Tezzeret is still on the loose with the Planar Portal as well. But Phyrexia seems like the big plot hook for the next step, unless they throw a curveball which is unlikely. I hope that we get to see some new planes for a bit before going to New Phyrexia though. Kind of would like a break from overarching villain plots.
We might also go to Theros because they are going to bring Gideon armor to it so they might find another plot going on (maybe this will be core 2020 story?)
We might also go to Theros because they are going to bring Gideon armor to it so they might find another plot going on (maybe this will be core 2020 story?)
It could be Core 2020 but it won't be the Fall set, that's a new plane currently. Though are Core sets going to have story elements from now on? I'd like that if so, maybe they'll do another Origins like set with more walkers.
So I read the whole book yesterday, and I have some thoughts which some may find disagreeable. I’m going to attempt to put them under a spoiler thing:
If I had to give a rating “x/10,” I would give 3/10. I’m not a Bolas fanboy, so the rating isn’t coming from that. The rating also only has partial relevance to my earlier postings about stakes, but takes more than ‘deaths’ into account.
1) For an end of the Bolas arc, Nicol Bolas did remarkably little. True, I read this pretty quickly, but I took a lot of screenshots as I was reading which back up my general conclusion here. Bolas was presented as far more dangerous, far more powerful, and far more . . . Nicol Bolas-y in the Amonkhet short stories than he did here. 85% of the time that he was mentioned in War of the Spark, he was described as sitting around and smiling. I can’t say my memory is perfect on this next score, but apart from blasting away Oketra and protecting Liliana for a few seconds by tumbling some buildings, did he do anything substantial before being defeated? I can’t think of anything. He never went toe-to-toe with any walker that I can recall (apart from invisible Ugin when he was desparked). And as the Elder Spell progressed, we are told Bolas is sucking in the odd spark here or there into his gem. Yet we see no god-like Bolas at any point. We don’t see astonishing power that outshines anything he did in the beginning of the story, or in any other story. Bolas simply didn’t feel like a godly threat. How could this happen? He is presented as far more impressive and powerful in the cards than in this story. Very disappointing.
2) I had a general “What the hell?” reaction to many things, including:
- The Beacon. Ral says “[N]either the dragon nor his minions will be able to shut it off. Hell, *I* can’t even shut it off.” They repeat this over and over in the story. But wow, later on in the story, we figure out that we can just cut the power to the Beacon. What an ingenious flaw!
- We are set up in Ixalan, after the friendship/love story between Jace and Vraska, with Jace blocking away Vraska’s memories of him so that they could unlock their alliance when Bolas least expected it. Instead, in this book . . . a kraul telepath unlocked Vraska’s memories long before Bolas’ arrival, but then she . . . went ahead and killed people and Isperia anyway, because she was angry? What? Her whole relationship with Bolas and her actions are so convoluted now that her part in the story was just nonsensical.
- Bolas has an Eternal army created to invade Ravnica, but then: “Eternals, despite their years of training on Amonkhet, stood little chance with their limited free will and limited agency against these Planeswalkers.” What? The Eternals fought with some semblance of free will and agency on Amonkhet. They weren’t exactly marching morons. They also exhibited a lot of their previous skill in combat and killing. Yet . . . Bolas makes them the droids from the Star Wars prequels that need a command ship (Liliana) to do anything? Nonsensical. In War of the Spark they’re just automatons, plodding around instead of being written as truly terrifying. What a lost opportunity.
- The Eternals trained all their lives to be the most dangerous warriors Bolas could bring to bear on Ravnica. Yet throughout the story, almost every named person is killing them easily. They’re being melted, shattered, stabbed (in their eyes? I lost count how many times the author had Eternals stabbed in their eyes, by nobodies too. How do they even have eyes???), chained, on and on. Neheb, the cream of the crop? Easily beheaded. You never really feel like the Eternals are dangerous (but they're slaughtering people! Yes, but they're being slaughtered en masse, too), and that could be because of the writing style. I might address this again later, but the writer seemed to have written a long outline first, and then just added details later. There was a lot of movement in the story without a lot of meat on the bones. You would think that Neheb would have a moment of fear-inducing violence. Nope: Samut jumps on his back and cuts off his head, easily.
- Planeswalkers throughout the story make strange observations. Ral at one point is like, “That leonin Ajani is likely from Alara.” What? There are several, at least, planes with leonins. Teyo also seems to be the writer’s mouthpiece, and the writer mentions almost all the named walker cards throughout the story, almost in passing, like he was crossing names off a list to make sure they made an appearance. (Tibalt leading forces in battle? Doesn’t make sense, but sure.) And apparently Samut knows the name of every Eternal she kills? What? Also, I think it's Teyo near the end who reflects that it was hard to feel a certain way for all the unnamed walkers who died. It's almost like the writer knows we're thinking the same thing.
- I may have been a fool, but weren’t we set up to believe that five of the guilds were being led by five walkers loyal to Bolas, or working indirectly for Bolas? Yet when the story starts, there’s only one walker working with Bolas, directly or indirectly: Dovin. Domri doesn’t appear to be working with Bolas until he watches the Selesnya elemental get torn apart by the god-eternals. Until that point, he was fighting and killing Eternals. Then he ‘woo hoo’ed and went over to Bolas, and was promptly killed. What? What happened to the Raze Boar set-up? What happened to what I felt was the set-up of Domri working with Bolas from the start and then getting betrayed? What? Ral and Kaya are not with Bolas, and Vraska is on Ixalan for half the book.
- The Beacon doesn’t force a planeswalk, it just strongly suggests it. How did Sorin free himself from the wall on Innistrad? We’ll never know. Why didn’t he free himself before this battle? No idea. Obviously he chose to planeswalk to Ravnica, which means he could have planeswalked from the wall any time, which makes that whole part of the Innistrad story meaningless. At most, we are told Sorin and Nahiri are fighting on rooftops. That’s it. What a waste of a story set-up.
- So, nothing biological can pass through the Planar Bridge . . . except for planeswalkers. What? This was another point they hammered ever since the Planar Bridge was made. Yet, in this story, Ob Nixilis, Dack, Karn, and Samut just walk/fly through the portal into Amonkhet. The explanation is that their sparks somehow protect them. Then somehow, for some reason, Sarkhan Vol is on Amonkhet and helped Hazoret restore the Hekma shield (didn’t that take more than one weak god to maintain?). And feel free to inform me otherwise, since I could be wrong, but when did Sarkhan and Karn ever meet?: ‘“Sarkhan Vol.” The golem didn’t sound particularly pleased to see this Vol again. Sarkhan Vol’s attitude toward Karn seemed no more welcoming. “Karn.” Then he turned to the demon and with even less warmth said, “Nixilis.” Ob Nixilis eyed the newcomer with suspicion, “What brought you here?” “I had word – from . . . Goldmane . . . . ”’ Suddenly all these walkers know each other? I may be wrong, and if I am, I will be humbled and thankful for the education.
- People are walking all over the city to recruit guilds to the fight, ***while people are being hunted and slaughtered***. This seemed to be a rejection of reality to me. The city is being attacked and people are being killed, yet we have the heroes mosying to different guilds to try to convince them to take up arms. There is so little sense of urgency!
- Can we talk about the fact that Jace knew a 9-word spell to deactivate the Immortal Sun, because he somehow pulled it from Azor’s head on Ixalan? In the story, they turn *off* the Immortal Sun, then turn it back *on*, which, obviously, no one else would be able to figure out (*cough* Bolas-if-he-was-trapped *cough*). The Immortal Sun also gives god-like power to the one who stands on it, yet . . . neither Dovin nor Bolas stand on it. It just rests on top of an Azorious citadel. Then Chandra, Saheeli, and Lavinia (I think) face down Dovin and hundreds of his thopters, and *survive.* Then Dovin gets ninja stars thrown into his eyes by Lazav. Where was Chandra’s Triumph? Never happened in the story. Dovin escapes, blind, and ‘walks away. And ***no one uses the Immortal Sun against Bolas.***
- Bolas setting up the story of the Blackblade in order to trick the Gatewatch into directing all their attention to it as the weapon to beat him. Possible, but man, did it make my head shake. Bolas doesn’t even brag about the steps he took to make it unable to ever kill an Elder Dragon again (it killed an eternalized god and Elder Demon, but shrug).
- Throughout the story, the writer keeps pointing out that Gideon can’t share his invulnerability and must stand in the way of danger so that he takes the hits. But then, Gideon *somehow* gives his invulnerability to Liliana and takes her curse. And somehow that invulnerability immediately starts reconstituting Liliana, where never before did it ever heal (it was just a full-body barrier of light). That, too, was just head-shaking all around.
- The Immortal Sun was still (re)activated when Gideon died. Yet he has a vision of Theros. Does he truly depart to Theros? This should be impossible. Does he just imagine it? That would make more sense, but we don’t know for sure, so it’s just nice and confusing at the same time.
- The whole thing with Hazoret’s spear piercing the God Bolas, and him being unable to dissolve it despite being a God Bolas because he had been the one who created it, was so, so ridiculous to the point of upsetting me.
- Another favorite: Bolas asks Ugin how Ugin managed to get past the safeguards on the Meditation Plane that Bolas had put up. They must have been considerable, considering Bolas created them. Ugin’s response? “Oh, Sarkhan helped me, because you made him angry.” What? No other explanation.
- The Spirit Gem that Bolas has been carrying around was a piece of Ugin? What? What kind of hand-wavy nonsense is this?
- Ugin rubs it in to Bolas that Bolas didn’t expect Hazoret’s spear to be dangerous to him. But no one knew Hazoret would give her spear to Samut and the good guys, or that it would get into the paws of Niv-Mizzet. So what the hell is he bragging about? Sarkhan didn’t really convince Hazoret to give the spear, as Ugin implies. I quote: Sarkhan: ”I came to Amonkhet with the hope of finding something on this plane that could defeat its former God-Pharaoh.” Hazoret: “Unfortunately, We know of nothing here that can defeat Nicol Bolas.” Sarkhan: “Perhaps your spear?” Hazoret: “Perhaps, though it is unlikely, as it was his creation.” No one knew for sure that the spear would be of any use! And it would take four of them to lift it!
3) Four or five years ago, in these forums, I had put forth the idea that Bolas might try to harvest planeswalker sparks to make himself a God again. It started some heated debates, but the end result is this story clearly shows that the mere spark provides Bolas with more power (how much more? Very ill-defined. We never see super-powered Bolas do anything really impressive). But are the sparks also one’s connection to Magic? When Bolas is harvested by Bontu, all the sparks he had absorbed, including his own, are pulled out and then they dissipate. On the Meditation Plane, Ugin tells Bolas he is no longer long-lived because he is spark-less, and then we find out Bolas is also Magic-less. But Nixilis lost his spark, no? As did Teferi. They both continued to be able to use Magic though. Since this book is officially canon, what impact does this have on the past stories of walkers losing their sparks? Is your tie to Magic a result of your spark? If not, how did Bolas lose all his powers in addition to his ability to planeswalk? Is the spark also the source of Bolas’ long life? I always thought that was a result of him being an Elder Dragon. None of this is ever explained, but it’s all canon.
4) It honestly felt like the writer wrote the story before being told by Wizards which planeswalkers would be involved in the story. It reads like an outline that is only later fleshed out. Planeswalkers are mentioned throughout the story almost in passing, a lot like the writer was told to make sure they pop up somewhere. We have Tibalt leading fighters into battle, which is crazy. We have Angrath trash-talking the Gatewatch even though he only just now found out about the Gatewatch and Bolas, and has no idea of their history. We have strange conversations and strange information about various walkers. I honestly would not be surprised if the first draft of the story simply had blank spaces for the names as placeholders until the writer knew who Wizards wanted him to put in there. It also feels like there was very little literary meat on the bones. I rarely can read through 363 pages in one day, especially on a work day, but there was so little juiciness to the story that it took me no time at all to finish it. It seemed like the reading grade level was pretty low.
Final Thoughts:
This story did not do justice to the conclusion of Bolas’ story arc. We’ve been led up to this moment with so much hype, and all the action takes place in less than a day. Medieval battles took longer to sort themselves out. Bolas barely does anything of note, and all his best laid plans have immediate solutions (cut the power to the Beacon, say the magic words to turn off the Immortal Sun, walk through the portal the close it from the other side, stab Bolas with a spear). How is this anything other than ridiculous? Again, I’m not a Bolas fanboy. I’m not coming at this from the perspective of someone who lives and breathes Bolas. I think, as an objective matter, this is a particularly big dud. Not well-written, way too many strange plot points or throwing out of plot points. Honestly, the story told in the cards is way better. Very disappointing.
I had a lot of other points I wanted to make, but between yesterday and today, I’ve forgotten them.
