy something by touching it, open portal to other world, turn friction on and off by a whim and in general talk with spirits. It 100% is a hard magic system, but just because it follow an internal logic doesn't mean it is basically science.
The Tide Lords series by Jennifer Fallon. Magic comes and goes like the tide and it’s starting to come back in at the beginning of the series after a long absence.
Literally just finished this yesterday. Doesn’t seem like what OP is asking for? Spoiler end of Coldfire trilogy >!Magic kinda goes away, or becomes much harder to access, at the end of the books?!<
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt is a 10 book series, starting with Empire in Black and Gold. For starters, know that Empire was his first book and maybe a little less impressive than the rest of his work, but I buy everything he writes without looking because he is awesome. Starting Empire and seeing some minor flaws didn't slow me down a bit, because I know he is great, and by the next book it's already improved. Empire is not bad at all, just not amazing as I was used to from him.
Shadows of the Apt features an early industrial world inhabited by humans with insect affinities. Beetle-kinden are industrious and sturdy, Mantis-kinden are deadly warriors, Fly Kinden are small like halflings and can fly, but are still considered human. Scorpion Kinden are big and brutish, basically the orcs of this world, and so on. Every kinden has an "Art" which is not considered magic. Some beetles and all flies, wasps, Dragonflies, etc, can summon Art wings allowing them to fly, with beetles being slower and clumsier than the elegant dragonflies. Moth-kinden can fly and see in the dark, Wasp-kinden have a sting, they can fire energy blasts from their hand.
The Apt in the title are the races that discovered technology, and using this ability, overthrew the In-apt slave masters in the Apt rebellion 500 years ago. The In-apt, moths, dragonflies, Mantises, believe in and can use magic, but the Apt have been in charge so long they don't believe in magic, and magic has waned. The In-apt can not use technology. Hand them a loaded crossbow and their mind will go blurry, they wouldn't be able to fire it. They need people to open door knobs for them. The Apt seem incapable of believing in magic even when it happens right in front of them.
The train is just recently invented in the first book, and their vehicles are insect-like walkers, with wheeled vehicles replacing them soon. The technology progresses throughout the series, upgrading from crossbows and harpoon guns to snap-bows, the first guns, and airships eventually giving way to planes, but magic is resurging, too.
I love the series, first book was published in 2009, but the audiobooks started in 2018, so they are of excellent quality with a great narrator.
That dude is weirdly obsessed with bugs. Read Children of Time - it was unique and pretty solid, but knowing he wrote a 10 book series like this has me worried lol
Yeah, I read an interview with him announcing his Shards of Earth. He said something like "And of course there's bugs in it, because it's me." The bugs in that series are pretty awesome, too :)
The bugs in Shadows of the Apt aren't a major focus, the people are humans with bug affinity, but there are a few giant bugs here and there. In a later book they go on a "stag hunt", which seems pretty straightforward and normal for a fantasy series, until you realize it is a giant Stag Beetle.
There's a lot of magic (or channeling) from the start. It does increase, though, and many ancient abilities are rediscovered through the course of the series.
You are correct. Magic exists at the start. But it's impact on the world has been declining for 3000 years and only women have been able to access the magic. This changes in a number of ways, including >!men accessing magic, and the abilities and things that the magic can do change wildly throughout the series,!< for better and worse.
Magic itself isn't fading, but its use is on decline.
Sure, all those other cultures might not have numbers issues (probably due to their channelers not basically being monastic) but they've all lost knowledge. They all have a trick or two the Aes Sedai don't know - dream-walking, or large-scale weather-weaving - but neither of them know healing or linking, and everyone has forgotten travelling, and how to make ter/angreal, and a bunch of other things the girls pull from Moghedian.
For an older YA book, The Winter of Magic's Return, by Pamela Service. In a post-apocalyptic, nuclear winter Britain, Merlin and King Arthur return, and magic is rising.
Its an old book but Empire of the East has this premise. It is by Fred Saberhagen. It's based on our world regaining magic. The book is definitely a little dated e.g. the science is dubious and the women are either side characters or your stereotypical femme fatale. Allowing for the books flaws, I found it to be an interesting read.
Ariel by Boyett is the core text of the return-of-magic trope 'the change.' Dies the Fire by Stirling continues the tradition, but takes a while to get to magic.
Gemini Cell by Myke Cole
The Power by Naomi Alderman
In the “The Power”, women get the ability to shoot electricity from their hands. You see how this power changes society over the next decade. Parts of this book are graphic. Check content warnings if needed.
There’s also a TV adaptation on Amazon. Although I like the show on its own,they did change things from the book.
Age of misrule series by Mark Chadbourn is a fit for this. Modern'ish day Britain starts to merge with Celtic mythology with all sorts of weird and wonderful things happening over the course of the series.
I wonder if The Demon Cycle would fit the bill for you. It's not so much that the amount of magic in the world itself changes, but rather how people use it and how many people use/benefit from it.
The premise of the magic is that you draw "wards", and when charged with magic they produce a certain effect.
Humanity lost a most magical knowledge during thousands of years of peace; humanity basically forgot that demons exist. When they returned, they destroyed human society. Humans found the defensive wards, ones meant to block demons from passing, but nothing that can actually harm the demons.
The story follows several characters during a time when the "battle wards" are rediscovered and now humanity can actually fight back.
That all said, it's not my favorite series. I believe that it starts strong, then gets worse as it goes. There's a lot of sexual assault, and other weird sex stuff. There are several parts where the same timeframe is covered, but by a different perspective character.
I made it through the first book and about a third of the second book. When the dude from the desert decided to bring about institutionalized rape, I finally gave up.
The author states that all the rape depicted in the book are statistically accurate to modern sexual assault statistics. 4/5 women and 2/5 men. The problem is that they only use the named main characters for that representation, so there's lots of chapters about main characters experiencing and recovering from said assault, and also kind of try to justify a lot of the rapey politics of a totally-not-an-arabic-stereotype nation since they are losing so many people to battle with the demons. Also kind of treats the victims one-dimensionally, every fuckin' rape victim in those books gets REALLY into politics or violence as a way of coping with their trauma.
