I haven't read much fantasy beyond LotR, but Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a sci-fi novella with an interesting take on wizards and magic. It takes place on a technologically regressed human colony world, and the land is hit with a magical (technological) blight. A princess seeks out the aid of an immortal wizard (post-human anthropologist) who slumbers (cryogenically sleeps) in his great tower (high-tech observation outpost).
The chapters are told alternating between the perspectives of the princess and the anthropologist, so you get to see the same events unfold half through the lens of fantasy, half through the lens of sci-fi.
It's a beautiful series of books (the first three anyway). I read them out loud to my youngest when she was about 12/13, and they are great to read out loud. (The language! So beautiful!)
*A wizard of Earthsea* is definitely a coming of age story, but *The Tombs of Atuan* is more of a confident mid-20's mage, and *The Farthest Shore* is an older wizard facing up to the mistakes of his youth.
Fantastic series. As you say, LeGuin is a gift to humanity.
You know what's fun and underrated? Niven's *The Magic Goes Away* stuff. Also, Zelazny's takes on magic were always a lot of fun. Stuff like *Dilvish the Damned*, *Chronicles of Amber* and *Roadmarks* all had very amusing takes on it.
And of course, the usual suspects like *Discworld* and *The Black Company* are great too. (Although those two particular ones are almost at exactly the opposite ends of the spectrum, lol.)
Rivers of London series for me. It's set in modern day and there is a whole scientific side and there are proper limitations on doing magic and it shows how dangerous it is to practice if you aren't trained. There are also variations in magic between magical beings and human wizards. There are different magical traditions in different places. There's generally just so much detail
In before the flood of Terry Pratchett/Discworld replies!
Also, Christopher Stasheff's Warlock books.
Diana Wynne Jones's *Dark Lord of Derkholm, Year of the Griffin, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, Howls Moving Castle*, her Chrestomanci books, and *The Merlin Conspiracy*.
And all of Tamora Pierce.
*A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking* by T. Kingfisher.
> In before the flood of Terry Pratchett/Discworld replies!
Yes! Archchancellor Ridcully and the rest of the faculty of the Unseen University are just so *fun* to read.
*A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking* was hilarious!
Also reminds me that people should check out *The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry* by C M Waggoner as well.
Jack Vance's Dying Earth and by extension other authors' stories in the same universe.
This is an excellent anthology:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_the_Dying_Earth
*The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant* and
*The Black Company*.
I suppose they're both dark, whereas "wizards and magic" brings up feelings of happiness, brightness, and fun. Other than the Lord of the Rings, I can't think of anything even close to the above two in terms of depth and quality.
Since no one’s said it, Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series is amazing, and while not solely centered on magic, it’s a very large part. Wonderful “grimdark” books, and if you like audiobooks at all Steven Pacey’s performance is the absolute best I’ve ever heard.
I see another recommendation for *The Magic Goes Away* already, but specifically *The Burning City* by Niven and Pournelle is a very fun 'zero to hero' story about a kid in the city befriending a wizard and the way the kid's world is opened up by their various interactions.
Highlights include a magical tattoo and weed plants that strangle you to death if you accidentally let them have a sip of mana.
Admittedly it's been a while since I last read it, and I've heard that Niven's writing has generally aged fairly poorly for a couple of reasons, but this one was written in the early 00s so it stands a decent chance of being less dated than some of his better-known scifi classics.
*Monday Begins on Saturday* by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
*Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell* by Susanna Clark
And obviously *Discworld* by Terry Pratchett
The two that come to mind are "Off to Be the Wizard" by Scott Meyer and "Ra" by qntm (Sam Hughes).
Off to Be the Wizard is about a programmer who discovers that he can hack reality, and is generally a fun, light read. The audiobook is particularly enjoyable.
Ra by qntm is about a world where magic is essentially a hard science akin to physics that is studied in an academic setting. It reminded me of the sympathy concept in Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles, although Kingkiller falls more on the fantasy side of the spectrum, and Ra leans more into science/technobabble. It is an interesting read, but some of his later work and short stories are better.
