Is the WAR novel really as bad as I hear?

Lore forum

Posted on April 27, 2019, 10:14 a.m. by Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor

So I was super excited that WotC was bringing back the MTG novels. Once they stopped the web stories during GRN, I was waiting to find out about all of the build-up and resolution of everything not told through the cards themselves. However, so far everything I have heard about the WAR novel is that it is poorly written, only covers the final battle, and answers zero to no questions.

For those of you who have already read the novel: Is it worth my time and money?

kanokarob says... #2

I haven't finished it yet, but I'm enjoying it so far. I don't see any real problems with the writing; it captures the desperation and confusion of the characters well, and the author is upholding their established personalities.

It also doesn't "only cover the final battle." It covers the whole day, everything that the cards in the set depict and plenty of things beforehand. War of the Spark IS the final battle, the characters just don't know the extent of Bolas' plan or how fast he actually intends to execute it. I can safely assure you (minor spoiler I guess) that I'm a third of the way through and the Elder Spell hasn't even been cast yet. The pacing is fine.

As for the questions, again I can't speak to that yet, but nothing has come up that I didn't understand. The explanation for the Beacon, for the powers of the Guildpact, and even for Liliana's purpose have been plenty satisfactory.

April 27, 2019 10:24 a.m.

The_Mad_Tyrantrum says... #3

I finished it yesterday morning and I absolutely loved it! I’m not an avid reader, as a matter of fact this is only the the second book I’ve read in the past 6 years. However, this book kept me hooked from the start! I was honestly sad when I finished, but couldn’t get enough of it! It answered pretty much everything that took place on Ravnica before and after the elderspell. There were certain things that were only briefly mentioned, but it was still enough to piece everything together! I don’t know why people are harshly criticizing the book. To me it’s a great read and if you end up checking it out, hopefully you’ll enjoy just as much as I did!

April 27, 2019 8:51 p.m.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #4

Thanks kanokarob and The_Mad_Tyrantrum! I appreciate the insight and am glad to hear from those who liked it.

April 27, 2019 9:41 p.m.

dbpunk says... #5

Honestly I might be looking at different places than you are, but I've heard nothing but good things about the novel.

April 28, 2019 2:14 a.m.

pizzagod13 says... #6

I can’t say from personal experience but everyone’s favorite Professor seems to think it’s pretty meh and he is an English major who loves fantasy books.

Of course is opinion might be valued differently by some people but I just thought I would put this here, food for thought.

April 29, 2019 7:57 a.m.

kanokarob says... #7

Alright I've now finished it, and I can say that it's more than just meh.

It's not the greatest book ever written by any means; it wasn't meant to be. But it makes you feel, and the way information is pretended and characters are... characterized... is well handled.

Some vague spoilers below I suppose, if you haven't seen the cards in WAR.

The writing in the more emotional scenes, like Dack's and Gideon's deaths, and Liliana desparking Nicol Bolas, was superb. My heart was racing, and I might have gotten a little wet in the eyes. I've gotten more emotional reading other books, sure, but it's not like this one fails to deliver.

Another thing I liked was that the author does a good job of reintroducing characters and concepts that the casual reader may not be super familiar with. As a seasoned Vorthos, I know what Jace's and Gideon's powers are, who Niv-Mizzet and Ob Nixilis are, but the way he writes the brief explanations to catch the reader up is done in such a way that it doesn't distract from what's happening in the scene, but would still provide context if the reader needded it.

And then the way Bolas' internal thoughts and speech changes as he amasses more power and sparks is really powerful, and helps make the character feel more alive. It goes beyond just capitilizing every pronoun and instance of his name, or speaking in all caps; its the way in which he speaks, that is then amplified and demonstrated through the stylistic writing choices, that make it interesting to see him grow--and then fall.

My sole complaint, I think, would be that the action scenes' writing is a bit weak. I'm partial to very play-by-play, very active and in-the-moment action in books. One of my favorites, Shatterbug is only on my top list for this reason. In Ravnica, however, the author kind of glosses over a lot of the specifics of even what the current active character is doing, opting to describe in general what all of the characters are doing in the grand scheme of the fight. The dialogue scenes are personal, but the fight scenes are not. That is to be understood to some degree, though, when I'm sure the author was expected to name drop as many characters as he could while maintaining some kind of reasonable word count. It's just not how I like to read even large-scale battles.

April 29, 2019 9:11 a.m.

kanokarob says... #8

Ill respond to the professor's points here, as this is where I'm making the case in favor of the book, and I don't care enough about him to disagree in his video's comments. No spoilers within, just conserving space.

Read On Show

To begin, I've said before that I don't see this as "one final battle." While the events do take place over the course of one day, from sunrise to sunset, it is not as straightforward as going from one side of the plaza to the other, as he presents it. That's the Gatewatch's initial plan, certainly, but there are multiple battles throughout the day, multiple strategies tried and failed, and multiple pieces and plans coming together, across the Tenth District of Ravnica, into the climax of the book. The book itself is the climax of the greater story, yes, but we knew that going in. It still has the pieces of the plot chart within itself, they are just smaller margins between one another by the nature of what the author was assigned to cover.

Secondly, he declares that the author "waffles back and forth" between assuming the reader is or isnt up to date on the story, then proceeds to demonstrate that the author summarizes each character's motivations with regards to the context of the scene in every instance. He states that it's an overabundance of backstory and summation, that its explanation of planeswalking or of Ravnica is inherently bad, but that is simply assuming the reader isn't fully up to date on the story so far. Personal opinions on this style of writing (for what is essentially a sequel entry in a series) aside, this is at worst, neither of the problems he presents it as.