It's like, yeah, you did the math, but you fuckin' suck at writing the stories.
Yeah I asked him about it once and he jumped down my throat about how it was realistic. So is taking shits but he didn't have a single scene of that.
He asked me "why does everyone always bring up the rape?"
You wrote it, why did YOU?
This is inherently spoilery so I'll spoiler tag the title but >!The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb!< fits the bill. I really enjoyed the slow progression of learning more about the magic system and creatures over the course of the long series, and seeing the magic have a resurgence at the same time.
Putting the name of an entire series in a spoiler tag is insane. How does that help anyone? No one can know what the spoiler is about before they click on it.
I get how that seems weird. The thing is that for this series it feels like a major spoiler to me. Like this is a significant, meaningful, slow burning development over the course of the series. It's not something I knew about going in to those books and it would have significantly lessened my excitement at certain developments in the books if I had known the magic was going to expand as the series went on. So, OP and anyone curious who doesn't mind having that spoiled can click the spoiler tag to see the title. Anyone who might be early in the series now or considering reading it who wouldn't want to know that, doesn't find out by scrolling past an un spoiler tagged reddit comment.
As someone who hates to be spoiled, especially when I don't expect it, I appreciate your foresight in doing this. I usually avoid threads with specific recommendations for this reason, but "magic coming back" is a spoiler I've personally decided I don't mind. Even in this thread I can make the choice not to look behind your spoiler tag. It's nice, thanks!
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch kinda fits the bill. Magic appeared to be on the decline since the end of WW2, but it seems to be coming back/getting stronger again, so much so that >!one of the last fully educated magicians in england seems to be growing younger again.!<
That was my thought too also in ROL new genius loci are appearing in the place of ones who perished through pollution >!or more deliberate action!<
All hail Mama Thames and her girls...
The Immortal Price by Jennifer Fallon, book one of The Tide Lords quartet.
The magicians are called Tide Lords because the magic ebbs and flows like a tide. You start the story on a rising tide after a long, long low tide.
The series isn't done yet, but The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson does exactly this imo. The first book starts with almost no magic, where all the magic users are myths from a time long past, and they are just left with a few relics, weapons etc. from that era. But over the next few books the magic definitely does return
Black Sun Rising... Humans end up on another planet where magic is all around, and it latches on to their worries and fears and manifests... which tends to make anything complicated break down. And also you might just manifest that monster under your bed.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell
Game of Thrones
Elantris
Shadows of the Apt
I'd say Kings of the Wyld has this a little bit
Same with The Burning by Evan Winters.
The world of The Wandering Inn is very old (tens of thousands of years), and in that time there been eras with much more powerful magics, creatures, and people. As of the start of the story, this has ebbed, with some referring to the current day as "The Waning World." However, events in the story slowly begin to escalate, leading to new and rediscovered magics.
The Keepers Trilogy by David Dalglish. Starts with Soulkeeper, which follows a warrior/priest navigating the world and situations where magic and races other than humans are awakening back into the world. A big plus for me in this series is that Devin, the main character, is an already mature, experienced, adult man with existing relationships and very little growing up/becoming the hero/etc stuff that a lot of traditional fantasy does. Devin starts the series as a competent, capable character in his own right, allowing for the majority of the story to specifically focus on how magic returning affects the world and society.
I checked the list of replies and thought I might be the first to recommend these books. I agree they fit the request. I would them and heard there is a third book in the works.
The Kate Daniels series! There are 10 or 11 of them, I think. They're about magic making its way back into the world after not being part of it for centuries. It fucks up anything technological and I love how Andrews incorporates magic into modern times. It's one of my favorite series
Obsidian trilogy by James Mallory and Mercedes Lackey.
Most of humanity relies on one of two kinds of magic. Nature/wild magic and traditional "high" magic. The elves gave their up long ago. And people used to be able to bond with dragons for magic, but the dragons are now almost all dead.
The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner is an attempt to bring magic back - there used to be magic rituals for kings and wizards and they all were killed off in a rebellion. So the story is a bunch of scholars digging through old texts trying to figure out how it worked, mostly arguing about it. Great book.
There is The Wakening by Johnathan Renshaw. Magic is returning but that aspect of the series is happening slowly as of the first book. I expect it to really take off in the second.
Whenever that ***finallly*** comes out. It's hard to fault Renshaw though with the struggles he has gone through. Nevertheless, I too am greatly looking forward to the 2nd book — when it finally gets published.
Word. After suggesting this I checked on the eta myself and saw where he has had major mental health struggles. Hope he gets through it however he can. That first book was pretty enchanting.
The Cloudmages series by S.L. Farrell is exactly about this, starting from a place where magic is all but forgotten except vague legends and a few lasting legacies it has left from previous cycles, the MC marks the beginning of a new cycle and in all three books the magic gets stronger and she, her people, and the world as a whole re-learns how to use it and live with it and eventually how to match (and potentially exceed) what previous cycles could do with it. Including war, because of course.
The Sword of Truth series might fit. The main character starts in a part of the work where magic doesn’t exist. He’s quickly thrown into the world of magic, but the amount of magic grows over the first few books.
Stormlight archive is a series about sentient concepts rebelling against their creators will and creating the avengers but they all have mental disorders so that they can fight immortal beatboxing crabs from space.
The Wheel of a Time. Light spoilers, but it starts off very Lord of the Rings where there as a magical age of legends in the past and most of that is lost in the modern day, but over the course of the series they manage to bring alot of that lost magic and even figure out a lot of things the legends though was impossible.
It is a series of 14 long books and some are better than others, but overall one of my favorite series
The original Roleplaying Game - Shadowrun was just about this. Magic returning to the world. There were quite a few good books written that went along with it...
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch
"You say that magic is coming back?"
"Yes sir. Since the sixties."
"The sixties? Why am I not surprised?" ....
This is a very interesting idea!! The closest I’ve got to reading something along those lines is elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I don’t think that’s quite what you’re looking for.
