Morningtide

Well, Morningtide was a disappointment.  It picks up a little after Lorwyn left off.  But it picks up enough later that I found the beginning of the book super confusing.  Rhys, Ashling, Brigid, Sygg, the yew sapling (who is growing extremely fast) Maralen, and the Vendilion Clique (the trio of fairies) are together attempting to free the two giants who helped Rhys in the first book.  The giants have been captured by the Blessed and are being turned into Vineborn warriors.  After successfully rescuing the giant brothers, the party starts to splinter apart.  Ashling disappears in a flash (chasing her elemental), so the Yewling and Endry (the brother fairy) go looking for her.  Brigid wants to atone for her treachery; she intended to help Ashling, but after she disappears, she forces her company on Sygg, who she also wronged (the ferryman ends up allowing her to accompany him on his journey to find what is happening to his people).  Rhys, Maralen, the giant brothers, and the remaining two fairies seek out the giants' sister Rosheen.  They find Rosheen in a valley asleep, and manage to use the fairies to interpret her prophetic dreams.  Ashling finds herself back at her home mountain; the final part of her trial involves her getting to the peak (but she has to get through a stone giant/elemental first).

All of this stuff goes on for what feels like ever without really getting anywhere.  The narrative is split between all the parties, flitting back and forth between them within chapters.  I found that any time something started to get interesting, we'd immediately cut to something less interesting.  Everyone was trying to figure out what the heck was happening through prophecies that weren't particularly interesting (and everyone kept saying this was happening too soon, but nothing seemed to explain why that was the case).  And the characters seemed to get more boring as the book progressed (the Vendilion clique was boring listening to Maralen....and there was a lot less of the two sisters through the book.  Plus Rhys was pretty boring in this book - half of his actions were seen through the eyes of the Blessed who were hunting him, so we didn't even get to see him really in action until he was getting the snot kicked out of him at the end.  And I still don't really know what the heck Maralen is, nor do I really care.).  Morningtide was a real struggle to get through; I have no intention of reading Eventide after slogging through this book.  And I'm especially disappointed because I loved the idea of this setting, but these books just didn't really live up to what I was expecting of them.

Lorwyn

I used to play Magic: the Gathering a lot back in high school.  But these days, I've been more interested in the worldbuilding and flavour of Magic than the actual game.  The plane/world of Lorwyn particularly caught my attention back when it came out.  I loved how the elves were different from your regular elves (really everything seemed familiar and yet different in a fun way) and how the whole world seemed to fit together.  So I bought the Lorwyn Cycle books, which promptly have sat on my shelf for years, until I finally started reading the first one a few days ago.

The world of Lorwyn, at least according to the Lorwyn book by Cory J. Herndon and Scott McGough, is nothing like how I pictured it in my head.  The book opens with basically a massacre of an elven bridal party by some unknown force.  The world is a brutal place where people get killed constantly, either by random forces or by elves.  The elves are particularly brutal - commanding officers will kill subordinates because they can and it will send a message to the rest of the troops.

So anyway, the story mostly follows Ashling, a flamekin pilgrim who is seeking her elemental, and Rhys, an elf who loses one of his horns, becoming an eyeblight to the rest of the elven nation (or Blessed Nation, as they call themselves).  Their paths cross when Ashling is hired by Rhys's old treefolk teacher, to deliver a message to Rhys (and bring him back to the treefolk).  Along the way, Ashling picks up a trio of faeries, and a kithkin warrior who accompany her on her quest.  For his part, Rhys manages to find Maralen, the lone survivor of the bridal party, and to get the Blessed Hunters after him, wanting him (and anyone who helps him) dead.

It took me a bit to warm up to this story and the characters, but by the end I found I was quite interested in what happens.  Book 2, Morningtide, is a direct continuation of the story, so I'm excited to read it next (especially people seem to say it is a lot better than Lorwyn)!

Path of the Planeswalker

I don't know how I feel about Path of the Planeswalker. I absolutely loved the art from the majority of the book (apologies to the artists - I ran out of room and couldn't tag you all). It honestly reminded me of when I read the Halo Graphic Novel. Awesome artwork, but rather hard to follow stories. Unlike the Halo Graphic Novel, the stories seemed to tie into one another (or at least some of them did). The main arcs involved Chandra and Jace hunting a scroll for different reasons, and Liliana Vess with this weird veil. Over and over again, I felt like these stories would have been better in prose form - while the art was awesome, the stories all felt like they needed more explanation.