- So, nothing biological can pass through the Planar Bridge . . . except for planeswalkers. What? This was another point they hammered ever since the Planar Bridge was made. Yet, in this story, Ob Nixilis, Dack, Karn, and Samut just walk/fly through the portal into Amonkhet. The explanation is that their sparks somehow protect them.
Didn't the Planar Bridge destroy organic matter due to sending it through the Blind Eternities, from which effects the spark specifically protects? Not that it makes the whole book any better, but still.
- So, nothing biological can pass through the Planar Bridge . . . except for planeswalkers. What? This was another point they hammered ever since the Planar Bridge was made. Yet, in this story, Ob Nixilis, Dack, Karn, and Samut just walk/fly through the portal into Amonkhet. The explanation is that their sparks somehow protect them.
Didn't the Planar Bridge destroy organic matter due to sending it through the Blind Eternities, from which effects the spark specifically protects? Not that it makes the whole book any better, but still.
I don't remember 100% the method behind the portal. I think when it was first being developed, it might have transported a vase, but not the flower, on the same plane. Then Tezz saw the possibility of using it between planes. Was it the energy of the portal surface itself that destroyed organic matter, or the Blind Eternities? It has to interact in some way with the BE, but the portal is instant transfer from one plane to another.
Bolas was cooked and injured by being transported by Ugin to the Meditation plane after he was desparked. Apparently it might have taken months to heal. But this, too, was usually impossible. They removed his Magic and his long life along with his spark, so why he would still survive the BE more or less intact, I don't know. It's canon, though.
I think 2020 will set up a soft reset. Now with the current story ended, reintroduce the core walkers. The tricky part is who the Core walkers will be. I feel like Jace and Chandra are probably a given. Liliana, Ajani, and Nissa would probably be the most likely guesses. But the story team might try mixing things up a bit as well.
It would make sense to maybe focus on the lingering thread of Liliana, but I somehow think that will be in the background for a little while.
I find it absolutely infuriating that they can't hire a group of individuals that can create a cohesive story accross multiple elements (card/book/short story). Jace/vraska got a considerable amount of very positive feedback on this forum and it's been well over 12 months since the short story release. Was it too late for them to fix the book to coincide?
Story is very quickly taking a back seat for me. Art, gameplay, social interaction and change are all great aspects of the game. The story is bad.
I don't get how drastic changes in story can occur literally weeks/months apart. If I had this level of consistency at my job? I'd be fired. Really no excuse.
1) It was mentioned that the bridge seems exposed whatever crossed it to the blind eternities and would destroy any organic material without a spark, as well as just being a basic rule of non-sparked organic matter can't cross planes.
2) Liliana mentions she was holding back the eternals from really doing damage.
3) I really don't get what everyone is getting so bent over Gideon. Jeska and Gerrard both had heavenly visions in their deaths, it just meant to be a send off to character as well as give the reader a sense of closure to the character.
4) I don't think sparks themselves where giving bolas power but rather they powered up the elder spell that powered up Bolas. Like how humans through driving cars can reach high speeds but the car needs gas to run, the elder spell was giving Bolas power but needs sparks to run. And since in general magic, knowing a persons name gives you some magic power over them so I think Bolas losing his magic was tied to Ugin stripping him of his name.
5) I don't see the confused on the guilds. Bolas got 5 walkers agents to take power, just happens that Ral, Kaya and Vraska turned against him. He never really wanted control of the guilds, he wanted them to not join together and fight against him and thats what the 5 walkers helped do.
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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"
Nahiri-I also noticed Nahiri was at the war counsel when they had gathered all the walkers and guild members to figure out what to do
Ral-I love it and idk if intentional but I like the symbolism of him not wanting to be outed as a planeswalker as well as the couple being on the DL since they are high ranking members of different guilds. Its also cute of each of them has a ribbon of the others clothing around their wrists.
Cameo and missing walkers- we are getting web fiction from Rat POV (Love her she is now on the list of characters I wanna see on a card) so I hope at least we get to see the walkers who didn't get a lot of screen time. I do wonder why Kasmina was made if yangling was gonna be in the story. Maro mentioned they have plans for Yangling in the view of Garruk so maybe she's gonna get a storyline soon?
Walker team up- Honesty this was one of my favorite parts of the book, seeing all the walkers fighting together and seeing their differt magics on opponents they didn't need to hold back on. Davriel was pretty badass in his fight, loved that part where he stole the elder spell out of an eternal to stop it. I also just loved the Wanderer asking Gideon to punch her. Glad to see she seem to be popular, I love to know and see more of the Wanderer.
Dack- Yea he got a great last arc. The dramatic irony of his statements through the book got to me too. His death was also a bit of a shock, I know it was coming, but like Dack, I like how we thought it was him being saved like he had just before hand or to realize he was trapped and being harvested.
- now that you mention it, I checked the book, and Kasmina is not mentioned once. Yeah, it seems that Yanling was replaced by her in the cards.
- there's actually quite high number of planeswalker deaths, not just named ones...
Jace didn’t even know the names of the fallen. Hadn’t even realized there were this many Planeswalkers to fall.
Who was that vedalken? Who was that tall elven woman? Who was that four-armed ogre or that very short green-haired man or
that ancient crone or that frightened teenager or…?
a large viashino with lime-green skin materialized right in front of her, surrounded by the distinct gold aura of a Planeswalker.
He had just enough time to hiss, “What izzzz thissss?” before a female Eternal grabbed him from behind - pity to see a viashino walker and not even learned his name...
Rhonas reached out faster than Angrath’s chain, grabbing a human Planeswalker with a shaved head and metal-casting powers...
We’ve kept the Dreadhorde at bay, but it’s a losing battle. Khazi was harvested when an Eternal punched its hand right through the wall and grabbed her by the wrist.” - actually a named one, yet unknown to us.
An unnammed vedalken walker is also seen harvested. The number of walkers arriving is said to be over two hundred...
The cruel thing is that the walkers are super-vulnerable to the Eternals, more than mortals- a firm grip is enough...and the God-Eternals does not have the dignity to explode upon harvesting.
- the saddest thing is that all the harvested sparks in the end dissipate after Bolas is attacked by Bontu and Oketra and the Elderspell fizzles into nothing.
- Mazirek was Bolas's agent, busted by Vraska and killed by his fellow kraul.
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Getting the book today, excited about it. Since most of the criticism online has been from people who skimmed it to look for important events, or people who haven't read it and are basing their opinions on the opinions of the former. Go figure.
However, what are these prequels you guys are talking about? Those gonna be wednesday articles? Or found somewhere else? Thanks!
Nahiri-I also noticed Nahiri was at the war counsel when they had gathered all the walkers and guild members to figure out what to do
Ral-I love it and idk if intentional but I like the symbolism of him not wanting to be outed as a planeswalker as well as the couple being on the DL since they are high ranking members of different guilds. Its also cute of each of them has a ribbon of the others clothing around their wrists.
Cameo and missing walkers- we are getting web fiction from Rat POV (Love her she is now on the list of characters I wanna see on a card) so I hope at least we get to see the walkers who didn't get a lot of screen time. I do wonder why Kasmina was made if yangling was gonna be in the story. Maro mentioned they have plans for Yangling in the view of Garruk so maybe she's gonna get a storyline soon?
Walker team up- Honesty this was one of my favorite parts of the book, seeing all the walkers fighting together and seeing their differt magics on opponents they didn't need to hold back on. Davriel was pretty badass in his fight, loved that part where he stole the elder spell out of an eternal to stop it. I also just loved the Wanderer asking Gideon to punch her. Glad to see she seem to be popular, I love to know and see more of the Wanderer.
Dack- Yea he got a great last arc. The dramatic irony of his statements through the book got to me too. His death was also a bit of a shock, I know it was coming, but like Dack, I like how we thought it was him being saved like he had just before hand or to realize he was trapped and being harvested.
- now that you mention it, I checked the book, and Kasmina is not mentioned once. Yeah, it seems that Yanling was replaced by her in the cards.
- there's actually quite high number of planeswalker deaths, not just named ones...
Jace didn’t even know the names of the fallen. Hadn’t even realized there were this many Planeswalkers to fall.
Who was that vedalken? Who was that tall elven woman? Who was that four-armed ogre or that very short green-haired man or
that ancient crone or that frightened teenager or…?
a large viashino with lime-green skin materialized right in front of her, surrounded by the distinct gold aura of a Planeswalker.
He had just enough time to hiss, “What izzzz thissss?” before a female Eternal grabbed him from behind - pity to see a viashino walker and not even learned his name...
Rhonas reached out faster than Angrath’s chain, grabbing a human Planeswalker with a shaved head and metal-casting powers...
We’ve kept the Dreadhorde at bay, but it’s a losing battle. Khazi was harvested when an Eternal punched its hand right through the wall and grabbed her by the wrist.” - actually a named one, yet unknown to us.
An unnammed vedalken walker is also seen harvested. The number of walkers arriving is said to be over two hundred...
The cruel thing is that the walkers are super-vulnerable to the Eternals, more than mortals- a firm grip is enough...and the God-Eternals does not have the dignity to explode upon harvesting.
- the saddest thing is that all the harvested sparks in the end dissipate after Bolas is attacked by Bontu and Oketra and the Elderspell fizzles into nothing.
- Mazirek was Bolas's agent, busted by Vraska and killed by his fellow kraul.
Maro menatiend they design the walkers card first and for many of them then tired to match them up with existing characters so maybe they didn't wanna try to force Yangling into that card? Kasmina card certain feels more like a scholar/mentor character rather then a water mage like Yangling and if we wanna be positive maybe she will be featured in a upcoming set?
Yeah the eternals only needing to get a firm grip was pretty scary. The worst I think was when the one walker got harvested when an eternal was able to reach its hand through a hole and grab their wrist.
Getting the book today, excited about it. Since most of the criticism online has been from people who skimmed it to look for important events, or people who haven't read it and are basing their opinions on the opinions of the former. Go figure.
However, what are these prequels you guys are talking about? Those gonna be wednesday articles? Or found somewhere else? Thanks!
Django Weller is set to write a prequel novel...or 20 chapter sized short stories, that focus on Ral and seems to be the story for Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance. They will be free but you gotta sign up for them through email through random house; http://www.randomhousebooks.com/campaign/magic-gathering-newsletter/
no clue when they will be out EDIT: They will be out in June some time. Honesty I think they should have been out before this since they lead directly into this story.
“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"
Nahiri-I also noticed Nahiri was at the war counsel when they had gathered all the walkers and guild members to figure out what to do
Ral-I love it and idk if intentional but I like the symbolism of him not wanting to be outed as a planeswalker as well as the couple being on the DL since they are high ranking members of different guilds. Its also cute of each of them has a ribbon of the others clothing around their wrists.
Cameo and missing walkers- we are getting web fiction from Rat POV (Love her she is now on the list of characters I wanna see on a card) so I hope at least we get to see the walkers who didn't get a lot of screen time. I do wonder why Kasmina was made if yangling was gonna be in the story. Maro mentioned they have plans for Yangling in the view of Garruk so maybe she's gonna get a storyline soon?
Walker team up- Honesty this was one of my favorite parts of the book, seeing all the walkers fighting together and seeing their differt magics on opponents they didn't need to hold back on. Davriel was pretty badass in his fight, loved that part where he stole the elder spell out of an eternal to stop it. I also just loved the Wanderer asking Gideon to punch her. Glad to see she seem to be popular, I love to know and see more of the Wanderer.
Dack- Yea he got a great last arc. The dramatic irony of his statements through the book got to me too. His death was also a bit of a shock, I know it was coming, but like Dack, I like how we thought it was him being saved like he had just before hand or to realize he was trapped and being harvested.
- now that you mention it, I checked the book, and Kasmina is not mentioned once. Yeah, it seems that Yanling was replaced by her in the cards.
- there's actually quite high number of planeswalker deaths, not just named ones...
Jace didn’t even know the names of the fallen. Hadn’t even realized there were this many Planeswalkers to fall.
Who was that vedalken? Who was that tall elven woman? Who was that four-armed ogre or that very short green-haired man or
that ancient crone or that frightened teenager or…?
a large viashino with lime-green skin materialized right in front of her, surrounded by the distinct gold aura of a Planeswalker.
He had just enough time to hiss, “What izzzz thissss?” before a female Eternal grabbed him from behind - pity to see a viashino walker and not even learned his name...
Rhonas reached out faster than Angrath’s chain, grabbing a human Planeswalker with a shaved head and metal-casting powers...
We’ve kept the Dreadhorde at bay, but it’s a losing battle. Khazi was harvested when an Eternal punched its hand right through the wall and grabbed her by the wrist.” - actually a named one, yet unknown to us.
An unnammed vedalken walker is also seen harvested. The number of walkers arriving is said to be over two hundred...
The cruel thing is that the walkers are super-vulnerable to the Eternals, more than mortals- a firm grip is enough...and the God-Eternals does not have the dignity to explode upon harvesting.
