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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Kami War rolls on, even better this time around, March 17, 2005
This review is from: Heretic: Betrayers of Kamigawa: Kamigawa Cycle, Book II (Mass Market Paperback)
This second novel in the Kamigawa cycle is a noticeable step up from the first installment (/Outlaw/). That's not to say that the first novel is bad - indeed, it supplies a great story with impressive character development, and I highly recommend it. But /Outlaw/ was marred by an unbelievable number of editing errors. /Heretic/ fares a good deal better.
This time around, the story flows much more smoothly. /Outlaw/ had to struggle with setting the stage for this massive world that is, quite frankly, very unfamiliar to most Westerners - and rather foreign to the world of Magic in particular. /Heretic/ has none of this background baggage to deal with, instead plunging right in and letting the now-fully developed characters shine. There's a lot of action in this book, and a good deal of the pieces of the Kamigawa puzzle come together solidly. /Heretic/ is a very fast and enjoyable read.
Of course, I still have to nitpick - /Heretic/ has more editing errors than a novel should. It's nowhere near as bad as /Outlaw/ was in this regard, but the errors do pop up enough that it can be a bit disturbing. But /Heretic/ is very worthy of a full 5 stars, and I will say that this is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in some time (due in no small part to the fabulous setting of Kamigawa itself). If you haven't gotten into this cycle yet, grab this book and /Outlaw/ and prepare for a great reading experience.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Betrayed, March 13, 2005
This review is from: Heretic: Betrayers of Kamigawa: Kamigawa Cycle, Book II (Mass Market Paperback)
I managed to read this book on the bus ride to a state basketball game. McGough is a great writer that can carry the reader along from chapter to chapter, making me not want to put down the book. The content also gave me the answers to questions I had from Champions of Kamigawa. At first I was on Konda and his people's side, but now I am neutral as both sides (kami and humans) have issues. Toshi has become one of my most favorite characters, next to Ixidor and Glissa, from Magic novels. I anxiously await the third novel of this set.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good novel for Magic the Gathering, March 7, 2005
This review is from: Heretic: Betrayers of Kamigawa: Kamigawa Cycle, Book II (Mass Market Paperback)
The 2nd book of the Kamigawa cycle reveals more explanation of what Konda had really done to piss off the spirits. The lead characters are still Toshi and the princess. Toshi has grown more powerful since he "found religion" in the form of the Night Myojin. Like the first book, his power is more subtle and not the kind of world-wrecking power of Kamahl in Onslaught cycle.
The heroes try to remedy what Konda has done, and in the process they met with the wizards and the soratami. The big bad spirit (O-Kagachi) appears and start wrecking havoc. Familiar characters in the first book also make appearances, like Konda, Godo, Kiku, Marrow-Gnawer and the Ogre (can't remember his name). Some new characters get couple of lines of mention, like Uyo. The white and blue dragons in the cards also appear in this book, but again their powers in the book does not tie with the card powers. For example, Keiga the Blue dragon is supposed to gain control of target creature when it dies. In the book it does nothing of that sort. Likewise Yosei the Morning Star did not show any extra special powers.
If you play the card game, you will find that strangely enough, there was no mention of the Ninjas that featured so prominently in the cards for this 'block'. Likewise some famous characters like Ink-Eyes, Kentaro, or Higure never got any mentions in this book.
This is one of the better written Magic the Gathering novels that I've read. Like the first book, Betrayers is a good and fast-paced read. If you like the first book, get this one too!
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