Reading the Magic Novels

[dillonkbase]

I have always been curious about reading the novels tied to the game. Are they good? Do they have an order? Do you have a favorite?

I have been playing magic since Iceage, and have traveled through the planes with my cards and their flavor, but are these books worth reading?


Hmm.. wonder if they are on kindle?

[cdr]

Everyone seems to have fond memories of the Whispering Woods trilogy from when we were kids (I do), but I don't know how well they hold up today.

I still own and love the old Magic comic books. Haven't tried the new ones.

[Megadeus]

I think the most recent ones (ISD and RTR) are on kindles only. Only in digital form. The Artifacts cycle is solid, and I liked Alara Unbroken a lot.

[Julian23]

Everything I know about the Magic lore came from reading flavor texts. Back in school, I knew each and every flavour text of all Tempest/Urza Block cards.

Am I the only one who wishes someone made a movie out of the whole Weatherlight cycle? Considering how big and diverse the whole Dominaria setting is, this has the potential to be really really epic if done right.

[anonymos]

I have the majority of the novels. I highly recommend everyone read The Brothers War. The Ice Age cycle is neat. The ones that feature Kamahl are also well done, but I can't remember which ones they are off the top of my head. Contact me if you have questions.

[Di]

Everything I know about the Magic lore came from reading flavor texts. Back in school, I knew each and every flavour text of all Tempest/Urza Block cards.

Am I the only one who wishes someone made a movie out of the whole Weatherlight cycle? Considering how big and diverse the whole Dominaria setting is, this has the potential to be really really epic if done right.

http://shop.nationofbob.com/magicposter2.jpg

lol, I got this mock poster from an Inquest in like 1999.

[Koby]

I've read the Brothers War, the Thran book, Ravnica cycle (original), Time-spiral block, and the Masques block cycle. They are easy to digest and light reading. I recently (2-3 years ago?) picked up the new Planeswalker series the one about Jace and Chandra, but those were so awful that I don't recommend them. I recommend the Brothers War (Urza's back-story) and the Weatherlight continuation that leads into Tempest. Ravnica was also very very good. The Thran was mostly an interesting dive into Phyrexians, but it's a one-of so nothing much more in that setting.

I don't recommend the newer ones unless you enjoy novels geared for 12 year old reading level. It's a little too simple for my tastes nowadays.

[Aggro_zombies]

To be fair, the MtG novels are not really A-grade fantasy, or fiction in general. The quality dropped dramatically with Wintermute, or so I've been told, but I haven't read any of the recent ones.

The Kamigawa block novels were good, mostly because Toshi was a very interesting character. The original Mirrodin novels read like a shitty Terminator knockoff that stretched through three books because they needed to stretch it through three books. The Onslaught novels were awful and are partially non-canon; those were the last books for MtG that author wrote. I don't remember much about the Odyssey block novels, except that they were somewhat uninspired and that Kamahl was like Batman in the sense that he was always the least interesting part of his own story. The Invasion block novels were okay. Masques was okay, and Nemesis was pretty good, but I heard Prophecy was terrible and didn't read it. The Artifacts cycle books were pretty good, as was the Tempest/Weatherlight anthology.

EDIT:

lol, I got this mock poster from an Inquest in like 1999.
Ah-nold as Karn would be amazing. "Gerrard, get to da Legacy! Naow!"

[nedleeds]

The cards spoiled the ending so I never read them.

Don't mourn for me. This is my destiny.

[n00bas4urus_r3x]

I had that InQuest poster up in my room forever growing up. I was too young to get the April Fools joke, and my heart was crushed when they never released it, lol. No joke though, Peter Jackson should get on board with the Weatherlight saga. It'd be mad bank for WOTC.

MM and Nemesis were decent reads, original Rav story was pretty good. Those are the only ones I've recall reading. I liked reading them because some of the flavor text was directly from the story lines and playing with the cards after I read the books was a more bonding experience. Put the game into an RPG-esque mode. I always thought it would be fun to make story line theme decks.

[phonics]

I've only read the nemesis and prophecy novels, but this was a long time ago, basically when they were first released so I barely remember much of them. Ive read summaries of the brothers war and Weatherlight story arc, which were pretty awesome. From what ive glazed over, everything after that huge all encompassing arc (tempest, urza, invasion blocks) has not had the same epic feel, though I wasn't into magic from odyssey to zendikar.

[Lord Seth]

The Weatherlight Saga is pretty good, and is comprised of the Artifacts Cycle, Rath and Storm, and Mercadian Masques through Apocalypse. I'm not sure what's the best order to read the Artifacts Cycle and Rath and Storm (The Brothers War, then Rath and Storm, then the rest of the Artifact Cycle? Or Rath and Storm, then the Artifact Cycle? Or the Artifact Cycle, then Rath and Storm?), but those are what you start with. If it helps, The Brothers War is basically Antiquities, Rath and Storm is Weatherlight-Tempest-Stronghold-Exodus, and the rest of the Artifacts Cycle is the Urza's Saga block. Then just read Mercadian Masques through Apocalypse in the same order the actual sets came out. I think you can skip Prophecy pretty easily though...I don't remember it contributing much of anything to the overall story, kind of like the set itself (honestly, Prophecy felt like they needed a third set but had no place in the story for it, so they just whipped out something just for it).

The Odyssey cycle was a step down, but still decent. I really missed the way the story used to be on the cards, but I seem to be in the minority on that. The Onslaught cycle was a major step down, though. I remember thinking the Onslaught book was okay, but Legions...ugh. The whole thing is padded out with dumb filler that really goes nowhere. The worst of it all is that I remember really looking forward to seeing the Slivers in the book, and they never show up or are even mentioned. The whole Slivers/Riptide Project would have made for much better filler than the dumb stuff they did come up with. Scourge suffered from many of the same problems. Kamahl's stuff was okay in it, but way too much time is spent on some inconsequential characters who end up not really amounting to much.

I stopped reading the novels after that (read a little of Mirrodin but lost interest), so I can't really comment much on them outside of the fact I did read The Quest for Karn and that it was really overwraught with filler. I will say that I liked the two Planeswalker novels I read, Agents of Artifice and The Purifying Fire (haven't read Test of Metal so I can't comment on it).

So if you want recommendations, I'd suggest The Weatherlight Saga and the Planeswalker novels. I've heard the Ravnica books were good, though I haven't read them and can't give a comment.

[dillonkbase]

Sounds like I should start with the brothers war????

[Phoenix Ignition]

I've read the Odyssey block and the Mirrodin block. Odyssey was pretty cool when I was 15 but still just about average for what I was reading back then. I'd be interested to see if they still hold up now, but it does get a boost for being the lore behind the cards we always play. Mirrodin I'm surprised I got through, they were quick reads but I don't think it had much depth. I wouldn't recommend that block.