1980s (?) fantasy where humans lived in an Earth-like setting surrounded by an opaque, toxic mist, out of which invaders would come

[Scott_AR]

I can only remember the barest of details.

The humans could wield magic, but the invaders had technology—tanks, etc., and they used this tech to allow them to invade the toxic-to-them human atmosphere. I vaguely remember there being something about stone towers that related to the magic use.

Near the end it was revealed that (spoilers) it was an alien world and it was the humans who were, technically, the invaders. IIRC.

 

[williamjm]

I think this sounds like the final book in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Darksword Trilogy.

 

[Scott_AR]

I think this sounds like the final book in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Darksword Trilogy.

I vaguely recall that series but this was definitely not that.

I can't say this with certainty, but I think there was a "sequel" that was mainly the same events from a different perspective.

 

[Vince W]

May not be what you're looking for but Piers Anthony's Xanth series had humans wielding magic but the surrounding lands, Mundania(?), did not. I never read enough to know if they interacted much.

 

[Scott_AR]

May not be what you're looking for but Piers Anthony's Xanth series had humans wielding magic but the surrounding lands, Mundania(?), did not. I never read enough to know if they interacted much.

I'm not looking for "book like this" but the title of a specific book. I stopped reading Xanth when I was about seventeen.

 

[Danny McG]

Do you remember is it a full length book or could it be a short story?

 

[royheil]

Probably not it, but it reminds me of Raymond E. Feist's "The Riftwar Saga", starting with "Magician: Apprentice".

 

[paranoid marvin]

Sounds like an episode of the TV show 'The Outer Limits' called A Feasability Study'. Probably the best episode of the entire run.

 

[CassFrank]

I know this one, give me a sec…