Elf Opera
Specifically, he argues that there are three kinds of fantasy – hard fantasy, which works off real moral and supernatural principles (in that communicating with spiritual entities other than God is a bad idea and leads to all kinds of evils), in much the way hard science fiction works off real scientific principles. Soft fantasy, which does not, and fudges a bit – you can have good magicians and evil magicians. And Elf Opera, where the magic is simply a backdrop to get on with some good old-fashioned orc-bashing.
(In my heart of hearts, I think I would like to write Elf Opera.)
But of my books, I think Demonsouled and Soul of Tyrants are soft fantasy – they have both good wizards and bad wizards, and good magic and bad magic. However, I’m almost done with the 3rd book, Soul of Serpents, and at least part of the book takes a sharp turn into hard fantasy territory, when the well-intentioned (but nonetheless bad) decisions of a particular magic-using character catch up to him in a remarkably unpleasant way. (I suppose this reflects a decade’s worth of changes in my own thinking – I wrote Demonsouled in 2001, Soul of Tyrants in 2005, and Soul of Serpents this year.)
By contrast, the Caina short stories and books – Child of the Ghosts and Ghost in the Flames – are hard fantasy. During her adventures, Caina does not meet a single good sorcerer, and the scope of their malevolence ranges from cruel bullying to mass genocide for the sake of power. The closest thing to a good sorcerer that Caina meets is Septimus Rhazion in the Ghost “choose your own adventure” stories, and Rhazion’s potential for evil is limited by his motivation. He doesn’t want to rule the world or become immortal – he simply wants to save his daughter. Still, he’s not a particularly nice guy – his attempt to use forbidden powers to save his daughter results in the deaths of several innocent people.
My inclination is to believe that anyone with supernatural or superhuman powers will almost certainly abuse them. That said, I suppose the source of the power matters considerably – power obtained illegitimately will result in the destruction of the user. Look what happened to Julius Caesar, after all – and that was only political power!
-JM