So am I understanding this correctly that there is no formal reconciliation between liliana and the gatewatch? :/
You understand correctly. If I *remember* correctly, Jace speaks into her mind and tells her to leave, after Bolas is beat, and she takes off.
---
This week's story was quite literally a waste of time. It provided no additional background. Nothing substantively new. Just a total waste of time. Can't wrap my head around it.
So am I understanding this correctly that there is no formal reconciliation between liliana and the gatewatch? :/
No, and Ravnica, through the living guildpact Niv-Mizzet, hires Kaya to kill Liliana.
Gideon forgives her though, Jace tells her to leave, and Chandra is initially pissed at Gideon trading his life for Lily's, but then understands why it's done.
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Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
I don't get why Bolas randomly kills Domri for like no reason. I mean its not like he needs anyones spark specifically. So him stabbing his help in the back just seems dumb and to show look he is evil. Like killing your underlings cause they screwed up fine...killing your underlings for no reason doesn't make the bad guy look scary it makes them look dumb and incompetent.
This is a big problem I have with Bolas, and why I just can't find him a compelling villain. He's the most generic, paint by numbers, card-carrying , moustache-twirling, finger-steepling, evil-cackling, Saturday morning cartoon supervillain with nothing of substance or interest to him. It's like they just cracked open a book of "1001 Generic Villain Tropes" and molded it into the vague shape of a dragon with a completely ridiculous design (seriously, he looks just...awful).
And for a story that's all about stopping the villain, if the villain isn't compelling, then it's hard to care about anyone trying to stop him. I have a lot of issues with the story, but that's the real killer, I think.
These kind of villains can be done well though, and by that I mean they can be highly entertaining. For instance, M Bison in Street Fighter makes Nicol Bolas look like a layered, subtle, and relatable villain in comparison, but he's also one of my favorite movie villains of all time because the movie leans into his over the top cartoon evil and Raul Julia puts forth the full force of his prodigious acting chops (while literally dying of cancer). Bolas at his best (really Amonkhet) played around in the same territory: over the top, cartoonishly evil that manages to be entertaining and even compelling to a degree. This falls flat on its face in WAR.
They can be entertaining, yes, but they need to be in a setting that allows it. Like, it was fine back when the story was more of a fun side thing. The issue is that they're now pushing for it to be something that we're supposed to take seriously. Like, we're supposed to see Bolas here as a legitimate threat, with the culmination of all his schemes here being something to take seriously...but his over-the-top cartoonish supervillainy, with absolutely no characterisation beyond "he's a villain doing villain things", just isn't something I can ever take seriously.
Sure, Raul Julia's M Bison was a bunch of fun in his over-the-top campiness, but that entire movie was over-the-top and campy, and that was the whole fun of it. But you couldn't take that Bison, stick him in the middle of Game of Thrones, and expect it to be taken seriously. That's the problem.
I find it funny that Bolas reforged the black blade and sabotaged it and builded up the story of it, but he didn't do counter measures on anything related to the Amonkhet gods. He knew he could enter in conflict with the gods again in hour of devastation, yet, the spear of Hazoret could potentially damage hin, there was no counter measures to stop the eternal gods from say someone who could also control zombies or someone who could take Liliana's mind... There was also no really safe way to stop the stil living gods in hour in case the 3 slaved gods didn't showed up? (i mean if something that bolas didn't predicted in his mastermind plan without that looked "flawless")
Also chandra used the Immortal sun (now i m guilty of not reading the end of ixalan) but if the immortal sun could be used soo easily wasn't Azor and Ugin plans flawed? Isn't the immortal sun basicaly a stone carved with law magic and some other spells? Imo it would be ok if only some people were alowed to use it directly by Azor, the way it was presented looks like Ixalan would have ended really bad for Azor if bolas showed hinself and used some mind reading on the Parun...
Also chandra used the Immortal sun (now i m guilty of not reading the end of ixalan) but if the immortal sun could be used soo easily wasn't Azor and Ugin plans flawed? Isn't the immortal sun basicaly a stone carved with law magic and some other spells? Imo it would be ok if only some people were alowed to use it directly by Azor, the way it was presented looks like Ixalan would have ended really bad for Azor if bolas showed hinself and used some mind reading on the Parun...