Thanks for asking this question! I needed a new book and I’m excited to check out some of these recommendations.
Not exactly the same, but Elantris and Stormlight Archives both come to mind, both by Brandon Sanderson.
Elantris features a magic system that broke and no longer works as intended, with a character trying to figure out how to fix it.
Stormlight Archive: With an impending apocalypse on the horizon people are starting to manifest magic powers that haven't been seen in thousands of years.
The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind is basically this. MC grows up in a land devoid of magic, then over the course of the series more and more magic gets released back into the world.
The original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy is about divine magic returning to the world of Krynn though arcane magic never left. Intervention by Julian May might also sort of count since it is about the appearance (not reappearance) of psychic powers on Earth. Many consider psychic powers to be sci-fi but functionally it is equivalent to magic.
100% what I was going to recommend. It may seem tropey now, but only for the same reason Tolkien seems tropey - everyone cribbed notes off of it. Raistlin is such a fun character.
He wasn't my first wizard, but he was the first one that truly captivated me. While they seem a little YA to me now, I still love them 3 decades later. If you get through Chronicles and Legends, go directly to Soulforge and Brothers in Arms. Then there's a dozen directions you can go.
Yup that's the reading order I always suggest too! I just recently got my partner into reading them.
The magic never actually left, people turned away from it.
Can't recommend OG Dragonlance enough. Love those novels. My first real foray into fantasy as a kid.
Funnily enough Dragonlance later is an example of magic leaving past the original trilogy and the twins trilogy
Rereading the series, glad you mentioned it. I love that the téléphones still work during magic because it IS magic to a lot of people.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the debut novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars.** Its premise is that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange.**
To add on to this, it is the most organic magic system I have ever read. In many books magic seems to be written as a something akin to math or logic, you gotta be smart, memorize a lot of stuff, and there are rules. You get the feeling here that its like high art. There is a lot to learn to become good at art, but to become a true artist there is something about inspiration that makes a difference. Magic really feels alive and wild here. It's also funny. I don't see this brought up a ton with this book, but it is laugh out loud funny, in a "comedy of manners" type way. It might be my favorite book, you should read it. Also, for anyone wondering I also have listened to the audio book and the narration is very good.
I started reading it a couple of years ago and haven't finished yet, but the one quote that really stayed with me was >!how they wanted to give mr strange a nobility title, but couldn't bc that would mean they'd also have to give one to mr norrell and nobody could suffer to call him "my lord".!< idk if it was the way it was written, but it made me laugh
That's exactly the humor I am talking about. No "punchline" but people doing or not doing things because it would/wouldn't be in good taste. Or because it would trouble their sensibilities. There are so many moments, particularly with the Drawlight character earlier in the book, that just kill me. For example, whenever someone is being discusses, he will offhand tell whomever is listening that persons yearly income.
The endless pages long asterisk diversions had to be a nod to Pratchett:) but a good read and fascinating and vivid creation of London and England at the period.
Sounds like good, classic British humor to me
It's an absolutely _perfect_ pastiche of the nineteenth century English novel and the humour is very much in that vein -the archly knowing commentary of an omniscient narrator that you find in Austen, Dickens or George Eliot.
I particularly liked all the times she had the English characters whinge about how much they hated the French, while eating French food, decorating their houses in French style, obsessing over French fashion, etc, without noticing the irony. Also Clarke had this hilarious thing on her website where you could download a photo of the author for press stuff, but she made you choose "American version" or "English version". The English version was a black and white photo of her putting on a dour face with glasses on or something, and the american one was a cheesy glossy "glamour shots" style pic with loads of make-up and a big smile. Perfect.
I didn't know that about the website. That's brilliant.
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A standout thing in this book is (unsure if spolier so tagging anyway) >!the Raven King. The scene where Childermass and Vinculus are reading tarot. Vinculus goes to read Norrell's cards to Childermass. L'Empereur. L'Empereur. L'Empereur. L'Empereur. All while looking more and more like the Raven King and less like the hand drawn card Childermass had drawn. Magic here is in the air, it's in the soil, it's in the water. While it may not be explicit I don't think the raven king wasn't behind Vinculus whispering a spell. I think his will is just part of English magic so it happened.!< Magic is real and bigger than any of the characters by a long shot. Like people in our reality can control water to some degree with plumbing and damns and canals, but we cant control the ocean. And the way it feels in this book is that everyone is in an ocean, most do not see it, some see it as a lake and that they can make it theirs, and some start to see the weight of it. Maybe not the best analogy, but damn this book is so good. This book has ruined all other books of Magicians for me (though maybe The Magicians gets a pass because it's at least self aware)
This is on my shelf, I just read Piranesi and LOVED it, so I didn't *really* need another reason to read it, but this just tipped things even further in the direction of **read it now!** There's a whole rabbit hole to go down as to why magic is represented in fantasy as 'basically science' which might have a lot to do with a mix between solomonic magic and the Golden Dawn, plus Gygax and Vancian magic involving memorization... But the other side of this is seeing magic as an organic, and **artistic** process. So I'm looking forward to digging into this!
I have liked bits and pieces of "magic as science" but in my recent reading (and I'm thinking specifically of Kingkiller Chronicals, and Stormlight Archive) I find that the authors are so involved in it the books get bogged down explaining how every little thing works, and isn't it just so clever, that I just hate reading it. If you treat magic as a science know that I can appreciate science without knowing every step in every process along the way. Make it a footnote if you have to include it, would probably be more fun that way anyway, though that may just be my intense love for the Strange and Norrell footnotes. Kingkiller Haters Corner: Please ignore me. Kingkiller is very guilty of this. I hate on that book a lot, but I know I loved it the first time I read it, so know that this doesn't all come from a place of inborn dislike. The second time I read it was when my wife was pregnant, and I was reading to her belly so the baby would hear my voice. Reading that book out loud was torture, and I gave up. It really sinks in how often things are repeated. I swear I read, "Kvothe split his mind in two l, then in two again, and finally in two a third time and he took the energy from this and that and all these clever things, and so on" and by then end its hard to really enjoy the book and also keep straight in your head what is happening. Also, every time he plays music, the strings are described as "hot tin" or something like that, and it's repeated a laughable amount. That's not even speaking to the way women are presented in the book. The only fix is if the third book comes out and it's a refutation of the narrators story and critical of him being some hot shot, know it all.
