Magical fiction

Magick fiction; novels, comics and other works of fiction which help the reader learn about magick. Different things are going to be good for different people, but this is a general guide. Some of the creations listed here come from people who believe in magick. Others from unbelievers.

By fiction we mean TV, books, comics etc.

(will flesh out later, I'm just brainstorming for now.)

Actually describing magickal systems
Comic Books


 * Promethea - Alan Moore
 * The Invisibles - Grant Morrison
 * Hellblazer - various writers including Jaimie Delano, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and Mike Carey
 * The Sandman - Neil Gaiman

Prose


 * Last Call (and its sequels) - Tim Powers
 * Moonchild by Aleister Crowley
 * The Cthulhu Mythos of H.P.Lovecraft
 * The novels of Dion Fortune
 * Aegypt (and its sequels) - John Crowley
 * The 30 Trials of Ix and the Angels - Mark Durant ... Very surreal and stream-of-consciousness odyssey through the 30 aethyrs of Enochian magick, with plenty of Thelemic thought. The first few chapters and introduction are available at the link.  LAShTAL.com review here; Key23.net review here.
 * Pedestrian Wolves by James Grant (ISBN 1894815149) The city starts to talk to David Livingstone. Ideas in common with Urban Paganism.

Act of Writing as a Magickal Act

 * William Seward Burroughs, Brion Gysin - Cut-ups
 * William Seward Burroughs, Novel as tulpa [see interview]

Roleplaying Games of Note

 * MAGE: THE ASCENSION from White Wolf
 * NOBILIS
 * AMBER
 * OVER THE EDGE from Atlas Games
 * UNKNOWN ARMIES from Atlas Games

Magick-Related

 * Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson has some interesting aspects regarding Namshubs and Sumerian mythology.
 * (Out recently!) Quicksilver (also by Neal Stephenson) appears to be about alchemy (among other things). I've not read it yet, so I'll update this when I have!)
 * Neverwhere, American Gods, series by Neil Gaiman
 * The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. A book about King Arthur.  In the acknowledgments, Bradley admits that she has selected the theories "that best fit the needs of fiction", for information on pre-Christian religion "has been made conjectural by the determined efforts of their successors to extinguish all such traces".

More subtle representation of ideas

 * Jorge Louis Borges: Noted Argentine writer, poet, and philosopher. His works are often described as "Magical Realism" and deal with such subjects as space, time, perception, infinity, the nothingness of personality, heretical religious sects, Kabala, and other such esoteric subjects.


 * Dune Series - Frank Herbert : The worm juice (water of life) allows people to access the memories of all their ancestors. akashic records anybody?


 * The "Amber" books by Roger Zelazny : In which the main characters move between worlds by changing them very slowly, and reality is defined by the "primal pattern" and all worlds are just a reflection of it (a little like the worlds of the Tree of Life)


 * The "Discworld" series by Terry Pratchett : A series of excellent satirical works.  The ideas and themes of the books (especially the 'witch-type' books) follow the basic ideas of witchcraft.