Dragon Wing

The Death Gate Cycle has been praised endlessly for its world-building, so it’s no surprise that an incredible magic system backs it up. Humans are split into two races, the Sartan and Patryns. Following a nuclear war, Earth was split into four worlds, each representing an element. The Sartans created a fifth for the Patryns, a prison known as the Labyrinth. Both possess different ways of harnessing magical power. Sartans cast with their hands and with song, drawing runes in a hexagonal grid, linking them together for powerful and devastating effects. Patryns have runes tattooed onto their skinand combine their power by pressing one body part to another. Magic itself comes from the manipulation of ‘probability waves’. Users are able to view all of the possible outcomes of an action and select which one they wish to occur. The more unlikely the outcome is, the harder the spell is to cast, and the greater the consequence of doing so. Each spell has an equal and opposite reaction, meaning that raising the dead, for example, will result in an early death elsewhere. The combination of this with a number of worlds, warring races, and an excellent plot makes for a highly entertaining classic fantasy series.