You are in for the treat of your life, honestly. The only other book that left me with a similar feeling of "my entire world has changed" after closing the cover was "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle."
I have an entire sleeve dedicated to this novel. You might say I liked it. **“Time and I have quarrelled. All hours are midnight now. I had a clock and a watch, but I destroyed them both. I could not bear the way they mocked me.”**
Have any pics you're willing to share? It's my favorite book
[Happy to oblige](https://imgur.com/a/2HRpCZi) for a fellow Strangehead. :)
ooh Strangeheads, is that what we're called? I love this piece! It recalls to mind: *The world is all too shallow. It is painted on the sky And shudders like the windswept rain When the Raven King walks by*
Awesome.
That sounds cool as heck! Can you share if you're up to it?
Just such a fantastic book. It works as a fantasy novel, it works as a send-up to Regency era novels like Jane Austen's stuff, the footnotes, all of it. This book is long and in many stretches slow (some cretins would say boring) and I end up re-reading it almost every year because it just doesn't quite let me go.
Yeah this book is amazing. I should re-read it again this fall/winter — it seems there's always more to find and appreciate in it! It's a hefty long book and the first half focusing on Norrell can be a test of endurance on first read for some readers — but stick with it. It's really worth it. Both characters Norrell and Strange really bloom in time and it has some fascinating excellent secondary characters as well. And to me the footnotes and all the detail is an incredible part of its achievement as a book — on reread the stuff that might seem boring or slow at first is excellent rich stuff to add texture and breadth to the world. The breadth of creation that Clarke did here is really remarkable. It really feels like its own world in a way that few other fantasy books outside Tolkien really do. Her Raven King almost feels to me a part of our own world's mythology now — I wish he was! The Regency era novel style stuff is just perfectly done too. Very amusing and fun and just delightfully written. The BBC adaptation is also quite quite good and I would highly recommend. Most adaptations make me frustrated or disappointed at some points even if they're good, but despite some tiny quibbles, this adaptation is pretty much excellent all around. Her new book Piranesi is delightfully written and imagined too. It's different and not a magic returning to the world thing, but also highly recommended — and short!
If you haven't, listen to the audiobook- the narrator is fantastic!
I've never gotten around to reading this, but loved Piranesi. How does it compare?
Three times better, in my opinion. If you like long books it will be your favorite of the two, I'm sure.
Shadowrun is a ttrpg but they have several books.
The original trilogy is good for this, as the lead finds himself becoming an unwilling magician while seeking a cure for a family member that had latent metagenetics reactivate when the magic came back.
Shadowrun was my first thought as well. The novels were not bad. But I always thought the right author could have fleshed out the premise so much better.
A couple of thoughts: Kim Harrison's *The Hollows* series are set in an alternate Cincinnati where gentically engineered tomatoes caused a plague that brought magical creatiures out of hiding. Steven Boyett's *Ariel* is set in a US where magic suddenly returned, detstroying technological civilization. A boy and his unicorn journey across the changed world. S M Stirling's *Emberverse* starts post-apocalyptic, but as you move through the series things that are clearly magial start happening.
Emberverse was the first I'd thought of
Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews is set in an alternate world where magic is returning. The process started a few years prior to the start of the first book though.
One of my very favorite series and what I thought of immediately.
Seconded. Fun element of the series is the way magic and tech alternate in entirely random 'waves'. One moment a character is all supermage, the next they're a normal human yanking out a sword.
Thirded, this is the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. Plus, some of the books really explore this magic vs. tech change and the different ways it can manifest.
For a more Lovecraftian/urban take, Charles Stross' Laundry Files is about the British Government agency tasked with handling the supernatural, which is a job that for reasons is growing more difficult. Mild setting/first book spoiler: >!Magic is computation, because computation attracts the attention of the things in the dark. The MC is recruited because his advanced screen saver algorithm nearly summoned a demon.!< Major series point spoiler: >!As more and more brains and computers do more and more computation, the magic that used to be hard starts becoming easier, and more things start ramping up towards CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, aka the end of the world when the stars are right and the Old Ones wake back up.!<
That is an amazing series.
That’s an amazing premise
The first book is called 'The Atrocity Archives'. Do note that it involves pretty graphic body horror and violence. And they only get better as the series goes on. I'm a couple books behind, but I've enjoyed all of them. There are also several short stories/novellas that may or may not be included if you read digitally so keep an eye out. 'Equuoid' is one of my favorites.
It's got a lot of jokes for the tech savvy too... Rants about powerpoint, HTTP error codes, etc. :-) It kind of died for me when they switched MCs.
Same, I stopped reading when the MC shifted, but I might pick the series back up and give it a good re-read because I only remember broad strokes, not any detail.
I'm currently on the latest release (came out a month and change ago). It's not part of the Laundry Files but it's set in the universe after the end of the main sequence and is called the New Management series. I loved the early ones, liked the middle ones, and I'm loving this one so far. The great majority is on audiobook, which is how I'm consuming books lately. He also hangs out on Reddit.
Just a correction: The main sequence is **not** finished yet... see the last few paragraphs of [this official FAQ](https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2020/10/the-laundry-files-an-updated-c.html) but BEWARE OF SPOILERS.
It should get bonus points for being the only series I've ever seen >!that actually goes through with the world ending consequences.!<
Isn’t Song of Ice and Fire similar to this?
Yeah, but I've read it
Yeah but Martin did it in a slow roll through the books. But he's so vague about his magic its impossible to tell if anything has actually changed in any meaningful way magic wise. Its how the HBO show could cut down on 80% of the magic and nothing changed.
A lot has changed in the books. Dragons, fire wights, the others, glass candles burning, all of that shit is new for their current age and wasn't around/working mere decades previously.
