What books describe a good magical world?

[grimslade]

Brust's Vlad Taltos series makes good use of Resurrection/Raise Dead. The use of Morganti weapons or taking the victims head make things permanent, however. It maintains a respect for death both as a final and a transient experience. Plus, nothing says I love you like assassinating your future spouse.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Wheel of Time yet. As the series progressed it only became more high fantasy.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Robert Heinlein's Magic Inc?

Generally, exploring the consequences of a major change to the way the world works is a sci-fi bit, not fantasy. It's no coincidence all the examples the OP provides are SF. If you wanted to write a work of fiction examining what would happen if we could come back from the dead, making it fantasy would be a distraction. There's no need for wizards and dragons and countries with invented names. Better to set it in our world in the near future.

 

[Doug McCrae]

In Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, everyone who dies is resurrected at a random point on the planetwide river. The inhabitants use it for teleportation. But it's science (kind of), not magic.

Lots of fantasy fiction has wizardly protagonists whose personal world is very magical, but the rest of the world isn't - Elric, Earthsea.

Harry Potter's universe is highly magical, as is Vance's The Dying Earth and the second series of Amber. But I don't think any of these works explore the consequences of 'rule breaking' magic on a large scale.

 

[Celebrim]

Generally, exploring the consequences of a major change to the way the world works is a sci-fi bit, not fantasy. It's no coincidence all the examples the OP provides are SF. If you wanted to write a work of fiction examining what would happen if we could come back from the dead, making it fantasy would be a distraction. There's no need for wizards and dragons and countries with invented names. Better to set it in our world in the near future.

Generally, I agree. The exception would be if I wanted to primarily explore the morality of coming back from the dead. For example, if I wanted to examine questions like, "Is the person who comes back the same person or a different one?", "Are resurrected people soulless?", "Is it more like undeath than life?", "Is it wrong for people to return from the dead?", "Is a society where your ancestors hang around in some way immoral?", then I might be better of taking the fantasy route or at least a soft sci-fi route in the style of say Robert Silverburg.

So, while we are on the subject, Silverburg spends alot of time exploring questions like, "If you shapechange, are you still the same person in a new body, or is your identity irrevocably changed by your new shape as well. See 'Downward to the Earth', for example. And while you are there, might as well read 'Dying Inside' (telepathy), 'Shadrach in the Furnace' (organ cloning, immortality), and 'The Tower of Glass' (teleportation, golems).

 

[wedgeski]

I can't help but think of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels in answer to this question. Technology is pervasive and exceptionally powerful in that universe, but threats to life and limb are very real. For the best of the best, IMO, check out Use of Weapons.

 

[Nifft]

I love the high magic world presented by Michael Shea. It's obscure enough to steal from, while being popular enough to find easily.

Cheers, -- N

 

[HP Dreadnought]

I'll throw in another vote for Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. . . based on the criteria you said you were interested in, its the best fit possible.

It also happens to be one of the "Holy Trinity" of the three best fantasy series ever written.

 

[Patlin]

I can't recomend Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files" series highly enough. The first novel is entitled Storm Front, and while the setting is modern day Chicago (and perhaps a better fit for d20 modern) it's a great series to read for anyone interested in Wizards, Paladins, or the Feywild. I read them all from the library, but they're so good I'm going to have to buy them. Not only do I want to read them again, they simply must be a part of my collection.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Frankly, I think 'The Princess Bride' a good story/movie/book despite the ressurection scene.

And I never really complained about an NPC coming back from the dead in 'The Lord of the Rings'. And though it was a PC, it wasn't unwelcome in 'Harry Potter' either.

And I don't feel the resurrection scene in the synpotic Gospels cheapened the story either.

So I really don't see the fuss. You can write a perfectly good story with even ubiquitous resurrection.

There's a difference between 1 guy coming back from the dead once and nearly every main character getting killed and coming back from the dead multiple times over the course of the story.
The latter is the case in the typical D&D game if it runs 1-20 or even into the low or mid teens.

My apologies for getting off topic.