"Ach! Fans run! It's a RetCon!!!"
Magic Continuity, last words
This sums up my feelings on this storyline
Best comment ever.
I was pretty happy with Tezz in this one though. Most of the other planeswalkers were cookie cutter (Good girl with a dark past, noble friend who'll make the ultimate sacrifice, and a renegade who defends those who rejected him.) even Karn's final words make you wanna drop the book in a fire. I'm giving it a snoozefest rating.
Thanks for writing that z00t.
I'm so not impressed by all the retcons with this block that I don't care to give wotc the sales for this book. But I was curious.
So we still have no idea why Venser is alive 100 years after the mending?
just wanted to thank zoot as well. hope that he keeps the good work up on other novel if they come out these reviews really help me in determining if i wanted to buy the product... which i dont actually
Thank you, sir! I find your detailed description very useful.
Btw. Does anybody know who's the cover artist for this novel?
No problem, guys. I'm glad to see that it is appreciated :). I have a chapter-by-chapter summary for Test of Metal as well, if you want it. That one is far better, I think (both the book and consequently, my summary :P).
I swear they should hire me to do their novels, after reading the important points (which is to say, the "Which inconsistancies were introduced?" part of the thread). Anyone got a hookup? (Yes, I'm being serious.)
I swear they should hire me to do their novels, after reading the important points (which is to say, the "Which inconsistancies were introduced?" part of the thread). Anyone got a hookup? (Yes, I'm being serious.)
In this age of twitter and other crap, I cant imagine it would be that hard to pester creative enough to get a interview or at least get someone to look at your writing.
I look at Ken Nagle and see how much they like him for his.... I guess casual eye I'm going to say. Ken strikes me as a champion of kitchen table magic and has created a lot of great cards I know some brothers will be fighting over. He just comes from their demographic and while I wouldn't have Ken design a tournament caliber deck, he does fit his role like a glove
Why they don't do this with creative is just infuriating to me. It would be if Lucas would only let Trekkies write the Star Wars books and wouldnt share any pertinent details with them.
We need a writer that these books are supposed to appeal to, not only so they know continuity but have a passion to get it right. Like that guy who is awesome at this stuff, Matt Cavotta!
The MTG crew comes to the writer with an outline. That writer fleshes it out and gives the story tactile reality, hopefully! MTG typically has the characters they would like to feature and the plane they would like them featured on. The plot is more flexible, with the beginning and end typically agreed upon beforehand. Character personality and detail traits of the plane are mostly left up the writer.
While Wintermute has certain aspects of writing to improve upon, based solely on his response above, it seems Creative did not deliver to him a Guide to Mirrodin/New Phyrexia, and began developing their Planeswalker Guide separately...
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Dominian Scholar of the Old Guard, specializing in pre-revisionist (Armada comics) and revisionist (Brothers' War through Apocalypse)history
Alright, finished the book. Here's my little run down.
The writing for the first few chapters was good. It started to falter afterward, but every so often it had it's moments. The characters were well rounded and most of them got a pretty good set of over-time development. Personally, I loved Venser's constant curiosity of Phyrexians, especially from the beginning to middle where he describes phyresis in a few interesting ways. While I did enjoy the new side of Elspeth, it seemed like she had a complete 180 character shift.
Oh boy, where to start. Even for me, this novel was pretty damn low. Let's start with Melira. Not her character, but her being written in. Ok, so once she agrees to follow Venser and co. into the core, she is mentioned a total of TWICE before finding Karn. Literally, she is not written into any of the scenes between her agreeing and then getting taken by Koth, and then finding Karn. The Mana infused hole they floated down? Not mentioned. The constant running through rooms and tubes? Not one mention. Fights? Nope. You would think she held enough importance to be tagged into the scenes. I mean ☺☺☺☺, even the machine Sylvok had more air time then she did. Oh right, and about the guide. One, you don't even learn he's sylvok until two chapters in. The first few scenes he's just described as a thin mirran native. Elspeth, dear god. She seemed more red then white, with tinges of black at some points. She coulda been a really well done WBR 'walker if WOTC planned for her to be a raving lunatic that slips into depression and cries after every fight. Don't get me wrong, I loved the whole change with her, it just seemed to be overly done. Every single fight she goes nuts, slaughters everything and then mopes around before going back to being noble, rinse and repeat. And Karn. I was so dissapointed how Karn acted at the end after he was healed. Well, even before that I wasn't to fond of Melira's eyes glowing and literally nothing happening. I was hoping that she would cure all by the heartstone and he would have some real lapse and be sane. Instead we get evil Karn asking if he's supposed to feel different before nonchalantly lying down on Venser's command. Riiiiiight. And Karn after? He just kinda says a few noble things, explains that he's going to kill all the phyrexians on Mirrodin and just walks of stage killing away. Well, we know where this storyline is going. Let's skip NPH for a few blocks, and come back to learn that Karn has just killed all of them without stopping. Not at all how I was expecting Karn to act. Oh right, and Venser's little transfer. And no Praetors. And Apparently, Phyrexia knowing that Bolas sent Tezzeret. And no Dr. Jest, despite Tezz speaking of his etherium mastery (hinting to Test of Metal) later in the book.
