5 Books That Chronicle the Secret War Between Science and Magic

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders
Charlie Jane Anders’ upcoming novel could fit on any number of lists—it’s one of those rare books that’s a lot of different things all at once. It tells the story of Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead, childhood friends who discover early on that they’re extremely talented—Patricia in magic, Laurence in science. Separated for years, they pursue their respective disciplines and are separately recruited into twin efforts to save an Earth slowly being torn apart by climate change and other forces. When they find each other again, it’s not certain whether they’re destined to save the world, or destroy it. The divide between science and magic is a recurring theme, and adds a wonderful sense of tension to a story already bursting with ideas.

A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin
Martin’s complex epic fantasy weaves together so many threads, it’s impossible to reduce the story to any single concept, but one thing is certain: for an epic fantasy, there’s precious little magic in there, especially at first. While that’s been an easy hook to get non-fantasy fans to pick up the books, Martin has slowly revealed that it’s also the result of a secret effort by the Order of the Maesters to suppress magic in favor of science and technology. In fact, it’s speculated that the Maesters may be responsible for the death of the last dragons as part of their efforts to let magic fade into myth and rumor. Of course, considering that science and technology haven’t exactly bloomed in the meantime—not to mention the undead army being gathered by the White Walkers in the north—theirs might be an incredibly foolish conspiracy.

The Apprentice Adept series, by Piers Anthony
Anthony doesn’t stop at imagining scientists and wizards snapping their fingers and engaging in delightful West Side Story-inspired dance fights; he imagines a world that actually exists in two alternate realities, one in which magic functions and technology fizzles (known as Phaze), and the other dominated by machines (known as Photon). The scientifically-dominated planet is throwing off the balance between realities through its rapacious mining of the element used to power all that tech—which has a magical counterpart on the other side that fuels spells. The imbalance is slowly revealed to be imperiling reality itself—which means that in a nice twist, the war between science and magic suddenly shifts from metaphorical to very, very real.

The Abhorsen series, by Garth Nix
The precise relationship between the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre remains elusive—they might be alternate dimension versions of the same world, or something more complex. What is certain is that the war between science and magic is at its most fundamental there: magicians traveling from the Old Kingdom into Ancelstierre quickly find their spells cease to work, and the people around them don’t even believe in magic’s existence. Conversely, bringing any of the Edwardian-era technology from Ancelstierre into the Old Kingdom will see it quickly fall apart and rot, attacked by Free Magic for not being made by human hands. That this fundamental conflict between magic and science is just one layer of an incredible universe, and helps explain why the series has maintained its hold on imaginations around the world.

Shadows of the Apt, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The war between magic and science forms the backstory of Tchaikovsky’s universe, as once magic ruled supreme, but a technological revolution long ago split the kindens—humans with distinctly insectoid characteristics and abilities. Some remained “Inapt,” using magic and retaining knowledge of the distant past, while others became Apt. The Inapt find it nearly impossible to use any sort of technology, while the Apt often can’t even perceive magic. When a more immediate war descends on the peaceful lowlands in the form of the rapacious Wasp Empire, the tension between science and magic plays an ongoing role in a rapidly expanding story.
In our own world, of course, it appears that science has long-ago won the war over magic, leaving us in a dreary, muggle-dominated universe. But at least we have books.