I was wondering a couple of things. Is there any mention of a successor of Asha (or her returning, unlikely as it is)? Or any humans ascending into angels? (or any mention of male or even rhox/aven angels?)
Nothing, nada, no mention what so ever. They of course mentioned Asha in prayer and her sword made an appearance but nothing else what so ever involving Asha. No ascension what so ever either. As Eid and I have mentioned this book is very bad and anything interesting in this block was not used what so ever in the novel.
I'm very fuzzy on the details of the Lorwyn books (mostly because they were awful), but I don't think Oona intended on the Great Aurora to happen earlier than planned. That was caused, I think, by the events on Dominaria during the Time Spiral Cycle. Oona created Maralen as some sort of false-Oona for some reason that I've forgotten, but she ended up turning on her, killing her, and becoming the new Oona. But then it was revealed that Oona didn't really even die, so who knows. Colfenor's plans involved getting killed, being "reborn" as a completely independent entity (the Sapling), and making sure the Sapling had all the information necessary to ensure that the right players would be brought together at the right time to destroy Oona. Which didn't work.
Which books did I hate more, the Lorwyn ones or the Alara ones?
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Man, I hope so. It will be good to read a fantasy book that involves carefully orchestrated plans that don't originate from some vague and obscure plot device and end with a vague and obscure plot device.
"Yeah, the Sundering was caused by some planeswalker."
"Which one?"
"Dunno."
"How?"
"Well, he sundered it."
"No, I mean how did he sunder it?"
"Dunno."
"Well, how was it brought back together?"
"Nicol Bolas."
"How?"
"Through magical obelisks, duh."
"How do magical obelisks bring worlds together?"
"Yeah, um, this set has DRAGONS!"
"Well, okay, but what happens to Bolas?"
"He fights Neo-Bolas!"
"What does that even mean?"
"It's a copy of Bolas."
"Wait, where did the copy come from?"
"Ajani summoned it."
"How the heck did Ajani summon it?"
"Magic."
"Right, of course, silly me. So Neo-Bolas kills Bolas?"
"To find the answer to that, you'll have to read the next horribly-vague book."
People tell me the Ice and Fire books are complicated. They know nothing, Jon Snow.
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Finished it. Threw up twice, and my stomach still hurts (jk). I feel a little bit sorry for Beyer, because this wasn't entirely his fault. First off, they force an entire block's storyline into one paperback book. Second, they tell an untested, unpublished columnist to write said block-spanning novel. Someone else here made a good point, they should have started Beyer off small and gradually moved him up. Articles, short stories, online miniseries, then a novel, with a decent amount of writing seminars mixed in. Instead, they just moved him straight from articles to novelist. Alara Unbroken is the abomination that resulted. It's like giving a common soldier fresh out of boot camp complete command of an entire army base. I think Beyer had potential, if they had done this as suggested, there were a few small good parts to the book, but nowhere near enough to redeem it. The characters felt like cardboard cutouts to me, I have more emotional attachment to their cards than I do to their characters after reading this book. Most characters can be summed up by one word. Rafiq: Honorable. Mubin: Thickheaded. Sarkhan Vol: RAGE!!!! Ajani: Vengeful. Try again, WOTC :no:. Oh yeah, and :banghead:.
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I'm not so sure WotC told Beyer to write the book, though. It's entirely possible that he volunteered to do it. "Yeah, sure I can write a book, how hard can it be?"
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It had great potential but they should not have let Dougie write this horrible abbomination.
The 1 page chapters did not work.
The characters had no depth.
The whole Ajani wandering the multiverse looking for his brothers killer, well thats out of the window.
The ending was horrid
I looked forward to the meeting between Bolas and Vol, this sucked...
Dragons of Jund and Sarkan themselves suck, Rage!, Fury!... i felt it to when i was reading this thing.
The whole NOM NOM NOM thing was Bolas's master plan?, yeah pure genius right there, and Wizards even promised that it was far more genius and greater than that...
Bolas is not Bolas in this book, but his demented, retarded twice removed cousin.
No offense, but i think the meeting of wizards about this book ended with something like this: Me Dougie! write book!, Me Dougie bestest not so large story writer off all!
This book is more evil then the Necronomicon...
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“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.” —Volrath
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Tezzret was not in the novel at all leaving his fate up in the air. Plus why was Bolas so concerned about the cOnsortium in AoA if he was waiting for the Maelstrom in Alara? Let's use common sense, attack a planeswalker when you are only a little bit stronger then them or attack a planeswalker when you are at your strongest? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....I think NOM NOM NOM would win this debate!
