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What you call over-explained magic, others call 'hard magic' (like 'hard sci-fi').
Mysterious magic can give that sense of wonder/ambience, but it's hard to use it in order to satisfactorily solve problems: because it isn't clear what the magic can and can't do, if you have Gandalf whip out magic to fix every issue that comes along, the plot devolves into a series deus ex machinae. This means the more mystic magic has to have a subtler influence on the plot. It's not as annoying if vague magic causes, or can cause problems, though. Even The Lord of the Rings contains some hard magic: when Frodo puts on the ring, he turns invisible, but becomes more visible to shades. The useful effect is a pretty well-defined and discrete! The full extent of the costs and dangers are less clear, though- which gives you a great feeling of foreboding every time Frodo puts on the ring, or is in a situation where it might be needed. Harder magic more often gives a character a toolkit, and it means you can have a them come up with a novel combination or application of the abilities they have available to them to solve a problem without it feeling like an ass-pull. It's like a murder mystery, where you can wonder at what the answer is ahead of time, try to pick up on clues. I think there might be two different genres wearing the same face, here. I like "scientific fantasy" as much as "fantasy", but in general they might appeal to different people.
In the fantasy book 'the misenchanted sword', the main character doesn't understand magic (he's just a scout), but when his sword ends up enchanted to 'protect him' (no other information given), he does what a real person might do- he tries to figure it out, see if it follows any rules! Along the way, he sometimes misunderstands or doesn't know enough, and consequently makes bad decisions. I really liked it, and I wouldn't have liked it as much if the main character hadn't been... doing science on his sword! I agree that a lot of stories that incorporate harder magic systems also lack some poetry, but I don't think that's necessarily because of the hard magic. I think there's a selection effect going on, where the type of author most likely to write a story with discrete, well-defined powers is also more likely to have a discrete, well-defined, non-mysterious approach to the whole story.
I recently read a story called 'Wander west, in shadow' that has characters with pretty discrete magical abilities (they can learn to use more of 'the Art', but they each only know a few tricks), but magic and the world in general feels mysterious and broad. You know what the characters can do, so when they cleverly improvise it feels earned, but you don't know exactly how big the world is, and the characters are continually coming across things they don't understand. I got a 'Tom Bombadil' or 'Elven tools aren't magic, or are they?' vibe from a few parts of the story, for example. I really recommend it. |