The Immortal Sun could be used by literally anyone standing on it, that is why on Ixalan after having given it to people who misused it he instead watched over it for thousands of years. It was meant to empower anyone and seal walkers. The empowering part was so that Azor could summon Bolas.
So am I understanding this correctly that there is no formal reconciliation between liliana and the gatewatch? :/
No, and Ravnica, through the living guildpact Niv-Mizzet, hires Kaya to kill Liliana.
Gideon forgives her though, Jace tells her to leave, and Chandra is initially pissed at Gideon trading his life for Lily's, but then understands why it's done.
I guess Jace is regrets letting her in on this despite him knowing she defeated bolas and refuses to forgive
Atleast Chandra sorta did (I know she didn’t) since she understands that Gideon did that so bolas would lose
I find it funny that Bolas reforged the black blade and sabotaged it and builded up the story of it, but he didn't do counter measures on anything related to the Amonkhet gods. He knew he could enter in conflict with the gods again in hour of devastation, yet, the spear of Hazoret could potentially damage hin, there was no counter measures to stop the eternal gods from say someone who could also control zombies or someone who could take Liliana's mind... There was also no really safe way to stop the stil living gods in hour in case the 3 slaved gods didn't showed up? (i mean if something that bolas didn't predicted in his mastermind plan without that looked "flawless")
Well if Bolas plan had gone 100% Hazoret would have been a god eternal so him enchanting her spear would been a benefit for him in the long run. The spear also didn't mortally hurt Bolas just gave Liliana an opening to send the god-eternals at him since he couldn't just get rid of it of first had to unmake it.
Bolas himself killed Bontu so I'm guessing the scorpion god was so Bolas didn't have to do it himself more then anything (and being a evil piece of *****).
Also chandra used the Immortal sun (now i m guilty of not reading the end of ixalan) but if the immortal sun could be used soo easily wasn't Azor and Ugin plans flawed? Isn't the immortal sun basicaly a stone carved with law magic and some other spells? Imo it would be ok if only some people were alowed to use it directly by Azor, the way it was presented looks like Ixalan would have ended really bad for Azor if bolas showed hinself and used some mind reading on the Parun...
Well Azor thought he would be able to get his spark back and escape as a part of the plan we where not told. At the end of the book the sun hasn't been destroyed (if it can be) so we might learn a bit more about it.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
If you want Bolas written with nuance interacting with modern characters, go read Agents of Artifice. At the very least, he doesn't speak in all-caps in that novel.
@Mike G
I found your review of War of the Spark compelling and accurate btw. Thanks for voicing the same concerns I had with the novel (which was absolutely devastatingly dreadful).
Sheesh, I was kinda on the fence about the book between the nagtive reviews and actually knowing the story, but... Whew, I expected little and was still surprised.
For clarification: I'm refering to the web stories of this and last week. I haven't read the book, hence the still on the fence part.
I like the stories...kinda.....but its weird that it seems to be written for like 8 year olds. And the trying not to be obvious? but very obvious way of describing the things going on and the names of people and stuff seems a weird way to describe the scene. (the inner monologue of Rat)
Also I guess that if you stay inside you dont get killed? Maybe not that many Ravnicans actually died either, just the ones stuck outside or in the way of the central area in those first hours?
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Been a member here for over a dozen years. Playing since '95 just got lost in the twitch shuffle.
I like the stories...kinda.....but its weird that it seems to be written for like 8 year olds. And the trying not to be obvious? but very obvious way of describing the things going on and the names of people and stuff seems a weird way to describe the scene. (the inner monologue of Rat)
Also I guess that if you stay inside you dont get killed? Maybe not that many Ravnicans actually died either, just the ones stuck outside or in the way of the central area in those first hours?
Liliana actually mentions that she was disappointed in the number of people that died because they were too stupid to stay indoors. She was the one keeping them outside until the elderspell kicked off and they started following walkers indoors.
I found it interesting that Kasmina seem to know about the war happening and came to Ravnica willing and fighting. From the blown up art of her transmutation we see the same symbol on the birds head near her as the wizard tokens she makes. She also seems to have mind magic.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
So am I understanding this correctly that there is no formal reconciliation between liliana and the gatewatch? :/
You understand correctly. If I *remember* correctly, Jace speaks into her mind and tells her to leave, after Bolas is beat, and she takes off.