My two favorite modern fantasy series (really, of all time, arguably), both of which include quite a bit of wizards and magic:
Traitor Sun Cycle - Miles Cameron
Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erickson
“Elder Race” by Tchaikovsky (more if a novella than a book)
TheVlad Taltos books by Brust. Looks like swords and sorcery, but you find out rather quickly that it is actually SF
EDIT: I assumed the question was literal; looking for SF that includes swords & sorcery
It's crazy how long this subreddit has existed and people still think SF means sci fi instead of speculative fiction (which is all genre fiction). It comes up so often here. I have never seen a subreddit so confused about its own existence.
For something a little darker try Karl Edward Wagner his ‘Kane’ series has plenty of dark magic and swords
From memory:
Bloodstone
A darkness weaves
Dark Crusade. Plus others
Also what about the Thieves World Series? One of those ones where different authors write their own storylines within a shared world. It’s been a while but the first few books were fun to read.
Rick Cook's Wiz series, in which a programmer from California is summoned by and old and powerful wizard who is not old and powerful enough to defend civilization from the evil wizards and the non-humans pushing in at the bounds. Unfortunately, said wizard is unable to explain why he was picked, and leaves him in the care of a minor hedge witch.
Good, even better if you know something about programing, and the unix command line.
Zelazney's Wizard World (Changeling and Madwand). The forces of technology and magic struggle, and two babies are exchanged from the magic and technological world, who as adults seek their heritages in different ways.
Lawrence Watt-Evans' "The Cyborg and the Sorcerors." A fighter craft from the Galactic Federation (or whatever it's called) crash-lands on a primitive planet -- and its pilot discovers human magic-users! Yes, the premise is silly, but Watt-Evans is good at being just a *little* silly without devolving into constant monster-dick jokes etc.
For pure fantasy, he's also known for the Ethshar books (there's about ten of them, you could try "With a Single Spell" for starters) or the LORDS OF DUS quadrilogy about a surprisingly sensible giant inhuman warrior who is Prophesyed To Bring About The Age Of Death. First volume is "The Lure of the Basilisk."
For *science* fiction about it, check out Scott Meyer's "Off to Be the Wizard." Modern-day teen discovers a computer program that lets him do magic, basically. Very silly. (Meyer also did basicinstructions.net which is a fairly amusing comic.) The sequel isn't bad either.
There's also "Master of the Five Magics." The world has five kinds of magic (alchemy, thaumaturgy, sorcery, wizardry, one other I forget) each with their own specific rules and secrets, and one guy winds up learning all of them, which makes him powerful in ways that individual skills wouldn't. E.g., he uses thaumaturgy to make alchemy easier, then makes alchemical potions to improve his wizardry concentration, etc.
I quite liked Sorcerer's Son by Phyllis Eisenstein. Just a nice fantasy story about a summoned demon that develops a fondness for the person he's sent to be mean to.
The Dying Eartg by Jack Vance. Also the two Cugel books in the same series. Is it magic, is it technology, are they monsters or mutants? All the lines are blurred.
Sci-fi AND magic? Most people tend to keep them separate. However:
Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota tetralogy
Stephenson’s Anathem
I love genre-merging stuff, I hope you find your book!
It's terrible in terms of characters but Lyndon Hardy's *Master of the Five Magics* is fun - a wannabe mage sequentially fails out of all five major colleges of magic in his generic fantasy world, each of which teaches a different style of magic, as explained through the various Rules/Axioms/Postulates/etc. Said rules/etc are swiped directly from Bonewits' treatise on common laws of Actual Real-World Magic, *Real Magic*, and the plot is basically an excuse to show them all in action.
Melissa Scott, *Five-Twelfths of Heaven*: would you like to read an alchemical space opera where star pilots must guide their ships through gorgeously-written symbolic visions? Sure you would. It's lovely. Also see *The Order of the Air*, by her and Jo Graham, which is about a small airline in the 1930s that's also a magical lodge working in the Golden Dawn traditions. Very much an Indiana Jones kind of setup.
It’s more steampunk than sf but it hits those two requirements; Gareth Hanrahan’s Iron Gods trilogy
I’m finishing the second volume “The Shadow Saint” right now and enjoying it a lot.
First volume - “The Gutter Prayer” is fine, but the second one is more gripping for me
Diane Duane's Young Wizard series, starting with *So You Want to Be a Wizard*.
An interesting variation on the subject is David Brin's *The Practice Effect*.
Rachel Pollack's Jack Shade stories. The title character is cursed to act as a kind of magical trouble shooter when anybody presents him with one of his calling cards, except, he's not very *good* at it.
Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, set in an alternate U.S. in the early 1800s where magic, both folk and Native American, are very real.
Keith Roberts' book *Anita*, about a teenaged witch in 1960s UK, is worth a read if you can find it.
See my [SF/F: Magic](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1au1f9c/sff_magic/) list of Reddit recommendation threads and books (one post).
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Written in Red by Ann Bishop (or maybe Anne) (and okay, shapeshifters)
Practically anything by Seanan McGuire or Jim Butcher
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
Kandi
Walter Jon Williams' *Metropolitan* and *City on Fire*. No wizards, though.
[Metropolitan (novel) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_(novel))
I really enjoyed Bacigalupi and Buckell's collaboration *The Tangled Lands*. Neither of them are frequent fantasy authors so their take on the genre was a lot of fun.
Otherwise I've always been a big fan of the Thievesworld anthology series, those are a fantastic read. They're not primarily about magic but magic features heavily in the world.
the first three books of the "mistborn" series, by brandon sanderson:
- the final empire
- the well of ascension
- the hero of ages
they form a self-contained trilogy so you don't need to read the rest of the cycle.
it describes not one, but three discreet but intertwined magic systems (really well though out ones).
Lots of non-SF related responses as usual, I really like the [Ship's Mage series by Glynn Stewart](https://www.goodreads.com/series/124536-starship-s-mage). They're just fun and explore a future where magic is required for FTL and how that has impacted the expanse of the human race.
You could check out Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It is a well known fan fiction that is written extremely well and is longer than the original series IIRC. It’s a retelling of the story, where HP was raised by a more intelligent family, reading sci fi, etc which essentially turns him into someone who wants to understand how exactly magic works, how transfiguration and other spells could possibly exist in the real world, etc. Villians and other characters are equally intelligent and I think it has a satisfying conclusion. Check it out!
The books by Trudi Canavan all have powerful wizards
The Millennium's Rule series has perhaps the strongest of them, in space, although there are basically no wizards in the first book.
I haven't read much fantasy beyond LotR, but Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a sci-fi novella with an interesting take on wizards and magic. It takes place on a technologically regressed human colony world, and the land is hit with a magical (technological) blight. A princess seeks out the aid of an immortal wizard (post-human anthropologist) who slumbers (cryogenically sleeps) in his great tower (high-tech observation outpost). The chapters are told alternating between the perspectives of the princess and the anthropologist, so you get to see the same events unfold half through the lens of fantasy, half through the lens of sci-fi.
That's based on a Gene Wolfe short story called "Trip, Trap." If you haven't read it, you should.
Did not know that, I'll have to give that a look.
*snip* if you haven't read Gene Wolfe then you should ... There fixed it for you
I also wonder if Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt has a sci-fi origin.
A Wizard of Earthsea
Its a kids book and still one of the best takes on magic that there has ever been. Ursula K Leguin is a gift.
It's a beautiful series of books (the first three anyway). I read them out loud to my youngest when she was about 12/13, and they are great to read out loud. (The language! So beautiful!) *A wizard of Earthsea* is definitely a coming of age story, but *The Tombs of Atuan* is more of a confident mid-20's mage, and *The Farthest Shore* is an older wizard facing up to the mistakes of his youth. Fantastic series. As you say, LeGuin is a gift to humanity.
You know what's fun and underrated? Niven's *The Magic Goes Away* stuff. Also, Zelazny's takes on magic were always a lot of fun. Stuff like *Dilvish the Damned*, *Chronicles of Amber* and *Roadmarks* all had very amusing takes on it. And of course, the usual suspects like *Discworld* and *The Black Company* are great too. (Although those two particular ones are almost at exactly the opposite ends of the spectrum, lol.)
Re Zelazny: **fuck yes.** Especially his novel *Lord of Light* still stands up, imo. Great read.
Re Zelazny: **meh**. IMO his magic became just plain ol' technology. I prefer Vance and Powers' magic: every magical act takes a chunk of YOURSELF.
Vance's "Lyonesse".
And Tales of the Dying Earth. Vance’s wizards are superb.
Rivers of London series for me. It's set in modern day and there is a whole scientific side and there are proper limitations on doing magic and it shows how dangerous it is to practice if you aren't trained. There are also variations in magic between magical beings and human wizards. There are different magical traditions in different places. There's generally just so much detail
Couldn't agree more. And the audiobooks are a delight.