Somebody asked about why the avatar that Ajani made would immediately start fighting Bolas. Now, I suppose we don't really need a plausible explanation since so much of the book defies plausible explanation, but I think I've got one for this.
The avatar creature that Ajani Goldmane makes is white. Avatars probably don't have a lot of intelligence, so the moment it was created it sensed this great presence of black mana (Bolas) nearby and immediately started combating it.
@Eid: The lorwyn books overall just seemed... rushed and confusing. The end of the first book into the 2nd book felt kind of like the end of Alara Unbroken. Like I must have missed a chapter of content, because there had to be something missing.
re: Asha's return... The prophecy could be interpreted in many ways, but I think Rafiq's own thoughts about himself being Asha is our clue to him fulfilling the prophecy in a way that nobody really expected.
And just one more time.... why couldn't we have seen some angels?? (besides the throwaway inclusion of 'minor angels' in combat) There are clearly many in the world (battlegrace, stoic, etc.).
Okay, I'll quit complaining now. I DID really like Agents of Artifice, after all. And I like Alara Unbroken better than Lorwyn.
If it's of any comfort for anyone who read it, I did some trolling on the WotC boards and got Brady to confirm that Bolas' "master plan" spans several books. So unless his "master plan" is to be dead, that's pretty much confirmation that he's still alive.
And let's not have Mecha-Bolas. That would mean we have Bolas, Avatar Bolas, and Mecha-Bolas. Two more and they can start a Power Rangers group.
@ Maokun - Excellent summary of the thought process within the Magic book team.
In a way, I'm happy that I'm reading AoA after reading this book. Peole seem to really like it, so I'm hoping it will kind of "take the edge off."
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So he has more of a plan then becoming uber-powerful? Maybe they should have gone back to writing school 101 and maybe they should have learned that you use forshadowing to let us know ther eis somehting more to the story. Right now, according just to the book, Bolas is dead or MIA. To tell the truth I care about Bolas about as much as I care about the Portal Men from Scurge because he is a bad characte rin this novel :-(
Somebody asked about why the avatar that Ajani made would immediately start fighting Bolas. Now, I suppose we don't really need a plausible explanation since so much of the book defies plausible explanation, but I think I've got one for this.
The avatar creature that Ajani Goldmane makes is white. Avatars probably don't have a lot of intelligence, so the moment it was created it sensed this great presence of black mana (Bolas) nearby and immediately started combating it.
I think you missed the link in the book where it said, "They both knew that they were the greatest threat to one another in Alara. They both new each others power and treachery."
Makes sense to me, your personality's split they know each others weak spots, so they fight. Im sold.
It had great potential but they should not have let Dougie write this horrible abbomination.
The 1 page chapters did not work.
The characters had no depth.
The whole Ajani wandering the multiverse looking for his brothers killer, well thats out of the window.
The ending was horrid
Maybe Doug was the only Person who wanted to try as im sure the fan base of Magic books IS rather spiteful and ungrateful.
As to 1 page chapters five worlds how bestly could you represent that would you rather have the words Meanwhile on...... x50 ?
Characters not having depth, Yea not as much as some books I agree but overall he did Okay.
Ajani wandering, Yea its a cliche'd storyline "I WANT VENGEANCE FOR MY LOVED ONES DEATH" but nonetheless you get a feel for Ajani who is prolly the new Gerrad type figure.
The ending was horrid, Yea I agree, I would have loved hearing about Bolas, In fact I got to the last page like What the...Why is there an add for Agents of Artifice I WANT BOLAS. Which made me decide im buying that book (Good sell point WotC)
I deff got the feeling Doug rushed it towards the end also. Like hey theres homebase lets steal it instead of play it safe.
If it's of any comfort for anyone who read it, I did some trolling on the WotC boards and got Brady to confirm that Bolas' "master plan" spans several books. So unless his "master plan" is to be dead, that's pretty much confirmation that he's still alive.
And let's not have Mecha-Bolas.
Actually, what if he is maybe sleeping like Marit Lage? Not alive, not dead, but somewhere in between. This could actually be a part of a Tezzeret-centric story.
