I agree that they need to catch a break every once in a while, but how are they going to deliver a good story in so few pages? 300 pages + large font + large page margins + half-page indentations at the start of every chapter = Not a filling book, page-wise or plot-wise.
Oh, I dunno, the first Rav book and The Gathering Dark were good and enjoyable books. You can tell a decent story, but it won't encompass all three sets, which I think you were getting at.
I'd agree with retconning Time Spiral. All of it. The problem I see with the current situation is that Nicol Bolas, an incredibly powerful planeswalker that another older planeswalker couldn't defeat, is wandering around a multiverse with neutered planeswalkers. How are these new planeswalkers supposed to stand up to something like that? Without some lame deus ex moment that makes zero sense?
They need to tighten up their storytelling. From what I remember, there's a lot of "just because" sort of moments in some of the older books. And while we're dealing with a fantasy setting, things still need to be grounded.
Another is to quit the plane-hopping, at least to the extent that has been going on. Make another large planet with many continents, or explore more of Dominaria. Explain how characters have gained their powers or why the trinket they've found/inherited/been granted works the way it does. Create a long-lasting plotline, similar to the Weatherlight saga. Make the villains relatable, make it so we can sympathize with them, make them misguided while trying to do what they think is best. Make things a little more complex. Tie the book into the set a little more. Have the characters use spells that the reader can recognize as being from the set, or locations and characters that are the same way. Too often they've printed a bunch of legends and only a few show up in the novel. Seems kinda weird. And they need to step away from the world-ending plots, which I think they've at least started to do.
The funny thing is that today Brady posted that the decision to kill all the planeswalkers wasn't made by him, it was made by the writers. I think this is ****, but it bears investigation. It would explain why the rest of them got nerfed, but McGough's baby boy Bolas didn't.
Dunjohn, could you provide any insight into this? Was the decision to castrate the Magic: The Gathering storyline made by McGough?
Honestly, I highly doubt this. McGough was head of continuity (back when there was continuity) at the time when planeswalkers were popping up left and right. Why would he just want to get rid of them all of a sudden?
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Writing compelling stories about characters who are A) mortal and B) not so far above "normal" mages as to consider them not really that different from non-spellcasters is a lot easier than the alternative. It doesn't surprise me at all that the writers wanted a change.
And you do think that all of those neowalkers know only three spells?
Or that all of real planeswalkers were as powerful as Urza, Leshrac or Nicol Bolas?
Yes we're planeswalkers, and those who we summon with planeswalkers cards are only helping us a little with some of their spells, and if they don't see it going well (loyalty points) they leave you. Actually, I can easily see Leshrac or Tevesh Szat instead of Liliana (not exactly with same abilities, but similiar).
Personally, I don't like the flavor of planeswalker cards at all, but it works in the same way with old and new ones.
No I do not think that those planeswalker only know three spells, naturally. No, the planeswalkers were not all as buff as Urza, etc.
Szat and Leshrac are much, much, much more powerful than Liliana...that's why theres a difference between crapwalkers are Planeswalkers...
I agree that when we summon a planeswalker (crapwalker) for aid, we only use some of their spells and they're only there for as long as they stay loyal to us (aka Loyalty Counters) but they're much weaker than we as Planesalkers are...
Liliana and the crapwalkers are much weaker than regular Planeswalkers...which was necessary in order to put them on a card because we could not have a Magic player on a card either (since we are on the same level as Planeswalkers- Urza, blah blah)
So what I'm getting here is that Planeswalkers are still around it's just that only some had sacrificed themselves to "heal" the multiverse from basically imploding. I mean, I think Karn is still alive but we're not sure how (yes, Time Spiral spoiler) since he kind of "ran away" after "fixing" the time rift that was in the past on Tolaria.
I can understand that they kinda had to "nerf" planeswalkers so they could put them on cards but... I don't know. Do all we get now is bradywalkers and not real planeswalkers? Since potentially some sentient life may have dormant sparks still in them, waiting to flare up.
FYI, don't think of Planeswalker cards as being the actual planeswalker, but something of a contract that you make with them, or maybe both.
Would you give it all for some random other planswalker?
Also, the evil twin article and the previous artcile of Doug Boyer states that the sets will continue to plainshop, but that they will do something with planeswalkers in the books.
He's saying that he didn't tell us which specific planeswalkers to kill. That's correct. The novelists had a free hand on who precisely would be killed or be spared so long as the old planeswalker model itself was replaced.