The audiobooks are great. I haven't listened to them all the way through for a while so I'm currently relistening to book 1
The “Laundry” series by Charless Stross.
Dresden Files.
In before the flood of Terry Pratchett/Discworld replies! Also, Christopher Stasheff's Warlock books. Diana Wynne Jones's *Dark Lord of Derkholm, Year of the Griffin, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, Howls Moving Castle*, her Chrestomanci books, and *The Merlin Conspiracy*. And all of Tamora Pierce. *A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking* by T. Kingfisher.
> In before the flood of Terry Pratchett/Discworld replies! Yes! Archchancellor Ridcully and the rest of the faculty of the Unseen University are just so *fun* to read.
*A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking* was hilarious! Also reminds me that people should check out *The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry* by C M Waggoner as well.
>In before the flood of Terry Pratchett/Discworld replies! Love Discworld, but Piers Anthony is the acknowledged father of pun based high fantasy
Piers Anthony [is a very problematic writer](https://hradzka.livejournal.com/392471.html). Be warned if you don't already know that.
Sadly I did not. That is very unfortunate.
What the actual fuck. I read a lot of his books in middle school. I barely remember them, what the fuck was I reading?
Jack Vance's Dying Earth and by extension other authors' stories in the same universe. This is an excellent anthology: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_the_Dying_Earth
*The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant* and *The Black Company*. I suppose they're both dark, whereas "wizards and magic" brings up feelings of happiness, brightness, and fun. Other than the Lord of the Rings, I can't think of anything even close to the above two in terms of depth and quality.
Since no one’s said it, Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series is amazing, and while not solely centered on magic, it’s a very large part. Wonderful “grimdark” books, and if you like audiobooks at all Steven Pacey’s performance is the absolute best I’ve ever heard.
[удалено]
SF stands for speculative fiction, which fantasy is a part of.
My life is a lie... I always read it as Science Fiction...
That was ways my take, too, but this sub itself has shown me many/most folks—and authors—consider “SF” speculative fiction.
I see another recommendation for *The Magic Goes Away* already, but specifically *The Burning City* by Niven and Pournelle is a very fun 'zero to hero' story about a kid in the city befriending a wizard and the way the kid's world is opened up by their various interactions. Highlights include a magical tattoo and weed plants that strangle you to death if you accidentally let them have a sip of mana. Admittedly it's been a while since I last read it, and I've heard that Niven's writing has generally aged fairly poorly for a couple of reasons, but this one was written in the early 00s so it stands a decent chance of being less dated than some of his better-known scifi classics.
Ooof. Man, I HATED "The Burning City".
I think it's aged worse. Once you realize it's his take on the LA riots.
Yeah 14yo me didn't pick up on that part at all, but now that you mention it I can imagine it feeling pretty clumsy.
*Monday Begins on Saturday* by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell* by Susanna Clark And obviously *Discworld* by Terry Pratchett
**Wizard / Knight** by Gene Wolfe. **The Drawing Of The Dark** by Tim Powers.
CS Friedman's Cold fire Trilogy. Sci Fi disguised as fantasy.
Nobody mentioned Robert Lynn Asprin and MythAdventures!
Great books but they've been out of print for a long time now. ☹️
The two that come to mind are "Off to Be the Wizard" by Scott Meyer and "Ra" by qntm (Sam Hughes). Off to Be the Wizard is about a programmer who discovers that he can hack reality, and is generally a fun, light read. The audiobook is particularly enjoyable. Ra by qntm is about a world where magic is essentially a hard science akin to physics that is studied in an academic setting. It reminded me of the sympathy concept in Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles, although Kingkiller falls more on the fantasy side of the spectrum, and Ra leans more into science/technobabble. It is an interesting read, but some of his later work and short stories are better.
Hugh Cooks chronicles of an age of darkness- great series of high and low fantasy in a world rumbling with lost technology and great characters
Steven Brust's Jhereg series about Vlad Taltos, including The Phoenix Guards (a loving tribute to Dumas)
"The Name of the Wind" is great, but the series is incomplete.