- the saddest thing is that all the harvested sparks in the end dissipate after Bolas is attacked by Bontu and Oketra and the Elderspell fizzles into nothing.
- Mazirek was Bolas's agent, busted by Vraska and killed by his fellow kraul.
Holy Moly this just adds salt....
After many complaints about the lack of non-human walkers, they finally mention lots of cool, interesting, totally different types of walkers, only to kill them off namelessly......ouch. Just punch us in the face already. Well we did get three new walkers to get into,....oh yeah they are just regular human types.....uh
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Been a member here for over a dozen years. Playing since '95 just got lost in the twitch shuffle.
Nahiri-I also noticed Nahiri was at the war counsel when they had gathered all the walkers and guild members to figure out what to do
Ral-I love it and idk if intentional but I like the symbolism of him not wanting to be outed as a planeswalker as well as the couple being on the DL since they are high ranking members of different guilds. Its also cute of each of them has a ribbon of the others clothing around their wrists.
Cameo and missing walkers- we are getting web fiction from Rat POV (Love her she is now on the list of characters I wanna see on a card) so I hope at least we get to see the walkers who didn't get a lot of screen time. I do wonder why Kasmina was made if yangling was gonna be in the story. Maro mentioned they have plans for Yangling in the view of Garruk so maybe she's gonna get a storyline soon?
Walker team up- Honesty this was one of my favorite parts of the book, seeing all the walkers fighting together and seeing their differt magics on opponents they didn't need to hold back on. Davriel was pretty badass in his fight, loved that part where he stole the elder spell out of an eternal to stop it. I also just loved the Wanderer asking Gideon to punch her. Glad to see she seem to be popular, I love to know and see more of the Wanderer.
Dack- Yea he got a great last arc. The dramatic irony of his statements through the book got to me too. His death was also a bit of a shock, I know it was coming, but like Dack, I like how we thought it was him being saved like he had just before hand or to realize he was trapped and being harvested.
- now that you mention it, I checked the book, and Kasmina is not mentioned once. Yeah, it seems that Yanling was replaced by her in the cards.
- there's actually quite high number of planeswalker deaths, not just named ones...
Jace didn’t even know the names of the fallen. Hadn’t even realized there were this many Planeswalkers to fall.
Who was that vedalken? Who was that tall elven woman? Who was that four-armed ogre or that very short green-haired man or
that ancient crone or that frightened teenager or…?
a large viashino with lime-green skin materialized right in front of her, surrounded by the distinct gold aura of a Planeswalker.
He had just enough time to hiss, “What izzzz thissss?” before a female Eternal grabbed him from behind - pity to see a viashino walker and not even learned his name...
Rhonas reached out faster than Angrath’s chain, grabbing a human Planeswalker with a shaved head and metal-casting powers...
We’ve kept the Dreadhorde at bay, but it’s a losing battle. Khazi was harvested when an Eternal punched its hand right through the wall and grabbed her by the wrist.” - actually a named one, yet unknown to us.
An unnammed vedalken walker is also seen harvested. The number of walkers arriving is said to be over two hundred...
The cruel thing is that the walkers are super-vulnerable to the Eternals, more than mortals- a firm grip is enough...and the God-Eternals does not have the dignity to explode upon harvesting.
- the saddest thing is that all the harvested sparks in the end dissipate after Bolas is attacked by Bontu and Oketra and the Elderspell fizzles into nothing.
- Mazirek was Bolas's agent, busted by Vraska and killed by his fellow kraul.
Holy Moly this just adds salt....
After many complaints about the lack of non-human walkers, they finally mention lots of cool, interesting, totally different types of walkers, only to kill them off namelessly......ouch. Just punch us in the face already. Well we did get three new walkers to get into,....oh yeah they are just regular human types.....uh
I was going to say just this. A Viashino and a Goro walker would be so cool. Don't know what a crone is though
So I read the whole book yesterday, and I have some thoughts which some may find disagreeable. I’m going to attempt to put them under a spoiler thing:
If I had to give a rating “x/10,” I would give 3/10. I’m not a Bolas fanboy, so the rating isn’t coming from that. The rating also only has partial relevance to my earlier postings about stakes, but takes more than ‘deaths’ into account.
1) For an end of the Bolas arc, Nicol Bolas did remarkably little. True, I read this pretty quickly, but I took a lot of screenshots as I was reading which back up my general conclusion here. Bolas was presented as far more dangerous, far more powerful, and far more . . . Nicol Bolas-y in the Amonkhet short stories than he did here. 85% of the time that he was mentioned in War of the Spark, he was described as sitting around and smiling. I can’t say my memory is perfect on this next score, but apart from blasting away Oketra and protecting Liliana for a few seconds by tumbling some buildings, did he do anything substantial before being defeated? I can’t think of anything. He never went toe-to-toe with any walker that I can recall (apart from invisible Ugin when he was desparked). And as the Elder Spell progressed, we are told Bolas is sucking in the odd spark here or there into his gem. Yet we see no god-like Bolas at any point. We don’t see astonishing power that outshines anything he did in the beginning of the story, or in any other story. Bolas simply didn’t feel like a godly threat. How could this happen? He is presented as far more impressive and powerful in the cards than in this story. Very disappointing.
2) I had a general “What the hell?” reaction to many things, including:
- The Beacon. Ral says “[N]either the dragon nor his minions will be able to shut it off. Hell, *I* can’t even shut it off.” They repeat this over and over in the story. But wow, later on in the story, we figure out that we can just cut the power to the Beacon. What an ingenious flaw!
- We are set up in Ixalan, after the friendship/love story between Jace and Vraska, with Jace blocking away Vraska’s memories of him so that they could unlock their alliance when Bolas least expected it. Instead, in this book . . . a kraul telepath unlocked Vraska’s memories long before Bolas’ arrival, but then she . . . went ahead and killed people and Isperia anyway, because she was angry? What? Her whole relationship with Bolas and her actions are so convoluted now that her part in the story was just nonsensical.
- Bolas has an Eternal army created to invade Ravnica, but then: “Eternals, despite their years of training on Amonkhet, stood little chance with their limited free will and limited agency against these Planeswalkers.” What? The Eternals fought with some semblance of free will and agency on Amonkhet. They weren’t exactly marching morons. They also exhibited a lot of their previous skill in combat and killing. Yet . . . Bolas makes them the droids from the Star Wars prequels that need a command ship (Liliana) to do anything? Nonsensical. In War of the Spark they’re just automatons, plodding around instead of being written as truly terrifying. What a lost opportunity.
- The Eternals trained all their lives to be the most dangerous warriors Bolas could bring to bear on Ravnica. Yet throughout the story, almost every named person is killing them easily. They’re being melted, shattered, stabbed (in their eyes? I lost count how many times the author had Eternals stabbed in their eyes, by nobodies too. How do they even have eyes???), chained, on and on. Neheb, the cream of the crop? Easily beheaded. You never really feel like the Eternals are dangerous (but they're slaughtering people! Yes, but they're being slaughtered en masse, too), and that could be because of the writing style. I might address this again later, but the writer seemed to have written a long outline first, and then just added details later. There was a lot of movement in the story without a lot of meat on the bones. You would think that Neheb would have a moment of fear-inducing violence. Nope: Samut jumps on his back and cuts off his head, easily.
- Planeswalkers throughout the story make strange observations. Ral at one point is like, “That leonin Ajani is likely from Alara.” What? There are several, at least, planes with leonins. Teyo also seems to be the writer’s mouthpiece, and the writer mentions almost all the named walker cards throughout the story, almost in passing, like he was crossing names off a list to make sure they made an appearance. (Tibalt leading forces in battle? Doesn’t make sense, but sure.) And apparently Samut knows the name of every Eternal she kills? What? Also, I think it's Teyo near the end who reflects that it was hard to feel a certain way for all the unnamed walkers who died. It's almost like the writer knows we're thinking the same thing.
- I may have been a fool, but weren’t we set up to believe that five of the guilds were being led by five walkers loyal to Bolas, or working indirectly for Bolas? Yet when the story starts, there’s only one walker working with Bolas, directly or indirectly: Dovin. Domri doesn’t appear to be working with Bolas until he watches the Selesnya elemental get torn apart by the god-eternals. Until that point, he was fighting and killing Eternals. Then he ‘woo hoo’ed and went over to Bolas, and was promptly killed. What? What happened to the Raze Boar set-up? What happened to what I felt was the set-up of Domri working with Bolas from the start and then getting betrayed? What? Ral and Kaya are not with Bolas, and Vraska is on Ixalan for half the book.
- The Beacon doesn’t force a planeswalk, it just strongly suggests it. How did Sorin free himself from the wall on Innistrad? We’ll never know. Why didn’t he free himself before this battle? No idea. Obviously he chose to planeswalk to Ravnica, which means he could have planeswalked from the wall any time, which makes that whole part of the Innistrad story meaningless. At most, we are told Sorin and Nahiri are fighting on rooftops. That’s it. What a waste of a story set-up.
- So, nothing biological can pass through the Planar Bridge . . . except for planeswalkers. What? This was another point they hammered ever since the Planar Bridge was made. Yet, in this story, Ob Nixilis, Dack, Karn, and Samut just walk/fly through the portal into Amonkhet. The explanation is that their sparks somehow protect them. Then somehow, for some reason, Sarkhan Vol is on Amonkhet and helped Hazoret restore the Hekma shield (didn’t that take more than one weak god to maintain?). And feel free to inform me otherwise, since I could be wrong, but when did Sarkhan and Karn ever meet?: ‘“Sarkhan Vol.” The golem didn’t sound particularly pleased to see this Vol again. Sarkhan Vol’s attitude toward Karn seemed no more welcoming. “Karn.” Then he turned to the demon and with even less warmth said, “Nixilis.” Ob Nixilis eyed the newcomer with suspicion, “What brought you here?” “I had word – from . . . Goldmane . . . . ”’ Suddenly all these walkers know each other? I may be wrong, and if I am, I will be humbled and thankful for the education.
- People are walking all over the city to recruit guilds to the fight, ***while people are being hunted and slaughtered***. This seemed to be a rejection of reality to me. The city is being attacked and people are being killed, yet we have the heroes mosying to different guilds to try to convince them to take up arms. There is so little sense of urgency!
- Can we talk about the fact that Jace knew a 9-word spell to deactivate the Immortal Sun, because he somehow pulled it from Azor’s head on Ixalan? In the story, they turn *off* the Immortal Sun, then turn it back *on*, which, obviously, no one else would be able to figure out (*cough* Bolas-if-he-was-trapped *cough*). The Immortal Sun also gives god-like power to the one who stands on it, yet . . . neither Dovin nor Bolas stand on it. It just rests on top of an Azorious citadel. Then Chandra, Saheeli, and Lavinia (I think) face down Dovin and hundreds of his thopters, and *survive.* Then Dovin gets ninja stars thrown into his eyes by Lazav. Where was Chandra’s Triumph? Never happened in the story. Dovin escapes, blind, and ‘walks away. And ***no one uses the Immortal Sun against Bolas.***
- Bolas setting up the story of the Blackblade in order to trick the Gatewatch into directing all their attention to it as the weapon to beat him. Possible, but man, did it make my head shake. Bolas doesn’t even brag about the steps he took to make it unable to ever kill an Elder Dragon again (it killed an eternalized god and Elder Demon, but shrug).
- Throughout the story, the writer keeps pointing out that Gideon can’t share his invulnerability and must stand in the way of danger so that he takes the hits. But then, Gideon *somehow* gives his invulnerability to Liliana and takes her curse. And somehow that invulnerability immediately starts reconstituting Liliana, where never before did it ever heal (it was just a full-body barrier of light). That, too, was just head-shaking all around.
- The Immortal Sun was still (re)activated when Gideon died. Yet he has a vision of Theros. Does he truly depart to Theros? This should be impossible. Does he just imagine it? That would make more sense, but we don’t know for sure, so it’s just nice and confusing at the same time.
- The whole thing with Hazoret’s spear piercing the God Bolas, and him being unable to dissolve it despite being a God Bolas because he had been the one who created it, was so, so ridiculous to the point of upsetting me.
- Another favorite: Bolas asks Ugin how Ugin managed to get past the safeguards on the Meditation Plane that Bolas had put up. They must have been considerable, considering Bolas created them. Ugin’s response? “Oh, Sarkhan helped me, because you made him angry.” What? No other explanation.
- The Spirit Gem that Bolas has been carrying around was a piece of Ugin? What? What kind of hand-wavy nonsense is this?
- Ugin rubs it in to Bolas that Bolas didn’t expect Hazoret’s spear to be dangerous to him. But no one knew Hazoret would give her spear to Samut and the good guys, or that it would get into the paws of Niv-Mizzet. So what the hell is he bragging about? Sarkhan didn’t really convince Hazoret to give the spear, as Ugin implies. I quote: Sarkhan: ”I came to Amonkhet with the hope of finding something on this plane that could defeat its former God-Pharaoh.” Hazoret: “Unfortunately, We know of nothing here that can defeat Nicol Bolas.” Sarkhan: “Perhaps your spear?” Hazoret: “Perhaps, though it is unlikely, as it was his creation.” No one knew for sure that the spear would be of any use! And it would take four of them to lift it!