I do agree with his points on the level of description throughout. I pointed namely to the action scenes, as that's where I notice it the most, but there is indeed mininal use of descriptive language for people, places, and objects. However, while this can indeed be frustrating, I think it is again a result of the author's priority to explain character backstories and motivations, something that the reader must be brought up on to understand the narrative as it progresses. I'm sure the author could have described many things much better, and it would have been a much better book for it, but it would have been a longer book, and I'm sure there was some pressure or limitation on the word count when he was approached.

I don't have much to say on the next point, other than that I disagree with his assertion that the characters given development did not act like themselves. I did feel that Gideon was Gideon and Liliana was Liliana, and that is having read the story articles and again, being a well versed vorthos. Perhaps the professor interpreted a different personal idea of the characters in his mind than I did, and that's fine, but then he should express this point as subjective, which he fails to do.

The follow-up point to this is that many characters are given very little screen time. And again, I have little more to say on this other than "duh?" There are over 36 characters in the story, only 5 of which have any personal stake in the plot. Of course everyone else is going to get less time than them. The next tier of important characters, like Gatewatch-adjacent people, are going to play a lesser role, and characters who have no business being there but were simply called by the Beacon are going to be mentioned in passing, but not be a vital part of the story. The author was approached to write a climactic book for the Gatewatch, that included other planeswalkers being drawn in against their will. Not everyone is going to pull a Gideon, nor should they--it's just a fact. If you didn't expect Sorin and Nahiri's tension to take a backseat or for Ob Nixilis to do one semi-helpful thing and then peace out, you went into the book with literally impossible expectations. There's only so much you can have 36 characters do in a 360 page book that is itself a sequel to stories the reader wasn't expected to read.

Also, Domri gets at least 3 lines. That's not a huge step up from 1, of course, but there's no reason to outright lie to make your point.

Not every character knew each other when they arrived on Ravnica, that's just a fact and the book says so. There are introductions; there are assumptions made; there is gossip spread by another character about who is talking to or arrived with who. It's short, yes, but it's there.

Tibalt gets 1 namedrop. Again, it doesn't count for much, but it doesn't help the professor's point to flatly lie about such insignificant things.

I'll not get into criticizing the professor's takes from the spoiler section of his video, as I am genuinely trying to root in favor of reading the book and don't want to spoil it for those I can reassure here. I recognize it isn't the greatest book ever written; it's not even one of my favorites. But it was never supposed to be, and it doesnt have to be in order to be enjoyed--to be good. If you like the Magic story and you like its characters (admittedly yes, the Gatewatch and Bolas more than most others), then it's a fine read with plenty of excitement and emotion. There are stakes for those who actually have stake in the events, there is dialogue and politics intermingled with threats and fights, and there is a lot of backstory and lore--but that last point is exactly what vorthoses like.

April 29, 2019 8:33 p.m.

12hrr says... #9

I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the writing. It seems to have been written for a younger target audience, perhaps.

Also, spoiler: Show

No raven man! What's up with that? Plus, the parts that mentioned Sorin and Nahiri; I wouldn't even call that crumbs.

May 2, 2019 9:43 p.m.

CrimsonChaos says... #10

Being somewhat fresh to the game, and even fresher to the lore, I liked the book well enough. Granted, the bulk of my familiarity with the preceding story and the characters was mostly gleamed by me reading wiki entries on the various Planeswalkers in the story over the past several weeks before the book came out. That said, I'd probably only have a superficial feel for characterization, so I can't reasonably comment on how each character is portrayed. My main disappointment does come from the lack of detail and the amount of time the majority of characters have in the story, though I suppose I understand why the Gatewatch and Bolas get the majority of the spotlight, aside from Teyo and a little bit of Dack. I also wish that it was more consistent with the cards in the plot details, as well as the trailer.

I kind of wish different writers were able to write out what each of the individual groups of walkers and notable legendary characters were up to in this storyline, but that seems more like it'd be more suited as supplemental online material given that it'd be hard to keep the overall plot coherent that way. I was also particularly looking forward to the Sorin/Nahiri confrontation, personally, and would have loved to see more on that (HOW DID SORIN GET OUT OF THE WALL?). Anyway, tl;dr I would love to see those stories get more fleshed out, but it seems unlikely at this juncture.

May 3, 2019 6:36 p.m.

RicketyEng says... #11

My wife and I loved the book. We spent several days sitting on a Cuban beach together while I read it aloud to us both.

Thank you kanokarob for your rebuttal of the Professor's criticisms. I would like to add that it appears he may be someone unable to observe Rat. He also critized Vraska's assignment at the end while I actually found it funny and fitting since it probably requires her to get creative. That is probably also part of the point.

For everyone talking about wanting extra details about various characters and their circumstances and events leading into the book, those are coming. I've heard that there will be a series of short stories coming which will provide some of these details. I think the first one was posted today in usual Magic Story article fashion.

May 9, 2019 12:01 a.m.

RicketyEng says... #12

As I mentioned above, there are 20 prequel stories being released. The link has appeared a couple of times on MTGDaily but here it is in case anyone has missed it. It asks you to subscribe to a mailing list and promises to give you the stories when they release (I think I read somewhere that would be in June).

May 15, 2019 12:44 p.m.