# I'm looking for fantasy stories in which magic is literally, physically dangerous to humans. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789 "2014-07-10T20:38:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/1 "2014-07-10T20:38:06Z")
The thread title is pretty clear, so naturally I’ll have to complicate things or people will suspect I’m an imposter. 1. I’m looking for tales in which magic is by its very nature dangerous for humans to use or even be around. Not necessarily lethal, mind you, but certainy contraindicated, the way that, oh, licking paint laced with radium is contraindicated. a) Literature only please. I stipulate that in full knowledge that, if the thread gets any legs, people will start talking about comic books, movies, and television shortly, but this way I get get my bitching out of the way now. ɣ) No stories in which magic _isn’t_ real. That is, if there’s nothing truly supernatural going on but the process of faking it is dangerous. iv) Anyone who mentions Lovecraft will be stabbed, shot, suffocated, beaten, strangled, decapitated, and then sent to bed without dessert. Unless it’s a girl, because of Rhymer Rule 7. Anybody got any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/2 "2014-07-10T20:43:30Z")
I would suggest Lev Grossman’s _The Magicians_ and _The Magician King_. I believe it meets your criterion, though perhaps not as directly as you intend. Magic is a thing that has to be used carefully, and some pretty awful things happen when it is not. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/3 "2014-07-10T20:48:11Z")
The [Farseer Trilogy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hobb#The_Farseer_Trilogy) seems to fit the bill pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/4 "2014-07-10T20:49:32Z")
It runs afoul-ish of your Point (iv), but in Charles Stross’s Laundry-verse, too much thinking about the applied mathematics at the heart of the occult magic in that world, leads to holes being etched in the mathematician’s brain. But that series is an explicit satire of Lovecraft (and James Bond, and any thing else he can cram in there.). ---
**Author:** ![Sunscreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Sunscreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunscreen)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/5 "2014-07-10T20:51:45Z")
I think The Wheel Of Time from Robert Jordan could be a candidate. Not going to spoil how and why though. I do hope you like to read because there are many pagewise not too shabby books. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/6 "2014-07-10T20:53:11Z")
> [@Sunscreen](#): > > Robert Jordan :: ritually spits :: ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/7 "2014-07-10T20:55:47Z")
The Curse of Chalion, sorcery is absolutely real, and most users of it die from using it. It’s incredibly important to the story, but of course because of people dying when they use magic (most of the time) you don’t have a bunch of magic users running around willy-nilly. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/8 "2014-07-10T20:56:25Z")
_The Real Boy_, by Anne Ursu. The use of magic, it turns out, has lasting toxic effects, sort of like radioactivity, that eventually catch up with its practitioners. It’s children’s literature, fyi. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/9 "2014-07-10T20:57:08Z")
> [@Parthol](#): > > I would suggest Lev Grossman’s _The Magicians_ and _The Magician King_. I believe it meets your criterion, though perhaps not as directly as you intend. Magic is a thing that has to be used carefully, and some pretty awful things happen when it is not. Only if becoming a spoiled alcoholic with arthritic fingers fits the criterion. I’d think a better fit to the OP would be more like the wearing of the One Ring where you go from Hobbit ==\> Gollum over a period of years. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/10 "2014-07-10T21:01:45Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Only if becoming a spoiled alcoholic with arthritic fingers fits the criterion. > > I’d think a better fit to the OP would be more like the wearing of the One Ring where you go from Hobbit ==\> Gollum over a period of years. Mayhap. Gandalf does say that he thinks any of the great rings (which I took to mean the 3, 7, and of course 9) was dangerous to mortals. But I’m not sure that was true of all magic in Middle-Earth; it seemed a characteristic specifically of the great rings, which worked in part by connecting the wearer to the Unseen. Hmm. I may have just contradicted myself. ---