3) Four or five years ago, in these forums, I had put forth the idea that Bolas might try to harvest planeswalker sparks to make himself a God again. It started some heated debates, but the end result is this story clearly shows that the mere spark provides Bolas with more power (how much more? Very ill-defined. We never see super-powered Bolas do anything really impressive). But are the sparks also one’s connection to Magic? When Bolas is harvested by Bontu, all the sparks he had absorbed, including his own, are pulled out and then they dissipate. On the Meditation Plane, Ugin tells Bolas he is no longer long-lived because he is spark-less, and then we find out Bolas is also Magic-less. But Nixilis lost his spark, no? As did Teferi. They both continued to be able to use Magic though. Since this book is officially canon, what impact does this have on the past stories of walkers losing their sparks? Is your tie to Magic a result of your spark? If not, how did Bolas lose all his powers in addition to his ability to planeswalk? Is the spark also the source of Bolas’ long life? I always thought that was a result of him being an Elder Dragon. None of this is ever explained, but it’s all canon.
4) It honestly felt like the writer wrote the story before being told by Wizards which planeswalkers would be involved in the story. It reads like an outline that is only later fleshed out. Planeswalkers are mentioned throughout the story almost in passing, a lot like the writer was told to make sure they pop up somewhere. We have Tibalt leading fighters into battle, which is crazy. We have Angrath trash-talking the Gatewatch even though he only just now found out about the Gatewatch and Bolas, and has no idea of their history. We have strange conversations and strange information about various walkers. I honestly would not be surprised if the first draft of the story simply had blank spaces for the names as placeholders until the writer knew who Wizards wanted him to put in there. It also feels like there was very little literary meat on the bones. I rarely can read through 363 pages in one day, especially on a work day, but there was so little juiciness to the story that it took me no time at all to finish it. It seemed like the reading grade level was pretty low.
Final Thoughts:
This story did not do justice to the conclusion of Bolas’ story arc. We’ve been led up to this moment with so much hype, and all the action takes place in less than a day. Medieval battles took longer to sort themselves out. Bolas barely does anything of note, and all his best laid plans have immediate solutions (cut the power to the Beacon, say the magic words to turn off the Immortal Sun, walk through the portal the close it from the other side, stab Bolas with a spear). How is this anything other than ridiculous? Again, I’m not a Bolas fanboy. I’m not coming at this from the perspective of someone who lives and breathes Bolas. I think, as an objective matter, this is a particularly big dud. Not well-written, way too many strange plot points or throwing out of plot points. Honestly, the story told in the cards is way better. Very disappointing.
I had a lot of other points I wanted to make, but between yesterday and today, I’ve forgotten them.
Sorry for the wall of text.
I was going to write out my main thoughts on the book, but you pretty much got to most of what I was going to bring up and far more, Perkunas, at least in terms of the plot and continuity issues. I also spent the day reading, and was also disappointed. I feel like the author was rushed, and had to make changes to the story at the last minute. Because there are plenty of important events which play out differently on the cards than in the novel. There weren’t cards for Rat or the Spear of Hazoret, but Illharg, Krenko, Massacre Girl, Fblthp, Feather, and Roalesk all saw print despite none of them being in the book at all.
However, that doesn’t excuse the horribly misplaced focus within the narrative. For example, we got multiple pages of Teyo and company slowly making their way through Rix Maadi, complete with descriptions of every macabre performer, but the reconciliation between Chandra and Nissa, which should have been a major emotional beat, got like two paragraphs. I was similarly flabbergasted by the way Gideon’s death was handled. And Liliana’s change of heart, rather than being a result of her coming to genuinely care for others, as was being set up, was instead motivated by her realizing ‘oh wait being a slave forever is worse than dying’. It’s like every plot thread was burned instead of tied up nicely. And the internal voices of multiple POV figures, like Ral and Kaya, tended to blend together, as if nobody checked to make sure they were even in character. I honestly liked most of the story more on the cards.
It wasn’t all bad, though. Teyo was amusing as a novice mage way out of his comfort zone, and Rat was extremely funny and adorable. I also chuckled aloud here and there at some of the jokes. But overall, yes, the book was mediocre at best, and a big letdown. Sanderson’s novella and Drayden’s shorts are both leagues better, and either of them would have handled things with more care had they been given the reins.
So I read the whole book yesterday, and I have some thoughts which some may find disagreeable. I’m going to attempt to put them under a spoiler thing:
If I had to give a rating “x/10,” I would give 3/10. I’m not a Bolas fanboy, so the rating isn’t coming from that. The rating also only has partial relevance to my earlier postings about stakes, but takes more than ‘deaths’ into account.
1) For an end of the Bolas arc, Nicol Bolas did remarkably little. True, I read this pretty quickly, but I took a lot of screenshots as I was reading which back up my general conclusion here. Bolas was presented as far more dangerous, far more powerful, and far more . . . Nicol Bolas-y in the Amonkhet short stories than he did here. 85% of the time that he was mentioned in War of the Spark, he was described as sitting around and smiling. I can’t say my memory is perfect on this next score, but apart from blasting away Oketra and protecting Liliana for a few seconds by tumbling some buildings, did he do anything substantial before being defeated? I can’t think of anything. He never went toe-to-toe with any walker that I can recall (apart from invisible Ugin when he was desparked). And as the Elder Spell progressed, we are told Bolas is sucking in the odd spark here or there into his gem. Yet we see no god-like Bolas at any point. We don’t see astonishing power that outshines anything he did in the beginning of the story, or in any other story. Bolas simply didn’t feel like a godly threat. How could this happen? He is presented as far more impressive and powerful in the cards than in this story. Very disappointing.
2) I had a general “What the hell?” reaction to many things, including:
- The Beacon. Ral says “[N]either the dragon nor his minions will be able to shut it off. Hell, *I* can’t even shut it off.” They repeat this over and over in the story. But wow, later on in the story, we figure out that we can just cut the power to the Beacon. What an ingenious flaw!
- We are set up in Ixalan, after the friendship/love story between Jace and Vraska, with Jace blocking away Vraska’s memories of him so that they could unlock their alliance when Bolas least expected it. Instead, in this book . . . a kraul telepath unlocked Vraska’s memories long before Bolas’ arrival, but then she . . . went ahead and killed people and Isperia anyway, because she was angry? What? Her whole relationship with Bolas and her actions are so convoluted now that her part in the story was just nonsensical.
- Bolas has an Eternal army created to invade Ravnica, but then: “Eternals, despite their years of training on Amonkhet, stood little chance with their limited free will and limited agency against these Planeswalkers.” What? The Eternals fought with some semblance of free will and agency on Amonkhet. They weren’t exactly marching morons. They also exhibited a lot of their previous skill in combat and killing. Yet . . . Bolas makes them the droids from the Star Wars prequels that need a command ship (Liliana) to do anything? Nonsensical. In War of the Spark they’re just automatons, plodding around instead of being written as truly terrifying. What a lost opportunity.
- The Eternals trained all their lives to be the most dangerous warriors Bolas could bring to bear on Ravnica. Yet throughout the story, almost every named person is killing them easily. They’re being melted, shattered, stabbed (in their eyes? I lost count how many times the author had Eternals stabbed in their eyes, by nobodies too. How do they even have eyes???), chained, on and on. Neheb, the cream of the crop? Easily beheaded. You never really feel like the Eternals are dangerous (but they're slaughtering people! Yes, but they're being slaughtered en masse, too), and that could be because of the writing style. I might address this again later, but the writer seemed to have written a long outline first, and then just added details later. There was a lot of movement in the story without a lot of meat on the bones. You would think that Neheb would have a moment of fear-inducing violence. Nope: Samut jumps on his back and cuts off his head, easily.
- Planeswalkers throughout the story make strange observations. Ral at one point is like, “That leonin Ajani is likely from Alara.” What? There are several, at least, planes with leonins. Teyo also seems to be the writer’s mouthpiece, and the writer mentions almost all the named walker cards throughout the story, almost in passing, like he was crossing names off a list to make sure they made an appearance. (Tibalt leading forces in battle? Doesn’t make sense, but sure.) And apparently Samut knows the name of every Eternal she kills? What? Also, I think it's Teyo near the end who reflects that it was hard to feel a certain way for all the unnamed walkers who died. It's almost like the writer knows we're thinking the same thing.
- I may have been a fool, but weren’t we set up to believe that five of the guilds were being led by five walkers loyal to Bolas, or working indirectly for Bolas? Yet when the story starts, there’s only one walker working with Bolas, directly or indirectly: Dovin. Domri doesn’t appear to be working with Bolas until he watches the Selesnya elemental get torn apart by the god-eternals. Until that point, he was fighting and killing Eternals. Then he ‘woo hoo’ed and went over to Bolas, and was promptly killed. What? What happened to the Raze Boar set-up? What happened to what I felt was the set-up of Domri working with Bolas from the start and then getting betrayed? What? Ral and Kaya are not with Bolas, and Vraska is on Ixalan for half the book.
- The Beacon doesn’t force a planeswalk, it just strongly suggests it. How did Sorin free himself from the wall on Innistrad? We’ll never know. Why didn’t he free himself before this battle? No idea. Obviously he chose to planeswalk to Ravnica, which means he could have planeswalked from the wall any time, which makes that whole part of the Innistrad story meaningless. At most, we are told Sorin and Nahiri are fighting on rooftops. That’s it. What a waste of a story set-up.
- So, nothing biological can pass through the Planar Bridge . . . except for planeswalkers. What? This was another point they hammered ever since the Planar Bridge was made. Yet, in this story, Ob Nixilis, Dack, Karn, and Samut just walk/fly through the portal into Amonkhet. The explanation is that their sparks somehow protect them. Then somehow, for some reason, Sarkhan Vol is on Amonkhet and helped Hazoret restore the Hekma shield (didn’t that take more than one weak god to maintain?). And feel free to inform me otherwise, since I could be wrong, but when did Sarkhan and Karn ever meet?: ‘“Sarkhan Vol.” The golem didn’t sound particularly pleased to see this Vol again. Sarkhan Vol’s attitude toward Karn seemed no more welcoming. “Karn.” Then he turned to the demon and with even less warmth said, “Nixilis.” Ob Nixilis eyed the newcomer with suspicion, “What brought you here?” “I had word – from . . . Goldmane . . . . ”’ Suddenly all these walkers know each other? I may be wrong, and if I am, I will be humbled and thankful for the education.
- People are walking all over the city to recruit guilds to the fight, ***while people are being hunted and slaughtered***. This seemed to be a rejection of reality to me. The city is being attacked and people are being killed, yet we have the heroes mosying to different guilds to try to convince them to take up arms. There is so little sense of urgency!
- Can we talk about the fact that Jace knew a 9-word spell to deactivate the Immortal Sun, because he somehow pulled it from Azor’s head on Ixalan? In the story, they turn *off* the Immortal Sun, then turn it back *on*, which, obviously, no one else would be able to figure out (*cough* Bolas-if-he-was-trapped *cough*). The Immortal Sun also gives god-like power to the one who stands on it, yet . . . neither Dovin nor Bolas stand on it. It just rests on top of an Azorious citadel. Then Chandra, Saheeli, and Lavinia (I think) face down Dovin and hundreds of his thopters, and *survive.* Then Dovin gets ninja stars thrown into his eyes by Lazav. Where was Chandra’s Triumph? Never happened in the story. Dovin escapes, blind, and ‘walks away. And ***no one uses the Immortal Sun against Bolas.***
- Bolas setting up the story of the Blackblade in order to trick the Gatewatch into directing all their attention to it as the weapon to beat him. Possible, but man, did it make my head shake. Bolas doesn’t even brag about the steps he took to make it unable to ever kill an Elder Dragon again (it killed an eternalized god and Elder Demon, but shrug).
- Throughout the story, the writer keeps pointing out that Gideon can’t share his invulnerability and must stand in the way of danger so that he takes the hits. But then, Gideon *somehow* gives his invulnerability to Liliana and takes her curse. And somehow that invulnerability immediately starts reconstituting Liliana, where never before did it ever heal (it was just a full-body barrier of light). That, too, was just head-shaking all around.
- The Immortal Sun was still (re)activated when Gideon died. Yet he has a vision of Theros. Does he truly depart to Theros? This should be impossible. Does he just imagine it? That would make more sense, but we don’t know for sure, so it’s just nice and confusing at the same time.
- The whole thing with Hazoret’s spear piercing the God Bolas, and him being unable to dissolve it despite being a God Bolas because he had been the one who created it, was so, so ridiculous to the point of upsetting me.
