Books like Master of the Five Magics — picked by fans

I’ve been reading fantasy novels since around 1989, when I was twelve. I actually – stupidly! – thought it would be much easier to write a fantasy novel than a historical fiction one. Well, after writing about eighteen historical novels, I turned my hand to fantasy with Singers of the Sword Song and finally discovered just how hard it is to create a compelling new world completely from scratch. The books in this list are the ones that have inspired me for decades and continue to do so as I work on my second fantasy novel with a newfound appreciation, and love, for this magical genre.

I’ve loved creating and writing stories since childhood, and my ambitions started early. I started one of my largest and longest writing endeavors back in middle school—novelizing a popular video game called Chrono Trigger—and even into adulthood, it stretched into a serious effort. I used it to hone my writing craft for years, constantly bouncing feedback off others. Eventually, people started to tell me that the best parts of that story were the scenes I added to enhance it, and I finally decided that I wanted to pursue the creation of my own fantasy series. 

I write stories where consequence comes first. I grew up immersed in Greek/Egyptian mythology and fairy tales, but I was always more drawn to the parts they left out. I wanted to know what daily life looked like for someone like Hercules, not just the story beats. Or what happens when the moral of the story isn’t learned. My passion lies in exploring the cost of power, the wounds we carry (that are often excluded from stories), and the myths we create to justify them. I believe the best fantasy doesn’t just help us escape the world, it helps us to look at ours differently.

I’ve always loved characters with ambiguous morals, and the inherent tension they bring to stories: their path from ruin to redemption, the examination of their past misdeeds that requires them to choose what kind of person they want to be. As a former software engineer, I was traumatized by the Polytechnique massacre in Montréal, which happened while I was studying at a neighboring university, and in which fourteen women were murdered. I don’t consider its perpetrator redeemable, but after I wrote The Tree of Souls, I realized its character arcs were me trying to understand why people do bad things and forcing my characters to confront the pain they’d caused.

I’ve been an avid reader since I could open a book. The stories I’ve mentioned may have been a kick in the rear that made me realize how much I love science fiction and fantasy... with that little twist of magic that can send your imagination flying through the universe, but naturally it didn’t start there. When I was creating worlds, or playing through my friend’s worlds with D&D or Palladium, I always knew I wanted to share them with others. Because, if I can make people love my stories... maybe, just maybe... they’ll be inspired to write a story I’ll read and love.

It’s just my favorite trope, that’s all: the character who isn’t what he seems. I love the deception, I love the complications, I love the clues dropped along the way, I love the big reveal. I love the sensation I get when I, the reader, know just a little bit more than the characters do but still feel surprised and wonder when the whole truth is unveiled. When I sit down to write, I know I want to create that exact sensation in my readers.

I’ve been an avid reader since I could open a book. The stories I’ve mentioned may have been a kick in the rear that made me realize how much I love science fiction and fantasy... with that little twist of magic that can send your imagination flying through the universe, but naturally it didn’t start there. When I was creating worlds, or playing through my friend’s worlds with D&D or Palladium, I always knew I wanted to share them with others. Because, if I can make people love my stories... maybe, just maybe... they’ll be inspired to write a story I’ll read and love.

I am a geophysicist and have spent a career trying to use physics to make predictions. And you know what I have learned? It’s very hard to predict things—even scientific things. Good scientists are humble, but they also understand, a little, of how complex the world is. And perhaps they understand that no one knows—or even can know—everything, including them. Magic, like science, should incite our curiosity and our humility. It is even better if the magic helps deliver the meaning of a story. My novel Dynamicist explores the difficulty of changing the world—and its complex, magic system (based on thermodynamics and signal theory) supports this theme in numerous, unexpected ways.

In today’s world we have unprecedented access to knowledge and science. We are increasingly unsatisfied with seemingly impossible things that have no plausible explanation. Speculative fiction is known for asking one simple question “What If?” Science fiction leans toward scenarios that might be possible, whereas fantasy dwells in the world of the impossible. In early fantasy writing we would read about impossible things, and the author would wave it away with a simple “It’s just magic – don’t think about it.” Modern audiences want more. Hard fantasy (where magic systems have a logical and rules-based premise) dares not only to ask “what if” but also suggests “here’s how.”

I’ve never really felt like I belonged in this world. From early childhood independent play to building out entire backstories for my Lego creations, I dreamt of other worlds. As I grew, that developed into a love of history, mythology, philosophy, and the other components of worldbuilding. And being naturally inclined to ask, “What if,” there’s nothing I love more than exploring these alien worlds. What if there was a world with a dozen sentient species? What if humans didn’t even exist in that world? What if that world was overflowing with magic? It’s these sorts of questions I most enjoy pondering.