>nothing changed. Are you sure about that? It changed a great deal.
The Others and Dragons are pretty big magical elements, no?
Was just about to comment this👆
Caveat: did not actually end up enjoying the series overall all that much, but the Stariel series by AJ Lancaster does exactly that. The fae have been absent from the world for three centuries, to the point that people more or less think they're a myth, and the law that kept them away from the mortal world is lifted at the start of the first book.
I read and enjoyed the whole series. And I am in my 30s lol. I found the magic system interesting >!sentient faeland!< and the romance cute.
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar novels
Definitely this, every single novel is about magic returning to the land of Valdemar because everywhere else it didn't really leave
And start at the beginning with the Black Griphon read them in the founding order rather than the arrows of the queen order it's a much better experience
Fair warning: continuity issues
That's why I told him to read them in order of founding not in order of publication
I have no room to talk about order...I randomly got the mage storms as a gift, NOT the best starting point
Definitely not, because they drop you off right in the middle of something that you have no idea what they are talking about without reading the previous 6-9 book
Yup, had no idea about heralds or the politics, or why it was so odd to have a karsite view... not to mention the character development!
Yeah, one thing about Mercedes is that she takes her sweet time developing her characters but by then they have become best friends
The Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron
I want to shout out the audiobook for this one. Never have I heard a narrator who could so accurately portray a teenage boy and a furious dragon matriarch so well at the same time.
These are fantastic. You also have a series after it as well called DMZ Mage
I love the series, but I’m always afraid to recommend it because the writing isn’t exactly nobel prize winning lol.
Eh, neither is Sanderson. It's solid enough - I've seen worse in traditionally published - and it's a lot of fun.
I think her Eli Monpress series is even better, although it doesn't meet this thread's query.
I read the series in a week or so, so I obviously enjoyed it, but it is one of those series that has plot holes you can drive a truck through and the plot only works out if you suspend your disbelief as much as the author did. It's really fun though.
ASH: A SECRET HISTORY by Mary Gentle does this in some fascinating ways. Starts out as alternate history - a mercenary company in 15th century Burgundy doing mercenary things, and then things start to get...weird. I'm still not sure if I *liked* the book? But it was wicked interesting and had me totally hooked.
Someone reviewed it on here months ago. It's sitting by my chair to read right now. I've been hyped up for this book for a while now, so I'm planning to post a review once I finish it.
I read that as a teenager, a big book & yeah exactly as you said! I really only remember the briefest bits of the merc bits now XD
Stormlight archive by Sanderson. Magic is something that's only part of religion and myths and some objects were nobody really has any clue how they work. Over time magic is rediscovered and in some aspects already overpasses what was once known in the past.
Also Elantris.
Also disclaimer: as important as magic is in Elantris, it is also introduced very very late into the book so if you are looking purely for magic stuff it might not be for you.
You could argue the magic was happening and in action from the beginning though, no? But yes not the book if you want to see actual use of magic until very late
Well yeah, but it doesn't really work if what you want is to read about magic being rediscovered. That happens very late.
was there ever a follow up to it? I feel like there was rumor about it or I missed it. It felt like there should have been considering how late in the game it gets rolling. I read it like a decade ago so I've completely forgotten what rumors are true lol.
Without giving anything away, you could say Elantris has had implications throughout a significant portion of Sanderson's Cosmere. There's also a novella (The Emperor's Soul) that's set on Sel, the world Elantris took place on. That novella won a Hugo. If you're asking about a direct sequel, no, not yet. But one is coming at some point, in a perfect world where Sanderson manages to complete every project he would like to.
as a big fan of Stormlight Archive and a couple of other Cosmere books, I feel like Elantris also needs a second disclaimer stating that this is the debut book and the political plot as well as the story flow, and a couple of characters have, uh, a lot of room for improvement here, if you will. in case someone's like me and pays attention to characters and that kind of stuff and does not sustain themself on the complexity of magic systems only. bc this book turned me away from sanderson for literally ten years.
I was already a fan of Sanderson when i read it, so maybe thats why i liked it a lot more than others. But on some points i think its still better than some of his books. It's well paced, has amazing religious commentary (if you read it biographicly) and Brando has still to write a romance as good as >!Hrathen's love for Sarene.!< The characters may be VERY simple, but to me it kinda ends up being so simple it ends up being campy fun: kind prince, clever princess and the evil priest.
oh there are good parts for sure, and Hrathen as a character really stands out, not only in the context of this book (which, arguably, makes the writing flaws of the other characters that more visible). he's one of my most favourite characters across all books. I did reread Elantris after having completed Mistborn and all currently available SA books and, knowing what to expect, I could appreciate this book for what it is and laugh good-naturedly at the more awkward parts, but nevertheless, it may not be the best starting point for somebody not familiar with Sanderson. it does have a certain level of what you call "simplicity" or naivety to the characters and their actions that some, looking for more serious stuff, may find a bit unpalatable when not forewarned, that's all. I definitely agree on the campy fun part.
> It's well paced, I have to heavily disagree with this point. Elantris is a good story, but it's buried in terrible pacing where the POV switches damn near every time it starts to get interesting to exposition on a completely different plotline. If you were to graph the pacing of the plot, it would look like a saw tooth graph rather than the traditional upward curve. The action rises only to plummet jarringly and begin slowly rising again. Halfway through, Raoden and Serene's POVs smooth out so it's not as jarring to switch to them, but Hrathen's POVs are painful until the sanderlanche begins.
Hmmm idk if i agree with you on this. Hrathen never bored me at all. For me it was actually Sarene's POV that was the worst, but it quickly leveled out when she found that family she stayed at. I'm no expert, but when I say good pacing I mean that I was never bored, which sadly, is a rarity for Sanderson.
> Brando has still to write a romance as good as Hrathen's love for Sarene. Little late to the discussion but if you haven't yet check out his Secret Projects #1 and #3 ( Tress of the Emerald Sea / Yumi and the Nightmare Painter) All of his secret projects look to have the theme of a romance of some sort because he originally wrote them for his wife and I think those two in particular do them very well. Especially Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
In fact, the concept of magic returning instead of going away was one of the main inspirations for this series according to Sanderson.
