7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story, lots of mistakes, September 3, 2009
I just finished reading this book and really liked it. I think any magic fan would really enjoy it and probably even someone not familiar with magic would find it to be a good read. I'm really enjoying this planeswalker series of books so far. My only problem with the book and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars is the amazing amount of grammatical errors. It's pretty typical for WOC books to have a lot of errors, but this was like nobody even read the book before it went to the printers. It's not a huge deal but it just takes you out of the moment when you have to read something twice because it doesn't make any sense. I would say it happened to me almost every two or three pages. WOC books cost as much as any other book on the shelves, it seems like they could pay to have someone proof read them.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
not quite up to snuff, October 14, 2009
I am writing this as someone who has read nearly every single magic novel written so far, Particularly ever novel since Wizards started publishing their own books. so when i say that this novel just isnt quite up to par, i mean so in a few different ways. This was written by a new author, who hasnt written a magic novel before, and it is apparent. There are certain consistancies that i feel were needlessly disregarded, which leaves this book just feeling not right. The other main issue i have with this novel, is that it seems to not have even been reviewed by editor, there are typos, all over the place, not just the few you would normally catch in a novel, but WAY more than normal.
basically if you have read every other magic novel, might as well read it, but you will have some issues.
and for those just starting in the MtG novels, it doesnt really exemplify the rest of the books.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Chandra Nalaar's Origin Story, July 27, 2010
This review is from: The Purifying Fire: A Planeswalker Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the book you want to read if you are curious about the story behind the planeswalker Chandra Nalaar, represented in
Chandra Nalaar - Magic 2010 M10 Planeswalker - Mythic Rare. The pacing is decent, and it portrays Chandra as an impulsive yet powerful young pyromancer and fledgling planeswalker. Jace has a cameo, Jaya Ballard is mentioned historically, and Gideon is present.
The Purifying Fire is typical of Wizards of the Coast novels -- bad editing, short (the author's name is on both left and right margins of pages, padding the page count), and with no horror-level violence or romance above holding hands. Basically it's a fast paced adventure story with decent insight into the character and history of Chandra. The author takes liberties with the Magic: The Gathering card game's spell casting system, if you care about that.
Overall the book tells Chandra's story, emphasis on 'tell' over show. Three different planes are visited, and my pick for 'best detail' was Chandra's off-color loathing of goblins. For this to be better than average, the 'ouphes-must-be-funny' vibe needed less of the author's overemphasis, and Chandra's inner conflict of anger management needed more. Chanda herself is impulsive, caring yet sarcastic, and destructive, but the author also writes her on the stupid side.
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