Customer Reviews

Ravnica: Ravnica Cycle, Book I

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

 

 

Having skipped both the Mirrodin and Kamigawa cycle of books out of sheer lack of interest, I decided to pick up the Ravnica novel, as the summary finally sounded intriguing enough for me.

If you thought the Mirrodin and/or Kamigawa cycle of books were disappointing, you need to get this one! It is, hands down the best M:TG novel I've read since Torment, back in Odyessy block.

In essence, the plot is a series of murder mysteries, combined with power grabs by enemy guilds, etc. The story has its twists however. Just when you think you've got it all sorted out, Herndon turns your notions upsidedown. The ending is surprising to say the least. If it weren't part of a cycle of books, I'd say it could almost be a stand-alone novel.

While some of the characters are rather stereotypical/cliche, I didn't find it all that bothersome. I didn't even reflect on that until I'd actually finished the novel.

A big thumbs up to author Cory Herndon. I'm glad to see that he will be writing the remaining two novels as well.

I just finished the new Ravnica novel, and have to day that it is quite possibly the best book I've read in the Magic: The Gathering series. The characters in the novel are well done and very entertaining. All in all a good entertaining read, even if one isn't familiar with the card game that the novels are based out of.

I enjoyed this book a lot but I have to agree with the other reviewer that the fight scenes were a bit hard to follow at times. If you enjoy magic the gathering novels you will probably enjoy this one as it was a fun read and I will buy the next two books in the series for sure.

Reading Ravnica was a breath of fresh air for me. Skipping the Kamigawa series of books (after speding some time and simply not enjoying it), I can say that this new book series will definately be interesting me.

The book is, in many ways, a murder mystery. Yes, some of the characters are a little cliched - the main character is the typical Old Cop With A Few Days To Retirement - but I hardly noticed it until I had time to reflect on it.

One of the only minor problems I had with the book was with the arguably high number of main characters. I had moments where I seemingly missed a line where a character was given a name, and so I had to guess that (for example) a seemingly-new character was one I had been following for a while.

While some would consider it a drawback, I like how the author was not above fleshing out a character, only to render them moot/dead within a couple pages. I had expected that a certain Bad Guy would be a constant threat in the story, but he was essentially killed off quickly. It made the plot, and the actions of his killers, much more strong.

All in all? A very solid book.

I received this novel in a Ravnica Fat Pack, and out of curiosity more than true interest, I sat down to read it. The story itself is pretty basic with a few twists thrown in. It's a detective story with the stereotypical aging crime fighter who doesn't like partners and has something from his past catch up with him. The various characters each feel like they should be interesting as they come across as distinct entities, but by the end of the book you don't really get to know any of them beyond the main character. The setting is pretty well described and it's easy to get a mental picture of the landscapes and surroundings.


** Minor spoilers **

When it comes to describing action however, things get confusing. This is bad for a book with a lot of action. Fight scenes often were written in a way that made me have to go back to figure out who was being talked about. Events that had happened a short time ago were 'forgotten'. For instance, there's one scene where caltrop like things attacked the characters' feet. One character tells the other to just be patient, they'll drop off after a bit. The effects of the caltrops on the characters' feet are described a few sentences later, but then ignored for the rest of the sequence without ever describing when and how they drop off. The combination of these kinds of logical holes along with poor clarity made these scenes more of a chore than exciting.

These logical issues were present throughout the book, up to and including the last page. As an example, one scene had a character dying an excruciating death. At one point it said something like "He never had a chance to scream." And then it described the process of death taking minutes (and from the description it didn't seem as though it would have removed his ability to scream).

The author also lacked a certain subtlety that would have made the book better. At one point a character picks a fight with a rather polite minotaur for no apparent reason. Very shortly, the author, perhaps fearing he's making the character unlikeable very explicitly says something like: "He was really a good man who wasn't bigoted. But when drunk he would often pick fights with individuals who reminded him of a certain group". Now, ignoring the logical problem that I believe that picking fights with people who remind you of another group does indeed make a person a bigot, this is information that could have been shown over time. I'm not a fan of being told that I should consider a character a good person. Have him act accordingly and let any background information revealed over time let me make my own decision on whether he's good.

** End minor spoilers **

There were also numerous typos throughout which can be understood given the time frame books like these are produced under.

There is one other overall 'conceptual' problem I have with the book. Some of the characters, events, monsters, spells, etc are present in the Ravnica card set. However, the book is a relatively standard fantasy story that doesn't have any relation to the 'mechanics' of the card game itself where each player uses these characters, spells, creatures, etc in a fight against the other player. I can't say I can see how the card game could be translated more faithfully into a story (I do remember the first M:tG book I ever read was boring and did try to faithfully follow the way the card game played - such that it was the last M:tG book I ever read until now), but as it is you have a story that feels more like a standard fantasy novel, but isn't well written enough to appeal to anyone outside the game.

The book isn't the absolutely worst book I've ever read and it gets a 2 only because there's no way to rate it 1 1/2.

