Musings: Comparing magic, etc. (start of a new series)

I've been hoping to do a series ever since my first ideas for the Bookblog several months ago. What I wanted to do was more than just reviews of books--I wanted to compare stuff like how each author uses magic, technology, or whatever. For something like that, "Star Wars" could be considered Fantasy rather than Science-Fiction, because the Force is essentially being used for the same sorts of things that magic does--reading thoughts, shielding against an attack, throwing people or things.

I wanted to gather such a comparison because of a series of books I want to write. I've got ideas for as many as four in the series, but only one book is complete--and I haven't really done anything with it since 1996. Much of my inspiration comes from the same authors and their worlds that I'll be reviewing in the blog--Roger Zelazny's "Amber," Mercedes Lackey's "Valdemar," Jim Butcher's "Dresden," and George R R Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" being the big ones. Oh, and "Star Wars." I probably won't be discussing my own book(s) very much for some time. Currently that project's in deep limbo while figure out whether I'll even write it.