These are just a few things I feel that the forum goers that read have made a bit bigger deal of the necessary.
First off, Venser's Palsy was NOT caused by the "Serum". Apparently a while back on Dominaria he had found a unique pile of black Phyrexian stones (I'm guessing Ambulator stones) and teleported with them. it really screwed him up, and caused the palsy.
Apparently the Serum can be made from about a dozen different ingredients from various planes and with special care, can be made. He learned this in "artificer school" which was a bit bothersome, but it's at least clear that he didn't have to get it all from Mirrodin, only an ingredient or two.
The metal used to make explosives in the Oxidda Chain was used to stop the advancing phyrexians. The metal used to make explosives when they're deep into the plane was used to stop them from getting killed. I felt this needed to be mentioned, as in a couple other threads it was said that in the beginning there was explosive material which was not used, and in the end there was a different material that was used. This is not the case. Both metals were harvested and used to stop Phyrexians.
Even though the fight between Glissa and Tezz was NOT resolved, after seeing Tezz's control over metal and how vicious his own phyrexians are, is there really anyone who honestly thinks that Glissa would've won?
Wait. Venser was brought back as a drug addict and then killed off to make Karn a planeswalker again? That is really disappointing and sad as he was one of the last few Walkers before the mending of the rifts.
Wait. Venser was brought back as a drug addict and then killed off to make Karn a planeswalker again? That is really disappointing and sad as he was one of the last few Walkers before the mending of the rifts.
Uhm. If drug dependency to NOT DIE counts as drug addiction to you, well...
Wow, after reading the chapter-by-chapter descriptions, I am completely disappointed with how the story for this block was handled. There are so many things wrong with this book that I just plain don't know where to start. It's like Wintermute decided to throw darts at a board to see what characters did what.
Taking one of Magic's most iconic and dangerous enemies, and placing them under the control of a Bradywalker (who is in turn under the control of that oh so big-bad Bolas)? Way to spit on the entire past of Phyrexians. So now, instead of a whole race of creatures solely dedicated to acheiving the Great Work and acheiving "perfection", we're likely to get a bunch of minions and lackies for Tezz and Bolas. I would honestly not be surprised if every other block it's "Oh noes, there are Phyrexians here, must mean Bolas wants something from this plane!" I'm going to be especially disappointed if Glissa is also just killed off for the lulz. I really enjoyed her reintroduction, I thought it was a step in the right direction to have Mirrodin's savior become corrupted with it's creator and become of the higher ranking individuals. To just throw that away because Brady despises everything even remotely dealing with the pre-Mending multiverse is a damn shame.
I just cannot put into words how disappointed I am with all of that. And the whole lack of Praetors (you know, those stupid powerful beings who lead entire factions of Phyrexians?) is just more salt in the wound. StF just spent 5 weeks introducing all the praetors (proving their not just flavor mythics or individuals), and fleshing out their backgrounds, their ideals, and their plans for everyone else. And they're just gonna toss it all away
because they want a Bradywalker to be leading the Phyrexians, which after reading all those articles I don't believe any of the Preators would just stand by and let happen. The only one I can remotely even see not caring is Urabrask, but none of the other 4 strike me as the type to just accept this random interloper who they also somehow apparently know works for Bolas. If they hate Karn, a being who was powerful enough to create an entire freaking plane and time travel just cause he felt like it, how am I supposed to believe that they'd even tolerate or entertain the thought of Tezz rising up as their puppet leader?
I don't want to point a finger at Creative (I'm not sure how directly they're involved in the books), but doesn't anyone at WotC care about what the writers do with their storyline that they spend years crafting? The storyline is making me feel like I'm watching a bad remake of the Mortal Kombat cartoon from years ago. Big bad guy with army of powerful generals attacks different planes while a ragtag group of mismatched warriors try to stop him at every plane from getting that next piece for his intricate, crazy, hyper unrealistic and unnecessarily complex doomsday final plan.
