Fantasy - more sword fights less magic

[Brian G Turner]

I think there might have been some sort of magic ring in it as well which played a small role in the story.

Indeed, but The One Ring in a modern fiction I fear would result in the wearer becoming a demi-god power fantasy, shooting fireballs at every adversity, and that mere invisibility would be anything but acceptable.

 

[j d worthington]

There's almost no magic in Lord of the Rings. Gandalf's staff sometimes glows, he makes fireworks, not much else.

I'll have to disagree with you there, Brian. LotR is permeated with magic and the supernatural; it is just less bluntly handled than so much fantasy. It is there, all the same, from the Barrow-wights and Old Forest (or, for that matter, the very concept of Sauron having put so much of his own power -- including necromantic power -- into the Ring) to the Ringwraiths; even the landscapes are haunted and tormented. Still, it is done more subtly (at least, in many instances), which makes it seem that there is so much less of it....

I'm not sure this would be quite what you're looking for, but... Fletcher Pratt's The Well of the Unicorn certainly has its share of magic, but it is also intensely political, having been written by an historian. The Blue Star (Pratt again) is a bit less successful, but still a very good book.

Or you could go for Mervyn Peake's Titus books (Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus Alone; and the short story "Boy in Darkness"). Magic, as such, is nonexistent there; the fantasy is very much in the setting (which is as much a character as any of the people) and the bizarre nature of those which inhabit it. Damned good books, though.

 

[Grunkins]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

I'm in the Clarke camp here. Banks' drones and ships may as well be practicing magic in his Culture books. They use their fields and displacements and darts and whatnot to the same effect the characters in fantasy novels use magic. If you think about magic in fantasy in that light it be a bit easier to swallow.

 

[BetaWolf]

I'll have to disagree with you there, Brian. LotR is permeated with magic and the supernatural; it is just less bluntly handled than so much fantasy. It is there, all the same, from the Barrow-wights and Old Forest (or, for that matter, the very concept of Sauron having put so much of his own power -- including necromantic power -- into the Ring) to the Ringwraiths; even the landscapes are haunted and tormented. Still, it is done more subtly (at least, in many instances), which makes it seem that there is so much less of it....

I agree. You can have a world permeated with the supernatural--what I'd call a busy spirit world--without wizards capable of rapid-firing lightning bolts or whatnot. Every tree and spring could have a spirit capable of showing its rage or benevolence. The medieval worldview was rather like this. I think where the point turns is whether humans can effectively harness this power and just how safely they can do so.

 

[Moggle]

What you want to read is historical fiction, not fantasy.

 

[Mark_Lawrence]

David Gemmel - Legend, Sword in the Storm, Lion of Macedon.

 

[Anne Lyle]

Another suggestion: Among Thieves, by Douglas Hulick. More action than politics, and it's Renaissance rather than medieval, but there's only a little magic.

I'm with the "less magic" crowd - I read so many fantasy books in my youth about characters discovering and taming their magical powers that it feels like such a tired trope. That's why I like Scott Lynch's setting - it has "weird science" (alchemy, elaborate clockwork) but the only real magic users are the bad guys and the heroes avoid them like the plague!

 

[biodroid]

What Mark Lawrence said, in fact pretty much all of Gemmells books are about warriors be it they use crossbows or axes. The other one I enjoyed was The Swords of Night and Day. Still have to read white wolf.