A Review Of War Of The Spark: Ravnica (Magic: The Gathering) by Greg Weisman 

Many Magic the Gathering players ask: "Prof, how can I read some of your written work?"

That intro was beautiful, Brian. It was great getting a glimpse behind the curtain and seeing how personal this was for you. Thank you for opening up and congratulations on being able to marry your passions in this video. :)

There's a planeswalker discord server, that's how all of them know each other already

"Karn smash skull, KARN SMASH SKULL!!!!!" - Karn, supposed scion of Urza

“At some point failed authors become English teachers...” Epic. You should upload some of these books, I’m sure your community would read them.

I think this is in the running for the best video you've ever made, perfectly combining the two things you're amazing at.

"Teyo is essentially useless throughout the story..." I mean have you seen his card, it's on flavour!!!!

Many Magic the Gathering players ask the question, when will WotC hire The Professor to write a Magic novel?

You should review older MtG books. I'd watch those reviews.

Sorin and Nahiri characterization was even more underwhelming imo. They fought in the back ground... close to the end of the book. They are fighting together?????? LIKE WHAT HAPPENED GREG I NEED TO KNOW HOW THE HELL DID SORIN GET OUT DID THEY COME TO A COMPROMISE?!

Wizards, you were suposed to ban Teferi from Standard not from the novel.

Regular Ugin: Programms a Hedron network that could trap three beasts that gourge on ENTIRE PLANES and outsmarts his brother, who is such a mastermind he could completely nullify a mono-blue Planeswalkers Magic, then manages to come back after being killed by said brother. Twice. War of the Spark Ugin: pOt meEt keTtle

I'm reminded of Ursula le Guin's speech at the National Book Awards in 2014. "Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximise corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship." This certainly doesn't sound like the work of an impassioned writer (or editing team) who loves and wanted to produce quality magic lore. Also, I'll neeeeever get over the way they treated Domri Rade in this storyline. The GRUUL leader SWEARS ALLEGIANCE to a Green-less dictator...tbh i've had issues with how wizards depicts the gruul in general (savages) but this doesn't even fit with that simplistic depiction! Sigh

Actually, Tibalt is in War of the Spark. Page 236: "From the south, Tibalt and the diabolist Davriel Cane led a handful of his demons alongside Izzet weaponsmiths and Orzhov knights, giants and gargoyles into battle." It's only a one-off mention, so I can see how you missed it.

"They had slept together, right?" 😂😂😂

Really disappointing that WotC would let such a mess be published especially for such a momentous chapter of the MTG storyline.

You should read the Children on the Nameless novel. It was free and some how seems like it was a real book written by a real author. There is a place for War of the Spark Ravnica style novels, but it sounds like they wanted to cater for a mass market when the mass market isn't going to be reading the book.

this book was most likely written in a month. Weisman probably was given a list of things he had to add in the novel, and just chugged along without any real investment in what he was writing

After seeing the trailer, it seems like they wanted to make a movie more than a book, and so wrote their book more like a movie than an actual novel.

I wished I'd seen this review before I bought the book and rushed through it... Chalk that up to a recent hunger for fantasy literature. You said that Tibalt is missing from the story, and that isn't true... there's a passage that mentions him fighting side-by-side with Davriel Cane. However, like many of the characters you mentioned, it's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment. I would say, however, that it wasn't so much like the climax of Justice League stretched out into a novel as it was akin to a novelization of Battle of The Five Armies. Not The Hobbit. The reprehensible Peter Jackson film. Complete with plot cul-de-sacs, vague and inconsistent characterization, and an ending that feels unearned.

"create a 'traffic jam'"???? out of all the descriptors this guy really chose traffic jam... jesus christ...

Rated D for Dack. We will never forget you, my red-handed homie.