I have been reading MTG books for a long time now, and appreciate the vibrant worlds and characters that they portray. Ravnica does this fine, but the author does a not so good job at keeping everything in order. After a while, you begin to wonder who is who, and what guild is what. Action scenes are good, but tend to be slightly confusing also. The writer brings you in depth with characters, and once you begin the understand what is going on, this is really a good book.

The bottom line is, if you like the MTG series, and don't mind backtracking to find information to understand the book, then this is a good book. If not, don't pick it up.

Cory J. Herndon's latest book in the M:TG world is painful to read. There are many problems that drag this book down, some of which are not his fault. With the latest shift in Wizard's of the Coast products it makes it hard to keep creating a trilogy for every block of cards that is produced. Mind you I have never been a M:TG card player besides the casual game, but I have read a decent number of the books. Before Mirrodin, most of the books were all about Dominiria, or at least with characters from that Plane. This made the first dozen books are so all about the same realm which created a strongly developed storyline-arch, characters, and landscape. With each set now, there is a brand new world, and a brand new set of characters. This is why I believe that the recent M:TG novels have been sub-par at the very best. Most of these worlds are completely engaging, from the Wizard's website, not the books.

"Ravnica" is supposedly a mystery, which unfortunately unfolds over halfway through the book. The murder in question does not happen until so late, that the first half of the book is random jumps between different characters from the guilds and it is nearly impossible to keep track of what guild is what, and who is who. The interactions between characters are weak at best, and the conversations are simply painful to read.

The world that Ravnica takes place in sounds really interesting and really exciting; however, I came to that conclusion reading the website materials and not this book. I can't imagine what I would have thought if I had read this book before browsing the website. This book is so dissappointing because it does not do one bit of justice for the incredible world the card creators have made.

I think the the Wizard's publishing company could do to make their books better is to get out of the same formula as all the books have been: 300 pages per card release. Ravnica has the potential to contain an almost epic scope of a book, possibly with more editions than just three. If the books were expanded and enhanced, I think they would be doing better and getting more of a following. If you look at the Mirrodin block and Kamigawa block books they have been less than satisfying in many reviewers minds.

To sum up the world was hardly explored at the expense for following characters that were not interesting. The back of the book was not even close to accurate about the direction the story was going to take. I had such high hopes for the "Ravnica" cycle of books, but unfortunately I will not be reading the other two books. I am just dissappointed in the potential that this book squandered.

When I got this book in a fat pack for my birthday, I was more interested in the cards than the book. After a while, I was killing everybody with my deck, and I was starting to be rejected. It occured to me that I needed a better hobby for a while, and I looked at this book...

The main character of this fine book, Agros Kos, is an old, worn out, wojek (police-like person of the city of Ravnica). He is still haunted by the past where his favourite partner, Myczil Zunich, was killed. All this is a mystery to everybody else, because Kos is the only one that knows what really happened.

Fonn Zunich, Myczil's only daughter, has traveled a long way to help protect the Saint Bayul, an ambassador of the Selesnya Guild. On her way to Ravnica( or should I say main Ravnica because Ravnica covers most of the world),she is attacked by members of a gang, but being a ledev, she immediately saves the Saint and walks away.

Jarad, a Devkarin or Dark Elf, is the Grand Hunter or the Golgari Guild. His sister, Savra, has been up to something, because she has been acting strangely around the leaders, the Gorgon Sisters. He suspects that she is planning to overthrow them, but he doesn't know how far she will go to do that. He never expected for his sister to send assassins to him, and now he knows the true intentions of Savra the Matka.

All these people meet together, to help save, or destroy Ravnica. Being that some people have not read this book, I will not give away any information, as to spoil their fun...

After the great works that were Kamigawa, all that can be said about Ravnica is that it is disappointing.
One main reason is that much of the plot revolves around inventions of Ravnica's ten "guilds", best described as massive corporations that each monopolize large sections of the city. This would not be disturbing, except that only four of those guilds have come out in card form, in the first set of a planned three to revolve around this story. It is difficult when the reader encounters vague descriptions of what the creative team assumes the players imagine those six unreleased guilds' members and techniques look like.
The book development can only be called gratingly slow. To give an example, it says on the back of the book: "They gave [Lieutenant Kos] a partner to train, who promptly got himself killed." The partner, Bell Borca, first shows up around page 40, and his death is on page 123. Large portions of the book switch back to a "flashback sequence" that has little to no relevance to the story. As well, much of the book revolves around a slowly unraveling scheme by one of the guilds to destroy the others. The exact (read: any) details of the plan are unknown until the very end of the story (which, as I mentioned, only starts on page 123). In a Fahrenheit 451-like twist, the action ends almost as soon as it starts, at the very end of a large journey that largely amounts to nothing. This is made more infuriating by characters that seem to only care about that the guilds are scheming.
Bottom line: If you are going to somehow end up with this book, at least buy the Ravnica fat pack and enjoy the cards you get.

i'm sure the book is a good read, that's why i ordered it. but, the link i ordered it from said the book was NEW. i just got it today and the book is visably USED! even has the name of the previous owner on the top. if you're really looking for this book, have your local book store order it for you, or get it on your kindle.