Spoilers for Agents of Artifice:
We really have no idea what Bolas did to Tezzeret. They could easily write it so that Bolas appointed him to a Ramses Overdark kind of role. So he is a minion of Bolas, but not a catatonic mind-slave. Such a story would let us learn about Tezzeret and the purpose of the Infinite Consortium. It would let us see how Tezzeret became the aggressive character he was in AoA. He could even encounter some kind of moral quandry on Esper for whatever reason and question his service to Bolas. This in turn could lead to the failsafe Bolas planted in whatever he may have cast over Tezzeret after AoA. Maybe he sees things he held dear and old memories precious to him getting twisted, mangled and perverted to the point that he follows the distant call of Bolas just so the mental torture would subside.
So that's how I think they could tackle the ending of Alara Unbroken and the absesnce of Tezzeret.
I confess though, I originally imagined Bolas using the artificers of Esper to construct some device powerful enough to contain the essence of a world-soul. It could be powered be lesser avatars, such as the Maelstrom Archangel and the Child of Alara. The Esperites could in turn send people to their allied shards of Bant and Grixis, enlisting beings from there to hit up Jund for sangrite (was it on Jund? I haven't been able to find any PW Guides to Alara locally) and Naya for information on the Progenitus.
Wow, that would have been nice.
Mecha Bolas was for the lulz. I don't want any of that in my magic stories. Though if they did have him augmented with artifice for survival, he could have an army made up of stuff like Arcbound Ravagers and other Affinity cards.:p
Also, would I be wrong in saying the book reads as if one is watching a movie?
Maybe Doug was the only Person who wanted to try as im sure the fan base of Magic books IS rather spiteful and ungrateful.
We are spiteful and ungrateful because th emoment the current creativ eteam came to MtG they have changed everything and have only made thigns worse since day one. They destroyed what we have known as Planeswalkers for years. With each new set they screw up the continiuity of the story in one way or another. The writing for each set has progressively gotten worse with each new story(Mirrodin to Time Spiral to Lorwyn to this).
As far as storyline goes the ONLY good thing that came out of them was Agents of Alara which was not really thanks to Ari Marmell.
As to 1 page chapters five worlds how bestly could you represent that would you rather have the words Meanwhile on...... x50 ?
The small chapters were ahorrible choice. Do three books for the set instead, no one ever really complaiend about the three set book style(I don't know where Magic got the idea people were complaining about it either).
I deff got the feeling Doug rushed it towards the end also. Like hey theres homebase lets steal it instead of play it safe.
I agree, thanks for the wonderful example of jus thow bad Doug Beyer is at writing
@ Angel - Very good point. If Bolas has a multiple-novels-spanning plan, give us some sort of indication that the plan exists. Some foreshadowing is always nice. Instead we got NOM NOM NOM.
@ Greven - Define "okay". The characters give no look into their inner emotions, have no history, and make no progression. They show up, do what the writer needs them to do at the time, and that's pretty much it. What is Rafiq afraid of? How does Ajani feel about his parents? Substance, man, substance.
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@ Greven - Define "okay". The characters give no look into their inner emotions, have no history, and make no progression. They show up, do what the writer needs them to do at the time, and that's pretty much it. What is Rafiq afraid of? How does Ajani feel about his parents? Substance, man, substance.
I see Okay as what you said he made the characters do what was asked, but then again, you cannot add History to some of these characters, I was under the impression Ajani was found as a white lion maybe im on crack though O.o.
And Rafiq, It was obvious his fear was Asha not returning and his fear was brought forth when Malfegor rocked the Obelisk he summed his fears up rather hastily though -_- But you got the general feeling in the 2-3 lines explaining how there was not great victory. Which subsequently lead to one, Rafiq going on with a self-fulfilling prophecy of rocking malfegor with Asha's sword.
I assume Doug had to work in boundaries too(time, content), you can only tell so much especially when all the Neo-Planeswalkers are WotC new baby for getting new players, they need storyline for later on.
I also agree with some stroylines being worse overtime but its hard to write a book about a changing game and lore that follow the boundaries of the cards. It would take a very accomplished author to hit every point and facet of the magic universe and Thus make the players happy with a book.
Thats why im grateful Doug decided to write a book because we could have nothing on this plane and I find The Planeswalker guide a very nice edition to the publications as well.
For Doug to define an entire universe into one book was a tough task and you cannot say under his task you would do better, and if so you would appreciate his try at it, besides as said "Its very different then writing flavor text consisting of acouple lines whereas a book is ten's of thousands's of words." - Doug Beyer
For Doug to define an entire universe into one book was a tough task and you cannot say under his task you would do better, and if so you would appreciate his try at it, besides as said "Its very different then writing flavor text consisting of acouple lines whereas a book is ten's of thousands's of words." - Doug Beyer
Beyer really didn't have to "define an entire universe into one book", though. He had two sets of cards prior to that, three 3-part webcomics, as well as the Planeswalker's Guide to get him started. Instead, he basically disregarded it all, and didn't do anything interesting with the very rich setting they created. So many missing characters that had so much promise, and a fantastic villain reduced to idiocy.