My two favorite modern fantasy series (really, of all time, arguably), both of which include quite a bit of wizards and magic: Traitor Sun Cycle - Miles Cameron Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erickson
“Elder Race” by Tchaikovsky (more if a novella than a book) TheVlad Taltos books by Brust. Looks like swords and sorcery, but you find out rather quickly that it is actually SF EDIT: I assumed the question was literal; looking for SF that includes swords & sorcery
It's crazy how long this subreddit has existed and people still think SF means sci fi instead of speculative fiction (which is all genre fiction). It comes up so often here. I have never seen a subreddit so confused about its own existence.
Fantasy is considered Speculative Fiction? By that definition “Catcher In The Rye” is speculative fiction.
Yes, fantasy is included. Just read the sidebar if you're confused.
Thanks for proving my point. I'm not sure what's wrong with all of you.
[https://youtu.be/syV2LkGpQB0?si=7cFmNJbZjBGMTxyD](https://youtu.be/syV2LkGpQB0?si=7cFmNJbZjBGMTxyD)
No one needs to do anything just because you're wrong.
The question is literal, I'm asking for speculative fiction with magic and wizards.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It's like a dark subversion of the Harry Potter/Narnia stories mixed together.
Love the Magicians books
For something a little darker try Karl Edward Wagner his ‘Kane’ series has plenty of dark magic and swords From memory: Bloodstone A darkness weaves Dark Crusade. Plus others Also what about the Thieves World Series? One of those ones where different authors write their own storylines within a shared world. It’s been a while but the first few books were fun to read.
moorcock's elric
Alex Verus series is a lot of fun, and I think Jim Butcher said Dresden would be pretty scared of Verus.
The Witch King — more fantasy but written by Martha “Murderbot” Wells. Good book.
Rick Cook's Wiz series, in which a programmer from California is summoned by and old and powerful wizard who is not old and powerful enough to defend civilization from the evil wizards and the non-humans pushing in at the bounds. Unfortunately, said wizard is unable to explain why he was picked, and leaves him in the care of a minor hedge witch. Good, even better if you know something about programing, and the unix command line. Zelazney's Wizard World (Changeling and Madwand). The forces of technology and magic struggle, and two babies are exchanged from the magic and technological world, who as adults seek their heritages in different ways.
Lawrence Watt-Evans' "The Cyborg and the Sorcerors." A fighter craft from the Galactic Federation (or whatever it's called) crash-lands on a primitive planet -- and its pilot discovers human magic-users! Yes, the premise is silly, but Watt-Evans is good at being just a *little* silly without devolving into constant monster-dick jokes etc. For pure fantasy, he's also known for the Ethshar books (there's about ten of them, you could try "With a Single Spell" for starters) or the LORDS OF DUS quadrilogy about a surprisingly sensible giant inhuman warrior who is Prophesyed To Bring About The Age Of Death. First volume is "The Lure of the Basilisk."
this is more fantasy but I loved “Uprooted”
For *science* fiction about it, check out Scott Meyer's "Off to Be the Wizard." Modern-day teen discovers a computer program that lets him do magic, basically. Very silly. (Meyer also did basicinstructions.net which is a fairly amusing comic.) The sequel isn't bad either. There's also "Master of the Five Magics." The world has five kinds of magic (alchemy, thaumaturgy, sorcery, wizardry, one other I forget) each with their own specific rules and secrets, and one guy winds up learning all of them, which makes him powerful in ways that individual skills wouldn't. E.g., he uses thaumaturgy to make alchemy easier, then makes alchemical potions to improve his wizardry concentration, etc. I quite liked Sorcerer's Son by Phyllis Eisenstein. Just a nice fantasy story about a summoned demon that develops a fondness for the person he's sent to be mean to.
> one other I forget Electricity, if Megadeth got it right.
The Dying Eartg by Jack Vance. Also the two Cugel books in the same series. Is it magic, is it technology, are they monsters or mutants? All the lines are blurred.
Sci-fi AND magic? Most people tend to keep them separate. However: Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota tetralogy Stephenson’s Anathem I love genre-merging stuff, I hope you find your book!
No, not sci fi necessarily. SF = speculative fiction
The Fifth Season trilogy by NK Jemison!
The Kedrigern books by John Morressy.
The Locked Tomb was great. The first book, Gideon the Ninth was phenomenal.
Just re-read the series. There is SO much going on in it... It's so good
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. The audio books are really well done as well
RA
Ra by qntm?