- Another favorite: Bolas asks Ugin how Ugin managed to get past the safeguards on the Meditation Plane that Bolas had put up. They must have been considerable, considering Bolas created them. Ugin’s response? “Oh, Sarkhan helped me, because you made him angry.” What? No other explanation.
- The Spirit Gem that Bolas has been carrying around was a piece of Ugin? What? What kind of hand-wavy nonsense is this?
- Ugin rubs it in to Bolas that Bolas didn’t expect Hazoret’s spear to be dangerous to him. But no one knew Hazoret would give her spear to Samut and the good guys, or that it would get into the paws of Niv-Mizzet. So what the hell is he bragging about? Sarkhan didn’t really convince Hazoret to give the spear, as Ugin implies. I quote: Sarkhan: ”I came to Amonkhet with the hope of finding something on this plane that could defeat its former God-Pharaoh.” Hazoret: “Unfortunately, We know of nothing here that can defeat Nicol Bolas.” Sarkhan: “Perhaps your spear?” Hazoret: “Perhaps, though it is unlikely, as it was his creation.” No one knew for sure that the spear would be of any use! And it would take four of them to lift it!
3) Four or five years ago, in these forums, I had put forth the idea that Bolas might try to harvest planeswalker sparks to make himself a God again. It started some heated debates, but the end result is this story clearly shows that the mere spark provides Bolas with more power (how much more? Very ill-defined. We never see super-powered Bolas do anything really impressive). But are the sparks also one’s connection to Magic? When Bolas is harvested by Bontu, all the sparks he had absorbed, including his own, are pulled out and then they dissipate. On the Meditation Plane, Ugin tells Bolas he is no longer long-lived because he is spark-less, and then we find out Bolas is also Magic-less. But Nixilis lost his spark, no? As did Teferi. They both continued to be able to use Magic though. Since this book is officially canon, what impact does this have on the past stories of walkers losing their sparks? Is your tie to Magic a result of your spark? If not, how did Bolas lose all his powers in addition to his ability to planeswalk? Is the spark also the source of Bolas’ long life? I always thought that was a result of him being an Elder Dragon. None of this is ever explained, but it’s all canon.
4) It honestly felt like the writer wrote the story before being told by Wizards which planeswalkers would be involved in the story. It reads like an outline that is only later fleshed out. Planeswalkers are mentioned throughout the story almost in passing, a lot like the writer was told to make sure they pop up somewhere. We have Tibalt leading fighters into battle, which is crazy. We have Angrath trash-talking the Gatewatch even though he only just now found out about the Gatewatch and Bolas, and has no idea of their history. We have strange conversations and strange information about various walkers. I honestly would not be surprised if the first draft of the story simply had blank spaces for the names as placeholders until the writer knew who Wizards wanted him to put in there. It also feels like there was very little literary meat on the bones. I rarely can read through 363 pages in one day, especially on a work day, but there was so little juiciness to the story that it took me no time at all to finish it. It seemed like the reading grade level was pretty low.
Final Thoughts:
This story did not do justice to the conclusion of Bolas’ story arc. We’ve been led up to this moment with so much hype, and all the action takes place in less than a day. Medieval battles took longer to sort themselves out. Bolas barely does anything of note, and all his best laid plans have immediate solutions (cut the power to the Beacon, say the magic words to turn off the Immortal Sun, walk through the portal the close it from the other side, stab Bolas with a spear). How is this anything other than ridiculous? Again, I’m not a Bolas fanboy. I’m not coming at this from the perspective of someone who lives and breathes Bolas. I think, as an objective matter, this is a particularly big dud. Not well-written, way too many strange plot points or throwing out of plot points. Honestly, the story told in the cards is way better. Very disappointing.
I had a lot of other points I wanted to make, but between yesterday and today, I’ve forgotten them.
Sorry for the wall of text.
I was going to write out my main thoughts on the book, but you pretty much got to most of what I was going to bring up and far more, Perkunas, at least in terms of the plot and continuity issues. I also spent the day reading, and was also disappointed. I feel like the author was rushed, and had to make changes to the story at the last minute. Because there are plenty of important events which play out differently on the cards than in the novel. There weren’t cards for Rat or the Spear of Hazoret, but Illharg, Krenko, Massacre Girl, Fblthp, Feather, and Roalesk all saw print despite none of them being in the book at all.
However, that doesn’t excuse the horribly misplaced focus within the narrative. For example, we got multiple pages of Teyo and company slowly making their way through Rix Maadi, complete with descriptions of every macabre performer, but the reconciliation between Chandra and Nissa, which should have been a major emotional beat, got like two paragraphs. I was similarly flabbergasted by the way Gideon’s death was handled. And Liliana’s change of heart, rather than being a result of her coming to genuinely care for others, as was being set up, was instead motivated by her realizing ‘oh wait being a slave forever is worse than dying’. It’s like every plot thread was burned instead of tied up nicely. And the internal voices of multiple POV figures, like Ral and Kaya, tended to blend together, as if nobody checked to make sure they were even in character. I honestly liked most of the story more on the cards.
It wasn’t all bad, though. Teyo was amusing as a novice mage way out of his comfort zone, and Rat was extremely funny and adorable. I also chuckled aloud here and there at some of the jokes. But overall, yes, the book was mediocre at best, and a big letdown. Sanderson’s novella and Drayden’s shorts are both leagues better, and either of them would have handled things with more care had they been given the reins.
It sounds like a lot of the issues come from continuity problems and being rushed. This has been a pattern with the story, so I wouldn't lay it at the feet of the author. I don't think creative has a well thought out plan for the story or fails to communicate it to the authors. If this was the first time a novel hit with retcons and continuity issues, it would be different, but it seems like this happens every time. There is one common factor here, and it's not the authors, who have turned on good work elsewhere.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I mean I am no expert but just maybe time shouldn't have been wasted on Teyo and Rat and their whirlwind Romance. Yeah Yeah I get the idea of needing exposition dumps but find a more creative to do it.
I mean I am no expert but just maybe time shouldn't have been wasted on Teyo and Rat and their whirlwind Romance.
What parts gave the romance vibe? They seem to just be friends.
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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 I read the whole book yesterday, and I have some thoughts which some may find disagreeable. I’m going to attempt to put them under a spoiler thing:
If I had to give a rating “x/10,” I would give 3/10. I’m not a Bolas fanboy, so the rating isn’t coming from that. The rating also only has partial relevance to my earlier postings about stakes, but takes more than ‘deaths’ into account.
1) For an end of the Bolas arc, Nicol Bolas did remarkably little. True, I read this pretty quickly, but I took a lot of screenshots as I was reading which back up my general conclusion here. Bolas was presented as far more dangerous, far more powerful, and far more . . . Nicol Bolas-y in the Amonkhet short stories than he did here. 85% of the time that he was mentioned in War of the Spark, he was described as sitting around and smiling. I can’t say my memory is perfect on this next score, but apart from blasting away Oketra and protecting Liliana for a few seconds by tumbling some buildings, did he do anything substantial before being defeated? I can’t think of anything. He never went toe-to-toe with any walker that I can recall (apart from invisible Ugin when he was desparked). And as the Elder Spell progressed, we are told Bolas is sucking in the odd spark here or there into his gem. Yet we see no god-like Bolas at any point. We don’t see astonishing power that outshines anything he did in the beginning of the story, or in any other story. Bolas simply didn’t feel like a godly threat. How could this happen? He is presented as far more impressive and powerful in the cards than in this story. Very disappointing.
2) I had a general “What the hell?” reaction to many things, including:
- The Beacon. Ral says “[N]either the dragon nor his minions will be able to shut it off. Hell, *I* can’t even shut it off.” They repeat this over and over in the story. But wow, later on in the story, we figure out that we can just cut the power to the Beacon. What an ingenious flaw!
- We are set up in Ixalan, after the friendship/love story between Jace and Vraska, with Jace blocking away Vraska’s memories of him so that they could unlock their alliance when Bolas least expected it. Instead, in this book . . . a kraul telepath unlocked Vraska’s memories long before Bolas’ arrival, but then she . . . went ahead and killed people and Isperia anyway, because she was angry? What? Her whole relationship with Bolas and her actions are so convoluted now that her part in the story was just nonsensical.
- Bolas has an Eternal army created to invade Ravnica, but then: “Eternals, despite their years of training on Amonkhet, stood little chance with their limited free will and limited agency against these Planeswalkers.” What? The Eternals fought with some semblance of free will and agency on Amonkhet. They weren’t exactly marching morons. They also exhibited a lot of their previous skill in combat and killing. Yet . . . Bolas makes them the droids from the Star Wars prequels that need a command ship (Liliana) to do anything? Nonsensical. In War of the Spark they’re just automatons, plodding around instead of being written as truly terrifying. What a lost opportunity.
- The Eternals trained all their lives to be the most dangerous warriors Bolas could bring to bear on Ravnica. Yet throughout the story, almost every named person is killing them easily. They’re being melted, shattered, stabbed (in their eyes? I lost count how many times the author had Eternals stabbed in their eyes, by nobodies too. How do they even have eyes???), chained, on and on. Neheb, the cream of the crop? Easily beheaded. You never really feel like the Eternals are dangerous (but they're slaughtering people! Yes, but they're being slaughtered en masse, too), and that could be because of the writing style. I might address this again later, but the writer seemed to have written a long outline first, and then just added details later. There was a lot of movement in the story without a lot of meat on the bones. You would think that Neheb would have a moment of fear-inducing violence. Nope: Samut jumps on his back and cuts off his head, easily.
- Planeswalkers throughout the story make strange observations. Ral at one point is like, “That leonin Ajani is likely from Alara.” What? There are several, at least, planes with leonins. Teyo also seems to be the writer’s mouthpiece, and the writer mentions almost all the named walker cards throughout the story, almost in passing, like he was crossing names off a list to make sure they made an appearance. (Tibalt leading forces in battle? Doesn’t make sense, but sure.) And apparently Samut knows the name of every Eternal she kills? What? Also, I think it's Teyo near the end who reflects that it was hard to feel a certain way for all the unnamed walkers who died. It's almost like the writer knows we're thinking the same thing.
- I may have been a fool, but weren’t we set up to believe that five of the guilds were being led by five walkers loyal to Bolas, or working indirectly for Bolas? Yet when the story starts, there’s only one walker working with Bolas, directly or indirectly: Dovin. Domri doesn’t appear to be working with Bolas until he watches the Selesnya elemental get torn apart by the god-eternals. Until that point, he was fighting and killing Eternals. Then he ‘woo hoo’ed and went over to Bolas, and was promptly killed. What? What happened to the Raze Boar set-up? What happened to what I felt was the set-up of Domri working with Bolas from the start and then getting betrayed? What? Ral and Kaya are not with Bolas, and Vraska is on Ixalan for half the book.
- The Beacon doesn’t force a planeswalk, it just strongly suggests it. How did Sorin free himself from the wall on Innistrad? We’ll never know. Why didn’t he free himself before this battle? No idea. Obviously he chose to planeswalk to Ravnica, which means he could have planeswalked from the wall any time, which makes that whole part of the Innistrad story meaningless. At most, we are told Sorin and Nahiri are fighting on rooftops. That’s it. What a waste of a story set-up.
- So, nothing biological can pass through the Planar Bridge . . . except for planeswalkers. What? This was another point they hammered ever since the Planar Bridge was made. Yet, in this story, Ob Nixilis, Dack, Karn, and Samut just walk/fly through the portal into Amonkhet. The explanation is that their sparks somehow protect them. Then somehow, for some reason, Sarkhan Vol is on Amonkhet and helped Hazoret restore the Hekma shield (didn’t that take more than one weak god to maintain?). And feel free to inform me otherwise, since I could be wrong, but when did Sarkhan and Karn ever meet?: ‘“Sarkhan Vol.” The golem didn’t sound particularly pleased to see this Vol again. Sarkhan Vol’s attitude toward Karn seemed no more welcoming. “Karn.” Then he turned to the demon and with even less warmth said, “Nixilis.” Ob Nixilis eyed the newcomer with suspicion, “What brought you here?” “I had word – from . . . Goldmane . . . . ”’ Suddenly all these walkers know each other? I may be wrong, and if I am, I will be humbled and thankful for the education.
- People are walking all over the city to recruit guilds to the fight, ***while people are being hunted and slaughtered***. This seemed to be a rejection of reality to me. The city is being attacked and people are being killed, yet we have the heroes mosying to different guilds to try to convince them to take up arms. There is so little sense of urgency!