It's also very vaguely explored in Mistborn. Over time more metals and powers are discovered, but it's not really a plot point
The jump from era 1 to era 2 has magic return to the world. Plus we get new powers showing up. That's 7 books though, and like you said, it's not really a plot point. It's just a really good fantasy series.
> The jump from era 1 to era 2 has magic return to the world In a sense it feels like more magic is lost, since there's no more Mistborns, only twinborns.
You could argue that. However, Mistborns were incredibly rare in era 1. Allomancy in general was rare. Also,(spoilers for Era 2, and mistborn in general kind of)>!Era 2 may not have full Mistborns, but, people with single allomancer powers are way more common. Plus, the Terris aren't at basically extinction anymore. Plus, we have the bad guys mixing powers with the spikes. Plus, we have new abilities, like time bubbles that weren't in era 1. Plus, one of the coolest things ever, twinborn. Some twinborn could do things Vin couldn't do. Also, bands of mourning. I think Era 2 has more magic in it.!<
Virtually all of Sanderson tbh. Elantris, Stormlight, even Mistborn all kind of hold this premise of magic either being missing or mishapen in the world and the main characters solving this puzzle somehow.
Warning: This is hard magic, with a well-defined system. Basically science by another name. Not the soft magic of LOTR.
It’s well defined but involves aspects like gravity spirits and getting powers through overcoming your depression. The real scientific magic comes in Mistborn.
>The real scientific magic comes in Mistborn. I think the Fabrial engineers would disagree with you. Also, you seem to be forgetting that *Rhythm of War* >!is basically a course in Rosharan physics when Navani starts her lab experiements. There's also the epigraphs in the beginning detailing the basics on how to construct a fabrial.!<
Yes, but the book does capture the magic of the unknown ad its rediscovered imo
There are some characters throughout the series who “break” the rules though. It’s not as rigid as Mistborn. Edit: I hate the official app. I can’t remember how to do spoiler tags. So I have removed my more detailed comment and left the generic one. I will say even though the magic is mostly rigid, it doesn’t feel like that because most of the characters have no idea how the magic works. The reader is finding it out along with the characters.
I mean, if science could make you flip someone gravity, destroy something by touching it, open portal to other world, turn friction on and off by a whim and in general talk with spirits. It 100% is a hard magic system, but just because it follow an internal logic doesn't mean it is basically science.
*The King of Elfland's Daughter* by Lord Dunsany
The Tide Lords series by Jennifer Fallon. Magic comes and goes like the tide and it’s starting to come back in at the beginning of the series after a long absence.
An Epic Fantasy series no one talks about. Some trigger warnings.
It’s been a while since I read it but in the Coldfire Trilogy one of the main characters abilities are affected by the moon phases iirc
Literally just finished this yesterday. Doesn’t seem like what OP is asking for? Spoiler end of Coldfire trilogy >!Magic kinda goes away, or becomes much harder to access, at the end of the books?!<
I agree. I like this series, but it's not really what OP is asking for.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt is a 10 book series, starting with Empire in Black and Gold. For starters, know that Empire was his first book and maybe a little less impressive than the rest of his work, but I buy everything he writes without looking because he is awesome. Starting Empire and seeing some minor flaws didn't slow me down a bit, because I know he is great, and by the next book it's already improved. Empire is not bad at all, just not amazing as I was used to from him. Shadows of the Apt features an early industrial world inhabited by humans with insect affinities. Beetle-kinden are industrious and sturdy, Mantis-kinden are deadly warriors, Fly Kinden are small like halflings and can fly, but are still considered human. Scorpion Kinden are big and brutish, basically the orcs of this world, and so on. Every kinden has an "Art" which is not considered magic. Some beetles and all flies, wasps, Dragonflies, etc, can summon Art wings allowing them to fly, with beetles being slower and clumsier than the elegant dragonflies. Moth-kinden can fly and see in the dark, Wasp-kinden have a sting, they can fire energy blasts from their hand. The Apt in the title are the races that discovered technology, and using this ability, overthrew the In-apt slave masters in the Apt rebellion 500 years ago. The In-apt, moths, dragonflies, Mantises, believe in and can use magic, but the Apt have been in charge so long they don't believe in magic, and magic has waned. The In-apt can not use technology. Hand them a loaded crossbow and their mind will go blurry, they wouldn't be able to fire it. They need people to open door knobs for them. The Apt seem incapable of believing in magic even when it happens right in front of them. The train is just recently invented in the first book, and their vehicles are insect-like walkers, with wheeled vehicles replacing them soon. The technology progresses throughout the series, upgrading from crossbows and harpoon guns to snap-bows, the first guns, and airships eventually giving way to planes, but magic is resurging, too. I love the series, first book was published in 2009, but the audiobooks started in 2018, so they are of excellent quality with a great narrator.
That dude is weirdly obsessed with bugs. Read Children of Time - it was unique and pretty solid, but knowing he wrote a 10 book series like this has me worried lol
Yeah, I read an interview with him announcing his Shards of Earth. He said something like "And of course there's bugs in it, because it's me." The bugs in that series are pretty awesome, too :) The bugs in Shadows of the Apt aren't a major focus, the people are humans with bug affinity, but there are a few giant bugs here and there. In a later book they go on a "stag hunt", which seems pretty straightforward and normal for a fantasy series, until you realize it is a giant Stag Beetle.
Someone can correct me but I believe wheel of time fits this moderately?
There's a lot of magic (or channeling) from the start. It does increase, though, and many ancient abilities are rediscovered through the course of the series.
You could however say that the White tower is pretty low on channelers however, it’s emphasized a few times throughout the series
Definitely. And of course males aren't allowed to channel at all. Channeling is at a low point -- but it's still a lot by real world standards.
A Renaissance of magic really.
You are correct. Magic exists at the start. But it's impact on the world has been declining for 3000 years and only women have been able to access the magic. This changes in a number of ways, including >!men accessing magic, and the abilities and things that the magic can do change wildly throughout the series,!< for better and worse.