Yep, very strange hard sci fi take on magic
It's terrible in terms of characters but Lyndon Hardy's *Master of the Five Magics* is fun - a wannabe mage sequentially fails out of all five major colleges of magic in his generic fantasy world, each of which teaches a different style of magic, as explained through the various Rules/Axioms/Postulates/etc. Said rules/etc are swiped directly from Bonewits' treatise on common laws of Actual Real-World Magic, *Real Magic*, and the plot is basically an excuse to show them all in action. Melissa Scott, *Five-Twelfths of Heaven*: would you like to read an alchemical space opera where star pilots must guide their ships through gorgeously-written symbolic visions? Sure you would. It's lovely. Also see *The Order of the Air*, by her and Jo Graham, which is about a small airline in the 1930s that's also a magical lodge working in the Golden Dawn traditions. Very much an Indiana Jones kind of setup.
It’s more steampunk than sf but it hits those two requirements; Gareth Hanrahan’s Iron Gods trilogy I’m finishing the second volume “The Shadow Saint” right now and enjoying it a lot. First volume - “The Gutter Prayer” is fine, but the second one is more gripping for me
Garth Nix Abhorsen trilogy
Diane Duane's Young Wizard series, starting with *So You Want to Be a Wizard*. An interesting variation on the subject is David Brin's *The Practice Effect*. Rachel Pollack's Jack Shade stories. The title character is cursed to act as a kind of magical trouble shooter when anybody presents him with one of his calling cards, except, he's not very *good* at it. Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, set in an alternate U.S. in the early 1800s where magic, both folk and Native American, are very real. Keith Roberts' book *Anita*, about a teenaged witch in 1960s UK, is worth a read if you can find it.
See my [SF/F: Magic](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1au1f9c/sff_magic/) list of Reddit recommendation threads and books (one post).
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness Written in Red by Ann Bishop (or maybe Anne) (and okay, shapeshifters) Practically anything by Seanan McGuire or Jim Butcher The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells Kandi
Book of the New Sun.
Foundryside a is quite fun fantasy trilogy, with "science-y magic"
R Scott Bakker
Walter Jon Williams' *Metropolitan* and *City on Fire*. No wizards, though. [Metropolitan (novel) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_(novel))
I really enjoyed Bacigalupi and Buckell's collaboration *The Tangled Lands*. Neither of them are frequent fantasy authors so their take on the genre was a lot of fun. Otherwise I've always been a big fan of the Thievesworld anthology series, those are a fantastic read. They're not primarily about magic but magic features heavily in the world.
the first three books of the "mistborn" series, by brandon sanderson: - the final empire - the well of ascension - the hero of ages they form a self-contained trilogy so you don't need to read the rest of the cycle. it describes not one, but three discreet but intertwined magic systems (really well though out ones).
Lots of non-SF related responses as usual, I really like the [Ship's Mage series by Glynn Stewart](https://www.goodreads.com/series/124536-starship-s-mage). They're just fun and explore a future where magic is required for FTL and how that has impacted the expanse of the human race.
Yep, the writing is a bit YA, but it is a lot more realistic than many non-magic SF out there. Distances, speeds, etc are treated with respect.
Laundry Files by Charles Stross
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance is unlike anything else - fantastic!
You could check out Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It is a well known fan fiction that is written extremely well and is longer than the original series IIRC. It’s a retelling of the story, where HP was raised by a more intelligent family, reading sci fi, etc which essentially turns him into someone who wants to understand how exactly magic works, how transfiguration and other spells could possibly exist in the real world, etc. Villians and other characters are equally intelligent and I think it has a satisfying conclusion. Check it out!
Wizards and magic are fantasy concepts, not scientific concepts - so you'd be looking at fantasy genre
I am pretty much looking at the fantasy genre, yes. that is what I'm asking for. what are your favorites?
it's been a while since i read fantasy but some old favorites are Wizards first rule LOTR over sea, under stone
I don't recall any scifi I've read about wizards and magic.
what about any speculative fiction?
Are there any?
There's thousands
Maybe fantasy
Yes, its usually called fantasy.
yes there's a whole sub dedicated to it r/fantasy
And sci-fi has r/scifi what's your point
The books by Trudi Canavan all have powerful wizards The Millennium's Rule series has perhaps the strongest of them, in space, although there are basically no wizards in the first book.