"Cairne, Teferi, what do you think of my plan? Does it seem a viable strategy?" 'ok" "great see you next block"

Thanks for this review, Prof! I read this book the morning it came out, and I sent Wizards my own thoughts on Friday, but of course I’m never going to hear back from them. I’m glad that someone with your visibility came out with such an apt review. I have a bunch to say, so let me get started: I knew, going into it, that this would be a book written for roughly a teenage audience. I knew the writing would be simple, but, like you mentioned with the Ixalan stories, doesn’t inherently preclude the novel from being satisfying anyway. I just had to be sure to adjust my expectations accordingly. Much like how Mark Rosewater talks about card complexity, board complexity, and strategic complexity, I knew that the book on its surface would have to be simple enough for general audiences to grok, but that there could still be quite a lot of richness and depth for those who knew how to look for it. I also knew that the story wouldn’t go in the direction I wanted it to. As someone who is perpetually frustrated by this, not just with Magic but with basically everything (it’s one of the reasons I became a writer), I knew going into War of the Spark that I’d have to be prepared for events to unfold differently from what I wished for. So I feel that I went into this novel with expectations that were properly tuned, and I was prepared to be-and hoping to be-singularly impressed by Greg Weisman, whose work I had never read before. The very first scene, with Niv-Mizzet and Ugin, did not inspire confidence. Still, I can forgive that. It was better than the characterization of Ugin that we got during the Core 2019 story articles. Dragons are hard to write. But in the first several chapters, I began to realize three things: 1) Events would “just happen,” with no emotional dimension and no structural set-up ahead of time. The most iconic example of this came late in the book when Nissa gathered the representatives of the ten guilds and cast the spell that brought Niv-Mizzet back to life. It wasn’t set up ahead of time. It wasn’t a goal that anyone was striving for, or making progress toward. It just happened. And it happened with zero emotional fanfare. And that was the whole book. It just happened, with no feeling and no rhyme or reason. 2) Weisman either has no idea how to do characterizations, or he was specifically instructed not to go down that road. The vast majority of the hundred or so named characters are literally not characterized at all. For the handful who do get some characterization, the result is exceedingly poor. We rarely get inside these characters’ heads, even though the POVs are frequently set there. We rarely see them think about much of anything outside the immediate matters at hand or their own personal preoccupations. It’s like all the characters in the book are cardboard cutouts, who are both “there” and “not there” at once. Dack and Rat are the only exceptions I can remember. 3) There is no story here. Like you mentioned, the vast majority of the book is just generic battle scenes against generic monster-type enemies with no personality, no motivations of their own, and no dramatic gravity. Events unfold toward their preordained conclusion, but there is no actual STORY: no dramatic structure, no development of conflicts, no tension, no sense of momentum. I know that teenage-level storytelling tends to make the first act mostly filler, so I gave the book plenty of time to finally start its wheels rolling, but it never happened. Even when the big stuff started happening: Jace’s seven plans (lol), Gideon making his run at Bolas, Nissa resurrecting Niv-Mizzet…even then, it wasn’t interesting and didn’t feel like a story. Let me talk about Nahiri. My favorite character in Magic right now. It was Page 172 when she first appeared. She was, inexplicably, one of the people present when Jace telepathically called out for everyone to gather to come up with a plan. She was described as looking around anxiously for someone. And that was it. No dialogue. (In fact she has no dialogue in the entire book.) She played no further role in this scene, and wasn’t even mentioned again until many chapters later. The reason I’m salty about this is that Nahiri should have played an important role in this story. Magic’s story routinely sets up events to occur in the future. Regarding Nahiri, we’ve been waiting, almost since she was first introduced into Magic as a named character (all the way back in Khans of Tarkir), for her to have a scene with Ugin. That conversation has been years in the making. These are two of the oldest, most clever, and most powerful Planeswalkers alive, who, between the two of them, have played a role-direct or indirect-in every storyline since Khans of Tarkir. I knew Ugin would be in War of the Spark. I didn’t know Nahiri would be there until she showed up on the teaser. But when she did, I knew-I knew!-that the Three would finally have their big conversation, and that it would set in motion the plotline for a future set. Some information about the Eldrazi perhaps. Nope. Didn’t happen at all, not even remotely. Nahiri’s second appearance is another throwaway passing reference, from Gideon’s POV, when he sees Nahiri and Sorin ignoring the battle with Bolas and fighting each other. He considers them idiots, and that’s the last we hear of her for another hundred pages or so. Before I read the book, I was certain that a few things would happen: Ugin would somehow bring Nahiri and Sorin to put aside their squabble and work together. The three of them, working together, would be able to provide some kind of plan, artifact, or power that would contribute to the defeat of Bolas. The plotline of “The Three”-Magic’s longest-running single plot arc, I think-would be given the resolution it so richly deserves. None of that happened. Ugin did turn out to be the architect of Bolas’ defeat, but Nahiri and Sorin had nothing to do with it, and there was no resolution of their story arc. Nahiri’s final appearance came at the end of the book, when she is seen to be working together with Sorin. (WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO US, GREG WEISMAN?!?!) I remember throwing up my arms and shouting “There’s a STORY here!” And ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT occurs onscreen. It isn’t in the cards, and it sure as hell isn’t in the book. In fact, Nahiri got more screen time, more dialogue, and more characterization in the three WAR cards she appeared in than she did in the book. There’s no takesies-backsies on that. This is how the much-anticipated reunion of Nahiri, Ugin, and Sorin went. So, fine. Whatever. Like I said at the beginning, I knew the story wouldn’t go the way I wanted it to. And if Nahiri had been overlooked in this way simply because there were other, more important stories going on that needed the space, I could have made peace with that. But there were no other important stories going on. Every single character was treated with the same dismissive superficiality. You mentioned Domri, Vraska, Teferi, and Karn, but that’s how it was for practically everyone. Very few characters outside the leads had a single meaningful line of dialogue in the whole book. I want to mention Vraska in particular. Going into War of the Spark, there were a number of events that we were directly set up to expect. One of these is that Vraska, whose memories had been erased, would be aiding the side of evil, but would have her memories restored to her by Jace at the pivotal moment. We were explicitly told back in Ixalan to expect this! What did we get instead? Vraska gets her memories back offscreen, not even from Jace. She turns away from Bolas offscreen. She only shows up to participate in the fight late in the story. And then she promptly doesn’t do much of anything. The only satisfying thing about Vraska in this whole story is that she and Jace get back together at the end-which is the other thing we were set up to expect. So at least there’s that. But the whole plotline of her Guild politics, her turning on Bolas…it never really even happened. It’s like Monty Python’s Chekhov’s Gun. “Oh, we’ll absolutely be using this gun later on, yes sir, I assure you, one hundred percent! Very important gun, yes sir, absolutely. We’ll be seeing a lot more of it later on, guarantee it.” All in all, this novel tried to be a Marvel story rather than a Magic story, and it failed even to do that. It was superficial, and it betrayed our expectations. All the events in the story just happened. No real sense of dramatic interconnectedness. Events happen for no reason, with no effort. Going forward, I would really like to see the Creative team bring back the stories in-house. I really like the premise of the weekly stories, and I’m not opposed to laying down $15 for a novel on occasion. But I won’t be buying Weisman’s second Magic novel. I’ll catch the digest afterward. I think the Creative team needs to commit resources to telling Magic’s stories themselves. The story where Avacyn died, or the one where Amonkhet fell, or the tale of Anafenza and Gvar, or, indeed, the history of Nahiri…all of these were well-told, interesting stories that drew me deeper into the game. And they were all written by some of Creative’s best writers. That’s how it needs to be again. I’m not angry at the War of the Spark novel. But I’m very let down. The whole thing is just darn disappointing.

