The book is very detailed, and the spell rules enable the player to custom-design a character's magical abilities, although this can take a fair amount of time and effort.

[1] In the June 1989 edition of Games International (Issue 6), James Wallis thought the book was not needed by those who already had the previously published GURPS Fantasy.

"[2] In the July 1989 edition of Dragon (Issue #147), Ken Rolston was impressed, commenting, "The GURPS Magic game is an excellent supplement for the GURPS system, an effective expansion of the game's original fantasy magic rules with added features and wise campaign-design guidance.

The magical-item rules make it difficult to create off-the-wall oddities favored by AD&D mages, like the portable hole and bag of beans.

If you don't have it, and you want to use magic in GURPS, the material offered here is a vast improvement over the skeletal rules of the Basic Set.