The Magic Goes Away

In "Not Long Before the End", the Warlock, a very powerful sorcerer at least 200 years old,{{cite book |title=The Magic Goes Away Collection |last=Niven |first=Larry |authorlink=Larry Niven |year=2005 |publisher=Pocket Books |location=New York |isbn=0-7434-1693-7 |quote='Everyone in the village knows your age', said Hap. 'You're two hundred years old, if not more'. |page=102}} observes that when he stays in one place too long, his powers dwindle, and they return only when he leaves that place.{{cite book |title=The Magic Goes Away Collection |last=Niven |first=Larry |authorlink=Larry Niven |year=2005 |publisher=Pocket Books |location=New York |isbn=0-7434-1693-7 |quote=He found that when he had been ten to fifteen years in a place, using his magic as whim dictated, his powers would weaken. If he moved away, they returned. |page=98}} Experimentation leads him to create an apparatus consisting of a metal disc enchanted to spin perpetually.{{cite book |title=The Magic Goes Away Collection |last=Niven |first=Larry |authorlink=Larry Niven |year=2005 |publisher=Pocket Books |location=New York |isbn=0-7434-1693-7 |quote=His last experiment involved a simple kinetic sorcery set to spin a metal disc in midair. |page=99}} The enchantment eventually consumes all of the mana in the vicinity, which causes a localized failure in all magic.{{cite book |title=The Magic Goes Away Collection |last=Niven |first=Larry |authorlink=Larry Niven |year=2005 |publisher=Pocket Books |location=New York |isbn=0-7434-1693-7 |quote='The disc? I told you. A kinetic sorcery with no upper limit. The disc keeps accelerating until all the mana in the locality has been used up'. |page=107}} The Warlock realizes that magic is fueled by a non-renewable resource, which would cause great concern among the magicians.

In The Magic Goes Away, the widespread diminishing of magical power triggers a quest on the part of the most powerful of the magicians of the time to harness a new source of magic, the Moon.

In The Magic May Return, it is discovered that mana was originally carried to Earth and the other bodies of the Solar System on the solar wind, which replenishes mana slowly over time. At some point, a god created an invisible shield between Earth and Sun that intercepted the solar mana and caused the eventual decline of magic on Earth.

Richard A. Lupoff reviewed the 1978 novella unfavorably, saying that although the story "bristles with amusing devices", the writing itself was unsatisfactory; he felt that there was not a spark of humanity in the book, and that the writer used "flat", "dull", "sterile" narrative prose."Lupoff's Book Week", Starship 35, 1979, p. 76.

In her afterword to the novella, Sandra Miesel identified a number of influences on the setting: "The Wheels of If", The Incomplete Enchanter, The Blue Star, Operation Chaos, Too Many Magicians, The Dragon and the George, as well as Niven's earlier works "All the Myriad Ways" and the Svetz series.Sandra Miesel, "The Mana Crisis", The Magic Goes Away, pp. 196–97, Ace Books, 1978.

There are also several references to the works of H. P. Lovecraft, such as the reference of a mad magician named Alhazred and an amorphous god called the Crawling Chaos.

The Magic Goes Away was adapted by Paul Kupperberg and Jan Duursema as a graphic novel in 1986, as the sixth in the DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel series.

These card games use a card called "Nevinyrral" ("Larry Niven" spelled backwards), which reference elements from The Magic Goes Away:

• The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering (by Richard Garfield) has a card called "Nevinyrral's Disk", which is a reference to the Warlock's spinning metal disk. This card roughly has the effect of removing the effects of players' spells from play, while leaving their lands intact.
• The collectible card game Netrunner (also by Richard Garfield) has a card called "Nevinyrral" which has the effect of giving the Corporate player an extra action each turn, but if this card goes away the Corporate player loses.

{{reflist}}

• The novella: {{ISFDB title|6512}}
• The series: {{isfdb series|11883}}

{{Larry Niven}}

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Category:1976 short stories

Category:1978 American novels

Category:1978 science fiction novels

Category:Ace Books books

Category:American novellas

Category:American fantasy novels

Category:Fantasy short stories

Category:Novels by Larry Niven

Category:Short stories by Larry Niven

Category:1973 oil crisis