If you’re confused about the title, you should be. I generally write two columns on this site. One is Acts of Terrorism, which is generally geared to me talking about a topic; it’s a catch-all for anything that doesn’t fit into my other column, Reign of Terror, which is strictly reviews. I recently read the new Magic: The Gathering (MtG) novel War of the Spark, but I haven’t talked about MtG in years. I had fully intended to review the stories concerning each successive block (essentially story arcs) but I couldn’t bring myself to keep writing about something I’d grown so dissatisfied with; what had been passion had become apathy, which is a death knell for storytelling. When I heard, however, that Greg Weisman would be writing an MtG novel, I quickly caught up with the happenings in the story before purchasing and reading the story.

Now do you see why the title is the way it is? There’s a lot I want to talk about, so this won’t strictly be a review, and it for sure will not be a play-by-play of the plot. I’ve decided the best way to handle this is to get the review out of the way first, and then we can speak about more meta aspects. Yes, there will be spoilers.



The Prose

The story is told from the perspective, somewhat, of multiple different lead characters: Vraska, Ral Zarek, Kaya, Dack Fayden, Jace Beleren, Teyo Verada, Liliana Vess, Nicol Bolas and Gideon Jura (there are others, but these take up the bulk of the chapters). The narrative is always third person, but the writer gives us peeks into internal monologues or quips the central character of each chapter is having. The writing style itself does not shift to the match the tone of the character central to the chapter; it’s a laid back, mildly quirky, casual tone throughout. I understand that with so many lead characters, it would become quite jarring jumping from one writing tone to another, but that’s emblematic of the issues that are endemic to this novel: it aims high (too high) and misses in stunning fashion.

The use of language left me wanting more. It felt as though this was a young adult novel—the kind you’d see kids in the 7th or 8th grade reading during breaks. It’s often said by the stewards of Magic that people on average play for nine years, so obviously this couldn’t be geared to young teenagers, and the bulk of its players are college age or older, and thus I’m left wondering “Who is this written for?” The vocabulary never goes above the ninth grade reading level, and the use of more “flowery” prose is non-existent. It’s all a very dry, very pragmatic drone of words, devoid of anything that would require reading into. This novel reads like a friend kicking up their feet on a desk in your living room and telling you a story. Some might find that endearing, but I require more, especially given that MtG styles itself as an epic fantasy tale of magic, wizards and warriors.

Themes

The closest thing to a theme I can suss out from this piece is redemption. Yes, it’s a bit of a trite and overused theme, but it seems to be what the writer might’ve been aiming for. It is, however, diluted by the fact that so many things in the novel run counter to that idea.

I suppose one could argue that teamwork is also a theme of this, given that it takes everyone working together to topple the big bad, but this novel is ostensibly in the Fantasy genre, and this is a very typical convention of said genre. I’m reaching here to find a resonant point to this story.

The Characters

Oh my, there’s just so many. To make this easily digestible, I will do them in sub-sectional list form:

Jace – His chapters revolve around him feeling guilty and “woe is me”ing about things he would have no means to reasonably affect. I’m not critiquing this aspect of the character, since a trait like this is something that you could milk many stories out of. That is, a character who sees others suffering and looks inward. However, this trait is never really addressed by the novel and his character ends in the same place the novel started. Liliana – I have so much to say about this character, and you bet I will once we’re out of the “review” portion of this. For now, let’s just say her character starts self-serving and regretful and ends self-serving and regretful. Dack Fayden – This is the character that comes to closest to having a character arc. Dack is a character that got his start in a comic book series, and made his in-game debut (and only appearance) after his comic got canceled, but was relegated to a supplementary set. He has also never been involved in any of the weekly stories they post on their website. This essentially makes him a C-list character. He is a thief, and as such had every inclination to run away from the battle and save himself. He chose to, however, remain on the plane and help when he saw everyone else giving it their all. Solid character arc (even if it is a complete regurgitation of Jace’s character arc), but he dies in the end, proving his original instincts correct. When he saw his death coming, he tried to run away, but was prevented by external factors; he died before he changed as a person, and the book acknowledges this, so his character arc is bungled. Gideon Jura – Gideon’s character arc, in the current storyline, has been that his martyr complex is bad. It’s noted time and time again that his short sightedness and need to jump into danger are bad things. Yet, by the end of the story, those are the things that save the day. To compound matters, it’s presented as a heroic end. So what’s his arc? Killing yourself is bad, but if everything works out it’s okay? Starts as a heroic archetype and dies as a heroic archetype. Teyo Verada – He’s the fish out of water character that is usually the lead in these Fantasy novels. The only problem is he isn’t around for everything and never amounts to anything. The end of the novel even points out how he was so disconnected from everyone that he didn’t feel the weight of any of the losses. He does develop confidence in himself though, so that’s a good thing, I guess. Nicol Bolas – Starts as a Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain and ends the story as such. Not much worth talking about here.