Actually, after he clarified his statement he said that it was more in the hands of the book team (which I assume McGough would be included in).
So, yeah, a heartfelt "**** you too" to the book team.
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Since potentially some sentient life may have dormant sparks still in them, waiting to flare up.
Yes, but the "nature of the spark" itself has changed. So anyone born with the spark now will end up as a bradywalker. I share your hatred, my child.
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FYI, don't think of Planeswalker cards as being the actual planeswalker, but something of a contract that you make with them, or maybe both.
Then why couldn't we have an Urza card, or a Szat card, or whatever? If all we're doing is getting a list of services that planeswalkers are willing to provide (in exchange for "help" which I could never figure out flavorfully) then we should just be able to have (assuming Time Spiral nevel happened) Leshrac instead of Szat, Freyalise instead of Garruk, Teferi instead of Jace, Jaya instead of Chandra, and Parcher instead of whatever-the-hell-the-tiger-guy's-name-is. Honestly, which would you rather have?
And, yes, I know I stretched the white 'walker a lot.
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Well, Brady usually refers to the "novel team" like they're some kind of shadowy illuminati behind deciding what direction the storylines are going to play out. I would be referring to them, not the people involved in actually writing the novel.
As with working for the government, it's often the people that come up with the brilliant ideas, not the people actually doing the work, that usually inhabit the ninth circle of WTF land.
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Then why couldn't we have an Urza card, or a Szat card, or whatever? If all we're doing is getting a list of services that planeswalkers are willing to provide (in exchange for "help" which I could never figure out flavorfully) then we should just be able to have (assuming Time Spiral nevel happened) Leshrac instead of Szat, Freyalise instead of Garruk, Teferi instead of Jace, Jaya instead of Chandra, and Parcher instead of whatever-the-hell-the-tiger-guy's-name-is. Honestly, which would you rather have?
And, yes, I know I stretched the white 'walker a lot.
Because the people who made magic didn't have the idea yet.
Duh. I mean, honestly, without the contract idea, you can't even do bradywalkers that well.
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The guy who found the new art for shock and other 10th edition cards on the wizards site.
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also, it bothers me that the weatherlight saga is touted as a failure by wotc. have they explained why? i don't remember seeing that anywhere. just that 'it was a lot of hard work for little pay off' yeah well no ****, thats how making a coherent story goes. did they expect some kind of global endorsement with the magic logo being stuck on everything as a result?
regardless, it was infinitely better than the pile of garbage that is the new story line. i mean, how many years now of people complaining about it? dwindling book sales? less people even noticing? this new direction is an obvious success, right? right? yeah...way to not want to admit you've made a mistake or take appropriate action to correct it...nope, just keep shoveling the same **** out there, making it worse with each new set, limiting the plot even further...wait, are we even including plot any more or is it just random strings of events? i sure as hell can't tell.
Really? It seems really easy to figure out, to me. Either a) They're getting a brief bit of mana to use for something else they had going on or where having trouble with a b) they're helping you in return for a favor down the line.
A) doesn't work because you're not actually giving them mana. They "like" it when they help you out, but you have to make them "like" helping you out before they "don't like" helping you out. It just seems kinda silly.
B) is possible, but it would have to be after-the-fact. "Help me win and I'll mow your lawn this Saturday," where "this Saturday" translates to "after the game is over."
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Because the people who made magic didn't have the idea yet.
Duh. I mean, honestly, without the contract idea, you can't even do bradywalkers that well.
... What?
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...yes i'm bitter.
It's kinda hard not to be. I mean, I don't think anyone working at WotC could help but admit that the Weatherlight Saga was the crowning achievement as far as the storyline goes. And it took mountains of effort. So mountains of effort result in a well-received storyline. Whereas now we have another story (the second in five years) that deals with an elf trying to discover the secret of the world by running around with two-bit characters who hold have no emotions whatsoever in the hope of an eventual payoff that hasn't really existed since Apocalypse. And it's not being received well. Small wonder.