---
This week's story was quite literally a waste of time. It provided no additional background. Nothing substantively new. Just a total waste of time. Can't wrap my head around it.
Funny, that's how I felt about the entire set. Nothing of consequence happened to anybody but Bolas, and he's still an Elder Dragon so he's liable to find a way out. After all, Elder Dragons, even without sparks, are still some of the most powerful creatures in the multiverse.
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"Tantum hubris si ego deficio." - Gaius Julius Ceasar.
Any thoughts about the older male planeswalker with turquoise eyes and a carefully trimmed white beard? Gideon seems to know him...
What gives you that idea? Gideon's only comment during their short appearance was about the coincidence of Jace mentioning more walkers being tricked to Ravnica being punctuated by a walker appearing in their midst.
My review of the War of the Spark novel (SPOILERS AHEAD):
So I've seen a lot of negative responses to the War of the Spark novel, and honestly, I didn't think it was bad. I'm not saying it was particularly good either, and I certainly had some complaints, but I don't think it deserves all the hate that it gets.
On other forums, I've noticed plenty of criticism about the book's writing style, but a lot of that involved cherry-picking a few especially clunky passages and/or taking bits and pieces out of context. I would consider the writing to be functional: It's not great or even good prose by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not particularly bad writing either; the narration style is fairly bland, but at least it manages to be unintrusive, there was never any point where it took me out of the story. The writer did have an annoying tendency to focus more detail on things he was personally interested in than things that were actually important to the plot (for instance, the fact that the description of Rakdos' volcano dungeon received so much more attention than the description of Rhonas and Kefnet's deaths), but I can forgive that.
As for the dialogue, I thought it was mostly good. A lot of people were upset about the characters talking in modern parlance, but I have no problem with that. These are alien worlds, all the dialogue is presumably being translated anyway, there's no reason to translate it into an older form of English rather than modern vernacular. (I actually can't stand the trope where people in historical and fantasy settings always talk in some goofy pseudo-Shakespearean dialect, it always reminds me of corny renaissance faire LARPers hanging out at "ye olde tavern" and D&D players doing terrible faux-Scottish accents.) I did have a problem with Chandra and Araithia's dialogue, just because they sounded so casual about everything, although you could argue that it's fitting for their characters. I also didn't care for Bolas talking like a stereotypical pretentious Saturday morning cartoon villain or Ugin sounding like a smarmy jerkass all the time, but again, I suppose it's in-character for them.
The characterization seemed mostly on point, although some characters were better developed than others. I actually really liked Dack's story arc, he was very likable and relatable. I actually considered him a better audience surrogate than Teyo, he acted like a relatively normal person would act in such extreme circumstances, he was in way over his head and he knew it. Jace and Vraska's chapters continued their story from Ixalan, and I was glad they got a happy ending. Liliana was a compelling anti-villain/anti-hero, the writer did a good job of getting in her head and showing us the inner conflict raging inside her. And Gideon received the sendoff he deserved. I actually considered him a fairly boring character for most of the Gatewatch arc, but Amonkhet, Dominaria, and War of the Spark really made me take interest in him for the first time. Ral and Kaya received some much needed development too, they were fairly one-note characters before this, but the novel really showed what makes them tick. The only POV character I had a problem with was Chandra, she came across like a flippant and emotionally immature teenager who really didn't understand the seriousness of the situation she was in. Also, while he was a fairly minor character, I didn't understand Dovin's motivation at all. The novel didn't give any indication of why he was working for Bolas, the closest we get is a line where he says he's just trying to prevent people from getting hurt, but that doesn't make any sense when Bolas' whole plan involves slaughtering people en masse.