I was listening to the Audiobook on the airplane...I fell asleep and missed so much. Then I went back a couple of chapters to listen to it again and fell asleep for the second time. After that I realized that maybe this book ain't so good.

lol young professor looks exactly how I imagined, not to be mean or anything like that, he just has that same smile

"I am Karn!" actually sounds like it fits in this debacle of a book.

WE LITERALLY MISS GUILDS OF RAVNICA AND RAVNICA ALLEGIANCE STORY. In the book only Lavinia does a little recap in TWO pages.

"Pot meet kettle" -Ugin jfc....

It's sad that right when the Magic Story articles were getting amazing they start doing shallow novels as a cash grab.

I feel like the story telling of the chronologically released preview cards was more moving than the book. I was hoping the book would delve deeper into all the aspects of story shown in the cards: the triumph cycle, the bond cycle, the finale cycle, Nahiri & Sorin's battle, mobilized district, etc. Very disappointed.

Rat was the actual hero of the book, she was the one reunited the guilds essentially. Maybe you just couldn't see her, Prof.

Professor: Teyo did nothing. Teyo *saving the new guildpact*: am I a joke to you?

I was disappointed in the novel for all the reasons you presented and more. I’m pleased to support WotC’s IP development but not if this is the standard they will maintain. This arc ought to have been covered in at least a trilogy and at least as good as Brothers War.

And this is why you do not make your entire book just one big action scene.