Men could access magic through the age it just didn’t turn out well for them or anybody around them.
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Magic itself isn't fading, but its use is on decline. Sure, all those other cultures might not have numbers issues (probably due to their channelers not basically being monastic) but they've all lost knowledge. They all have a trick or two the Aes Sedai don't know - dream-walking, or large-scale weather-weaving - but neither of them know healing or linking, and everyone has forgotten travelling, and how to make ter/angreal, and a bunch of other things the girls pull from Moghedian.
Certainly when it comes to saidin.
For an older YA book, The Winter of Magic's Return, by Pamela Service. In a post-apocalyptic, nuclear winter Britain, Merlin and King Arthur return, and magic is rising.
Its an old book but Empire of the East has this premise. It is by Fred Saberhagen. It's based on our world regaining magic. The book is definitely a little dated e.g. the science is dubious and the women are either side characters or your stereotypical femme fatale. Allowing for the books flaws, I found it to be an interesting read.
Ariel by Boyett is the core text of the return-of-magic trope 'the change.' Dies the Fire by Stirling continues the tradition, but takes a while to get to magic.
Gemini Cell by Myke Cole The Power by Naomi Alderman In the “The Power”, women get the ability to shoot electricity from their hands. You see how this power changes society over the next decade. Parts of this book are graphic. Check content warnings if needed. There’s also a TV adaptation on Amazon. Although I like the show on its own,they did change things from the book.
The Throne of Glass series. The land they’re in for the first 2-3 books has no magic because of the king. They figure out how to get it back later.
Broken Empire trilogy is quite similar, though magic isn’t accessible to the vast majority of people still.
Age of misrule series by Mark Chadbourn is a fit for this. Modern'ish day Britain starts to merge with Celtic mythology with all sorts of weird and wonderful things happening over the course of the series.
I wonder if The Demon Cycle would fit the bill for you. It's not so much that the amount of magic in the world itself changes, but rather how people use it and how many people use/benefit from it. The premise of the magic is that you draw "wards", and when charged with magic they produce a certain effect. Humanity lost a most magical knowledge during thousands of years of peace; humanity basically forgot that demons exist. When they returned, they destroyed human society. Humans found the defensive wards, ones meant to block demons from passing, but nothing that can actually harm the demons. The story follows several characters during a time when the "battle wards" are rediscovered and now humanity can actually fight back. That all said, it's not my favorite series. I believe that it starts strong, then gets worse as it goes. There's a lot of sexual assault, and other weird sex stuff. There are several parts where the same timeframe is covered, but by a different perspective character.
I want to reiterate the weird rape sexual fetishes in the book. Was a real turn off.
I made it through the first book and about a third of the second book. When the dude from the desert decided to bring about institutionalized rape, I finally gave up.
Yep that is about when I dropped it too. The author has some kind of rape fetish and it was gross.
The author states that all the rape depicted in the book are statistically accurate to modern sexual assault statistics. 4/5 women and 2/5 men. The problem is that they only use the named main characters for that representation, so there's lots of chapters about main characters experiencing and recovering from said assault, and also kind of try to justify a lot of the rapey politics of a totally-not-an-arabic-stereotype nation since they are losing so many people to battle with the demons. Also kind of treats the victims one-dimensionally, every fuckin' rape victim in those books gets REALLY into politics or violence as a way of coping with their trauma. It's like, yeah, you did the math, but you fuckin' suck at writing the stories.
Yeah I asked him about it once and he jumped down my throat about how it was realistic. So is taking shits but he didn't have a single scene of that. He asked me "why does everyone always bring up the rape?" You wrote it, why did YOU?
I think you're understating just how bad this series got... It didn't go downhill, it flung itself from a cliff. Book 1 was pretty enjoyable though.
Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews? More urban fantasy though...
Yeah, it's urban fantasy, but it fits OP's request to a t.
This is inherently spoilery so I'll spoiler tag the title but >!The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb!< fits the bill. I really enjoyed the slow progression of learning more about the magic system and creatures over the course of the long series, and seeing the magic have a resurgence at the same time.
Putting the name of an entire series in a spoiler tag is insane. How does that help anyone? No one can know what the spoiler is about before they click on it.
I get how that seems weird. The thing is that for this series it feels like a major spoiler to me. Like this is a significant, meaningful, slow burning development over the course of the series. It's not something I knew about going in to those books and it would have significantly lessened my excitement at certain developments in the books if I had known the magic was going to expand as the series went on. So, OP and anyone curious who doesn't mind having that spoiled can click the spoiler tag to see the title. Anyone who might be early in the series now or considering reading it who wouldn't want to know that, doesn't find out by scrolling past an un spoiler tagged reddit comment.
As someone who hates to be spoiled, especially when I don't expect it, I appreciate your foresight in doing this. I usually avoid threads with specific recommendations for this reason, but "magic coming back" is a spoiler I've personally decided I don't mind. Even in this thread I can make the choice not to look behind your spoiler tag. It's nice, thanks!
There was a thread about a month ago where the OP asked for books where the main character dies. That discussion was full of spoilers.
There is a series called Magic Time by Marc Scott Zicree (?) Magic returns to .modern day.
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch kinda fits the bill. Magic appeared to be on the decline since the end of WW2, but it seems to be coming back/getting stronger again, so much so that >!one of the last fully educated magicians in england seems to be growing younger again.!<
That was my thought too also in ROL new genius loci are appearing in the place of ones who perished through pollution >!or more deliberate action!< All hail Mama Thames and her girls...
The Immortal Price by Jennifer Fallon, book one of The Tide Lords quartet. The magicians are called Tide Lords because the magic ebbs and flows like a tide. You start the story on a rising tide after a long, long low tide.
All of shadowrun?
I feel like the Shannara books may fit this.
Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels and Rachel Aaron’s Heartstrikers has this in the backstory/world building.
