I joined MTG when Innistrad came out, and I've been interested in the storyline for a bit. I figured I might buy some of the books to read, but I've seen posts that lambast some of the books.
Which books are worth getting to read? The one I'm mostly interested in is The Thran, but I don't know how it is.
Also, which books are good reads, but a real pain to get a hold of?
I find it simpler to use this site's extensive wiki.
You can type in anything from planewalkers to legendary creatures to different planes and get a wealth of information on that subject. And it's free. Plot information about things like the Thran can be found by typing in either the book title, or one of its key plot elements, like Phyrexia.
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What you are about to read the absolute truth about the deck that once nearly killed WotC's revenue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DallasM
Caw Blade is based on the ancient powerful strategy of equipping Storm Crow with Worldslayer, blowing everything up, punching your opponent in the face, stealing his cards, and running away. This new deck is a mere shell of the original caw blade's power.
Yeah, but I don't want to just know the plot (especially since I already do), I want to actually read it. There's a huge difference to me between reading a book and just knowing what happens in it, and the storyline of Magic has interested me enough to want to read the books.
That said, if the book is bad, I'd prefer to read just the summary. Which is why I'm asking which books to get.
A basic and opinionated rundown of the books:
The Brother's War: Possibly the best
The Thran: Not bad, but over-rated
Planeswalker: Very good, but also different than most of the books. Very dry.
Time Streams: Okay. No real flaws, but it doesn't stand out very well.
Bloodlines: Interesting, but there's a very distinct feeling that it was all filler.
The Ice Age trilogy: One of the better ones and one of the best to explain the mechanics of the game in story terms.
Rath and Storm: Decent enough. Interesting use o the format as an anthology telling a singular story.
Mercadian Masques: Better than people give it credit for.
Nemesis: One of the top ten, though Crovax is awful.
Prophecy: imagine opening the Arc of the Covenant.
Invasion-Apocalypse: Not bad, but pretty far from "good"
the Odyssey cycle: Just wretched. Possibly among the worst. Saving grace of Torment.
The Onslaught cycle: DEFINITELY among the worst.
Mirrodin cycle: Boring. They aren't even bad, they're just so bland as to ruin any potential they had.
Kamigawa cycle: Among the best collectively.
Ravnica cycle: Starts strong and begins to drop off, but just like Ravnica, one of the strongest settings and characters.
Time Spiral cycle: heavy on the nostalgia, avoid until you get a good grasp. Though this was the cycle I started on. Might actually be better if you don't know what's what. Allows you more freedom.
Lorwyn cycle: fantastic world building. Abysmal characters.
Alara Unbroken: Not as bad as people say it is, but a FAR cry from good.
Zendikar: The only good thing about this is the scenery. Which is good, because you get more of it than plot.
Scars of Mirrodin: THE worst book, without contest.
Legends 1: Not bad, but slow through most of it.
Legends 2: Interesting, but not as good as the first legends trilogy.
Agents of Artifice: Easily one of the best, though that seems to come under contention from people who have resentment towards Jace. Largely it's considered a huge success. Haters gonna hate I suppose.
Purifying Fire: A bit weak through the middle, and it takes to meandering, but a good look at the characters involved. I suggest it. Very divisive.
Test of Metal: It has good action scenes, damnably painful dialogue, naked Tezzeret, and the author treated us like crap. (And I mean that personally, he made an appearance and acted like a tremendous butt.)
Never heard a bad word about Thran. Although, as far as I can get, it's a prequel to Artifact cycle which was published later, so kinda contains spoilers.
Never heard a bad word about Thran. Although, as far as I can get, it's a prequel to Artifact cycle which was published later, so kinda contains spoilers.
The Thran was published around the same time Apocalypse was.
And while it was good, I find people give it WAY too much credit. The loudest because they are shameless Yawgmoth fanboys.
The Thran was published around the same time Apocalypse was.
And while it was good, I find people give it WAY too much credit. The loudest because they are shameless Yawgmoth fanboys.
It isn't bad, but people rank it too highly.
Shameless Yawgmoth fanboy here. Book was fun to read but was middle of the road in terms of "good".
I have to give another shout out for the Artifacts cycle, Ice Age cycle, The Thran, and Rath & Storm, all of which I love.
Time Spiral is decent. The planeswalker books are *ok*. Purifying Fire is the weakest of the three imo, although I don't like to acknowledge Test of Metal as a MTG book. I like Stover's writing, but not for Magic.
Mirrodin, Lorwyn, and Zendikar I could have done without.
I'm finally working my way through the Mercadian Masques trilogy and I have to stop every now and then to laugh at how over-dramatic the writing can get. It's decent stuff, though.
Arena is also decent, if pre-rev, and I've heard good things from a friend of mine about the other pre-rev novels.
If you like fluff fantasy novels like the Drizzt's books or warhammer stuff then I would suggest the ravinca novels. In particular I found the second book to be the best but you have to read the first as they are direct sequels to one another. Just don't come in expecting anything great but if you just want something to read for a day or two their great.
There has never been a land that enters the battlefield untapped unconditionally and taps for two colors unconditionally. That would be strictly better than a basic land
Alara Unbroken was good, but it was the wrong book to start cutting down from a trilogy, imo.
It absolutely curbstomps the books for Zendikar and Scars of Mirrodin. Among the most recent books, the cancelled planeswalker line of novels are worth a read: Agents of Artifice by Marmel, The Purifying Fire by Resnik, and Test of Metal by Walker. If you're getting these from a library, at least check out Test of Metal. I personally enjoyed it.