- Can we talk about the fact that Jace knew a 9-word spell to deactivate the Immortal Sun, because he somehow pulled it from Azor’s head on Ixalan? In the story, they turn *off* the Immortal Sun, then turn it back *on*, which, obviously, no one else would be able to figure out (*cough* Bolas-if-he-was-trapped *cough*). The Immortal Sun also gives god-like power to the one who stands on it, yet . . . neither Dovin nor Bolas stand on it. It just rests on top of an Azorious citadel. Then Chandra, Saheeli, and Lavinia (I think) face down Dovin and hundreds of his thopters, and *survive.* Then Dovin gets ninja stars thrown into his eyes by Lazav. Where was Chandra’s Triumph? Never happened in the story. Dovin escapes, blind, and ‘walks away. And ***no one uses the Immortal Sun against Bolas.***
- Bolas setting up the story of the Blackblade in order to trick the Gatewatch into directing all their attention to it as the weapon to beat him. Possible, but man, did it make my head shake. Bolas doesn’t even brag about the steps he took to make it unable to ever kill an Elder Dragon again (it killed an eternalized god and Elder Demon, but shrug).
- Throughout the story, the writer keeps pointing out that Gideon can’t share his invulnerability and must stand in the way of danger so that he takes the hits. But then, Gideon *somehow* gives his invulnerability to Liliana and takes her curse. And somehow that invulnerability immediately starts reconstituting Liliana, where never before did it ever heal (it was just a full-body barrier of light). That, too, was just head-shaking all around.
- The Immortal Sun was still (re)activated when Gideon died. Yet he has a vision of Theros. Does he truly depart to Theros? This should be impossible. Does he just imagine it? That would make more sense, but we don’t know for sure, so it’s just nice and confusing at the same time.
- The whole thing with Hazoret’s spear piercing the God Bolas, and him being unable to dissolve it despite being a God Bolas because he had been the one who created it, was so, so ridiculous to the point of upsetting me.
- Another favorite: Bolas asks Ugin how Ugin managed to get past the safeguards on the Meditation Plane that Bolas had put up. They must have been considerable, considering Bolas created them. Ugin’s response? “Oh, Sarkhan helped me, because you made him angry.” What? No other explanation.
- The Spirit Gem that Bolas has been carrying around was a piece of Ugin? What? What kind of hand-wavy nonsense is this?
- Ugin rubs it in to Bolas that Bolas didn’t expect Hazoret’s spear to be dangerous to him. But no one knew Hazoret would give her spear to Samut and the good guys, or that it would get into the paws of Niv-Mizzet. So what the hell is he bragging about? Sarkhan didn’t really convince Hazoret to give the spear, as Ugin implies. I quote: Sarkhan: ”I came to Amonkhet with the hope of finding something on this plane that could defeat its former God-Pharaoh.” Hazoret: “Unfortunately, We know of nothing here that can defeat Nicol Bolas.” Sarkhan: “Perhaps your spear?” Hazoret: “Perhaps, though it is unlikely, as it was his creation.” No one knew for sure that the spear would be of any use! And it would take four of them to lift it!
3) Four or five years ago, in these forums, I had put forth the idea that Bolas might try to harvest planeswalker sparks to make himself a God again. It started some heated debates, but the end result is this story clearly shows that the mere spark provides Bolas with more power (how much more? Very ill-defined. We never see super-powered Bolas do anything really impressive). But are the sparks also one’s connection to Magic? When Bolas is harvested by Bontu, all the sparks he had absorbed, including his own, are pulled out and then they dissipate. On the Meditation Plane, Ugin tells Bolas he is no longer long-lived because he is spark-less, and then we find out Bolas is also Magic-less. But Nixilis lost his spark, no? As did Teferi. They both continued to be able to use Magic though. Since this book is officially canon, what impact does this have on the past stories of walkers losing their sparks? Is your tie to Magic a result of your spark? If not, how did Bolas lose all his powers in addition to his ability to planeswalk? Is the spark also the source of Bolas’ long life? I always thought that was a result of him being an Elder Dragon. None of this is ever explained, but it’s all canon.
4) It honestly felt like the writer wrote the story before being told by Wizards which planeswalkers would be involved in the story. It reads like an outline that is only later fleshed out. Planeswalkers are mentioned throughout the story almost in passing, a lot like the writer was told to make sure they pop up somewhere. We have Tibalt leading fighters into battle, which is crazy. We have Angrath trash-talking the Gatewatch even though he only just now found out about the Gatewatch and Bolas, and has no idea of their history. We have strange conversations and strange information about various walkers. I honestly would not be surprised if the first draft of the story simply had blank spaces for the names as placeholders until the writer knew who Wizards wanted him to put in there. It also feels like there was very little literary meat on the bones. I rarely can read through 363 pages in one day, especially on a work day, but there was so little juiciness to the story that it took me no time at all to finish it. It seemed like the reading grade level was pretty low.
Final Thoughts:
This story did not do justice to the conclusion of Bolas’ story arc. We’ve been led up to this moment with so much hype, and all the action takes place in less than a day. Medieval battles took longer to sort themselves out. Bolas barely does anything of note, and all his best laid plans have immediate solutions (cut the power to the Beacon, say the magic words to turn off the Immortal Sun, walk through the portal the close it from the other side, stab Bolas with a spear). How is this anything other than ridiculous? Again, I’m not a Bolas fanboy. I’m not coming at this from the perspective of someone who lives and breathes Bolas. I think, as an objective matter, this is a particularly big dud. Not well-written, way too many strange plot points or throwing out of plot points. Honestly, the story told in the cards is way better. Very disappointing.
I had a lot of other points I wanted to make, but between yesterday and today, I’ve forgotten them.
Sorry for the wall of text.
I was going to write out my main thoughts on the book, but you pretty much got to most of what I was going to bring up and far more, Perkunas, at least in terms of the plot and continuity issues. I also spent the day reading, and was also disappointed. I feel like the author was rushed, and had to make changes to the story at the last minute. Because there are plenty of important events which play out differently on the cards than in the novel. There weren’t cards for Rat or the Spear of Hazoret, but Illharg, Krenko, Massacre Girl, Fblthp, Feather, and Roalesk all saw print despite none of them being in the book at all.
However, that doesn’t excuse the horribly misplaced focus within the narrative. For example, we got multiple pages of Teyo and company slowly making their way through Rix Maadi, complete with descriptions of every macabre performer, but the reconciliation between Chandra and Nissa, which should have been a major emotional beat, got like two paragraphs. I was similarly flabbergasted by the way Gideon’s death was handled. And Liliana’s change of heart, rather than being a result of her coming to genuinely care for others, as was being set up, was instead motivated by her realizing ‘oh wait being a slave forever is worse than dying’. It’s like every plot thread was burned instead of tied up nicely. And the internal voices of multiple POV figures, like Ral and Kaya, tended to blend together, as if nobody checked to make sure they were even in character. I honestly liked most of the story more on the cards.
It wasn’t all bad, though. Teyo was amusing as a novice mage way out of his comfort zone, and Rat was extremely funny and adorable. I also chuckled aloud here and there at some of the jokes. But overall, yes, the book was mediocre at best, and a big letdown. Sanderson’s novella and Drayden’s shorts are both leagues better, and either of them would have handled things with more care had they been given the reins.
It sounds like a lot of the issues come from continuity problems and being rushed. This has been a pattern with the story, so I wouldn't lay it at the feet of the author. I don't think creative has a well thought out plan for the story or fails to communicate it to the authors. If this was the first time a novel hit with retcons and continuity issues, it would be different, but it seems like this happens every time. There is one common factor here, and it's not the authors, who have turned on good work elsewhere.
I could be wrong, but I believe i read somewhere that the author only had like 9 months to write the book.
I still don't get how they couldn't give Dack a card as a last hoorah.
Okay, I have finished the book this morning on my way to work.
Final thoughts: I am giving this 7,5/10.
First of all, it was a titanic effort to describe such a conflict believably. With the chosen method of different POVs and not an omniscient narrator, some things were just hinted and not explored deeper, like Sorin-Nahiri fight. But that is okay, because otherwise it would be a damned mess. Choosing a rookie walker like Teyo to be basically the main spectator was a good move. Yes, someone would complain that it means we got several pages of Teyo and the company underground, and just like two paragraphs of some emotional reunion..but that is how it is meant to be.
Second, I liked the writing. Simply liked. It is no worse than Martha Wells' Dominaria. What I find disruptive was the seemingly random capitalization of some words. Okay, I grudgingly accepted seeing Planeswalker again with capital (P), like in the ancient comics. But Hazoret's Spear?
Third - for everyone complaining about predictability - I actually liked how all the stratagems supposed to lead to Bolas's downfall played (at least to some extent) to his hand.
- the thing with the Beacon: devised to call planeswalkers to fight Bolas, in fact planted to the Firemind by Bolas and devised to call walkers for Bolas to harvest, really in fact known by Mizzet and Ugin to make things happen (with expected high casualties for having just a shot to stop Bolas). Leaves Zarek with guilt about being partially responsible for all walkers that died - possible character growth?
- to certain extension, this is also valid for Jace
- the whole Blackblade thing.
- the fact that the newly resurrected Mizzet managed only to take out Kefnet and then fainted. Of course, not exactly Apocalypse levels of hope lost, but it was there.
- And I must admit that I liked the twist with Vraska. Because everybody expected the climax to be different, Jace restoring her memory in crucial moment, her petrifying Bolas or something, everybody rejoices and dances, Ewoks bang on stormtrooper helmets... instead, a kraul telepath restores her mind in the prequels and she kills Isperia and plunges the whole world deeper into crisis just because she failed to control herself about the old injustices, and, like Ral, is partially responsible for what comes next.
- I liked the solution of elimination of the Living Guildpact power by disrupting the leyline nexus. Makes sense.
- And I liked the many hinted future stories to be explored - what happened between Karn and Sarkhan to just coldly acknowledge each other, what is the story of The Wanderer and Sarkhan, it would also be interesting to go back to Davriel after all this, because he went on full badass mode in one moment - but I loved the fact, that despite his card does not reflect that, the book makes use of his spellstealing exactly as in the Children.
- Dack's chapters were immensely satisfying here. Good way of saying farewell.
- I have already spoken about the walker cameos. I am disappointed that the Story Circle walkers in particular did not get a greater role (with the exception of Ajani, of course). Tamiyo, Narset, newly Kiora. Ashiok and Kasmina are not mentioned once at all. Tibalt is in one sentence about leading devils into battle, but not before and not after. I hoped to learn more about The Wanderer, besides three really cool action scenes. At least Yanggu & Yanling were funny.
- overall - the book is different than those in the past. But also of the piles of mess from Wintermute, and the enthusiastic, but amateurish attempts of Doug Beyer (Alara Unbroken, The Secretist). And after all those years, I am not disappointed.
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Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
What I would have done (and this is to the point that I want to fanfiction it) is do one POV chapter per Planeswalker, that tells their own story, and intertwines it all. So that's 39 chapters (36 in the set + Tezzeret, Yanling, and Dack). Then maybe a POV chapter for the other major non-PW characters- Rat, Lavinia, Niv-Mizzet, and then possibly Boborygmos, Vorel, Emmara/Trostani, Rat's Dad (Shan, if I recall?), Ral's sig-o. So ultimately maybe about 50 chapters, but focusing a bit more on the interaction between the planeswalkers as they all struggle for their lives.
Also, I'd have not deprived us of one of the most poignant parts of the book we were looking forward to- Jace calling Vraska captain, and restoring her memories. I get why they wanted to have Vraska be more of a "I can't go back" role, and redeem herself, but damn that felt hollow.
Okay, I have finished the book this morning on my way to work.
Final thoughts: I am giving this 7,5/10.
First of all, it was a titanic effort to describe such a conflict believably. With the chosen method of different POVs and not an omniscient narrator, some things were just hinted and not explored deeper, like Sorin-Nahiri fight. But that is okay, because otherwise it would be a damned mess. Choosing a rookie walker like Teyo to be basically the main spectator was a good move. Yes, someone would complain that it means we got several pages of Teyo and the company underground, and just like two paragraphs of some emotional reunion..but that is how it is meant to be.
Second, I liked the writing. Simply liked. It is no worse than Martha Wells' Dominaria. What I find disruptive was the seemingly random capitalization of some words. Okay, I grudgingly accepted seeing Planeswalker again with capital (P), like in the ancient comics. But Hazoret's Spear?
Third - for everyone complaining about predictability - I actually liked how all the stratagems supposed to lead to Bolas's downfall played (at least to some extent) to his hand.
- the thing with the Beacon: devised to call planeswalkers to fight Bolas, in fact planted to the Firemind by Bolas and devised to call walkers for Bolas to harvest, really in fact known by Mizzet and Ugin to make things happen (with expected high casualties for having just a shot to stop Bolas). Leaves Zarek with guilt about being partially responsible for all walkers that died - possible character growth?
- to certain extension, this is also valid for Jace
- the whole Blackblade thing.
- the fact that the newly resurrected Mizzet managed only to take out Kefnet and then fainted. Of course, not exactly Apocalypse levels of hope lost, but it was there.