I see Okay as what you said he made the characters do what was asked, but then again, you cannot add History to some of these characters, I was under the impression Ajani was found as a white lion maybe im on crack though O.o.
And Rafiq, It was obvious his fear was Asha not returning and his fear was brought forth when Malfegor rocked the Obelisk he summed his fears up rather hastily though -_- But you got the general feeling in the 2-3 lines explaining how there was not great victory. Which subsequently lead to one, Rafiq going on with a self-fulfilling prophecy of rocking malfegor with Asha's sword.
I assume Doug had to work in boundaries too(time, content), you can only tell so much especially when all the Neo-Planeswalkers are WotC new baby for getting new players, they need storyline for later on.
I also agree with some stroylines being worse overtime but its hard to write a book about a changing game and lore that follow the boundaries of the cards. It would take a very accomplished author to hit every point and facet of the magic universe and Thus make the players happy with a book.
Thats why im grateful Doug decided to write a book because we could have nothing on this plane and I find The Planeswalker guide a very nice edition to the publications as well.
For Doug to define an entire universe into one book was a tough task and you cannot say under his task you would do better, and if so you would appreciate his try at it, besides as said "Its very different then writing flavor text consisting of acouple lines whereas a book is ten's of thousands's of words." - Doug Beyer
Aorry but your arguement is moot when I, and many othe rplayers, consider Agents of Alara to be one of the best books in the entire series. Both were recent novels, both with the same time contraints, both with new authors. Doug failed at writing a novel while Ari's novel was great as far as MtG books go.
Characters are NOT defined in two or three lines! That is just plain dumb writing. You need to introduce a character, give us some information on them(physical appearance, attitude, history) so we can gain interest in them then have them evolve over the storyline. Ari was a master at that. While Tezzeret is not my favorite character he still was more interesting then ANY character in Alara.
It would take a very accomplished author to hit every point and facet of the magic universe and Thus make the players happy with a book.
Jeff Grubb, ari marmell and King have been doing it for MtG for years, thus we hold Doug up to those standards and he just doesn't meet them.
"Its very different then writing flavor text consisting of acouple lines whereas a book is ten's of thousands's of words." - Doug Beyer
"It is hard *cries*" is not an excuse for bad writing.
I just feel you should be grateful for what was done for the book, Im not saying the book is bomb diggity the best in years im just saying its not absolutely terrible. Its like a "Meh" on a scale from Suck to Whoa.
I haven't read Ari Mammels yet as I find the people in that storyline unappealing but as stated before and from your comments I prolly will buy it now
In short im not saying this book is awesome im saying give the guy a break hes been writing flavor text all his life =P
Im sure he will learn from this and Yea, I hope he dosent write another one either.
I just feel you should be grateful for what was done for the book, Im not saying the book is bomb diggity the best in years im just saying its not absolutely terrible. Its like a "Meh" on a scale from Suck to Whoa.
I haven't read Ari Mammels yet as I find the people in that storyline unappealing but as stated before and from your comments I prolly will buy it now
In short im not saying this book is awesome im saying give the guy a break hes been writing flavor text all his life =P
Im sure he will learn from this and Yea, I hope he dosent write another one either.
why give anyone a break when they write something uninteresting and boring? all other entertainment is held to a high standard, why treat this book differently? bad tv shows are canceled, bad games aren't played, etc. terrible books don't get published all the time for no other reason that they're terrible.
i hate how wizards stopped caring about their product and just throw out a novel to make a quick buck without even editing it properly in most cases, let alone forcing the author to write an engaging story.
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Nothing, nada, no mention what so ever. They of course mentioned Asha in prayer and her sword made an appearance but nothing else what so ever involving Asha. No ascension what so ever either. As Eid and I have mentioned this book is very bad and anything interesting in this block was not used what so ever in the novel.
Which books did I hate more, the Lorwyn ones or the Alara ones?
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"Yeah, the Sundering was caused by some planeswalker."
"Which one?"
"Dunno."
"How?"
"Well, he sundered it."
"No, I mean how did he sunder it?"
"Dunno."
"Well, how was it brought back together?"
"Nicol Bolas."