Among the older novels:
Legends II Cycle by McGough
Kamigawa Cycle by McGough
Ravnica Cycle by Herndon
The Brotherss War is the the original one that the rest all built on. It was the only reason why I read the whole rest of the cycle up until they cut to a new plot arc with Odyssey (which I read the first ten pages of and put away in disgust).
Once they started the "one book per set" business it was all downhill.
The Ice Age books are good in that they sort of demonstrate the mechanics of the cards, and are written by the guy that wrote Brothers' War (Jeff Grubb).
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Master of inaccurate, non-thought-out baseless and naive statements.
I like baby fowl.
Which books are worth getting to read? The one I'm mostly interested in is The Thran, but I don't know how it is.
Also, which books are good reads, but a real pain to get a hold of?
Signature by Ace of Spades Studio!
You can type in anything from planewalkers to legendary creatures to different planes and get a wealth of information on that subject. And it's free. Plot information about things like the Thran can be found by typing in either the book title, or one of its key plot elements, like Phyrexia.
Sig by the amazing Rivenor
Avatar by the one and only DOLZero
What you are about to read the absolute truth about the deck that once nearly killed WotC's revenue.
Originally Posted by DallasM
Caw Blade is based on the ancient powerful strategy of equipping Storm Crow with Worldslayer, blowing everything up, punching your opponent in the face, stealing his cards, and running away. This new deck is a mere shell of the original caw blade's power.
That said, if the book is bad, I'd prefer to read just the summary. Which is why I'm asking which books to get.
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Torment was good. Rath and Storm was good. I've heard good things about the Thran and the Brothers' War.
Legions was terrible. So was Fifth Dawn.
4th place at CCC&G Pro Tour
Chances of bad hands (<2 or >4 land):
21: 28.9%
22: 27.5%
23: 26.3%
24: 25.5%
25: 25.1%
26: 25.3%
The Brother's War: Possibly the best
The Thran: Not bad, but over-rated
Planeswalker: Very good, but also different than most of the books. Very dry.
Time Streams: Okay. No real flaws, but it doesn't stand out very well.
Bloodlines: Interesting, but there's a very distinct feeling that it was all filler.
The Ice Age trilogy: One of the better ones and one of the best to explain the mechanics of the game in story terms.
Rath and Storm: Decent enough. Interesting use o the format as an anthology telling a singular story.
Mercadian Masques: Better than people give it credit for.
Nemesis: One of the top ten, though Crovax is awful.
Prophecy: imagine opening the Arc of the Covenant.
Invasion-Apocalypse: Not bad, but pretty far from "good"
the Odyssey cycle: Just wretched. Possibly among the worst. Saving grace of Torment.
The Onslaught cycle: DEFINITELY among the worst.
Mirrodin cycle: Boring. They aren't even bad, they're just so bland as to ruin any potential they had.
Kamigawa cycle: Among the best collectively.
Ravnica cycle: Starts strong and begins to drop off, but just like Ravnica, one of the strongest settings and characters.
Time Spiral cycle: heavy on the nostalgia, avoid until you get a good grasp. Though this was the cycle I started on. Might actually be better if you don't know what's what. Allows you more freedom.
Lorwyn cycle: fantastic world building. Abysmal characters.
Alara Unbroken: Not as bad as people say it is, but a FAR cry from good.
Zendikar: The only good thing about this is the scenery. Which is good, because you get more of it than plot.
Scars of Mirrodin: THE worst book, without contest.
Legends 1: Not bad, but slow through most of it.
Legends 2: Interesting, but not as good as the first legends trilogy.
Agents of Artifice: Easily one of the best, though that seems to come under contention from people who have resentment towards Jace. Largely it's considered a huge success. Haters gonna hate I suppose.
Purifying Fire: A bit weak through the middle, and it takes to meandering, but a good look at the characters involved. I suggest it. Very divisive.
Test of Metal: It has good action scenes, damnably painful dialogue, naked Tezzeret, and the author treated us like crap. (And I mean that personally, he made an appearance and acted like a tremendous butt.)
The Thran was published around the same time Apocalypse was.
And while it was good, I find people give it WAY too much credit. The loudest because they are shameless Yawgmoth fanboys.
It isn't bad, but people rank it too highly.
Shameless Yawgmoth fanboy here. Book was fun to read but was middle of the road in terms of "good".
Time Spiral is decent. The planeswalker books are *ok*. Purifying Fire is the weakest of the three imo, although I don't like to acknowledge Test of Metal as a MTG book. I like Stover's writing, but not for Magic.
Mirrodin, Lorwyn, and Zendikar I could have done without.
I'm finally working my way through the Mercadian Masques trilogy and I have to stop every now and then to laugh at how over-dramatic the writing can get. It's decent stuff, though.
Arena is also decent, if pre-rev, and I've heard good things from a friend of mine about the other pre-rev novels.
What can I say? I'm a Beyer fan.
Set a man on fire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
It absolutely curbstomps the books for Zendikar and Scars of Mirrodin. Among the most recent books, the cancelled planeswalker line of novels are worth a read: Agents of Artifice by Marmel, The Purifying Fire by Resnik, and Test of Metal by Walker. If you're getting these from a library, at least check out Test of Metal. I personally enjoyed it.
Among the older novels:
Legends II Cycle by McGough
Kamigawa Cycle by McGough
Ravnica Cycle by Herndon
Once they started the "one book per set" business it was all downhill.
The Ice Age books are good in that they sort of demonstrate the mechanics of the cards, and are written by the guy that wrote Brothers' War (Jeff Grubb).
I like baby fowl.
Matt Stover wrote it.
And I for one wouldn't suggest it.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
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