WotC did Dack dirty. His comic run was excellent and he should’ve been the focus of the overarching story instead of the Gatewatch. Instead he dies in a trailer and doesn’t appear in the set. Also, god the payoff for the Jace/Vraska pairing is insulting.

Ixalan was amazing, Alison Luhrs is a creative genius and her charactizations being completely disregarded in this novel was one of the most disappointing parts.

If you did reviews on all the mtg novels that would be dope, idk where to start or which ones to not bother with but I really want to give them a go

I said to my friends about the book " this is garbage ", you made a 30 mins (extremely enjoyable) video explaining why it is garbage and now, with you help, I can explain it to them. Thanks 🐣 Also I think this is bad advertising for future books or E-books to come... Now I know, I'll have to watch The Professor's review before buying any MTG products 🧐

I just wanted to continue from my reply on Worldoflos’s comment. Greg is such a good writer and storyteller to me. He’s been an inspiration for my own storytelling and I hope I can make characters as half as good as he can. This should’ve been his wheelhouse because he’s very, VERY good at working with ensemble casts. I have just gotten into Magic and have really been enjoying the storyline and seeing one of my favorite writers was attached to the “Infinity War” of MTG just felt perfect to me. That whole Justice League comparison isn’t unfounded as his most praised work is his “Young Justice” animated series. But he’s better when he’s in control, he has the master plan. And obviously he wasn’t given the big picture nor did it seem to be his interest as far as I know. Wizards must have hired him for the exact praise I’ve given him for ensemble cast writing and characters. But it didn’t have that same “spark” that his other stuff had. It just feels like there’s missed opportunity after missed opportunity that he normally would have never let happen in his other projects. He’s smarter than that. But he probably did have enough time or didn’t have enough information to work his own magic. So please know that yes it feels like a bit of a cash grab, but please trust me that Greg Weismann is a better writer than this. They should’ve turned it into a trilogy and either given him enough time or found someone on their own team to make a name for themselves. I just hope I’ve convinced you how much I love this writer and hope he can make a better product that he’s given enough time and interest he can capture your heart as much as any highbrow scholarly novelist. P.S. is there anywhere I can PM to ask for other writing advice myself. My story idea isn’t original either but nothing truly is. I just hope you could help me be able to give it my own “fresh spin” on it if you can?

There was such a good book that could have been written about this set. I'm so deeply dissapointed about this, but glad I dont have to waste my time or money.

Tayo is getting a premium placement because he will probably replace Gideon as the "white mana" Planeswalker in future sets. It sounds like this book was heavily influenced by the marketing department of WotC.

I came expecting the novel to suck. My god, I was not prepared for this.

Professor, these bits of autobiography that you throw at us from time to time are a great part of why your channel is so lovable. You look like a teenager I would like to have as a good friend. Hope your work (published or not) goes on for a long time. thank you so much.

Prof : makes a book review Watchers : gib your bööks

But in all seriousness, great review prof. Thank-you!

Thank you for this well thought-out and honest review. A few points: 1: I think Greg Weisman was given a pretty impossible task. The stories that led up to this one were somehow scrapped so he had to incorporate those as well. He had to write both an introduction to the multiverse and still just the conclusion of the story and most of all: he was literally given a checklist to run through. 2: I agree with most of your points but I think the writer did a nice job on fleshing out some characters like Ral and Kaya, even though everything was really messy overall. Rat was also a great addition, although I agree that the novel would have been better if it wasn't written as an introductory work without characters like Rat and Teyo and just focused on the main characters and their motivations. 3: I think you misunderstood what happened at the end between Liliana and Jace (or maybe I did). They didn't end up loving each other, they saw that they have an emotional codependency that isn't healthy. Jace ends up pitying Liliana, which is a far cry from love. Where Liliana ends up on that exactly is pretty unclear though... As I said, I agree with almost the entire video, but I think you're also judging it on what you want it to be rather than what it is.

26:26 Strong words that I would have loved to read. All of that sentence brought afloat the feeling of playing my new planeswalkers deck on the pre-release event from last night. Choosing of having them in any way to evoke the feeling of being there with them fighting. You are awesome professor.

I agree with the overall assessment of the novel, but a few things to correct: SPOILERS Domri does actually have more than one line in the story. The problem is they're all terrible lines. Chandra does not blind Dovin. Lazav, does after he reveals he was disguised as Chandra. What a phenomenal waste of a great idea and a horrible ending to an epic story line.