Finally, there was the plot. This is pretty subjective, and I know a lot of people hated how things turned out, for one reason or another. Personally, I really liked it, with the sole exception of Vraska having her memories restored by a random shaman before the story began - that plot point was just plain dumb, and it really undercut the ending of Ixalan's story. But I liked the fact that each of the major planeswalkers had something to do, I liked the fact that most of the guilds and guildmasters had a role to play, I liked the twist with Chandra's Triumph actually depicting Lazav, I liked the reveal that the Blackblade prophecy was actually a trick by Bolas, I liked the way that Bolas ended up being outmaneuvered by Ugin and Niv-Mizzet (with some help from Sarkhan, Gideon, and Liliana), and I like how Bolas and Ugin's shared story arc finally concluded. I know some people think that WotC only kept Bolas and Ugin alive to bring them back again later, but I don't think that's the case here; the Core 2019 story established that Bolas always feared being powerless and being constrained, so this just seems like the proper way for his story to end. I also liked the set-up for the sequel, with Ral, Vraska, and Kaya being sentenced to track down the other planeswalkers who worked for Bolas as atonement for their own affiliation with the dragon.
I do wish we'd have gotten a few more named character deaths, just to make it feel more like a real war. Samut and Vivien's character arcs have nowhere left to go now that the Bolas arc is over, Kiora's been aimless since the end of Battle for Zendikar, Nissa seems to be an entirely different character in every story she's in, and Jaya's death seemed like such an obvious choice that I'm genuinely surprised it didn't happen; if any or all of those characters had died, I think the story would've been better off for it. I also didn't like that Araithia was such a Mary Sue, she was killing Eternals left and right despite the fact that she's not even meant to be an especially skilled or powerful combatant, even though everyone else who wasn't a planeswalker or a guildmaster was struggling against them. Still, those are fairly minor complaints.
All in all, I'd rate the novel 5.5 out of 10. More favorable than Perkunas' rating, but less than Caranthir's.
There has never been a character in Magic that almost made me want to quit reading. (Well, maybe the two portal men in Onslaught, but the entire novel was a bit unhinged.) Until Rat. Sheesh, she hits all the boxes of how not to write a character. She doesn't fit the tone of the story, she's got too many abilities that don't fit her and actively detract from the plot, she has no weaknesses, no story arc, no nothing. I'm trying hard to find a single good aspect about her character, but there isn't any.
If you signed up the first prequel story was emailed out.
-No much new story if you read the art book but it fills things out;
-Niv knows about planeswalkers and knew from the start Ral was one. He mentions its a fault of Azor that the living guidpact could and did go to a walker and hints that was a reason Niv didn't want Ral as a maze runner. Niv also knew about Project lighting bug.
-The living guildpact can be changed IF all ten guilds can agree on it changing it. I think they would so need to agree on who the new guildpact as well since Niv talks about the guilds would never agree on changing the living guildpact.
-Ral owes Bolas something but dint want to work for him. Niv figured things out and made Ral pseudo-guildmaster since if Niv becomes the living guildpact he can't also run the Izzet.
-We see how Bolas planted the beacon idea in Niv's head (I also like it mentions Niv put shield to keep mind mages from getting in so Bolas had to instead add a thought instead. This also seems to give a bit more a reason besides rule of cool for why Bolas picked Ravnica for the war, he needed Niv and the Izzet to make the beacon.
Overall I liked Django Wexler writing, he had good sense of mood and I'm glad to get story for the events of the pair of Ravnica sets.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The writing is quite good. The atmosphere, the mood, and the dialogue are all solid. Nothing feels rushed; in fact, it's methodical and takes it's time setting up the looming drama. You really do feel a storm building.
THIS is what the hardcover novel should have been.
Well done, Mr. Wexler.
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"I'd rather die speaking the truth than live a lie." --Gix, to Yawgmoth (pre-Phyrexia)
Sign-ups? A while ago (Tarkir) Wizards switched from books to online stories, to have everything in one place and flavour people didn't have to chase stuff down and juggle multiple sources. And now we have books, online stories and E-Mail sign-ups? Why does Wizards keep repeating the same mistakes all over?
You understand correctly. If I *remember* correctly, Jace speaks into her mind and tells her to leave, after Bolas is beat, and she takes off.
---
This week's story was quite literally a waste of time. It provided no additional background. Nothing substantively new. Just a total waste of time. Can't wrap my head around it.
No, and Ravnica, through the living guildpact Niv-Mizzet, hires Kaya to kill Liliana.
