Judgment

Magic: The Gathering: Odyssey Cycle #3

by Will McDermott

The time has come.

Every powerful wizard and fighter on the continent of Otaria wants one thing: power. One artifact can give them--undeniably--that which they seek, and nothing will stop any of them from possessing it.

But in the end, only one can have it, and his actions will determine the fate of the world.

The day of judgment has arrived.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Magic, Science Fiction Fantasy

312 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

Reviews

[Robert Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end of this book got me to finally give it a 5 star rating. The climax goes to the very end. I know the Mirari Saga continues and it will be interesting to see how it does.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a meh conclusion to the trilogy, but at least it continued the second book's improvements with respect to focus and character. The middle section was a bit unsatisfying, with Kamahl's incredibly abrupt changes from "I'm going to control the Mirari and unite the tribes" to "just kidding, I'm going to cave anyway" to "oh oops I killed my sister I'm fine now" in the course of like 25 pages.

That's not to say it doesn't make sense, but it was so half-assed and abrupt and felt like the author going through the motions to create an arc for its own sake.

[Iranoctis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viel mehr Positives, als dass McDermott alle Fäden aus den vorherigen Bänden nachvollziehbar zusammenführt, kann man leider über den Abschluss des Zyklus' nicht sagen. Die Kampfschilderungen sind ok, der Rest irgendwo zwischen nüchtern und belanglos. Knappe drei Sterne.

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satisfactory, if more average, ending to the cycle. The character arcs from Chainer's Torment are continued here well enough, and the pacing and action are somewhere in between the quality of Odyssey and Chainer's Torment, though definitely leaning toward the later.

After the conclusion of Chainer's Torment, Chainer has been killed in the struggle over the Mirari in Cabal City. Kamahl, his friend and the protagonist of the trilogy, takes the Mirari to fulfill Chainer's dying wish. He journeys to his home, the Pardic Mountains, to attempt to unite the barbarian tribes there under one sword--his. Corrupted by the Mirari, he attacks his sister and believes he kills her, thinking that she had murdered their mutual father figure Balthor. The rest of Kamahl's narrative is spent attempting to undo the damage he did under the Mirari's influence and having a truly interesting character change.

Throughout Kamahl's journey, chapters focused on everybody's least favourite merman Laquatus are sprinkled in. These are the weaker chapters of the novel, but are still nowhere near the agonisingly low quality of Odyssey. Burke is at least a more interesting jack than Turg was, and some of the end-of-book threads with Laquatus attempting to play every faction against one another is at least somewhat entertaining due to how pathetic Laquatus is.

Overall, I definitely recommend Judgment if you enjoyed Chainer's Torment. If you didn't, there's really no reason to continue on to this novel as it's just a slightly less-entertaining continuation of that narrative.

[Chip Hunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Will McDermott's first foray into the MTG universe is hugely disappointing. Where Scott McGough had given us one of the best MTG books to date with Chainer's Torment, this book falls very flat. Forced dialogue, ridiculous coincidences, and a plodding story define this book, and highlight McDermott's unconcern for the quality of the story that readers get in these MTG fluff pieces. Painfully unfunny jokes from characters that don't mesh at all with what had been established in the previous two books only annoy, and the action is over-the-top unbelievable and silly (especially from Balthor the dwarf). The only good things I can say about this book are that it mostly concluded the story and Laquatus finally met his end. I'm sure McDermott was handed a general outline of where the story needed to go, so I can't give him credit for getting it there. Hopefully McDermott ups his game if he writes more MTG fluff, as this one suffered greatly from what seemed like the writer just not trying too hard. This is one of those that makes me wonder why I still read these books.. but I guess whatever book I read next will be all that much more enjoyable as it it inevitably contrasted with this one. Not recommended unless you're just dead set on finishing the Cycle.