**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/11 "2014-07-10T21:09:49Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Only if becoming a spoiled alcoholic with arthritic fingers fits the criterion. Or summoning up murdering Gods by accident which I think is more in keeping with the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/12 "2014-07-10T21:26:32Z")
There was a Paula Volsky book I’d like to reread, _The Wolf of Winter_, where necromancy is real but destroys the minds of its practitioners. I believe there’s a scene set in a madhouse where, as one used to do in the real world, wealthy tourists went to view the maddened necromancers. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/13 "2014-07-10T21:29:38Z")
[_Master of the Five Magics,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_the_Five_Magics) by Lyndon Hardy. Thaumaturgy (sympathetic magic) is not especially dangerous. Alchemy involves exposure to volatile chemicals and is likely to kill you very, very eventually. Magic (manufacture and use of magical items) might cause an explosion or something if you don’t do it just right. Also, it is controlled by tightly organized guilds that are very jealous of their knowledge and power, and will punish their own apprentices with death for misappropriating items. Sorcery (clairvoyance and mind control) drains the non-renewable supply of life-force you were born with, and is likely to kill you very, very eventually. Wizardry (demonology) always involves a contest of wills with the demon you summoned to control, and there’s always the possibility you might lose and end up the demon’s slave. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/14 "2014-07-10T21:32:55Z")
In the Dresden Files universe, using black magic (that is, magic done in violation of any of the [Seven Laws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files_The_Seven_Laws_of_Magic)) is sure to drive the practitioner insane eventually, if the Wardens don’t cut his head off first. It is not explained how the White Council’s all-licensed Blackstaff manages to remain sane. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/15 "2014-07-10T21:32:55Z")
I submit _Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell._ The people using magic really don’t know what they’re getting into. The Bartimaeus books also depict the flip side of the Harry Potter universe–one where Muggles are oppressed by magical people and don’t take it lying down. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/16 "2014-07-10T21:37:01Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In the Dresden Files universe, using black magic (that is, magic done in violation of any of the [Seven Laws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files_The_Seven_Laws_of_Magic)) is sure to drive the practitioner insane eventually, if the Wardens don’t cut his head off first. It is not explained how the White Council’s all-licensed Blackstaff manages to remain sane. I’m pretty sure it is, actually. It has something to do with the staff he wields. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/17 "2014-07-10T21:49:24Z")
Plus, there’s the thing how sufficiently powerful human magic users cause technological devices to fail when they’re around. Magic is like a form of radiation that may not harm its users, but disrupts electronics and complex machines on a regular basis. In that sense, magic is dangerous to humans - it causes their cell phones to burn out and their cars to break down, which can be very hazardous under certain circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/18 "2014-07-10T21:53:53Z")
There’s C.S. Friedman’s [Magister](http://www.csfriedman.com/category/novels/magister-trilogy/) trilogy, where the fuel for magic is the user’s own life. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/19 "2014-07-10T22:00:34Z")
The world of Brent Weeks’s _The Black Prism_ has magic users with a finite amount of magic before they go insane, and the insanity is pretty grotesque. Blood mages in Barbara Hambly’s _Sisters of the Raven_ books use their own blood. It progresses to lopping off fingers and arms eventually for every blood mage. The grave witch heroine of _Grave Witch_, by Alex Craft, goes blind any time she uses her powers and it is gradually destroying her eyesight. Those are the ones that popped right into my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789/20 "2014-07-10T22:16:12Z")
There’s an urban fantasy-ish series by Anne Bishop called The Others (_Written in Red_, _Murder of Crows_ and \*Vision in Silver \*being the individual book titles so far) that has one specific form of bloodline-based magic heritage which leads a person (usually a young girl) to experience euphoric and addictive visions when they cut themselves - even accidentally. These people usually die young - either through killing themselves due to the lure of the ecstasy of cutting ever deeper, or because the power and intensity of the resulting visions (they tend to have no context for them, or ability to know where/when the vision is based) drives them insane. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-fantasy-stories-in-which-magic-is-literally-physically-dangerous-to-humans/692789.md?page=2)