I won’t list every character, since their arcs are even harder to find that these. They were certainly involved in the plot, but that’s just characters moving from point A to B to C. Hardly worth talking about. No character truly stands out because the novel’s attention is so divided. No character gets any pathos because the plot requires them to always be on the move and always cutting discussions and conversations short. I think back to one of my first MtG novels, Test of Metal, and how it had an entire chapter of Tezzeret reminiscing about his upbringing, and then the writer expertly weaves it into the present and has it define who Tezzeret is. It didn’t advance the plot, but it did make you see why we should care about the plot at all. An approach like that is only possible in a novel that knows which master it is serving and which story it wants to tell.

Final Verdict

I’ve been a fan of Greg Weisman since I was a wee child watching Gargoyles on television, to now where I eagerly await the release of the second half of Young Justice; I do not levy much blame for this novel on him. He did the best he could with material like this. Most of the book was characters running to and fro because the setting necessitated less talk and more action—action so bland that I doubt even a super-powered Zack Snyder could make it interesting.

You know, they make no qualms that they want to be like Marvel, with this novel releasing the same week as Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, but even the worst Marvel movie knows to have a theme (no matter how flimsy it is); knows to have a story that isn’t just a battle; knows to have moments where characters just talk. This novel falls well short.

I don’t give number or letter grades (grading art is banal). The final takeaway from this novel is it’s a waste of time unless you are extremely invested in these characters and just want to see an end. I cannot recommend it unless that is where you’re coming from.

Terrorking’s Thoughts – My Journey

I care very little about the novel, to be honest. I mentally checked out of the story after Oath of the Gatewatch. I explained at length in that particular article, which you can read here. To really get into my thoughts, it’s necessary to explain my MtG journey. I stopped playing a certain other card game, and needed to transition to another, so a friend suggested Magic: The Gathering to me. I tried a Modern duel, using some mono-Black deck versus his U/B deck. I bounced off the game because nothing hooked me (and not because Grave Titan, Night of Soul’s Betrayal and Creeping Tar Pit are brutal!).

Fast forward a couple months to September 2013, and I was shown the Theros trailer, along with a full art version of Heliod, God of the Sun by my friend. These were certainly cool, but not enough to get me to play. That’s when he introduced me to the Eldrazi. I was instantly hooked, not unlike a Zendikari vampire. I ravenously consumed the articles about creating the Eldrazi, I built Eldrazi decks, and bought the Zendikar novel In the Teeth of Akoum because it had an Eldrazi on the cover (I didn’t read it). I then devoted all of my attention to Theros as I eagerly awaited a return to Zendikar so I could get more Eldrazi goodness. I enjoyed the weekly Theros stories, so I bought the first Theros novel, and read through it in a day or two. This, obviously, left a hole, so I went back and purchased Agents of Artifice, Test of Metal and The Purifying Fire.

The first one I read was The Purifying Fire. This novel was written by Laura Resnick, who is primarily known for writing romance novels, and Chandra was the protagonist. The novel is notable for introducing Gideon Jura, a character Resnick had complete free rein in creating, so long as he was a white mage working for an antagonist. By God did she do a fantastic job introducing Gideon. Everything about him was opposite to Chandra, making him a perfect foil. Where Chandra was tempermental, Gideon was calm; where Chandra was chaotic, Gideon was structured; where Chandra loosed uncontrollable torrents of flame, Gideon was a simple warrior using a corporeal weapon (and let’s not forget he was introduced using a whip, the ultimate weapon of submission and control).

The bulk of the novel was these two characters pursuing and fleeing from each other, before getting closer and developing something deeper. I’d never been one for romance, but this story had me cheering for them to get together, because Gideon helped her so much. He himself was a genuinely good person who threw himself in danger to help everyone he could. I instantly became a fan of him, even though I usually hate that character type. Resnick just sold him so well. I eventually read through all the other novels, and went back into Magic’s past to read about Urza, Mishra, Leshrac etc. Fast forward to 2015 and I couldn’t be more excited when Battle for Zendikar was announced… and more disappointed after it came and ended.

That story arc made me stop reading, especially after Magic Origins retconned the backstory Chandra had told to Gideon in The Purifying Fire in its climax. I came back for a brief stint in Kaladesh where it was explained that she had lied to him (which doesn’t make any sense, since the whole point of her confession was to get rid of the guilt so the purifying fire wouldn’t consume her), and promptly quit again. Now imagine my disgust when the War for the Spark novel (and many previous stories) refer to Chandra’s relationship with Gideon as just a crush so they can pair her up with Nissa (don’t even get me started on her; I read In the Teeth of Akoum).

Now let’s circle back to Theros. The two Theros novels told a cool, if a bit clunky, story. It detailed our reluctant heroine, Elspeth, picking up her sword and coming into her own as a hero. Her story, unfortunately, ended with her death. At the time, I was heartbroken because I was so invested, and that’s great. That’s what any author wants! Imagine my disappointment, then, when they showed Elspeth isn’t really dead and will return in some future story.

