Got two twelve hour flights coming up next week, and I wanna pick up some MTG Novels for it. I know that the Brothers War is one of the best, along with the rest of the Artifacts Cycle, but what else is there? Are there planeswalker novels like Purifying Fire any good? Which ones are bad, and which ones are hilariously awful?
>>48250400
The block novels that used to come with fat packs are pretty decent I hear. The only one that I can think of that was "hillariously awful" would be Zendikar, especially with the Nissa-Sorin interactions, mostly due to how Nissa somehow never realizes he's a vampire until near the end.
>>48250451
From what I read on MTG Salvation, Mirrodin cycle, Quest for Karn, and the Alara book were all pretty bad, but given how serious they are over there, there might be stupid fun in those books like in Zendikar.
>>48250400
Kamigawa was a pretty sweet story, Toshi was a very loveable rogue and there was plenty of backstabbing, avarice and bitchy treachery abound. Hidetsugu was a BEAST. Kyodai wincest. Onslaught block is... Acceptable but not very good. Brothers War was a real drag in the middle when the war got really drawn out but otherwise opening and ending were pretty solid.
Just don't read Mirrodin.
The Ravnica ones are pretty good. The main character is Agros Kos of the Boros.
>>48250741
I recently found the old Kamigawa stories online, so the actual novels might be another good thing to add to the list. What are Onslaught's flaws?
>>48250883
More of an Orzhov man, but I'll take anything I can get with Ravnica, RTR was when I started, after all.
>>48250955
Wait, just checked, Teysa is one of the main characters, so I'll definitely have to pick it up.
>>48250883
Thanks anon!
>>48250741
Kamigawa was very very good.
Generally all novels focusing on Urza are good, if a bit drawn. They really gave him depths outside of "mad artificier"
>>48250568
Dunno about the other,but the Mirrodin cycle was entertaining, with some good parts in it too. Right,the writing isn't brilliant,but does the job and adds a bit more to it from time to time.
>>48250741
Also, kiku.
Just saying.
>>48250400
Agents of Artifice was pretty good (If you can stand a book where Jace is the MC). Also all the old anthology books were pretty good (even the ancient harper prism ones). I don't know about the other block novels, but I thought the Onslaught ones were bad enough that I didn't read any of the others.
>>48250400
The Purifying Fire is rather amusing--it was written by a romance novelist, and it shows. Test of Metal is hilariously and famously terrible and non-canon, but Agents of Artifice is actually a pretty good read, and it gives Jace a lot of depth as a character.
>>48252979
If you like the Orzhov, you should definitely read the Ravnica novels. Teysa is an amazing character, and they're by far the best MTG novels that have been published. They really manage a proper noir style, which is very cool.
>>48256830
I second Agents of Artifice. Jace is an actual character rather than an unchanging Face for the game. Good overall.
Also, I'd argue that Planeswalker is the best of the Artifact Cycle, with book 3 (the name eludes me) being second best. Fourth book was... a couple hundred pages leading up to the Weatherlight storyline. But Brother's War isn't going to hurt you. I never got around to reading The Thran, but if you want to read about Yogmoth go for it.
Avoid any of the recent books. I read Teeth of Akoum and, aside from pre-retcon Nissa being pleasantly not PC, it's trash. A friend recommended the Ravnica block books highly though.
Ice Age cycle, starting with the Gathering Dark, is right up there with the Brother's War for me.
>>48250400
The Legends Second Cycle novels focus on a dude in a samurai-esque setting that isn't actually Kamigawa running around trying to solve problems for his immortal god Emperor and getting caught in a hysterical series of politicking as the Empire undergoes a major shift in its policies. They're not high art but they're fun.
The Thran is an actually pretty OK book. It's not as good as Planeswalker or Time Streams, but it's pretty alright. It's about Brothers' War quality. Read it first if you want to understand what the fuck.
I'm a fan of the Onslaught novels because I really like Kamahl as a protagonist and I really REALLY liked the Cabal as a concept, and Chainer's story where he goes around playing Nightmare Pokemon for power is pretty great.