Hopefully we'll get some sort of cohesive story out of the bradywalker books. The thing is, no matter how good the writer is there is still not going to be any sense of continuity. The last few Magic storylines (99% of Kamigawa, Ravnica, Lorwyn) could've happened under any label because they didn't have to include any knowledge of previous events. With the exception of Time Spiral, which was just about the biggest fanbase betrayal in recent memory. We're pretty much hosed for the foreseeable future until someone gets off their ass and notices us vainly screaming our frustrations.
edit: i mistakenly forgot to comment on the level of fighting/gore in the series as of late. that needs to end. yes its fantasy, but i want some talking between page after page after page of slaying. gets boring. gets redundant. i'm looking at you mr. king.
Just for the record, Mr. King hasn't written anything for Magic for years.
yeah i know, but he was getting pretty bad with it there at the end. the new writers aren't much better in that regard, or at least, up until futuresight. i gave up after that. too much filler thats nothing more than stabbing things.
Regardless of whether or not King is writing the books, we're getting far too much "mind-blowing action" and not enough of a tangible plot. Why should I bother caring about a non-stop action book with nothing else to go on? I might as well watch professional wrestling. Look at The Brothers' War. It's widely regarded as the best of the best of the Magic books. And, well, that's because it is. And how much play-by-play fighting do we get? About 30 pages worth, tops.
And while I'm not the most vocal Will McDermott fan, look at Judgment. That's probably the best example of blending action with plot for a decent novel. We have Kamahl doing what Kamahl does, but we also had a lot of plot resolution. Whereas now, well, we have elves running. Again. It's Mirrodin all over again.
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Wow, calling Lorwyn block Mirrodin Redux is CERTAINLY a diss if I ever heard one. I believe that's what they call a BURN!
But I digress for a simple reason really- you're wrong. One crappy novel does not a crappy cycle make, or something like that.
I've read a lot of Magic books, most since Oddessy block and beyond, but nothing ever compared again to the garbage that was Mirrodin. It was 3 books, all the same in a different part of the same world, with uninspiring characters and lackluster attempts at plot development. You can tell they tried a Sci Fi influence and failed miserably.
Lorwyn was in itself a great novel. Slow yes, but so was Oddessy, and Oddessy Block is the best trilogy IMO. Had Morningtide been amazing, we would've been looking at Odd Block 2.0, as Eventide was the best book of the trilogy (Torment was back then, but Judgement was also very well done) and Lorwyn was a slow but good starting point. Morningtide is what really screwed the pooch, and the near meaningless story I read in the anthologies that I refused to buy did nothing to redeem Morningtide in its 70 pages.
But onto the OP-- Where would I take the Magic Storyline. Well, to be honest-- exactly where they're taking it.
Step 1: One novel per block per year, increased to 500-600 pages, and written by a SINGLE author (no more Co-Author crap, let the other guy work on HIS novel instead of wasting time clashing ideas while pretending it all meshes. IT DOESNT!) and write 2 normal sized novels regarding the Neo-Walkers and what the hell they're up to. This help to introduce new characters and places without PlaneHopping all the damned time, as well as keep familiar faces when you do hop around and continue developing characters instead of dumping them so fast as they do now.
2) Give McGough a break and a raise. He's written all of the best books MTG has to offer, so why not let him his the refresh button and come out with some more greatness? Hell, he's clearly forcing out things (even as Eventide was great, you could see he was putting a lot of effort into making it as good as his Torments and Legends II books), so let him off the hook. The Planeswalkers books are perfect ways to get new writers involved, give SM a break, AND give us all what we want.
3) Don't let the storylines become to varied and stretched. Keep things a little simpler instead of trying to have 10 things going on at once. It seems like all throughout Lorwyn, we've gotta look at Maralen, then Cofelnor, then Oona, then the Elves, then Rhys, then the Prophet Giant Rosheen Meanderer, then Brigid, then Ashling, the Clique, and back again. I liked the whole Fellowship idea, but you need to keep the reader focused on the important stuff-- or at least highlight it so we know what's REALLY important.
4) As the last post says, LESS FIGHTING, MORE PLOTTING! Torment was amazing in a sense that in between the greatsome fights that were wellly described, the plot was thickening and EVEN BETTER! Characters with great minds like Urza, Laquatus, Teferi, and Toshiro Umezawa are what we want, not more "BAM BAM!" characters like Glissa and Kamahl (though Kamahl was a decent mix, it clearly started the trend of smash first, talk later).
There are a lot of things that can be done to save the flavor of MTG. Now we see if they want to or not.