- And I must admit that I liked the twist with Vraska. Because everybody expected the climax to be different, Jace restoring her memory in crucial moment, her petrifying Bolas or something, everybody rejoices and dances, Ewoks bang on stormtrooper helmets... instead, a kraul telepath restores her mind in the prequels and she kills Isperia and plunges the whole world deeper into crisis just because she failed to control herself about the old injustices, and, like Ral, is partially responsible for what comes next.
- I liked the solution of elimination of the Living Guildpact power by disrupting the leyline nexus. Makes sense.
- And I liked the many hinted future stories to be explored - what happened between Karn and Sarkhan to just coldly acknowledge each other, what is the story of The Wanderer and Sarkhan, it would also be interesting to go back to Davriel after all this, because he went on full badass mode in one moment - but I loved the fact, that despite his card does not reflect that, the book makes use of his spellstealing exactly as in the Children.
- Dack's chapters were immensely satisfying here. Good way of saying farewell.
- I have already spoken about the walker cameos. I am disappointed that the Story Circle walkers in particular did not get a greater role (with the exception of Ajani, of course). Tamiyo, Narset, newly Kiora. Ashiok and Kasmina are not mentioned once at all. Tibalt is in one sentence about leading devils into battle, but not before and not after. I hoped to learn more about The Wanderer, besides three really cool action scenes. At least Yanggu & Yanling were funny.
- overall - the book is different than those in the past. But also of the piles of mess from Wintermute, and the enthusiastic, but amateurish attempts of Doug Beyer (Alara Unbroken, The Secretist). And after all those years, I am not disappointed.
The only two 'Walkers that had absolutely no mention were Kasmina and Ashiok (which is a shame, because Kasmina totally intrigues me as a character and I want information). Tamiyo is mentioned fighting several times (kind of annoying since she originally wasn't there to fight until Kefnet went after her. Narset and Kiora were both mentioned to be recruited by Ajani, and Narset is mentioned a couple more times.
Bolas was cooked and injured by being transported by Ugin to the Meditation plane after he was desparked. Apparently it might have taken months to heal. But this, too, was usually impossible. They removed his Magic and his long life along with his spark, so why he would still survive the BE more or less intact, I don't know. It's canon, though.
In the old continuity, before the Chronicles of Bolas story, Elder Dragons were among the only beings able to survive in the Blind Eternities even without being PW.
- overall - the book is different than those in the past. But also of the piles of mess from Wintermute, and the enthusiastic, but amateurish attempts of Doug Beyer (Alara Unbroken, The Secretist). And after all those years, I am not disappointed.
So you're saying you enjoyed the book because your expectations were lowered by the crap that came before it?
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It could be Core 2020 but it won't be the Fall set, that's a new plane currently. Though are Core sets going to have story elements from now on? I'd like that if so, maybe they'll do another Origins like set with more walkers.
If I had to give a rating “x/10,” I would give 3/10. I’m not a Bolas fanboy, so the rating isn’t coming from that. The rating also only has partial relevance to my earlier postings about stakes, but takes more than ‘deaths’ into account.
1) For an end of the Bolas arc, Nicol Bolas did remarkably little. True, I read this pretty quickly, but I took a lot of screenshots as I was reading which back up my general conclusion here. Bolas was presented as far more dangerous, far more powerful, and far more . . . Nicol Bolas-y in the Amonkhet short stories than he did here. 85% of the time that he was mentioned in War of the Spark, he was described as sitting around and smiling. I can’t say my memory is perfect on this next score, but apart from blasting away Oketra and protecting Liliana for a few seconds by tumbling some buildings, did he do anything substantial before being defeated? I can’t think of anything. He never went toe-to-toe with any walker that I can recall (apart from invisible Ugin when he was desparked). And as the Elder Spell progressed, we are told Bolas is sucking in the odd spark here or there into his gem. Yet we see no god-like Bolas at any point. We don’t see astonishing power that outshines anything he did in the beginning of the story, or in any other story. Bolas simply didn’t feel like a godly threat. How could this happen? He is presented as far more impressive and powerful in the cards than in this story. Very disappointing.
2) I had a general “What the hell?” reaction to many things, including:
- The Beacon. Ral says “[N]either the dragon nor his minions will be able to shut it off. Hell, *I* can’t even shut it off.” They repeat this over and over in the story. But wow, later on in the story, we figure out that we can just cut the power to the Beacon. What an ingenious flaw!
- We are set up in Ixalan, after the friendship/love story between Jace and Vraska, with Jace blocking away Vraska’s memories of him so that they could unlock their alliance when Bolas least expected it. Instead, in this book . . . a kraul telepath unlocked Vraska’s memories long before Bolas’ arrival, but then she . . . went ahead and killed people and Isperia anyway, because she was angry? What? Her whole relationship with Bolas and her actions are so convoluted now that her part in the story was just nonsensical.
- Bolas has an Eternal army created to invade Ravnica, but then: “Eternals, despite their years of training on Amonkhet, stood little chance with their limited free will and limited agency against these Planeswalkers.” What? The Eternals fought with some semblance of free will and agency on Amonkhet. They weren’t exactly marching morons. They also exhibited a lot of their previous skill in combat and killing. Yet . . . Bolas makes them the droids from the Star Wars prequels that need a command ship (Liliana) to do anything? Nonsensical. In War of the Spark they’re just automatons, plodding around instead of being written as truly terrifying. What a lost opportunity.
- The Eternals trained all their lives to be the most dangerous warriors Bolas could bring to bear on Ravnica. Yet throughout the story, almost every named person is killing them easily. They’re being melted, shattered, stabbed (in their eyes? I lost count how many times the author had Eternals stabbed in their eyes, by nobodies too. How do they even have eyes???), chained, on and on. Neheb, the cream of the crop? Easily beheaded. You never really feel like the Eternals are dangerous (but they're slaughtering people! Yes, but they're being slaughtered en masse, too), and that could be because of the writing style. I might address this again later, but the writer seemed to have written a long outline first, and then just added details later. There was a lot of movement in the story without a lot of meat on the bones. You would think that Neheb would have a moment of fear-inducing violence. Nope: Samut jumps on his back and cuts off his head, easily.
- Planeswalkers throughout the story make strange observations. Ral at one point is like, “That leonin Ajani is likely from Alara.” What? There are several, at least, planes with leonins. Teyo also seems to be the writer’s mouthpiece, and the writer mentions almost all the named walker cards throughout the story, almost in passing, like he was crossing names off a list to make sure they made an appearance. (Tibalt leading forces in battle? Doesn’t make sense, but sure.) And apparently Samut knows the name of every Eternal she kills? What? Also, I think it's Teyo near the end who reflects that it was hard to feel a certain way for all the unnamed walkers who died. It's almost like the writer knows we're thinking the same thing.
- I may have been a fool, but weren’t we set up to believe that five of the guilds were being led by five walkers loyal to Bolas, or working indirectly for Bolas? Yet when the story starts, there’s only one walker working with Bolas, directly or indirectly: Dovin. Domri doesn’t appear to be working with Bolas until he watches the Selesnya elemental get torn apart by the god-eternals. Until that point, he was fighting and killing Eternals. Then he ‘woo hoo’ed and went over to Bolas, and was promptly killed. What? What happened to the Raze Boar set-up? What happened to what I felt was the set-up of Domri working with Bolas from the start and then getting betrayed? What? Ral and Kaya are not with Bolas, and Vraska is on Ixalan for half the book.
- The Beacon doesn’t force a planeswalk, it just strongly suggests it. How did Sorin free himself from the wall on Innistrad? We’ll never know. Why didn’t he free himself before this battle? No idea. Obviously he chose to planeswalk to Ravnica, which means he could have planeswalked from the wall any time, which makes that whole part of the Innistrad story meaningless. At most, we are told Sorin and Nahiri are fighting on rooftops. That’s it. What a waste of a story set-up.
- So, nothing biological can pass through the Planar Bridge . . . except for planeswalkers. What? This was another point they hammered ever since the Planar Bridge was made. Yet, in this story, Ob Nixilis, Dack, Karn, and Samut just walk/fly through the portal into Amonkhet. The explanation is that their sparks somehow protect them. Then somehow, for some reason, Sarkhan Vol is on Amonkhet and helped Hazoret restore the Hekma shield (didn’t that take more than one weak god to maintain?). And feel free to inform me otherwise, since I could be wrong, but when did Sarkhan and Karn ever meet?: ‘“Sarkhan Vol.” The golem didn’t sound particularly pleased to see this Vol again. Sarkhan Vol’s attitude toward Karn seemed no more welcoming. “Karn.” Then he turned to the demon and with even less warmth said, “Nixilis.” Ob Nixilis eyed the newcomer with suspicion, “What brought you here?” “I had word – from . . . Goldmane . . . . ”’ Suddenly all these walkers know each other? I may be wrong, and if I am, I will be humbled and thankful for the education.
- People are walking all over the city to recruit guilds to the fight, ***while people are being hunted and slaughtered***. This seemed to be a rejection of reality to me. The city is being attacked and people are being killed, yet we have the heroes mosying to different guilds to try to convince them to take up arms. There is so little sense of urgency!
- Can we talk about the fact that Jace knew a 9-word spell to deactivate the Immortal Sun, because he somehow pulled it from Azor’s head on Ixalan? In the story, they turn *off* the Immortal Sun, then turn it back *on*, which, obviously, no one else would be able to figure out (*cough* Bolas-if-he-was-trapped *cough*). The Immortal Sun also gives god-like power to the one who stands on it, yet . . . neither Dovin nor Bolas stand on it. It just rests on top of an Azorious citadel. Then Chandra, Saheeli, and Lavinia (I think) face down Dovin and hundreds of his thopters, and *survive.* Then Dovin gets ninja stars thrown into his eyes by Lazav. Where was Chandra’s Triumph? Never happened in the story. Dovin escapes, blind, and ‘walks away. And ***no one uses the Immortal Sun against Bolas.***
- Bolas setting up the story of the Blackblade in order to trick the Gatewatch into directing all their attention to it as the weapon to beat him. Possible, but man, did it make my head shake. Bolas doesn’t even brag about the steps he took to make it unable to ever kill an Elder Dragon again (it killed an eternalized god and Elder Demon, but shrug).
- Throughout the story, the writer keeps pointing out that Gideon can’t share his invulnerability and must stand in the way of danger so that he takes the hits. But then, Gideon *somehow* gives his invulnerability to Liliana and takes her curse. And somehow that invulnerability immediately starts reconstituting Liliana, where never before did it ever heal (it was just a full-body barrier of light). That, too, was just head-shaking all around.
- The Immortal Sun was still (re)activated when Gideon died. Yet he has a vision of Theros. Does he truly depart to Theros? This should be impossible. Does he just imagine it? That would make more sense, but we don’t know for sure, so it’s just nice and confusing at the same time.
- The whole thing with Hazoret’s spear piercing the God Bolas, and him being unable to dissolve it despite being a God Bolas because he had been the one who created it, was so, so ridiculous to the point of upsetting me.
- Another favorite: Bolas asks Ugin how Ugin managed to get past the safeguards on the Meditation Plane that Bolas had put up. They must have been considerable, considering Bolas created them. Ugin’s response? “Oh, Sarkhan helped me, because you made him angry.” What? No other explanation.
- The Spirit Gem that Bolas has been carrying around was a piece of Ugin? What? What kind of hand-wavy nonsense is this?
- Ugin rubs it in to Bolas that Bolas didn’t expect Hazoret’s spear to be dangerous to him. But no one knew Hazoret would give her spear to Samut and the good guys, or that it would get into the paws of Niv-Mizzet. So what the hell is he bragging about? Sarkhan didn’t really convince Hazoret to give the spear, as Ugin implies. I quote: Sarkhan: ”I came to Amonkhet with the hope of finding something on this plane that could defeat its former God-Pharaoh.” Hazoret: “Unfortunately, We know of nothing here that can defeat Nicol Bolas.” Sarkhan: “Perhaps your spear?” Hazoret: “Perhaps, though it is unlikely, as it was his creation.” No one knew for sure that the spear would be of any use! And it would take four of them to lift it!
3) Four or five years ago, in these forums, I had put forth the idea that Bolas might try to harvest planeswalker sparks to make himself a God again. It started some heated debates, but the end result is this story clearly shows that the mere spark provides Bolas with more power (how much more? Very ill-defined. We never see super-powered Bolas do anything really impressive). But are the sparks also one’s connection to Magic? When Bolas is harvested by Bontu, all the sparks he had absorbed, including his own, are pulled out and then they dissipate. On the Meditation Plane, Ugin tells Bolas he is no longer long-lived because he is spark-less, and then we find out Bolas is also Magic-less. But Nixilis lost his spark, no? As did Teferi. They both continued to be able to use Magic though. Since this book is officially canon, what impact does this have on the past stories of walkers losing their sparks? Is your tie to Magic a result of your spark? If not, how did Bolas lose all his powers in addition to his ability to planeswalk? Is the spark also the source of Bolas’ long life? I always thought that was a result of him being an Elder Dragon. None of this is ever explained, but it’s all canon.
