Customer Reviews

Odyssey (Odyssey Cycle, Book I)

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

 

 

to sum this book up in 1 word...horrible. the whole thing was like reading lord of the flies. the location would constantly jump around, leaving no time to develop characters' personalities or their scenery. this whole next series, the odyssey cycle is supposed to be all on kamahl correct? vance moore focuses on laquatas&kirtar. you have to wait 100 pages in order to get back to the main character, even then nothing happens or its only 15 pages. Also, 100 years after the dominarian apocalypse, this is supposed to be a world of pit fighting right? in the whole book there is only 3 or 4 pit fights, they arent that intersting. i like having details, lots of details, moore (the author) didnt give the dementia creatures or anything else enough detail to form the picture in your mind of kamahl or whoever was fighting. im not lying when i say this, i was ready to throw the book against the wall, thats how bad it was. if this review has offended you in any way, im sorry, but this is my opinion, you'r entitled to yours, im entitled to mine. =D
go forth, wreak havoc

This was perhaps the first book in which I thought there was too much action and not enough plot. It pretty much read like the novelization of a direct-to-video Jean Claude van Damme movie.

One problem might be there's too much going on. There is the pitfighter (who has hair yet is portrayed bald on the bookcover) who arrives to fight in the gladiator-like competition, there's the plot to take over the nation via a sea creature's coupe...and then there are some political intrigues that go all over the place.

But like I said, action soon takes over in parts where it really shouldn't. My real big loss of interest was when the monster attacked the town, taking up two or three chapters just to resolve itself. It got real boring, and came out feeling like it did practically nothing except raise the book's body count.

After a certain point, you just feel like reading the book is an effort. I would suggest you stay clear from it.

This does an alright job of telling the Odyssey story but has a couple thousand faults...

first of all there's a little too much battle description. it seems that between every actual plot development there are two or three battles. now i wouldn't have a problem with that if the battles didn't go on for pages. what's the point? i understand that there is a need for fighting, but i must admit that i don't care to know things that don't have any affect on the story. all these battles that amount to nothing are really repetative.

they're only in here to make the book as long as possible, if they'd summarized the battles this book would be a hundred pages...

one thing i did like however is laquatis. laquatis is a badass and therefore earned this book 1 star. he'd make the perfect machiavellian prince, so i think he deserves the mirari. the other star comes from this being remotely related to magic the gathering.

overall this is just a rocky start to what i hope will be a good series. they could have done MUCH better. luckily this went pretty fast despite the endless battles. my advice is skip this and read torment.

seriously, torment goes over everything that happened in oddessy. so it does exactly what i wanted it to, lol. so just read torment and don't waste your time...

I knew this book was going to turn out terrible when I found out that Vance Moore wrote it. One good habit this guy has when writing books is he mentions things at the beginning of the book (the Mirari in Chapter 1 which strikes Kamahl's fancy as final prize) and doesn't mention it hardly ever again until the last three or four chapters (when you finally figure out it's called the Mirari!). The only thing that's good about this book is the fact that it's the only one in the Odyssey cycle written by Moore. I'm in the middle of Chainer's Torment right now, and it is already looking 10 times better than this book ever could be.

Ignore this author like the Phyrexian Plague!

I'm a bit surprised by all the very negative reviews this book received. Personally, I found it refreshing to read the start of a new series not focusing on Gerrard, Urza, and Co. In relation to all the other MTG books I've read, this one falls on the plus-side of average (which isn't saying much). This one has a much more intimate focus on the characters involved and less of a world-encompassing feel that all of the previous books had. Kamahl, Laquatus, Kirtar, and Seton are completely original and fairly well-developed characters that help keep this story interesting but are all somewhat tiring and annoying. Still, I expect them to be the focal points of the future books in the series. My favorite character here is definitely Turg. A huge frog pit-fighter with cunning and a wicked sense of humor? Awesome. The overall story, about the various powerful rivals desperately chasing a dangerous (but mysterious) artifact known as Mirari, is only minimally interesting, and mostly serves as a framework around which to develop the characters.

I like the direction the MTG novels have taken with this book though. Magic is much more widespread, being available to essentially anyone and playing a major role in everyday life. And the system of magic seems much more in line with the way the game works than was true in previous books. In some ways this book reminds me of the very first MTG books, especially Arena with the focus on magic gladiatorial-style duels. I think if these books continue to move int this direction, the future of the series will be good.

I've read all the other books in the Magic series, and up till this one they were extremely well written. From Rath and Storm till Apocalypse I couldn't put the books down. Till I hit this book. I just hit a brick wall it feels like. I can't force myself to read on and I have about 100 pages left in the book. It's so dry and unexciting to me. The whole thing is about Kamahl a barbarian chasing after this artifact (The Mirari) and Laquatus, a mer-ambassador also seeking the Mirari and that's about all there is to the book. The Gerrard storyline should have continued, even though I know what happened in Apocalypse and all, they could have continued with the crew. I would not recommend these new "environment" style books they are trying with now.

Vance Moore starts the book very slow and the pace of the author is painful. The first few chapters will leave you wondering just what is going on and scrambling back severl pages to see what you missed. He jumps from character to character without warning, and often jumps forward and backwards in the timeline at will. The final, most irritating part of the book is that the author seems to think that he must use every 10 cent word that he knows and that he must exaggerate miniscule actions with severl large adjectives.

Other than the few glaring faults in the first 5 chapters, the book is okay, with a decent story. The only reason I finished the book was because I wanted to learn the story of the cardset, as i thought it would be easier to understand the pace of the expansion.

All in all, the book is not bad, just dont expect a top-notch story and authoring, as you would with Terry Brooks or Margaret Wiess. The fault here, more than likely, lies with the editor, though, and not the author.

--DK

i believe this was a great Magic Book taking place 100 years since the Phyrexian invasion. With peole fighting in pits for huge awards but everyone covets this sphere with some power, watching all the characters run after this device is very exciting and interesting. And for once the villian isn't someone who only uses black mana. A very suspenceful ending as well that will make you can't wait until the next book comes out. A must read for any Magic fan. Good job Vance Moore

This was my first M:TG read. I figured that this was a good place to start, since a whole new storyline begins with this book.

Overall, I enjoyed the introduction to all of the various characters, at least one representing each of the five colors of Magic (Kamahl for red, Laquatus for blue, Braids for black, Seton for green and Pianna/Kirtar for white). While there wasn't a ton of action, there was enough to keep the book entertaining. Besides, major climaxes aren't supposed to happen until the end of a block anyway - at least in my opinion.

So, overall, this was a good first read. 4 out of 5 stars. Recommended especially to new readers as a place to start.

i love to read and this is the first of the magic series i have read. its starts offr good but it goes down hill in a hurry. there seems to be no plot in this story. i would of rather started with the second book chainers tourment, it starts by giving you some info before this book starts and goes till after this book ends and gives you all the info you need from the first book. you will not miss anything if you skip this book. i wish i didnt buy this book.