So disappointed but thanks for review, you saved me some money and much heartache. Cheers!

I haven't watched the rest of the vid yet, but this was the greatest intro you've made. Nice!

Many magic the gathering players ask the question: professor, can we read your novels? Also I love hearing about your life. Awesome.

I like the part where Gideon strikes Bolas's shoulder and he says "you should have aimed to the head" and then he activates the elder spell

Tibalt didn't appear becuase he fought the Scarab, Scorpion and Locust God like a BOSS so they couldn't go to Ravnica ...yeah...

Love it when youtubers go in depth with their life stories. It's a really good way to know your watching a genuine person

I agree with most of your points and disagree with some points. The disagreements are: Teyo wasn't useless; he pulled his weight by playing tank while others played DPS. Not killing the enemies doesn't mean one's efforts don't matter. Jace and Liliana aren't portrayed to be in love in the present. It's acknowledged on both sides that Liliana emotionally manipulated the hell out of Jace, which Jace thinks is the source of his lingering care for her, and Liliana's PoV reads, "Maybe way, way, _waaay_ down, she actually cared about him in some way." On the other side of your argument there, Vraska's and Jace's PoVs read as more than, "They almost had something, once." Half of Vraska's PoV scenes include her lamenting that she expects Jace will want nothing to do with her. Jace gets defensive of her in conversation. They discuss the status of their relationship when they finally meet up. Domri Rade has more than literally one line: he has a couple when his group save Teyo and Rat and Kaya. Tibalt does get mentioned, albeit briefly and in passing. Someone else mentioned that one. You claim Karn fighting is against his characterization of "I will never take a life," but the eternals aren't alive-he's not killing anyone by crushing zombies-so I don't think it's contradictory unless his vow was more broadly, "I will not commit violence." I think you slightly overstate the level of "everyone knows everyone else." The only instance I recall of planeswalkers already knowing each other when they arrive that doesn't involve a member of the Gatewatch and/or previous stories is The Wanderer and (I think) Ob Nixilis. Huatli met Saheeli at the end of the Ixalan storyline. Aurelia, not being a planeswalker, recognizes Dack because he's spent time on Ravnica. The scene of people mingling in the Azorius senate hall is just that: mingling, whether they know each other or not. Angrath and Arlinn Kord have just met; they simply have hit it off.

Django Wexler has written some prequel chapters that will be published through Random House's Magic: the Gathering newsletter. I think they will cover at least Bolas's infiltration of the guilds and the rising tension.

Wizards messed up when they proved the story could be as good as Ixalan was. Unless they can get writers to be on par with that, I’m going to be let down. And Ixalan wasn’t perfect either, but it felt natural and was so satisfying to read. So many great opportunities made with it and they just squashed almost all of them. Don’t undermine the great work a previous writer did. Don’t rip away the growth we made because all you are going to do is make everyone frustrated at empty promises.

I started with MTG last year when MTGA was released. And since then I kept thinking: I want a book about this Story and its characters. So I read the novel. I liked it very much because it was my first magic the gathering book and it did a good job of introducing me to its current story and characters. I also LOVE how I can now look differently at so many cards and have fond memories of their personality and what role they played in the battle against bolas. I didnt look for a the finest literature when I bought the book. I just wanted to know about the war of the Spark and how it would play out. How Bolas would be stopped. And of course I wanted to learn more about the characters of the gatewatch and the important guild representatives. I also liked the many different perspectives that we get to experience in the book. Details I liked: The epic awakening of Vitu-Ghazi, its march towards the Plaza. Followed by the arrival of the God-eternals as Bolas strongest minions. I also liked how Gideon was the one to make the most meaningful sacrifice and put his faith in Liliana. Details I didnt like: How Niv-mizzet was only 2 times in the fight and we never actually saw the "my word is law" power used in this battle. Niv-mizzet just sneaked up on Bolas like "nothing personsl kid" and stabbed him from behind with Bolas own spear. I would have also like a few sentences on Teyo's return to Gobakhan (even if he just doesnt stay for long ). I mainly got what I wanted from the book. And for introducing such a complex fantasy world I thought it did a good job.

I follow you on Twitter and saw you were going to review this and I waited to read it and boy am I glad I waited.