"How?"
"Through magical obelisks, duh."
"How do magical obelisks bring worlds together?"
"Yeah, um, this set has DRAGONS!"
"Well, okay, but what happens to Bolas?"
"He fights Neo-Bolas!"
"What does that even mean?"
"It's a copy of Bolas."
"Wait, where did the copy come from?"
"Ajani summoned it."
"How the heck did Ajani summon it?"
"Magic."
"Right, of course, silly me. So Neo-Bolas kills Bolas?"
"To find the answer to that, you'll have to read the next horribly-vague book."
People tell me the Ice and Fire books are complicated. They know nothing, Jon Snow.
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It had great potential but they should not have let Dougie write this horrible abbomination.
The 1 page chapters did not work.
The characters had no depth.
The whole Ajani wandering the multiverse looking for his brothers killer, well thats out of the window.
The ending was horrid
I looked forward to the meeting between Bolas and Vol, this sucked...
Dragons of Jund and Sarkan themselves suck, Rage!, Fury!... i felt it to when i was reading this thing.
The whole NOM NOM NOM thing was Bolas's master plan?, yeah pure genius right there, and Wizards even promised that it was far more genius and greater than that...
Bolas is not Bolas in this book, but his demented, retarded twice removed cousin.
No offense, but i think the meeting of wizards about this book ended with something like this: Me Dougie! write book!, Me Dougie bestest not so large story writer off all!
This book is more evil then the Necronomicon...
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
Well, Tezzeret is from Esper and is a great artificer. He is/was a pawn of Bolas.
What if before everything in Alara Unbroken, Bolas had Tezzeret build a mecha-version of himself from etherium?
Oh yeah, Mecha-Bolas ftw!
"Yo, dawg, I herd you like stories in your articles so we put stories in your stories so you can read while you read."
The avatar creature that Ajani Goldmane makes is white. Avatars probably don't have a lot of intelligence, so the moment it was created it sensed this great presence of black mana (Bolas) nearby and immediately started combating it.
@Eid: The lorwyn books overall just seemed... rushed and confusing. The end of the first book into the 2nd book felt kind of like the end of Alara Unbroken. Like I must have missed a chapter of content, because there had to be something missing.
re: Asha's return... The prophecy could be interpreted in many ways, but I think Rafiq's own thoughts about himself being Asha is our clue to him fulfilling the prophecy in a way that nobody really expected.
And just one more time.... why couldn't we have seen some angels?? (besides the throwaway inclusion of 'minor angels' in combat) There are clearly many in the world (battlegrace, stoic, etc.).
Okay, I'll quit complaining now. I DID really like Agents of Artifice, after all. And I like Alara Unbroken better than Lorwyn.
And let's not have Mecha-Bolas. That would mean we have Bolas, Avatar Bolas, and Mecha-Bolas. Two more and they can start a Power Rangers group.
@ Maokun - Excellent summary of the thought process within the Magic book team.
In a way, I'm happy that I'm reading AoA after reading this book. Peole seem to really like it, so I'm hoping it will kind of "take the edge off."
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I think you missed the link in the book where it said, "They both knew that they were the greatest threat to one another in Alara. They both new each others power and treachery."
Makes sense to me, your personality's split they know each others weak spots, so they fight. Im sold.
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Maybe Doug was the only Person who wanted to try as im sure the fan base of Magic books IS rather spiteful and ungrateful.
As to 1 page chapters five worlds how bestly could you represent that would you rather have the words Meanwhile on...... x50 ?
Characters not having depth, Yea not as much as some books I agree but overall he did Okay.
Ajani wandering, Yea its a cliche'd storyline "I WANT VENGEANCE FOR MY LOVED ONES DEATH" but nonetheless you get a feel for Ajani who is prolly the new Gerrad type figure.
The ending was horrid, Yea I agree, I would have loved hearing about Bolas, In fact I got to the last page like What the...Why is there an add for Agents of Artifice I WANT BOLAS. Which made me decide im buying that book (Good sell point WotC)
I deff got the feeling Doug rushed it towards the end also. Like hey theres homebase lets steal it instead of play it safe.
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Actually, what if he is maybe sleeping like Marit Lage? Not alive, not dead, but somewhere in between. This could actually be a part of a Tezzeret-centric story.
Spoilers for Agents of Artifice:
So that's how I think they could tackle the ending of Alara Unbroken and the absesnce of Tezzeret.
