Systems of Magic, and a request

[rising_moon]

Recently I've read a few excellent fantasy novels which were written around believable, consistent, and reasonable systems of magic. Believable magic is one of the elements that will sell me on a writer. I've enjoyed The Abhorsen Trilogy, by Garth Nix, and, most recently, The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss.

I've learned that Brandon Sanderson, who wrote this essay on systems of magic, is going to finish Robert Jordan's 12th and final novel of the Wheel of Time series. Depending on my Lady's response to his work, I might take up the first one. :)

Unrelatedly (maybe): can any of you recommend a good history (articles, blogs, anything) of technical approaches to affixing Identity? That is, assuring that individuals are who they say they are? I'm making a study of transaction psychology -- financial services inclined but not fixed -- and would love some background data on approaches to identity assurance. Thanks!

Comments

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

shoot, i meant to say, also: the corresponding classic problem of capability credentials (now that i'm thinking about them, it occurs to me there are lots of historical examples!) is the possibility that the capability you're looking at isn't distributed in the population the way you think it is. maybe some stranger turns up from a far-off land who turns out to be just as strong as odysseus-- oops. i think fairy tales are full of this sort of event.

but they still work great for situations where what you actually care about is not specific identity, but that the person authenticated *have* a capability that's associated with the one you're testing, i think.