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Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"
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Just a puppet on a lonely string
I honestly think the best novel series was the War of the Twins. It had the most perfect blend of action and storyline. Plus, that was the bread and butter of the original storyline. Everything was about the fallout after the twins war. I'm not saying we should go back to that, cause that storyline is essentially dead. But, I absolutely feel that the prose used in those books was amazing. Plus, the storyline was emotionally compelling. You got involved with the characters. Lately, it's all hack and slash, sorry, but I don't want to read a Diablo novelization. It doesn't make for very compelling characters. If Wizards read stuff like this, I'd hope they understand that senseless violence doesn't lend itself to good drama. I always thought the twins war series was actually good fantasy. Not just fan service. If you haven't read them I'd suggest it. It's what good fiction should be.
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5th is just a guy snapping his fingers. Maybe Nicol Bolas can get mana that way, but I can't.
I'm assuming you mean The Brothers' War by Jeff Grubb. (It might be called the Twins War in other languages, but it shouldn't because, well, they weren't twins).
But, yes, that was by far the pinnacle of Magic storytelling. But now WotC is more than content to mass-produce hack-and-slash (for that's what they are) books in order to appeal to a "wider audience."
Funny how that "wider audience" is dwindling on an almost daily basis.
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But, yes, that was by far the pinnacle of Magic storytelling. But now WotC is more than content to mass-produce hack-and-slash (for that's what they are) books in order to appeal to a "wider audience."
Funny how that "wider audience" is dwindling on an almost daily basis.
Yeah, I'd agree with the above statements. BW was the best by far. Great movie material in the future too.
Yeah, new books seemed rushed. I bought Lorwyn and can't bring myself to read Morningtide--they're that bad and I'm tired of crap Magic books.
If it was up to me, I'd bring back J Rob King---my favorite author for Magic (and Jeff Grubb of course). Hopefully we'd see real plots then.
I'd also like to see King or Grubb back, but it seems the novel team is more than happy to farm their work out to members of the creative team. Doug Beyer might be a good article writer (and I mean that literally: he might be), but wouldn't it be more prodent to have someone with experience writing shared-world fiction novels tackle the flagship of an upcoming book change?
Hopefully we're getting good things out of the Jace novel. The writer has done other stuff.
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why dont Magic makes the author of cloudbreaker short story in shadowmoor anthology their main author in writing some of their books? i heard from you guys that her story is really good so she would make a good author too i guess in some novels.
i hope she writes the alara novel and the chandra novel.
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why dont Magic makes the author of cloudbreaker short story in shadowmoor anthology their main author in writing some of their books? i heard from you guys that her story is really good so she would make a good author too i guess in some novels.
i hope she writes the alara novel and the chandra novel.
Well, you should read it for yourself first. As for that particular story, I thought it was ok. It wasn't spectacular but you can't really make something really awesome with like the 50 or so pages you're given.
Oh, I dunno, the first Rav book and The Gathering Dark were good and enjoyable books. You can tell a decent story, but it won't encompass all three sets, which I think you were getting at.
I'd agree with retconning Time Spiral. All of it. The problem I see with the current situation is that Nicol Bolas, an incredibly powerful planeswalker that another older planeswalker couldn't defeat, is wandering around a multiverse with neutered planeswalkers. How are these new planeswalkers supposed to stand up to something like that? Without some lame deus ex moment that makes zero sense?
They need to tighten up their storytelling. From what I remember, there's a lot of "just because" sort of moments in some of the older books. And while we're dealing with a fantasy setting, things still need to be grounded.
Another is to quit the plane-hopping, at least to the extent that has been going on. Make another large planet with many continents, or explore more of Dominaria. Explain how characters have gained their powers or why the trinket they've found/inherited/been granted works the way it does. Create a long-lasting plotline, similar to the Weatherlight saga. Make the villains relatable, make it so we can sympathize with them, make them misguided while trying to do what they think is best. Make things a little more complex. Tie the book into the set a little more. Have the characters use spells that the reader can recognize as being from the set, or locations and characters that are the same way. Too often they've printed a bunch of legends and only a few show up in the novel. Seems kinda weird. And they need to step away from the world-ending plots, which I think they've at least started to do.
Dunjohn, could you provide any insight into this? Was the decision to castrate the Magic: The Gathering storyline made by McGough?
Honestly, I highly doubt this. McGough was head of continuity (back when there was continuity) at the time when planeswalkers were popping up left and right. Why would he just want to get rid of them all of a sudden?