So like the Halo Graphic Novel, I ended up giving this book a 2/5 on Goodreads, making me glad I never did go buy Path of the Planeswalker Volume 2.

Magic: The Gathering Volume 1

Wow, it's been awhile since I've read anything Magic the Gathering.  According to this blog, the last thing I read was the Shadowmoor anthology, which I read back in 2009.  I've read other books, but that was before starting this blog (so pre-June 2008).  It's been even longer since I've read any comics.  The only one I honestly remember reading was the Nightmare comic, which would have been sometime around 1995 when it came out (I liked that it was a standalone comic, but I admit it was a bit confusing at the time.  I've since reread it and it made a lot more sense to me.  I guess it was an issue with my age - I may have been a bit too young to get it at first).

Anyway, so I picked up Magic: The Gathering Volume 1, which was written by Matt Forbeck and drawn by Martin Coccolo.  It's the story of Dack Fayden, a planeswalker thief.  He steals an artifact from the Cult of Rakdos on Ravnica.  When he finally manages to catch his breath after doing so (the Cult was not happy with him liberating them of their artifact), he examines it and discovers that the lady who wielded it last was the one who destroyed his village.  So he sets off to Innistrad to find her.

I definitely enjoyed reading Magic: The Gathering Volume 1 (wow I wish it had a better title than that).  But I found it a bit short.  And unfortunately the library doesn't have the second volume in the series (or any of the other ones).  So it's going to be awhile before I can read any more (and find out where the heck Fayden went at the end of this - I want to guess whatever plane the Arabian Nights set takes place on (Arabia?) but I have a feeling I'm wrong).

I also want to say, I love the idea of a Planeswalker thief.  Once he gets a hold of something, how do you stop him?  He can just waltz right off of your plane!  Awesome!

The Child Thief

I had started reading David Eddings's Queen of Sorcery when I wandered into Chapters a few days ago, which was my first mistake. While browsing the shelves, I discovered that Brom (a fantastic artist I know of from Magic:the Gathering) had written a novel. The art looked fantastic, and the book's premise intrigued me. That was when I made my second mistake: I started reading the Prologue. After that, I found myself unable to put the book down and immediately bought it.

The Child Thief is the story of Peter Pan reimagined. Peter roams the streets of New York looking for lost children who he brings back to his magic island. He entices them with stories of adventure and the lack of grownups, but leaves out the scarier aspects, like the Flesh-eaters and barghest, or the Mist that must be crossed to get to the island. Once in Avalon, the children become his troops in a war for the island's very soul. One of these lost children is Nick. Peter helps Nick get away from his troubles; with no where left to turn, Nick follows Peter through the Mist to Avalon. Once there, Nick finds he does not want to be part of the war, but is caught up in it all the same.

One of my favourite characters was, surprisingly, the Captain. Gone is Captain Hook, the usual villain in Peter Pan. In his place is a very deep, brave character who I truly felt sorry for. He was a man left in extraordinary circumstances and I felt myself feeling sorry for him and hoping that things would work out.

Make no mistake, The Child Thief is a very dark, adult tale. But it was very beautiful in its way, and I found myself not wanting to put it down. Brom spun a fantastic story, and I hope to get a hold of more by him in the future!

Shadowmoor

It's taken me awhile (I read the first story back in March), but today I finally finished the Magic:the Gathering Shadowmoor Anthology! And I have to say I really liked it! Right off the bat I was enchanted with the land of Shadowmoor, from the treefolk and giants to the merrows and elves. I liked that there were no humans present. It, and Lorwyn (the sunny, happier Shadowmoor), reminded me of a fairy tale land and I liked that. But if Lorwyn is the happier side of the coin, Shadowmoor is the dark, Brother's Grimm fairy tales. Almost all of the tales in this anthology are darker, and many have twists that end in death, destruction and suffering.

There were nine stories in total, most by authors I am unfamiliar with (unless they wrote stories in some of the other Magic anthologies I have read). Out of the nine stories, I really enjoyed five of them, and thought another three were alright. It was only "Expedition," the story about the kithkin doun trying to teach fear to one of its members, that I really didn't like. Shadowmoor was a great read, and I wish Wizards of the Coast would continue to tell tales from this dark land (and its sunnier counterpart).