Gideon forgives her though, Jace tells her to leave, and Chandra is initially pissed at Gideon trading his life for Lily's, but then understands why it's done.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Sure, Raul Julia's M Bison was a bunch of fun in his over-the-top campiness, but that entire movie was over-the-top and campy, and that was the whole fun of it. But you couldn't take that Bison, stick him in the middle of Game of Thrones, and expect it to be taken seriously. That's the problem.
Also chandra used the Immortal sun (now i m guilty of not reading the end of ixalan) but if the immortal sun could be used soo easily wasn't Azor and Ugin plans flawed? Isn't the immortal sun basicaly a stone carved with law magic and some other spells? Imo it would be ok if only some people were alowed to use it directly by Azor, the way it was presented looks like Ixalan would have ended really bad for Azor if bolas showed hinself and used some mind reading on the Parun...
I guess Jace is regrets letting her in on this despite him knowing she defeated bolas and refuses to forgive
Atleast Chandra sorta did (I know she didn’t) since she understands that Gideon did that so bolas would lose
Well if Bolas plan had gone 100% Hazoret would have been a god eternal so him enchanting her spear would been a benefit for him in the long run. The spear also didn't mortally hurt Bolas just gave Liliana an opening to send the god-eternals at him since he couldn't just get rid of it of first had to unmake it.
Bolas himself killed Bontu so I'm guessing the scorpion god was so Bolas didn't have to do it himself more then anything (and being a evil piece of *****).
Well Azor thought he would be able to get his spark back and escape as a part of the plan we where not told. At the end of the book the sun hasn't been destroyed (if it can be) so we might learn a bit more about it.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I found your review of War of the Spark compelling and accurate btw. Thanks for voicing the same concerns I had with the novel (which was absolutely devastatingly dreadful).
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
For clarification: I'm refering to the web stories of this and last week. I haven't read the book, hence the still on the fence part.
Also I guess that if you stay inside you dont get killed? Maybe not that many Ravnicans actually died either, just the ones stuck outside or in the way of the central area in those first hours?
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Funny, that's how I felt about the entire set. Nothing of consequence happened to anybody but Bolas, and he's still an Elder Dragon so he's liable to find a way out. After all, Elder Dragons, even without sparks, are still some of the most powerful creatures in the multiverse.
Who is this planeswalker? Any ideas, I can only think of Urza.
Doesn't need to be anyone we know. I have a feeling it'll be a thing later, whenever that man is introduced.
Question of my own:
Was Angrath in service with Bolas?
So I've seen a lot of negative responses to the War of the Spark novel, and honestly, I didn't think it was bad. I'm not saying it was particularly good either, and I certainly had some complaints, but I don't think it deserves all the hate that it gets.
On other forums, I've noticed plenty of criticism about the book's writing style, but a lot of that involved cherry-picking a few especially clunky passages and/or taking bits and pieces out of context. I would consider the writing to be functional: It's not great or even good prose by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not particularly bad writing either; the narration style is fairly bland, but at least it manages to be unintrusive, there was never any point where it took me out of the story. The writer did have an annoying tendency to focus more detail on things he was personally interested in than things that were actually important to the plot (for instance, the fact that the description of Rakdos' volcano dungeon received so much more attention than the description of Rhonas and Kefnet's deaths), but I can forgive that.
As for the dialogue, I thought it was mostly good. A lot of people were upset about the characters talking in modern parlance, but I have no problem with that. These are alien worlds, all the dialogue is presumably being translated anyway, there's no reason to translate it into an older form of English rather than modern vernacular. (I actually can't stand the trope where people in historical and fantasy settings always talk in some goofy pseudo-Shakespearean dialect, it always reminds me of corny renaissance faire LARPers hanging out at "ye olde tavern" and D&D players doing terrible faux-Scottish accents.) I did have a problem with Chandra and Araithia's dialogue, just because they sounded so casual about everything, although you could argue that it's fitting for their characters. I also didn't care for Bolas talking like a stereotypical pretentious Saturday morning cartoon villain or Ugin sounding like a smarmy jerkass all the time, but again, I suppose it's in-character for them.