I confess though, I originally imagined Bolas using the artificers of Esper to construct some device powerful enough to contain the essence of a world-soul. It could be powered be lesser avatars, such as the Maelstrom Archangel and the Child of Alara. The Esperites could in turn send people to their allied shards of Bant and Grixis, enlisting beings from there to hit up Jund for sangrite (was it on Jund? I haven't been able to find any PW Guides to Alara locally) and Naya for information on the Progenitus.
Wow, that would have been nice.
Mecha Bolas was for the lulz. I don't want any of that in my magic stories. Though if they did have him augmented with artifice for survival, he could have an army made up of stuff like Arcbound Ravagers and other Affinity cards.:p
Also, would I be wrong in saying the book reads as if one is watching a movie?
As far as storyline goes the ONLY good thing that came out of them was Agents of Alara which was not really thanks to Ari Marmell.
The small chapters were ahorrible choice. Do three books for the set instead, no one ever really complaiend about the three set book style(I don't know where Magic got the idea people were complaining about it either).
I agree, thanks for the wonderful example of jus thow bad Doug Beyer is at writing
@ Greven - Define "okay". The characters give no look into their inner emotions, have no history, and make no progression. They show up, do what the writer needs them to do at the time, and that's pretty much it. What is Rafiq afraid of? How does Ajani feel about his parents? Substance, man, substance.
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I see Okay as what you said he made the characters do what was asked, but then again, you cannot add History to some of these characters, I was under the impression Ajani was found as a white lion maybe im on crack though O.o.
And Rafiq, It was obvious his fear was Asha not returning and his fear was brought forth when Malfegor rocked the Obelisk he summed his fears up rather hastily though -_- But you got the general feeling in the 2-3 lines explaining how there was not great victory. Which subsequently lead to one, Rafiq going on with a self-fulfilling prophecy of rocking malfegor with Asha's sword.
I assume Doug had to work in boundaries too(time, content), you can only tell so much especially when all the Neo-Planeswalkers are WotC new baby for getting new players, they need storyline for later on.
I also agree with some stroylines being worse overtime but its hard to write a book about a changing game and lore that follow the boundaries of the cards. It would take a very accomplished author to hit every point and facet of the magic universe and Thus make the players happy with a book.
Thats why im grateful Doug decided to write a book because we could have nothing on this plane and I find The Planeswalker guide a very nice edition to the publications as well.
For Doug to define an entire universe into one book was a tough task and you cannot say under his task you would do better, and if so you would appreciate his try at it, besides as said "Its very different then writing flavor text consisting of acouple lines whereas a book is ten's of thousands's of words." - Doug Beyer
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MTGO Limited Rating Peak 1824 Current 1589 =( RoE kills me.
Beyer really didn't have to "define an entire universe into one book", though. He had two sets of cards prior to that, three 3-part webcomics, as well as the Planeswalker's Guide to get him started. Instead, he basically disregarded it all, and didn't do anything interesting with the very rich setting they created. So many missing characters that had so much promise, and a fantastic villain reduced to idiocy.
Yeah, that's a great job.
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Aorry but your arguement is moot when I, and many othe rplayers, consider Agents of Alara to be one of the best books in the entire series. Both were recent novels, both with the same time contraints, both with new authors. Doug failed at writing a novel while Ari's novel was great as far as MtG books go.
Characters are NOT defined in two or three lines! That is just plain dumb writing. You need to introduce a character, give us some information on them(physical appearance, attitude, history) so we can gain interest in them then have them evolve over the storyline. Ari was a master at that. While Tezzeret is not my favorite character he still was more interesting then ANY character in Alara.
Jeff Grubb, ari marmell and King have been doing it for MtG for years, thus we hold Doug up to those standards and he just doesn't meet them.
"It is hard *cries*" is not an excuse for bad writing.
I haven't read Ari Mammels yet as I find the people in that storyline unappealing but as stated before and from your comments I prolly will buy it now
In short im not saying this book is awesome im saying give the guy a break hes been writing flavor text all his life =P
Im sure he will learn from this and Yea, I hope he dosent write another one either.
Standard
RRDW
MTGO Limited Rating Peak 1824 Current 1589 =( RoE kills me.
why give anyone a break when they write something uninteresting and boring? all other entertainment is held to a high standard, why treat this book differently? bad tv shows are canceled, bad games aren't played, etc. terrible books don't get published all the time for no other reason that they're terrible.
i hate how wizards stopped caring about their product and just throw out a novel to make a quick buck without even editing it properly in most cases, let alone forcing the author to write an engaging story.