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With the help of the planeswalker, Teferi, the Jamuraan League of City-States struggles to put together a desperate defense against the invasion of the Keldons, who landed in the north. Original.
311 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 30, 2025
If I had actually finished this last year when I started it, I would've cited Haddad as the blandest MTG protag ever. Since then, however, I have become aware of Kellan, and have to refute the hypothetical statement AU Me would've made. This doesn't make Haddad any less boring, though. He's an empty vessel through which to spend 50% of the book expositing worldbuilding details about Keld. The Barrin chapters are good, and replacing the tired trope of a kraken attack with a giant jellyfish was fucking awesome, but that can't save how much of a slog this book is. I didn't care about Keld back during Ice Age, I didn't care about Keld during Artifacts, and I CERTAINLY don't care about Keld now. The Vikings go brrrr, we get it. Time for my Tolarian Mages to fight the Phyrexian horde, thank you.
July 9, 2009
Probably my least favorite among all the MTG books
August 4, 2018
What an odd book. Though it gets off to an awkward start, it does hit its stride after three or four chapters … but is it Magic?
Consider the setting, on one hand we have the Keldons, medieval barbarians with catapults who use very little magic. On the other, we have city states backed by a planeswalker flying blimps and aircraft that drop bombs and shoot rockets. And these are called bombs, blimps, and rockets by the way, not magic missiles or spellbombs. Now guess which force is struggling. Surprise, it’s the guys with the World War I tech and the most powerful wizards. Oh, did I mention they have robots too?
Perhaps that’s what ultimately doomed the book for me … this book's Dominaria is amazingly low magic and correspondingly low Magic the Gathering. Mechanized vehicles, giant robotic insects, blimps, bombs, and rockets … it all became too sci-fi for a Magic setting. While it’s true, most Magic the Gathering tie-in novels aren’t amazing reads, they do at least tie-in with Magic the Gathering. This novel couples an unengaging storyline and characters we barely care about, with a low-magic world that’s alien to fans of Dominaria. The result, for the lack of a better metaphor, is a bomb.
Consider the setting, on one hand we have the Keldons, medieval barbarians with catapults who use very little magic. On the other, we have city states backed by a planeswalker flying blimps and aircraft that drop bombs and shoot rockets. And these are called bombs, blimps, and rockets by the way, not magic missiles or spellbombs. Now guess which force is struggling. Surprise, it’s the guys with the World War I tech and the most powerful wizards. Oh, did I mention they have robots too?
Perhaps that’s what ultimately doomed the book for me … this book's Dominaria is amazingly low magic and correspondingly low Magic the Gathering. Mechanized vehicles, giant robotic insects, blimps, bombs, and rockets … it all became too sci-fi for a Magic setting. While it’s true, most Magic the Gathering tie-in novels aren’t amazing reads, they do at least tie-in with Magic the Gathering. This novel couples an unengaging storyline and characters we barely care about, with a low-magic world that’s alien to fans of Dominaria. The result, for the lack of a better metaphor, is a bomb.
August 5, 2018
This was just incredibly boring and useless. Really the only meaningful events happened in the last 15-20 pages, the rest was watching a dude we don't know or care about dealing with becoming a slave, and some really abrupt shifts to Teferi and Barrin arguing about blimps.
This avoided a lot of lazy writing tropes I've talked about with others in this series, but that doesn't mean much if the story isn't worth telling. I'd rather have a poorly written book with a good story than something technically executed properly but with nothing to say or do. This is the first real miss on story content since the one-off stuff prior to the antiquities stuff.
This avoided a lot of lazy writing tropes I've talked about with others in this series, but that doesn't mean much if the story isn't worth telling. I'd rather have a poorly written book with a good story than something technically executed properly but with nothing to say or do. This is the first real miss on story content since the one-off stuff prior to the antiquities stuff.
January 6, 2020
Mostly about Latulla and her servant Halad. Barrin kills Greel and her, would have liked those moments expanded. Wanted to see more of mageta and Greel. Mostly about war in Jamuraa and Keldons. Alexi, Joreal make appearance.
June 13, 2021
The worst Weatherlight series book so far. Did not properly fit into the timeline. Scenes danced around without much cohesion. Still, the book had it's moments, as all MTG books doo. You would not miss out on anything if you skipped this book in the series.
October 31, 2021
Barely made it through the book. If it wasn't part of a cycle (and I have no idea how this book is supposed to be part of the same story arc) I would have put it down after 30 pages...
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April 4, 2024Read years ago
December 30, 2016
If you go by the Amazon reviews for MTG books, you would assume that this one is the worst of the lot. Don't believe it for a second. This is actually an above average novel for the MTG series, presenting an exciting tale of war on Dominaria. It looks like most of the reviewers here hated this book because it seemed to divert from the primary storyline of the happenings on Rath and Phyrexia. While this may seem to be the case, I'll give the editors at Wizards of the Coast the benefit of the doubt and assume that events chronicled in this book will be relevant to the continuing story. Also, the whole point of this book was to give the readers an idea of what was occurring on Dominaria at the time of the other two books in the Masquerade Cycle. While Gerrard and the Weatherlight are busy (with their own little side story) on Mercadia in Mercadian Masques, and Crovax and company fight for control of Rath in Nemesis, Urza's protege's become distracted from the threat of Phyrexia and embroiled in the war between Jamuraa and Keld in this book. Now the stage is set for the Invasion Cycle, with readers aware of what is going on with all of the characters involved.
I actually thought Vance Moore did an excellent job in telling this story. While the characters were mostly new and won't likely play significant roles in the future books, telling the story from their perspectives was highly effective here. Also, some aspects of this book represent fairly subtle clues about the roots causes of the conflict told within. Where did Creel come from? Who is the real brains behind Latulla's obsession with war? What manner of plague is beginning to spread in Dominaria? I'm sure these questions will be answered in the upcoming books, but I highly suspect Phyrexian involvement here. This book also chronicles the advances in weaponry for the forces of Dominaria. The many battles throughout this book between Jamuraa and Keld are excellently written and display some great new battle techniques and hardware. Props to Vance Moore for his fine effort in his first novel. Highly recommended for fans of the MTG universe.
I actually thought Vance Moore did an excellent job in telling this story. While the characters were mostly new and won't likely play significant roles in the future books, telling the story from their perspectives was highly effective here. Also, some aspects of this book represent fairly subtle clues about the roots causes of the conflict told within. Where did Creel come from? Who is the real brains behind Latulla's obsession with war? What manner of plague is beginning to spread in Dominaria? I'm sure these questions will be answered in the upcoming books, but I highly suspect Phyrexian involvement here. This book also chronicles the advances in weaponry for the forces of Dominaria. The many battles throughout this book between Jamuraa and Keld are excellently written and display some great new battle techniques and hardware. Props to Vance Moore for his fine effort in his first novel. Highly recommended for fans of the MTG universe.
July 4, 2016
ARGH. Why in the name of all that's good & holy can Teferi not be in a really interesting book? Essentially this is Teferi, now a planeswalker, helping some people out with some bullshit. Just dull, dull, dull. I don't understand how I can find the HINTS of Teferi we see in the cards more interesting than an entire book revolving around him.
January 21, 2016
I've posted a full review on my blog here:
http://www.geeky-guide.com/2011/01/bo...
http://www.geeky-guide.com/2011/01/bo...
November 21, 2016
Mostly irrelevant to the overall plot.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews