Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At first a lot of fans of Magic: The Gathering’s story were miffed that the main beats of War of the Spark were revealed from the card set’s preview season before any of the literature was released itself. Dack Fayden got his spark ripped out? Wait, Niv-Mizzet died in the first place? Gideon sacrificed himself to save Liliana, the only one who can turn the tide (a la The Last Hope during Eldritch Moon)? However, now I’m glad I was able to see the framework built by Wizard’s in-house design and creative teams before I read Wiesman’s take. I avoided leaks and discussions of the novel because I wanted to be surprised and mystified by twists and unforeseen happenings. However, I needn’t have bothered, as the book offered… none of these. The story was, simply, conveyed better between the set trailers, art, and flavor-text. War of the Spark’s premise is rife with stakes and emotion, and the animation and cards wonderfully illustrated Nicol Bolas’s cruel mechanizations, the darkness and destruction befalling local Ravnica, Liliana’s inner conflict and decisive resolve, Gideon’s emotional sacrifice and well deserved rest, and many more struggles, plans, and tragedies. Even Ral and Tomik’s relationship got an endearing nod with Dawn Murin’s art direction via the inclusion of wrist cloths in their card arts. The frame and setup of the story was all there, and it was solid. While fans were waiting for the novel’s release, we were welcome to fill in the narrative gaps with our speculation and imaginations. Regardless, Wiesman’s own imagination didn’t do anything particularly good or interesting with what it was given. He covered all the key events and all of the characters, but that’s pretty much it. Cleverness, surprises, emotional tracking, the book had none of these. Things that should have been grandiose and exciting fell flat. The Gatewatch, which by all means should have been ready with a crafted plan a la the endings of the Ixalan and Dominaria blocks, ran around with their heads cut off for over half the book. There was no good reason for Jace and Vraska’s plan to not come to fruition, and no reason why the rest of the Gatewatch to be caught so unaware. This was the finale, and most characters were set back character-development wise for it, when they should have been forged and triumphant from their previous successes and failures. The book suffered from character overload, and it wasted time covering relatively inconsequential moments of low-stakes battles with the Eternals (who seemed to also be powered-down from how we knew them). Teyo and Rat were meant to act as a lens for readers new to MTG story, but I don’t think this intention was achieved. The sheer amount of names and locations were probably inconceivable to follow from someone not familiar with MTG’s dense lore. I much prefer the looser canon of War of the Spark’s set art and trailers over Wiesman’s novelization of it. I have to wonder if leaving the novel to some of the writers of the web fiction such as Alison Luhrs, Kate Elliot, Doug Beyer, Nicky Drayden, etcetera, would have resulted in a War of the Spark novel with a little more passion and heart.