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No I do not think that those planeswalker only know three spells, naturally. No, the planeswalkers were not all as buff as Urza, etc.
Szat and Leshrac are much, much, much more powerful than Liliana...that's why theres a difference between crapwalkers are Planeswalkers...
I agree that when we summon a planeswalker (crapwalker) for aid, we only use some of their spells and they're only there for as long as they stay loyal to us (aka Loyalty Counters) but they're much weaker than we as Planesalkers are...
Liliana and the crapwalkers are much weaker than regular Planeswalkers...which was necessary in order to put them on a card because we could not have a Magic player on a card either (since we are on the same level as Planeswalkers- Urza, blah blah)
I can understand that they kinda had to "nerf" planeswalkers so they could put them on cards but... I don't know. Do all we get now is bradywalkers and not real planeswalkers? Since potentially some sentient life may have dormant sparks still in them, waiting to flare up.
Would you give it all for some random other planswalker?
Also, the evil twin article and the previous artcile of Doug Boyer states that the sets will continue to plainshop, but that they will do something with planeswalkers in the books.
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Actually, after he clarified his statement he said that it was more in the hands of the book team (which I assume McGough would be included in).
So, yeah, a heartfelt "**** you too" to the book team.
Yes, but the "nature of the spark" itself has changed. So anyone born with the spark now will end up as a bradywalker. I share your hatred, my child.
Then why couldn't we have an Urza card, or a Szat card, or whatever? If all we're doing is getting a list of services that planeswalkers are willing to provide (in exchange for "help" which I could never figure out flavorfully) then we should just be able to have (assuming Time Spiral nevel happened) Leshrac instead of Szat, Freyalise instead of Garruk, Teferi instead of Jace, Jaya instead of Chandra, and Parcher instead of whatever-the-hell-the-tiger-guy's-name-is. Honestly, which would you rather have?
And, yes, I know I stretched the white 'walker a lot.
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Because the people who made magic didn't have the idea yet.
Duh. I mean, honestly, without the contract idea, you can't even do bradywalkers that well.
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also, it bothers me that the weatherlight saga is touted as a failure by wotc. have they explained why? i don't remember seeing that anywhere. just that 'it was a lot of hard work for little pay off' yeah well no ****, thats how making a coherent story goes. did they expect some kind of global endorsement with the magic logo being stuck on everything as a result?
regardless, it was infinitely better than the pile of garbage that is the new story line. i mean, how many years now of people complaining about it? dwindling book sales? less people even noticing? this new direction is an obvious success, right? right? yeah...way to not want to admit you've made a mistake or take appropriate action to correct it...nope, just keep shoveling the same **** out there, making it worse with each new set, limiting the plot even further...wait, are we even including plot any more or is it just random strings of events? i sure as hell can't tell.
...yes i'm bitter.
A) doesn't work because you're not actually giving them mana. They "like" it when they help you out, but you have to make them "like" helping you out before they "don't like" helping you out. It just seems kinda silly.
B) is possible, but it would have to be after-the-fact. "Help me win and I'll mow your lawn this Saturday," where "this Saturday" translates to "after the game is over."
... What?
It's kinda hard not to be. I mean, I don't think anyone working at WotC could help but admit that the Weatherlight Saga was the crowning achievement as far as the storyline goes. And it took mountains of effort. So mountains of effort result in a well-received storyline. Whereas now we have another story (the second in five years) that deals with an elf trying to discover the secret of the world by running around with two-bit characters who hold have no emotions whatsoever in the hope of an eventual payoff that hasn't really existed since Apocalypse. And it's not being received well. Small wonder.
Hopefully we'll get some sort of cohesive story out of the bradywalker books. The thing is, no matter how good the writer is there is still not going to be any sense of continuity. The last few Magic storylines (99% of Kamigawa, Ravnica, Lorwyn) could've happened under any label because they didn't have to include any knowledge of previous events. With the exception of Time Spiral, which was just about the biggest fanbase betrayal in recent memory. We're pretty much hosed for the foreseeable future until someone gets off their ass and notices us vainly screaming our frustrations.
I suppose one solution is to scream louder.
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http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=2882609&postcount=23
edit: i mistakenly forgot to comment on the level of fighting/gore in the series as of late. that needs to end. yes its fantasy, but i want some talking between page after page after page of slaying. gets boring. gets redundant. i'm looking at you mr. king.
