War of the Spark: Ravnica (Magic: The Gathering)
War of the Spark
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3.9 • 14 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Experience the first official adventure in Magic: The Gathering’s multiverse in nearly a decade as the ultimate battle begins on Ravnica.
Teyo Verada wants nothing more than to be a shieldmage, wielding arcane energies to protect his people from his world’s vicious diamondstorms. When he’s buried alive in the aftermath of his first real tempest, the young mage’s life is about to end before it can truly begin—until it doesn’t. In a flash, a power he didn’t know he had whisks him away from his home, to a world of stone, glass, and wonder: Ravnica. Teyo is a Planeswalker, one of many to be called to the world-spanning city—all lured by Nicol Bolas, the Elder Dragon. Bolas lays siege to the city of Ravnica, hungry for the ultimate prize: godhood itself. His unparalleled magic and unstoppable army appear poised to bring the city to utter ruin.
Among those who stand in the way of Bolas’s terrifying machinations are the Gatewatch, Planeswalkers sworn to defeat evil, no matter where it’s found. But as they work to unite the other mages and mount a defense of the city and its people, the terrifying truth of Bolas’s plan becomes clear. The Elder Dragon has prepared a trap to ensnare the most powerful mages from across the Multiverse—and it’s too late to escape.
As forces great and small converge on the city and the battle rages, the stakes could not be higher. If the Gatewatch falters and the Planeswalkers fail, the curtain will fall on the age of heroes—and rise on the infinite reign of Nicol Bolas.
Customer Reviews
Could’ve been better executed...
Mini War of the Spark Book Review:
Positives
1. Like the resolution of the Bolas situation
2. Creates a possible heel turn opportunity for certain Planeswalkers down the road.
3. Like the pacing
4. I understand why Garruk is being saved for the second book now.
Negatives:
1. Dialogue is too general and lacks the depths I’m used to from the magic story staff. Weisman doesn’t have a deep knowledge of some of the characters to make the character voices sound real. This makes me sad because I love Weisman’s character development in Gargoyles and Young Justice. It Ignores some of Gideons and Liliana development from previous stories.
2. Teyo is an interesting character but has more book space than beloved non-Gatewatch planeswalkers. If you are into planeswalkers that aren’t involved in the Gatewatch you will not find satisfaction with them in this story.
3. Wastes the potential of some planeswalker storylines.
4. I wish this story was all in one book, instead of dealing with the consequences in the second book in September.
Overall:
I hope Magic story has mini stories that fills out some of the story points from this book. I enjoyed parts of this story, but I am glad I got the less expensive ebook. Do not buy the hardcover.
Disappointing mix of terrible dialog and heavy handed exposition
Unreadable mess. Really tried to like it but with quotes like “Flunky supreme” spoken by a centuries old necromancer and the messiah du jour lounging on a couch with his best bud the time travelling wizard destroyed my willing suspension of disbelief and I could not get past it.
Whether this is YA or not, treating kids like they are idiots, and populating their stories with more idiots serves no one.
The settings described are tone deaf. The characters say and do things completely out of character. The story is told by repeatedly smashing tropes over the readers head. The narrative is heavy handed and filled with terrible exposition. Any story that starts with fart jokes is just plain lazy.
This is bad MtG fan-fiction. Worse, the author has obviously never played Magic.
Might have worked better as a graphic novel.