Jeff Grubb

A fantastic reference to the other planes. Originally written for 1st Edition AD&D, this is excellent background information for all editions. Some of the specifics have been superseded by rule updates in later editions, but this is still valid. One of the best non-core supplement books, it contains a wealth of information about the planes, creatures and magic. Just a great expansion of the core books.

I've been picking up some Star Wars novels from the waning days of the old EU from the library. I appreciate that, in that publishing era, Del Rey tried to put out some standalones, not connected with the big tedious storylines, largely focusing on new characters. Unfortunately, Scourge is a lot like another of those novels, Shadow Games, in that the execution is not very good. I like the idea of a Jedi librarian forced into action by the death of his apprentice, but the occasional show more moment aside, I didn't find him a very distinctive character. On top of this, I often found author Jeff Grubb's dialogue awkward. I could see what the book was going for, a group of disparate people who have to work together is the original Star Wars trope, but if your dialogue doesn't work, then the character interactions you need to make this trope function just don't come off.

The book is supposedly set in the late Bantam, pre–New Jedi Order era, but though I'm sure you could always squint and things would be fine, I didn't think the details rang true, and I'm not sure why it wasn't just set in the prequel era. It felt more in line with that era's Jedi than Luke's. show less

This is generally cheap-feeling, probably rushed to produce, franchise tie-in media and reads like it. Worth it for nostalgia for an earlier era and that's pretty much it, you aren't going to feel the need to ever read these again. Quality, of course, varies.

Jeff Grubb's Liberty's Crusade - Basically the plot of the video game written from the first-person perspective of a reporter assigned to Jim Raynor's group. Grubb's new material is generally interesting instead of forced and it was show more worth reading as a companion piece to the game even if large portions of the text are literally the game script.

Kevin J. Anderson (Gabriel Mesta)'s Shadow of the Xel'Naga - Light this garbage on fire. KJA's work is godawful as per normal. Not only does he not actually have any familiarity or understanding of the world he's writing for, it isn't even good writing on its own.

Tracy Hickman's Speed of Darkness - On the complete opposite spectrum from KJA, Tracy Hickman is an excellent, imaginative writer and it shows. Even though this is clearly not one he was putting his best effort into, there's a high floor for his work. Tried to do a ground-level perspective from characters that are in-game just pixelly mans for you to shoot at, and provide some introspection. Best novel in the anthology.

Micky Neilson's Uprising - Includes some material relating to Proper Nouns that got namedropped with otherwise zero elaboration in the game manual's backstory writing and notable for that, but honestly I barely remember it at all. Obviously didn't make much of an impression on me. Did what the author was hired to do, I guess. show less

Livro relacionado à antiga coleção do jogo Magic the Gathering - Antiquities. Conta a história dos dois irmãos e parte do fato do livro não decolar se dá porque esses são personagens pouco simpáticos e rasos, de modo que nos vemos torcendo por seus pupilos - Tawnos e Ashnod. Ainda assim, aos que gostam do jogo, há suficientes elementos para garantir diversão - uma guerra que se estende a partir da recuperação de artefatos imemoriais (e como as criaturas do MTG antigo são ruins show more comparadas com as de hoje..., vide Dragão Mecânico), o despertar de um phyrexiano e das abominações do metal, a descoberta da energia dos territórios, a mana, e o sylex fazendo aparição de "varredura de mesa" ao final da narrativa. show less