Customer Reviews

Legions (Magic: The Gathering: Onslaught Cycle, Book 2)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is an excellent book worthy of praise. It is not a book to be read as a stand alone novel. It is the fifth book in a six part series, so it would behoove you to read the first five. The people that bad mouthed the book for some reason read this one without reading the previous books. The entire series is a wonderful collection to have, especially if your a fan of swords and sorcery.

This was a great book, I don;t care what anyone else says about it. I wish Ixidor was in it though but still, Waistcoat and Sash were a great add on though I was very sad when Umbra sacrificed himself for his friends. Akroma is a witch, and I hope once you read this book you feel the same. I kind of believed in Ixidors vision and hated it when he refused to come back from the worm. (Though I here he comes back in Scourge) Phage is cool though except for the fact that she rots anything she touches. Great Book

At first, when my friend told me about this, I expected a boring book about stragne creatures that fight. BIIIGG DEAAAL I thought.
But I was in for a shock. This book is interesting, not just fighting and strength, but about strategy aswell. Deserves 10 out of 5, but i can only give it a 5.

Legions by J. Robert King is Book Two of the Onslaught Cycle, a fantasy novel series bringing to life the story from the Onslaught line of "Magic: The Gathering" collectible card game. Two titanic beings, the bloodthirsty Phage and the ruthless angel Akroma, rend the world with their deadly war, while the one man whose terrible wrongs created Phage and Akroma alike must find a way to protect what is left of mortal kind from their devastation. An exciting and titanic science fiction action/adventure saga.

Along with Time Streams, this is the best King's book in the series. The plot is great, it's never confusing and catches your attention from the beginning. I loved to hear from Ixidor again, and I can't wait to see him as a god in Scourge! Walking holes, death wurms and the marvels of Topos are great too. I think King had a not-so-brilliant period (Invasion, etc. were not as good as Time Streams) but with Onslaught and mostly with Legions, he returned to the good old times!

Well, I love this book! I don't want to spoil anything but when what happened when Akroma mets Braids, my jaw hit the floor.

OK, this book is sort of interesting. Unfortunately, it would be nicer if it connected more with the set. It gets way off by mentioning all sorts of characters that didn't appear even once, not even in the flavor text.

Also, WHERE ARE THE SLIVERS?! There are 15 Slivers in the Legions set, and that's 10% of the set! And they cannot set aside 1% of the book? I was hoping it would at least mention the Riptide Project! Look at the flavor texts of some of the Slivers:

Essence Sliver: The slivers would survive, even at the expense of every other creature on Otaria.

Shifting Sliver: Once the last few slivers the Riptide Project controlled were dead, there was nothing to keep the island from being completely overrun.

Crypt Sliver: "Death couldn't contain the slivers. What made us think we could?." -Riptide Project researcher

Blade Sliver: After breaking free from the Riptide Project, the slivers quickly adapted to life on Otaria-much to the dismay of life on Otaria.

Brood Sliver: Within weeks, more slivers nested in Otaria than ever existed on Rath

Root Sliver: "It would take another apocalypse to stop the slivers now." -Riptide Project researcher

Now, Otaria is where pretty much all of the book takes place. Look at those flavor texts. It makes it seem like Otaria is under quite a bit of trouble from the Slivers. Yet it never mentions them. Not once. Please, I was really hoping for them to return! They mention them in the "Rath and Storm" novel, why not this? Well, maybe they'll show up in the next book, Scourge...but unlikely.

Maybe I'm making too big a deal out of the fact the Slivers aren't in it. But still, it seemed to go quite a bit aways from the set. Besides, I wanted to know what, if anything, stopped the Slivers. But does it mention them? Nope.

I preferred Onslaught greatly to this.

Once again J. Robert King out does himself. This book was an excellent sequel to Onslaught and I can't wait for the next one! King's characters fuse together through random chance in a world overrun by powerhungry would be dictatorsip in such a perfect way that his writing style can be described as nothing less than beautiful.

J. Robert King continues his saga about the druid/warrior Kamahl, and his quest to save his sister. Akroma has taken control over Ixidor's realm, and gather forces to destroy Phage. Jeska has returned to the shape of Phage, and does whatever she can to survive.
Things are going nowhere great, and everyone is getting ready for war. Kamahl as gon into hiding, whilst his general, Stonebrow and Phage's best woman, Zagorka has found a peasefull city of peace named Sanctum.
The final twist of this book makes you long for more. And King deliveres.

This is truly a masterpiece of MTG fantasy.

A few MAGIC fans have a grudge against this book because it doesn't touch on the sliver story or many of the other sub-plots going on in the Legions card set (I.E., the Daru, the Skirk Ridge, the Riptide project, etc). It focuses nearly all its attention instead on the central conflict between Phage the Untouchable and Akroma, Ixodor's angel of vengeance. It also contains important characters that were never mentioned on the cards (Though Stonebrow, one of the main protagonists of this book, was carded a few years later.)

This book is very, very dark (perhaps the darkest of the six books in the Otaria saga), but it is also incredibly beautiful. King's prose is a joy to read, and he is great at tinging horror with beauty and beauty with horror. Phage is shown to be a very sympathetic character, one we find ourselves caring about and actually rooting for. Akroma, on the other hand, is portrayed as a cruel, self-righteous, single minded monster (though we can also feel a bit of sympathy for her, too.)

If you are not familiar with the MAGIC ccg, or were not playing during the Onslaught Block (and therefor have no expectations of how closely this novel should follow its corresponding card set) you WILL love this book. If you like fantasy that has actual depth to it (unlike many more current MAGIC books) you WILL love this book. Or, if you WERE around during the Onslaught Block and just approach this book knowing that most of the cards' plotlines will not be adressed here, then you WILL love this book. It has style. It has substance. As a book, it is of better literary quality than most MTG novels.


It is definitely recommended that you read Onslaught first, however.


Enjoy.