Damn! I was hoping that this would be a good book! Oh well. I wish Wizards would do a highly detailed novel for each block or plane that we travel to.

Professor, can you do more book reviews? I've been interested in the rest of MTG's novels but I don't wanna collect books knowing that I'll start and never finish them because they suck.

I wouldn't waste my money on a hard bound book with less than 800 pages. This story should have been 3 paperback books of at least 500 pages each. That would be the minimum space for properly telling a story of this magnitude.

It's crazy to see a bookshelf that looks to similar to my own, from the same time period, in a video. A strong hit in the nostalgia! I need to pull those books back out for another reread soon.

"they slept together" Oh boy, I knew that Jace and Liliana were in a relationship, but they did the dirty? Damn Greg, think of the children.

What boggles my mind is why WotC signed off on this bag of mediocrity. Did they really not care enough about the marquee culminating event of years-long storyline to make it EVEN good? We aren't asking Tolkien or Rowling-level prose here (even though it should be), but THIS?

I'd LOOOOVE to hear you talk more about Magic: The Gathering novels!

Brutal review. Thank you for being honest and thorough.

To be honest tho, if Jace had died, I would honestly miss having him to hate.. not enough to want him back however. Hopefully Jace having a girlfriend to keep him busy, means we won't see much of him anymore.. Thanks Liliana for taking one for the team.. your greatest sacrifice so far.

I liked your unbiased review; however, I did enjoy the novel. I think Dack’s death in a random fight was fine because in war the heroes don’t always go out in a blaze of glory or meaningful sacrifice. I don’t know much lore-wise about Dack, so I wasn’t as attached to him as say Karn or Chandra, but I think his death had more impact because of how it played out. He just committed to “doing the right thing” and then whoops, random eternal takes him out, and this made me miss him more. I was finally rooting for a character I hardly knew and then lost him.

As a returning player who was curious if this could get me started on the lore I found this review very helpful, and a proud new sub of this great channel. I am with the rest of these people though I want to read some of your books, the elemental of time sounded interesting!

I am delighted I found your channel. I had a similar experience when reading and found myself skim reading the interwebs to make sure I had not missed a novel.

"I mean you don't do Avengers: Endgame and introduce a Marvel hero we've literally never seen previously and then give them a leading role in the film. I mean I don't know I haven't seen the film." My insides hurt xD

With regards to the Shadows of Innistrad "audiobook", I encourage everyone to check out Gen Doukeshi's "Voice of All" audio drama series for the Magic storyline. Very well done stuff, new releases almost every week. It's on RU-vid and available as a podcast.

I am glad to say that i was introduced to the magic lore by the best man ever, the prof. His audio book of under the silver moon made me love Arlin and all of the mtg lore. I hope you do more of these videos Professor because i have an unquenchable thirst for good story telling of the great world that is Magic the gathering.

Thank you for helping me save my money, prof. I was really looking forward to this and I would have been crushed going through it.

I read the book and I liked it for a couple of reasons. 1st I think I am in the middle category that a lot of people fall into with magic getting really popular again (I started playing in August of 2018) I had read Wikis and watched videos of basic plot line elements. Between that and the spoilers for WotS, I had enough information to know what was going on but still enjoyed the backstory element as it placed into words what I had only read summed up. 2nd Teyo was absolutely a "hey I am new here what is this." character for those of us who are newer and I think they are setting him up to be a recurring character, maybe a member of gatewatch in the future. Also, I know this is really laughed at but the idea that, thematically at least, that you the player are a planeswalker is why Teyo was made. How many "Teyos" are downloading Magic Arena? How many are buying their first deck or going to prerelease? How many players are being dropped into this new world (errr series of worlds/planes) with as much backstory information as Teyo has? So I really liked it. It was not a hard read by any stretch but at the end of the day it is a book about the lore of a card game (a really good card game but a card game nonetheless) and i was not expecting a work of grand literature. I was looking to have a fun book to read and it met my standard for fun. Thanks for reading,

I think it would be great if the Professor set up a literature channel, reviewing and recommending books, talking about authors, that kinda stuff

Thank you for reviewing this. I adore fantasy novels and I love the lore of MTG and I feel like, after hearing this review, had I read this, it would have broken my heart.