The characterization seemed mostly on point, although some characters were better developed than others. I actually really liked Dack's story arc, he was very likable and relatable. I actually considered him a better audience surrogate than Teyo, he acted like a relatively normal person would act in such extreme circumstances, he was in way over his head and he knew it. Jace and Vraska's chapters continued their story from Ixalan, and I was glad they got a happy ending. Liliana was a compelling anti-villain/anti-hero, the writer did a good job of getting in her head and showing us the inner conflict raging inside her. And Gideon received the sendoff he deserved. I actually considered him a fairly boring character for most of the Gatewatch arc, but Amonkhet, Dominaria, and War of the Spark really made me take interest in him for the first time. Ral and Kaya received some much needed development too, they were fairly one-note characters before this, but the novel really showed what makes them tick. The only POV character I had a problem with was Chandra, she came across like a flippant and emotionally immature teenager who really didn't understand the seriousness of the situation she was in. Also, while he was a fairly minor character, I didn't understand Dovin's motivation at all. The novel didn't give any indication of why he was working for Bolas, the closest we get is a line where he says he's just trying to prevent people from getting hurt, but that doesn't make any sense when Bolas' whole plan involves slaughtering people en masse.
Finally, there was the plot. This is pretty subjective, and I know a lot of people hated how things turned out, for one reason or another. Personally, I really liked it, with the sole exception of Vraska having her memories restored by a random shaman before the story began - that plot point was just plain dumb, and it really undercut the ending of Ixalan's story. But I liked the fact that each of the major planeswalkers had something to do, I liked the fact that most of the guilds and guildmasters had a role to play, I liked the twist with Chandra's Triumph actually depicting Lazav, I liked the reveal that the Blackblade prophecy was actually a trick by Bolas, I liked the way that Bolas ended up being outmaneuvered by Ugin and Niv-Mizzet (with some help from Sarkhan, Gideon, and Liliana), and I like how Bolas and Ugin's shared story arc finally concluded. I know some people think that WotC only kept Bolas and Ugin alive to bring them back again later, but I don't think that's the case here; the Core 2019 story established that Bolas always feared being powerless and being constrained, so this just seems like the proper way for his story to end. I also liked the set-up for the sequel, with Ral, Vraska, and Kaya being sentenced to track down the other planeswalkers who worked for Bolas as atonement for their own affiliation with the dragon.
I do wish we'd have gotten a few more named character deaths, just to make it feel more like a real war. Samut and Vivien's character arcs have nowhere left to go now that the Bolas arc is over, Kiora's been aimless since the end of Battle for Zendikar, Nissa seems to be an entirely different character in every story she's in, and Jaya's death seemed like such an obvious choice that I'm genuinely surprised it didn't happen; if any or all of those characters had died, I think the story would've been better off for it. I also didn't like that Araithia was such a Mary Sue, she was killing Eternals left and right despite the fact that she's not even meant to be an especially skilled or powerful combatant, even though everyone else who wasn't a planeswalker or a guildmaster was struggling against them. Still, those are fairly minor complaints.
All in all, I'd rate the novel 5.5 out of 10. More favorable than Perkunas' rating, but less than Caranthir's.
-No much new story if you read the art book but it fills things out;
-Niv knows about planeswalkers and knew from the start Ral was one. He mentions its a fault of Azor that the living guidpact could and did go to a walker and hints that was a reason Niv didn't want Ral as a maze runner. Niv also knew about Project lighting bug.
-The living guildpact can be changed IF all ten guilds can agree on it changing it. I think they would so need to agree on who the new guildpact as well since Niv talks about the guilds would never agree on changing the living guildpact.
-Ral owes Bolas something but dint want to work for him. Niv figured things out and made Ral pseudo-guildmaster since if Niv becomes the living guildpact he can't also run the Izzet.
-We see how Bolas planted the beacon idea in Niv's head (I also like it mentions Niv put shield to keep mind mages from getting in so Bolas had to instead add a thought instead. This also seems to give a bit more a reason besides rule of cool for why Bolas picked Ravnica for the war, he needed Niv and the Izzet to make the beacon.
Overall I liked Django Wexler writing, he had good sense of mood and I'm glad to get story for the events of the pair of Ravnica sets.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The writing is quite good. The atmosphere, the mood, and the dialogue are all solid. Nothing feels rushed; in fact, it's methodical and takes it's time setting up the looming drama. You really do feel a storm building.
THIS is what the hardcover novel should have been.
Well done, Mr. Wexler.