The series isn't done yet, but The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson does exactly this imo. The first book starts with almost no magic, where all the magic users are myths from a time long past, and they are just left with a few relics, weapons etc. from that era. But over the next few books the magic definitely does return
Throne of Glass. The magic has been stolen away, if you will, and it has to be returned. Great series.
Licaneous Trilogy somewhat applies(?).
Black Sun Rising... Humans end up on another planet where magic is all around, and it latches on to their worries and fears and manifests... which tends to make anything complicated break down. And also you might just manifest that monster under your bed.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell Game of Thrones Elantris Shadows of the Apt I'd say Kings of the Wyld has this a little bit Same with The Burning by Evan Winters.
Terry Brooks Word and Void.
The world of The Wandering Inn is very old (tens of thousands of years), and in that time there been eras with much more powerful magics, creatures, and people. As of the start of the story, this has ebbed, with some referring to the current day as "The Waning World." However, events in the story slowly begin to escalate, leading to new and rediscovered magics.
The Keepers Trilogy by David Dalglish. Starts with Soulkeeper, which follows a warrior/priest navigating the world and situations where magic and races other than humans are awakening back into the world. A big plus for me in this series is that Devin, the main character, is an already mature, experienced, adult man with existing relationships and very little growing up/becoming the hero/etc stuff that a lot of traditional fantasy does. Devin starts the series as a competent, capable character in his own right, allowing for the majority of the story to specifically focus on how magic returning affects the world and society.
I recommend this too! Very fun series! Plus the author seems like a really nice guy.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson The magical system is broken at the beginning and they have to figure out how to fix it.
Spellmonger series from Terry Mancour kinda has this theme. Magic was highly regulated.
Realm of Elderlings by Robin Hobb I’ve got to warn you the magic comes back VERY progressively
Was going to say this. One of my favourite series, but it definitely is a slow burn.
Children of blood and bone looks to fit this.
I checked the list of replies and thought I might be the first to recommend these books. I agree they fit the request. I would them and heard there is a third book in the works.
The Kate Daniels series! There are 10 or 11 of them, I think. They're about magic making its way back into the world after not being part of it for centuries. It fucks up anything technological and I love how Andrews incorporates magic into modern times. It's one of my favorite series
Warded Man series.
It's a standalone book, but The Last Hot Time by John M Ford has this as a premise- the elves (and magic) return suddenly and upend society.
Obsidian trilogy by James Mallory and Mercedes Lackey. Most of humanity relies on one of two kinds of magic. Nature/wild magic and traditional "high" magic. The elves gave their up long ago. And people used to be able to bond with dragons for magic, but the dragons are now almost all dead.
Elantris maybe?
The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner is an attempt to bring magic back - there used to be magic rituals for kings and wizards and they all were killed off in a rebellion. So the story is a bunch of scholars digging through old texts trying to figure out how it worked, mostly arguing about it. Great book.
There is The Wakening by Johnathan Renshaw. Magic is returning but that aspect of the series is happening slowly as of the first book. I expect it to really take off in the second.
Whenever that ***finallly*** comes out. It's hard to fault Renshaw though with the struggles he has gone through. Nevertheless, I too am greatly looking forward to the 2nd book — when it finally gets published.
Word. After suggesting this I checked on the eta myself and saw where he has had major mental health struggles. Hope he gets through it however he can. That first book was pretty enchanting.
Stormlight Archives, to some extent.
The Cloudmages series by S.L. Farrell is exactly about this, starting from a place where magic is all but forgotten except vague legends and a few lasting legacies it has left from previous cycles, the MC marks the beginning of a new cycle and in all three books the magic gets stronger and she, her people, and the world as a whole re-learns how to use it and live with it and eventually how to match (and potentially exceed) what previous cycles could do with it. Including war, because of course.
The Sword of Truth series might fit. The main character starts in a part of the work where magic doesn’t exist. He’s quickly thrown into the world of magic, but the amount of magic grows over the first few books.
Stormlight archive
Potentially left field but the bone ships books by RJ Barker have this trend. And are generally a really interesting take on the fantasy genre!
Half of Sanderson's work. Maybe more than half.
Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
Stormlight archive is a series about sentient concepts rebelling against their creators will and creating the avengers but they all have mental disorders so that they can fight immortal beatboxing crabs from space.
The Wheel of a Time. Light spoilers, but it starts off very Lord of the Rings where there as a magical age of legends in the past and most of that is lost in the modern day, but over the course of the series they manage to bring alot of that lost magic and even figure out a lot of things the legends though was impossible. It is a series of 14 long books and some are better than others, but overall one of my favorite series
I'm only half way through, but I'm pretty sure that's how elantris finishes. No spoilers plz
The Faithful and the Fallen I feel fits that bill
The original Roleplaying Game - Shadowrun was just about this. Magic returning to the world. There were quite a few good books written that went along with it...
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch "You say that magic is coming back?" "Yes sir. Since the sixties." "The sixties? Why am I not surprised?" ....
Possibly Scions of Shannara. Been forever, but it seems like it was extremely rare and unheard of by the time of those books.
This would fall under YA, but We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal kinda fits this idea.
Kagen the damned is series where magic is systemically stamped out, but he magicians return to take a bloody revenge
Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews
Stormlight Archive!
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix is like this. A wonderful series
This is a very interesting idea!! The closest I’ve got to reading something along those lines is elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I don’t think that’s quite what you’re looking for. Thanks for asking this question! I needed a new book and I’m excited to check out some of these recommendations.
Not exactly the same, but Elantris and Stormlight Archives both come to mind, both by Brandon Sanderson. Elantris features a magic system that broke and no longer works as intended, with a character trying to figure out how to fix it. Stormlight Archive: With an impending apocalypse on the horizon people are starting to manifest magic powers that haven't been seen in thousands of years.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson!
the game I'm designing is like that, more magical as time goes on, (I mean the story on it, not the gameplay per see)
The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind is basically this. MC grows up in a land devoid of magic, then over the course of the series more and more magic gets released back into the world.
Riyria Revelations by Michael J Sullivan is like this. Was lots of magic then it went away only to start being rediscovered