Creative is telling them what to write. It is funny to blame the authors and save creative, when they are the ones in charge
The only reason why I doubt Creative's involvement in the books is that horrible slab of waste paper that's known as the Scourge novel. Unless things have changed since then, there's no way that Creative would mess up that badly.
It sounds more like Creative just gives the writer a brief outline of what they want to have happen and some quick source material for them to do some "research" with. You're right though, they are to blame for actual direction the story has taken. The inconsistensies between their own articles and the book is definitely on the writer.
Either way, end result is still a horrible book, horrible choice of story direction, and yet more evidence that there is little to nothing left sacred from the pre-Mending timeline.
You're right though, they are to blame for actual direction the story has taken. The inconsistensies between their own articles and the book is definitely on the writer.
Not only on the writer. Somebody has to freaking couch the writer to tell him what the characters are supposed to be/do and what not. Somebody needs access to early drafts of the book and detect that kind of ERRORS. If there is no such figure, man, this whole mess is ☺☺☺☺ed up.
Any mention of Jor Kadeen? And thank you z00t for saving me money. That author is terrible and needs to be dragged around by horses after Teeth of Akoum(which I couldn't finish), and with the way you described this book makes it sound like he needs a second dragging.
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Magic Continuity, last words
This sums up my feelings on this storyline
amazingly epic sig courtesy of DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Planes.
So Karn sent a guide to find Venser, despite Venser being kidnapped and brought to the plane?
Best comment ever.
I was pretty happy with Tezz in this one though. Most of the other planeswalkers were cookie cutter (Good girl with a dark past, noble friend who'll make the ultimate sacrifice, and a renegade who defends those who rejected him.) even Karn's final words make you wanna drop the book in a fire. I'm giving it a snoozefest rating.
No problem, guys. I'm glad to see that it is appreciated :). I have a chapter-by-chapter summary for Test of Metal as well, if you want it. That one is far better, I think (both the book and consequently, my summary :P).
@Tezzeret - the cover artist is Jason Chan :).
Yes.
Past Ruminations
Links are broken, will fix in near future.
- Kaladesh
- Zendikar
- Rise of the Eldrazi
- Alara Reborn
- Innistrad <- Personal Favorite
- Dark Ascension
- Avacyn Restored
- Theros
- Return to Ravnica
- Tarkir
I couldn't find an email address for you, but here's what I think is his account: http://community.wizards.com/pro_tractor
Good luck! Let us know if you manage to make a deal!
In this age of twitter and other crap, I cant imagine it would be that hard to pester creative enough to get a interview or at least get someone to look at your writing.
I look at Ken Nagle and see how much they like him for his.... I guess casual eye I'm going to say. Ken strikes me as a champion of kitchen table magic and has created a lot of great cards I know some brothers will be fighting over. He just comes from their demographic and while I wouldn't have Ken design a tournament caliber deck, he does fit his role like a glove
Why they don't do this with creative is just infuriating to me. It would be if Lucas would only let Trekkies write the Star Wars books and wouldnt share any pertinent details with them.
We need a writer that these books are supposed to appeal to, not only so they know continuity but have a passion to get it right. Like that guy who is awesome at this stuff, Matt Cavotta!
While Wintermute has certain aspects of writing to improve upon, based solely on his response above, it seems Creative did not deliver to him a Guide to Mirrodin/New Phyrexia, and began developing their Planeswalker Guide separately...
I'm raging. Praetors seem to have the most interesting flavor behind them and to make it a Geth/Glissa/Tezz 3 way seems very uncool.
The writing for the first few chapters was good. It started to falter afterward, but every so often it had it's moments. The characters were well rounded and most of them got a pretty good set of over-time development. Personally, I loved Venser's constant curiosity of Phyrexians, especially from the beginning to middle where he describes phyresis in a few interesting ways. While I did enjoy the new side of Elspeth, it seemed like she had a complete 180 character shift.