What’s the point of me bringing up all this, you might be wondering. It’s pretty simple: MtG isn’t consistent. It doesn’t tell a consistent story where characters and events unfold as they should in a given situation. Characters become what the plot needs them to become in any given story arc, and often these arcs end with the characters reverting to how they were at the start. Not only that, but plot elements are played with in a fast and loose way. For example, it was stated in the past by Urza that only silver could travel through time, but 15 years later the writers just casually said “No, it’s just Urza’s method that leaves only silver.” It’s an obvious retcon that didn’t need to happen. But that’s a microcosm of how MtG treats its own lore.

I relayed my journey thought MtG’s lore to you so that you could see what I’m getting at: the story punishes you for getting invested. It punishes you for caring about what’s happening and, most importantly, for taking it seriously. There’s a kind of nihilism in there that I can admire, but it is so obviously unintentional that I cannot respect the artistry behind it.

Terrorking’s Thoughts – Liliana

When I said I wouldn’t talk about the plot much, I meant the plot of the novel. There’s so much I want to get into with the plot since I stopped covering it, but let’s table that for now. Let’s, instead, talk about one of the worst characters I’ve ever seen be so prominently featured in a professional work: Liliana Vess.

Liliana is a very common character archetype. The selfish, token evil teammate. The crux of her character is that she made a bargain with demons, and quickly learned she’s getting more than she expected… in theory, anyway. These demons made it pretty clear exactly what they expected from her in return for the gift of youth they promised. Her time was then spent hunting these demons down to kill them so that she wouldn’t have to be in their service anymore.

None of this works. Faustian deals in fiction work because:

The person making the deal is caught off guard by the fine print in the contract. The character enters the contract for noble reasons. The character is already evil, makes the deal, and remains the bad guy.

Liliana is none of these. She entered into a contract for selfish reasons, knew what it entailed, and yet the story expects us to sympathize with her. Why on Earth should I care about her as a person? To make matters worse, she never gets comeuppance in any of these stories. She participated in the killing of thousands of people on Ravnica, yet the novel wants you to feel sorry for her in the end when she chose to partake in Bolas’ plan until she saw an opening to escape him. The novel expects you to think Gideon did the right thing in sacrificing himself so that she could live (I wonder if this is how Resnick intended for her character to die).

Then, to show that she hadn’t at all grown as a character, she planeswalked away so that the Ravnicans couldn’t punish her for killing literally thousands of them. This is much the same case as her story with Garruk, who wasn’t allowed to get his vengeance on her because other characters intervened.

Her character is stagnant, and the writers keep treating her like she’s a sympathetic character when she simply isn’t. The writers keep thinking we’re happy when she gets away without suffering any kind of comeuppance. There is no catharsis there because there is no earning of escape.

Terrorking’s Thoughts – Nicky B

Ten years. That’s how long we we’ve been told about Bolas’ secret master plan. At least six decades. That’s how long we’re told Bolas’ plan has been in motion, which means he’s spent even longer formulating it. They said releasing the Eldrazi was all a part of Bolas’ master plan. They said killing Ugin was part of his master plan. And then in the last four years, they really started to unveil what he was planning.

I wasn’t reading the story at the time, but when I learned what his master stroke was, I couldn’t help but laugh and be disappointed. All those years, all of that vague writing from the Creative Team… and all it amounted to was the blue zombies Eternals. A 25000 year old dragon planeswalker who’d been doing his evil for eons, and ten years of real life storytelling amounted to just a zombie army.

It was woefully uncreative. Then they added the Shang Tsung-esque soul eating to it, and I still remained woefully unimpressed. It’s such paint-by-the-numbers writing that showed Magic was best at creating worlds and telling large scale stories, but the second you get named characters involved and add nuance, everything falls apart.

This isn’t even getting into the plot of the novel. He’s so thoroughly uninteresting in it. Everyone keeps telling you in the story how horrible Bolas and the blue zombies are, but they don’t kill any important characters (except Dack, who is a D-tier character) and Gideon chooses to die.

In addition to this, the main characters only accomplish anything because Nicol Bolas is dedicated to not doing anything. He lets them undo all his plans. He only lost because he wasn’t bothered to try to win. That’s doesn’t make your heroes look good, and it doesn’t create a compelling plot; it’s a comedy of errors. Things only happen because Bolas was his own worst enemy.

There’s also a definite need to suspend disbelief because a 25000 year old dragon who’d been planning this masterstroke for a century or two shouldn’t be outsmarted by a bunch of 20-somethings who are half-distracted by their own young adult novel-esque angst. I half expected Bolas to get out of his throne, slip on a banana peel and break his neck because he was so woefully incompetent. I can only believe the writers realized they made him too powerful and decided he needed to not do anything.

The one bright side was “At least this story arc is over,” but then they didn’t bring this story to a real conclusion. Instead of killing Bolas’ character off, they stuffed him and Ugin (who is another can of worms. They devote a whole block to bringing him back, adds a lot of grandiosity to his name and then do nothing with him for years until now, where he shows up at the end) on a prison plane. They wrote the dragons out of the story without concluding their involvement so they can bring them back later when they run out of ideas. This is Magic’s writing in its purest form: always leaving untied plot threads dangling just in case. This is unsatisfactory storytelling in its zenith.

I cannot think of a better way to end this (admittedly overly-long) write-up.