I think part of the short descriptions may be part of the fact that Weissman has most of his experience in television and comic scripting; what he would lack in descriptions he could make up for in visuals. Based on the descriptions the Professor gives, the story sounds more script-like than a novel. That is not even considering the fact that Weissman likely needed to understand over a decade’s worth of lore and characters in the span of a few years, depending on how long the novel was in production.

I agree with most of what you said, except by the part about Teyo Verada. Since I'll be showing things from the story here in my comment, I'll put a SPOILER WARNING and drop a few lines before going on. Ok, you said that Teyo does nothing important over the course of the story, except that he does. He helps Kaya gather the guilds of Ravnica to bring back Niv-Mizzet, which was pretty important already, and even if he didn't do much to actually convince the leaders, he protects his group to the best of his abilities. And when they start the ritual to turn Niv into the Living Guildpact, the God-Eternal Kefnet storms into the ritual and tries to kill everyone, only to be stopped by Teyo's shield. This is very significant since we are talking about a god here, one that couldn't be easily killed. Just as a reminder, each of these gods had to be killed either by an extremely powerful magical weapon (Gideon killing Ronas with the Blackblade) or by considerably powerful beings, like Niv-Mizzet killing Kefnet after being reborn and Nicol Bolas when he tried to defend himself from Liliana's betrayal. And the guildmasters and Nissa could only finish the ritual because Teyo stopped Kefnet from murdering them all during the ritual. His shield stops several blows from Kefnet before Niv can come back and defeat the god. And later Nicol Bolas is defeated because that very same Niv-Mizzet Reborn manages to strike him with an enchanted spear and let the Elder Dragon's spark be taken. Overall, I think Teyo had a very significant role. And the part about having no stakes, he does have them alright. I mean, at first he doesn't want to die since the Eternals were coming for his life, but he ends up befriending a Ravnican girl nicknamed Rat (can't remember her name). He gets pretty close to her, so even after he could simply leave when he could, he stays to protect both her and Kaya, whom he also managed to befriend greatly. Again, I agree with you in almost all the rest: most characters make no difference and are very out of character for the most part. Really enjoyed the video and I'm not sure you'll ever read this, but thanks for doing these videos anyway. Keep doing it.

wait the wanderer is in the book. Tibalt isnt... Tibalt is the wanderer. It must be

Just wanted to show my appreciation to The Professor. I just started getting into Magic: The Gathering after having quit Yu-Gi-Oh some years ago, because I wanted to scratch that card/social itch, and you have made it overwhelmingly easy to transition with you great product reviews with everything from the best purchases for cards themselves, to the hidden cost of sleeves, deck boxes, playmats and the like. To start my collection I purchased last year and this year's challenger decks and all ten guild kits for discounted price, great boxes and sleeves to keep them in too. I need to get some commander decks now (unfortunately those are pretty much over 3 times MSRP, save for this year's which by his review is the weakest), and I also attended my first War of the Spark pre-release at my LGS going 2 wins and 2 losses, which was really fun. Just wanted to say thank for all the help Professor!

Dear Professor, I never saw the video about Inistrad, and I would like to thank you for bring it up on this video...the “audio book” is amazing!

Thanks for the review. I'm glad I watched the spoilers. I was so excited for the story, looking at the cards, but this review saved me the money. I agree with the assessment that Ixalan block had some of the most compelling writing and character development of any of the recent stories (probably the last decade). I feel like the author managed to capture a feeling of subtlety, which was lacking in the otherwise enjoyable Dominaria storyline, and entirely absent from Vivien Reid's PETA-esque rampage on Ixalan. I was kind of meh on the Temur Twins, though I enjoyed the retconning of Bolas' and Ugin's backstory. I'm actually really disappointed to hear that all of the character and relationship development that took place during Ixalan and Dominaria was brushed over and/or ignored in favor of restoring pre-existing stereotypes. It also sounds as if Jace and the Superfriends will bee continuing throughout the multiverse in perpetuity. It'd be nice to see them take a back seat and go on saving the day elsewhere.

Would have bought this book. Thanks prof.

ty, prof for giving the lore a voice. I enjoyed your office hours work, although it was a comic production, it did a good job of showing some short comings or depth of the characters involved. I may give this a read. if for no other reason then to pass a day or two.

Nice Bookshelf though. I also have that Whispering Woods novel, and friends of mine have the same artbooks. I liked the times when you still got novels with your fatpacks, well, good old days.