1. Baneslayer Angel 2. Birds of Paradise 3. Lightning Bolt 4. Honor of the Pure 5. Goblin Chieftain
My top 5 Zendikar cards:
1. Eternity Vessel 2. Chandra Ablaze 3. Beastmaster Ascension 4. Ob Nixilis, the Fallen 5. Rampaging Baloths
yeah i know, but he was getting pretty bad with it there at the end. the new writers aren't much better in that regard, or at least, up until futuresight. i gave up after that. too much filler thats nothing more than stabbing things.
And while I'm not the most vocal Will McDermott fan, look at Judgment. That's probably the best example of blending action with plot for a decent novel. We have Kamahl doing what Kamahl does, but we also had a lot of plot resolution. Whereas now, well, we have elves running. Again. It's Mirrodin all over again.
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But I digress for a simple reason really- you're wrong. One crappy novel does not a crappy cycle make, or something like that.
I've read a lot of Magic books, most since Oddessy block and beyond, but nothing ever compared again to the garbage that was Mirrodin. It was 3 books, all the same in a different part of the same world, with uninspiring characters and lackluster attempts at plot development. You can tell they tried a Sci Fi influence and failed miserably.
Lorwyn was in itself a great novel. Slow yes, but so was Oddessy, and Oddessy Block is the best trilogy IMO. Had Morningtide been amazing, we would've been looking at Odd Block 2.0, as Eventide was the best book of the trilogy (Torment was back then, but Judgement was also very well done) and Lorwyn was a slow but good starting point. Morningtide is what really screwed the pooch, and the near meaningless story I read in the anthologies that I refused to buy did nothing to redeem Morningtide in its 70 pages.
But onto the OP-- Where would I take the Magic Storyline. Well, to be honest-- exactly where they're taking it.
Step 1: One novel per block per year, increased to 500-600 pages, and written by a SINGLE author (no more Co-Author crap, let the other guy work on HIS novel instead of wasting time clashing ideas while pretending it all meshes. IT DOESNT!) and write 2 normal sized novels regarding the Neo-Walkers and what the hell they're up to. This help to introduce new characters and places without PlaneHopping all the damned time, as well as keep familiar faces when you do hop around and continue developing characters instead of dumping them so fast as they do now.
2) Give McGough a break and a raise. He's written all of the best books MTG has to offer, so why not let him his the refresh button and come out with some more greatness? Hell, he's clearly forcing out things (even as Eventide was great, you could see he was putting a lot of effort into making it as good as his Torments and Legends II books), so let him off the hook. The Planeswalkers books are perfect ways to get new writers involved, give SM a break, AND give us all what we want.
3) Don't let the storylines become to varied and stretched. Keep things a little simpler instead of trying to have 10 things going on at once. It seems like all throughout Lorwyn, we've gotta look at Maralen, then Cofelnor, then Oona, then the Elves, then Rhys, then the Prophet Giant Rosheen Meanderer, then Brigid, then Ashling, the Clique, and back again. I liked the whole Fellowship idea, but you need to keep the reader focused on the important stuff-- or at least highlight it so we know what's REALLY important.
4) As the last post says, LESS FIGHTING, MORE PLOTTING! Torment was amazing in a sense that in between the greatsome fights that were wellly described, the plot was thickening and EVEN BETTER! Characters with great minds like Urza, Laquatus, Teferi, and Toshiro Umezawa are what we want, not more "BAM BAM!" characters like Glissa and Kamahl (though Kamahl was a decent mix, it clearly started the trend of smash first, talk later).
There are a lot of things that can be done to save the flavor of MTG. Now we see if they want to or not.
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
But, yes, that was by far the pinnacle of Magic storytelling. But now WotC is more than content to mass-produce hack-and-slash (for that's what they are) books in order to appeal to a "wider audience."
Funny how that "wider audience" is dwindling on an almost daily basis.
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Yeah, I'd agree with the above statements. BW was the best by far. Great movie material in the future too.
Yeah, new books seemed rushed. I bought Lorwyn and can't bring myself to read Morningtide--they're that bad and I'm tired of crap Magic books.
If it was up to me, I'd bring back J Rob King---my favorite author for Magic (and Jeff Grubb of course). Hopefully we'd see real plots then.
Hopefully we're getting good things out of the Jace novel. The writer has done other stuff.
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i hope she writes the alara novel and the chandra novel.
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i hope the risk of making doug beyer author for the alara novel is worth it though.
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