4) It honestly felt like the writer wrote the story before being told by Wizards which planeswalkers would be involved in the story. It reads like an outline that is only later fleshed out. Planeswalkers are mentioned throughout the story almost in passing, a lot like the writer was told to make sure they pop up somewhere. We have Tibalt leading fighters into battle, which is crazy. We have Angrath trash-talking the Gatewatch even though he only just now found out about the Gatewatch and Bolas, and has no idea of their history. We have strange conversations and strange information about various walkers. I honestly would not be surprised if the first draft of the story simply had blank spaces for the names as placeholders until the writer knew who Wizards wanted him to put in there. It also feels like there was very little literary meat on the bones. I rarely can read through 363 pages in one day, especially on a work day, but there was so little juiciness to the story that it took me no time at all to finish it. It seemed like the reading grade level was pretty low.
Final Thoughts:
This story did not do justice to the conclusion of Bolas’ story arc. We’ve been led up to this moment with so much hype, and all the action takes place in less than a day. Medieval battles took longer to sort themselves out. Bolas barely does anything of note, and all his best laid plans have immediate solutions (cut the power to the Beacon, say the magic words to turn off the Immortal Sun, walk through the portal the close it from the other side, stab Bolas with a spear). How is this anything other than ridiculous? Again, I’m not a Bolas fanboy. I’m not coming at this from the perspective of someone who lives and breathes Bolas. I think, as an objective matter, this is a particularly big dud. Not well-written, way too many strange plot points or throwing out of plot points. Honestly, the story told in the cards is way better. Very disappointing.
I had a lot of other points I wanted to make, but between yesterday and today, I’ve forgotten them.
Sorry for the wall of text.
I don't remember 100% the method behind the portal. I think when it was first being developed, it might have transported a vase, but not the flower, on the same plane. Then Tezz saw the possibility of using it between planes. Was it the energy of the portal surface itself that destroyed organic matter, or the Blind Eternities? It has to interact in some way with the BE, but the portal is instant transfer from one plane to another.
Bolas was cooked and injured by being transported by Ugin to the Meditation plane after he was desparked. Apparently it might have taken months to heal. But this, too, was usually impossible. They removed his Magic and his long life along with his spark, so why he would still survive the BE more or less intact, I don't know. It's canon, though.
It would make sense to maybe focus on the lingering thread of Liliana, but I somehow think that will be in the background for a little while.
Edit: Scratch that last part. Forsaken is said to not be tied to 2020 or Archery. https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/184357948213/will-the-followup-novel-that-takes-place-after-war
Just seems to be a follow up on the Rat/Teyo/Kaya plot thread from War.
Story is very quickly taking a back seat for me. Art, gameplay, social interaction and change are all great aspects of the game. The story is bad.
I don't get how drastic changes in story can occur literally weeks/months apart. If I had this level of consistency at my job? I'd be fired. Really no excuse.
1) It was mentioned that the bridge seems exposed whatever crossed it to the blind eternities and would destroy any organic material without a spark, as well as just being a basic rule of non-sparked organic matter can't cross planes.
2) Liliana mentions she was holding back the eternals from really doing damage.
3) I really don't get what everyone is getting so bent over Gideon. Jeska and Gerrard both had heavenly visions in their deaths, it just meant to be a send off to character as well as give the reader a sense of closure to the character.
4) I don't think sparks themselves where giving bolas power but rather they powered up the elder spell that powered up Bolas. Like how humans through driving cars can reach high speeds but the car needs gas to run, the elder spell was giving Bolas power but needs sparks to run. And since in general magic, knowing a persons name gives you some magic power over them so I think Bolas losing his magic was tied to Ugin stripping him of his name.
5) I don't see the confused on the guilds. Bolas got 5 walkers agents to take power, just happens that Ral, Kaya and Vraska turned against him. He never really wanted control of the guilds, he wanted them to not join together and fight against him and thats what the 5 walkers helped do.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
- now that you mention it, I checked the book, and Kasmina is not mentioned once. Yeah, it seems that Yanling was replaced by her in the cards.
- there's actually quite high number of planeswalker deaths, not just named ones...
Jace didn’t even know the names of the fallen. Hadn’t even realized there were this many Planeswalkers to fall.
Who was that vedalken? Who was that tall elven woman? Who was that four-armed ogre or that very short green-haired man or
that ancient crone or that frightened teenager or…?
a large viashino with lime-green skin materialized right in front of her, surrounded by the distinct gold aura of a Planeswalker.
He had just enough time to hiss, “What izzzz thissss?” before a female Eternal grabbed him from behind - pity to see a viashino walker and not even learned his name...
Rhonas reached out faster than Angrath’s chain, grabbing a human Planeswalker with a shaved head and metal-casting powers...
We’ve kept the Dreadhorde at bay, but it’s a losing battle. Khazi was harvested when an Eternal punched its hand right through the wall and grabbed her by the wrist.” - actually a named one, yet unknown to us.
An unnammed vedalken walker is also seen harvested. The number of walkers arriving is said to be over two hundred...
The cruel thing is that the walkers are super-vulnerable to the Eternals, more than mortals- a firm grip is enough...and the God-Eternals does not have the dignity to explode upon harvesting.
- the saddest thing is that all the harvested sparks in the end dissipate after Bolas is attacked by Bontu and Oketra and the Elderspell fizzles into nothing.
- Mazirek was Bolas's agent, busted by Vraska and killed by his fellow kraul.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
However, what are these prequels you guys are talking about? Those gonna be wednesday articles? Or found somewhere else? Thanks!
Maro menatiend they design the walkers card first and for many of them then tired to match them up with existing characters so maybe they didn't wanna try to force Yangling into that card? Kasmina card certain feels more like a scholar/mentor character rather then a water mage like Yangling and if we wanna be positive maybe she will be featured in a upcoming set?
Yeah the eternals only needing to get a firm grip was pretty scary. The worst I think was when the one walker got harvested when an eternal was able to reach its hand through a hole and grab their wrist.
Django Weller is set to write a prequel novel...or 20 chapter sized short stories, that focus on Ral and seems to be the story for Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance. They will be free but you gotta sign up for them through email through random house;
http://www.randomhousebooks.com/campaign/magic-gathering-newsletter/
no clue when they will be outEDIT: They will be out in June some time. Honesty I think they should have been out before this since they lead directly into this story."You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Holy Moly this just adds salt....
After many complaints about the lack of non-human walkers, they finally mention lots of cool, interesting, totally different types of walkers, only to kill them off namelessly......ouch. Just punch us in the face already. Well we did get three new walkers to get into,....oh yeah they are just regular human types.....uh
I was going to say just this. A Viashino and a Goro walker would be so cool. Don't know what a crone is though
A crone is just an old woman.
I was going to write out my main thoughts on the book, but you pretty much got to most of what I was going to bring up and far more, Perkunas, at least in terms of the plot and continuity issues. I also spent the day reading, and was also disappointed. I feel like the author was rushed, and had to make changes to the story at the last minute. Because there are plenty of important events which play out differently on the cards than in the novel. There weren’t cards for Rat or the Spear of Hazoret, but Illharg, Krenko, Massacre Girl, Fblthp, Feather, and Roalesk all saw print despite none of them being in the book at all.
However, that doesn’t excuse the horribly misplaced focus within the narrative. For example, we got multiple pages of Teyo and company slowly making their way through Rix Maadi, complete with descriptions of every macabre performer, but the reconciliation between Chandra and Nissa, which should have been a major emotional beat, got like two paragraphs. I was similarly flabbergasted by the way Gideon’s death was handled. And Liliana’s change of heart, rather than being a result of her coming to genuinely care for others, as was being set up, was instead motivated by her realizing ‘oh wait being a slave forever is worse than dying’. It’s like every plot thread was burned instead of tied up nicely. And the internal voices of multiple POV figures, like Ral and Kaya, tended to blend together, as if nobody checked to make sure they were even in character. I honestly liked most of the story more on the cards.
It wasn’t all bad, though. Teyo was amusing as a novice mage way out of his comfort zone, and Rat was extremely funny and adorable. I also chuckled aloud here and there at some of the jokes. But overall, yes, the book was mediocre at best, and a big letdown. Sanderson’s novella and Drayden’s shorts are both leagues better, and either of them would have handled things with more care had they been given the reins.
It sounds like a lot of the issues come from continuity problems and being rushed. This has been a pattern with the story, so I wouldn't lay it at the feet of the author. I don't think creative has a well thought out plan for the story or fails to communicate it to the authors. If this was the first time a novel hit with retcons and continuity issues, it would be different, but it seems like this happens every time. There is one common factor here, and it's not the authors, who have turned on good work elsewhere.
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What parts gave the romance vibe? They seem to just be friends.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I could be wrong, but I believe i read somewhere that the author only had like 9 months to write the book.
I still don't get how they couldn't give Dack a card as a last hoorah.
Final thoughts: I am giving this 7,5/10.
First of all, it was a titanic effort to describe such a conflict believably. With the chosen method of different POVs and not an omniscient narrator, some things were just hinted and not explored deeper, like Sorin-Nahiri fight. But that is okay, because otherwise it would be a damned mess. Choosing a rookie walker like Teyo to be basically the main spectator was a good move. Yes, someone would complain that it means we got several pages of Teyo and the company underground, and just like two paragraphs of some emotional reunion..but that is how it is meant to be.
Second, I liked the writing. Simply liked. It is no worse than Martha Wells' Dominaria. What I find disruptive was the seemingly random capitalization of some words. Okay, I grudgingly accepted seeing Planeswalker again with capital (P), like in the ancient comics. But Hazoret's Spear?
Third - for everyone complaining about predictability - I actually liked how all the stratagems supposed to lead to Bolas's downfall played (at least to some extent) to his hand.
- the thing with the Beacon: devised to call planeswalkers to fight Bolas, in fact planted to the Firemind by Bolas and devised to call walkers for Bolas to harvest, really in fact known by Mizzet and Ugin to make things happen (with expected high casualties for having just a shot to stop Bolas). Leaves Zarek with guilt about being partially responsible for all walkers that died - possible character growth?
- to certain extension, this is also valid for Jace
- the whole Blackblade thing.
- the fact that the newly resurrected Mizzet managed only to take out Kefnet and then fainted. Of course, not exactly Apocalypse levels of hope lost, but it was there.
- And I must admit that I liked the twist with Vraska. Because everybody expected the climax to be different, Jace restoring her memory in crucial moment, her petrifying Bolas or something, everybody rejoices and dances, Ewoks bang on stormtrooper helmets... instead, a kraul telepath restores her mind in the prequels and she kills Isperia and plunges the whole world deeper into crisis just because she failed to control herself about the old injustices, and, like Ral, is partially responsible for what comes next.
- I liked the solution of elimination of the Living Guildpact power by disrupting the leyline nexus. Makes sense.
- And I liked the many hinted future stories to be explored - what happened between Karn and Sarkhan to just coldly acknowledge each other, what is the story of The Wanderer and Sarkhan, it would also be interesting to go back to Davriel after all this, because he went on full badass mode in one moment - but I loved the fact, that despite his card does not reflect that, the book makes use of his spellstealing exactly as in the Children.
- Dack's chapters were immensely satisfying here. Good way of saying farewell.
- I have already spoken about the walker cameos. I am disappointed that the Story Circle walkers in particular did not get a greater role (with the exception of Ajani, of course). Tamiyo, Narset, newly Kiora. Ashiok and Kasmina are not mentioned once at all. Tibalt is in one sentence about leading devils into battle, but not before and not after. I hoped to learn more about The Wanderer, besides three really cool action scenes. At least Yanggu & Yanling were funny.
- overall - the book is different than those in the past. But also of the piles of mess from Wintermute, and the enthusiastic, but amateurish attempts of Doug Beyer (Alara Unbroken, The Secretist). And after all those years, I am not disappointed.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Also, I'd have not deprived us of one of the most poignant parts of the book we were looking forward to- Jace calling Vraska captain, and restoring her memories. I get why they wanted to have Vraska be more of a "I can't go back" role, and redeem herself, but damn that felt hollow.
The only two 'Walkers that had absolutely no mention were Kasmina and Ashiok (which is a shame, because Kasmina totally intrigues me as a character and I want information). Tamiyo is mentioned fighting several times (kind of annoying since she originally wasn't there to fight until Kefnet went after her. Narset and Kiora were both mentioned to be recruited by Ajani, and Narset is mentioned a couple more times.
In the old continuity, before the Chronicles of Bolas story, Elder Dragons were among the only beings able to survive in the Blind Eternities even without being PW.
So you're saying you enjoyed the book because your expectations were lowered by the crap that came before it?
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