Oh boy, where to start. Even for me, this novel was pretty damn low. Let's start with Melira. Not her character, but her being written in. Ok, so once she agrees to follow Venser and co. into the core, she is mentioned a total of TWICE before finding Karn. Literally, she is not written into any of the scenes between her agreeing and then getting taken by Koth, and then finding Karn. The Mana infused hole they floated down? Not mentioned. The constant running through rooms and tubes? Not one mention. Fights? Nope. You would think she held enough importance to be tagged into the scenes. I mean ☺☺☺☺, even the machine Sylvok had more air time then she did. Oh right, and about the guide. One, you don't even learn he's sylvok until two chapters in. The first few scenes he's just described as a thin mirran native. Elspeth, dear god. She seemed more red then white, with tinges of black at some points. She coulda been a really well done WBR 'walker if WOTC planned for her to be a raving lunatic that slips into depression and cries after every fight. Don't get me wrong, I loved the whole change with her, it just seemed to be overly done. Every single fight she goes nuts, slaughters everything and then mopes around before going back to being noble, rinse and repeat. And Karn. I was so dissapointed how Karn acted at the end after he was healed. Well, even before that I wasn't to fond of Melira's eyes glowing and literally nothing happening. I was hoping that she would cure all by the heartstone and he would have some real lapse and be sane. Instead we get evil Karn asking if he's supposed to feel different before nonchalantly lying down on Venser's command. Riiiiiight. And Karn after? He just kinda says a few noble things, explains that he's going to kill all the phyrexians on Mirrodin and just walks of stage killing away. Well, we know where this storyline is going. Let's skip NPH for a few blocks, and come back to learn that Karn has just killed all of them without stopping. Not at all how I was expecting Karn to act. Oh right, and Venser's little transfer. And no Praetors. And Apparently, Phyrexia knowing that Bolas sent Tezzeret. And no Dr. Jest, despite Tezz speaking of his etherium mastery (hinting to Test of Metal) later in the book.
These are just a few things I feel that the forum goers that read have made a bit bigger deal of the necessary.
First off, Venser's Palsy was NOT caused by the "Serum". Apparently a while back on Dominaria he had found a unique pile of black Phyrexian stones (I'm guessing Ambulator stones) and teleported with them. it really screwed him up, and caused the palsy.
Apparently the Serum can be made from about a dozen different ingredients from various planes and with special care, can be made. He learned this in "artificer school" which was a bit bothersome, but it's at least clear that he didn't have to get it all from Mirrodin, only an ingredient or two.
The metal used to make explosives in the Oxidda Chain was used to stop the advancing phyrexians. The metal used to make explosives when they're deep into the plane was used to stop them from getting killed. I felt this needed to be mentioned, as in a couple other threads it was said that in the beginning there was explosive material which was not used, and in the end there was a different material that was used. This is not the case. Both metals were harvested and used to stop Phyrexians.
Even though the fight between Glissa and Tezz was NOT resolved, after seeing Tezz's control over metal and how vicious his own phyrexians are, is there really anyone who honestly thinks that Glissa would've won?
I really hope there is an official statement on all this mess up with the history and make clear what should be canon and what not.
[Clan Flamingo]
The clan for custom card creators!
I am gonna borrow this for sig...
URThe Joy of Painting with Nin, the Pain Artist!UR
MTGO: flathead
Advantages of MTGO over paper magic
Uhm. If drug dependency to NOT DIE counts as drug addiction to you, well...
I just cannot put into words how disappointed I am with all of that. And the whole lack of Praetors (you know, those stupid powerful beings who lead entire factions of Phyrexians?) is just more salt in the wound. StF just spent 5 weeks introducing all the praetors (proving their not just flavor mythics or individuals), and fleshing out their backgrounds, their ideals, and their plans for everyone else. And they're just gonna toss it all away
I don't want to point a finger at Creative (I'm not sure how directly they're involved in the books), but doesn't anyone at WotC care about what the writers do with their storyline that they spend years crafting? The storyline is making me feel like I'm watching a bad remake of the Mortal Kombat cartoon from years ago. Big bad guy with army of powerful generals attacks different planes while a ragtag group of mismatched warriors try to stop him at every plane from getting that next piece for his intricate, crazy, hyper unrealistic and unnecessarily complex doomsday final plan.
The only reason why I doubt Creative's involvement in the books is that horrible slab of waste paper that's known as the Scourge novel. Unless things have changed since then, there's no way that Creative would mess up that badly.
It sounds more like Creative just gives the writer a brief outline of what they want to have happen and some quick source material for them to do some "research" with. You're right though, they are to blame for actual direction the story has taken. The inconsistensies between their own articles and the book is definitely on the writer.
Either way, end result is still a horrible book, horrible choice of story direction, and yet more evidence that there is little to nothing left sacred from the pre-Mending timeline.
[Clan Flamingo]
The clan for custom card creators!
so what happend on mirran? since set is new phyrexia did phyrexia take over?