Just finished the book and couldn't agree more, but I found myself liking Teyo. I liked watching his skill grow with his shields and look forward to his development. The book is so uninspiring. I'd love for a Magic book to be made by the same author as the Ixalan stories

I agree with the recommendation. The Ixalan story was a page turner (if its a book) and the other are just sooo taxing to read but I had to because of lore. And this story made me love Vraska. :

There was one thing I loved about the book: Rat. Her character is great, and I found her chapters always leaving me with a desire to learn more about her "condition" or "ability", whatever you want to call it. I really hope she reappears in future stories (or a card!)

Can u review every magic story? Omg I love this so much!

I'm actually still upset about the core Magic Story falling to the wayside. I've been actively reading the weekly mothership posts since Forgotten Realms (I think it was called) back in 2012. Everything from Origins onward was so very enjoyable and I found myself immersed and actively promoting these works to my MTG friends. Sadly, good times came to an end after the Bolas arc of Core 19. I suppose the Vivien stories weren't bad but I was hooked on the Gatewatch and wanted to know more about the main story. It all just fell apart after Dominaria. The Guilds stories are all fine but again, completely ignored the main story of Bolas and the Gatewatch. What a shame that it ended up this way.

Feels like Infinity War, released together with Endgame. All Gatewatch-Avengers jokes confirmed! 😂

for anyone who wants more audio-format Magic lore, i highly recommend the podcast Voice of All! they do recordings of the official mtg story chapters with a full cast plus sound design. as for me I really liked the Amonkhet arc

Came back just to thank you for pointing me out to Alison Luhrs. It was really good.

I’d like to see prof do a complete rewrite giving the full depth to all of the characters

I had this on my wishlist and was really looking forward to reading it. I was hoping that Magic was turning over a new leaf (ba-dum-tish) when it comes to their novels. But as money is tight, I would have regretted buying this immensely. One of the key things about writing well (in any genre, but especially fiction) is to SHOW, don't TELL. Without having read the thing, the way you describe the book, it sounds like the author hasn't a clue how to do this. Let me pull one example the prof gives, and give my suggested remedy. Problem: too much backstory/exposition slows down the pace of the story and, well, makes it boring. Example: Jace/Vraska complex relationship. Solution: Instead of going on and on and on in *telling* us about Jace and Vraska's relationship, *show* us a scene that explains the situation. What the author could have done (and correct me if he did do this, as I haven't read the thing) is give us a scene in which Nicol Bolas is meeting with Vraska, perhaps giving her her marching orders, and he discovers in her mind traces that Jace had been in there. BOOM. Immediately, the scene escalates the rising tension by demonstrating that Nicol Bolas has stronger mind-invading powers than Jace (and the readers) had suspected, which raises Bolas up to a bigger threat than he was before; the scene also serves to crush the reader's hopes that Jace could get to Vraska before Bolas makes her do anything too evil, thus increasing the reader's (and characters') hatred of Bolas; and finally, and perhaps equally as critically, it allows us to see what the protagonists' hopes and desires are, which are crucial for creating compelling character motivations, which the prof has said is desperately missing. NOW, perhaps Bolas will compel Vraska to do something incredibly sinister without revealing to her her past relationship with Jace; NOW, perhaps Jace will be pushed to the limit to either rescue Vraska or get revenge against Bolas; NOW, perhaps we will see that Bolas is a huge threat even on the mental battlefield against Jace and other mind-twisting planeswalkers. We don't need the exposition and explanation; we just need to be *shown* how, in the present, the past culminates in dramatic scene writing. Key physical and emotional descriptions would also be useful here--show how imposingly big Bolas is versus how small Vraska is comparatively (in spite of the fact that Vraska is taller than most men)--that physical description would help make concrete the threat that Bolas is, especially in the revelation that his mind-powers are stronger than Jace (and, by extension, us) had all thought. Use emotional description in the follow-up scene where Jace is desperate to get to Vraska ASAP. Then use emotional description when Jace discovers Vraska completing Bolas' sinister assignment, which is killing innocents or her former friends or something. Now Jace has a connundrum: does he return Vraska's memories to her, knowing the pain and regret that Vraska will face since she has killed all these innocents/friends, or does he give her a merciful death? BOOM. There is your damn drama, WotC.

You named all the authors I loved growing up!

Dang love your video , I haven't read any novels but now I'm hooked and bought first one.