The Magic Goes Away

The Magic Goes Away (1982) – Larry Niven
Futura | ISBN: 9780708880937
Condition: As New | Sold by Crappy Old Books

Magic. A wonderful invention, at least for those fortunate enough to possess it. Why spend hours chopping firewood, building bridges or travelling across inconveniently large stretches of countryside when a suitable incantation can accomplish the same thing with considerably less physical effort? Unfortunately, as Larry Niven demonstrates in The Magic Goes Away, supernatural power suffers from one deeply inconvenient drawback: somebody eventually has to pay the bill.

And the universe, it seems, has been keeping accounts.

Welcome to Niven’s ingenious fantasy world, where magic is not an inexhaustible gift bestowed upon deserving wizards by benevolent supernatural forces. Instead, it depends upon a finite natural resource called mana, an invisible source of power that can be depleted through excessive use.

In other words, magic operates rather like the electricity supply, except that when it runs out, the consequences can involve the collapse of entire civilisations rather than merely discovering that the freezer has defrosted.

At the centre of the story stands Warlock, an immensely powerful sorcerer who has made a deeply disturbing discovery: the world’s magical energy is disappearing. The spells that once accomplished extraordinary feats are becoming increasingly unreliable, ancient powers are fading, and the entire magical establishment faces the uncomfortable possibility of being rendered permanently redundant.

Naturally, this creates something of a professional crisis.

Imagine spending centuries mastering the arcane arts, acquiring immense supernatural knowledge and developing the ability to manipulate reality itself, only to discover that your extraordinary talents are becoming about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

Determined to investigate the problem, Warlock joins forces with other extraordinary individuals in a desperate attempt to understand the decline of magic and discover whether the process can somehow be reversed. Their journey leads through a world of ancient sorceries, dangerous creatures, forgotten powers and increasingly alarming evidence that the golden age of enchantment may be approaching its conclusion.

Niven brings his characteristic scientific imagination to the fantasy genre, treating magic as a resource governed by understandable principles rather than an infinitely convenient means of rescuing characters whenever the plot becomes troublesome.

The result is a fascinating combination of sword-and-sorcery adventure, speculative science and ecological allegory. Written during an era of growing concern about energy shortages and the depletion of natural resources, the story offers a wonderfully imaginative variation upon a thoroughly familiar human problem: civilisation enthusiastically consumes something essential while confidently assuming there will always be more.

Originally published in 1978, The Magic Goes Away is an entertaining and thought-provoking example of Niven’s ability to apply logical reasoning to apparently impossible situations.

This 1982 Futura edition, offered in As New condition by Crappy Old Books, is a splendid acquisition for collectors of Larry Niven, enthusiasts of imaginative fantasy and readers who enjoy stories in which the supernatural is subjected to the same inconvenient laws of scarcity as everything else.

A clever adventure about power, survival and the consequences of exhausting the very resource upon which civilisation depends.

Because even in a world populated by mighty sorcerers, ancient gods and extraordinary enchantments, somebody eventually has to announce that the magic has run out.

And regrettably, no amount of waving a wand will persuade the supplier to reconnect it.

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