Whispering Woods

wait, i don't get it. there were multiple likeable characters in this and i genuinely cared about what happened to them. we don't really… do that here?

look, i don’t want to give arena any more space in my brain than what i’ve already given it, but it’s hard to overstate just how much my enjoyment of this was largely owing to how much immediate contrast magic’s second novel provided to its first.

like, this is operating in a similar genre space. it fridges women. it centers a generic beefcake. it’s even giving us a protagonist who not only has a grimdark origin story, we meet him at the exact moment that grimdark origin story is happening, and follow him through its immediate aftermath. and he does the whole I Will Have show more Revenge thing.

but also.

he helps the people around him as much as he can in ways that aren’t just whacking whatever is threatening them with his axe. he sets broken bones. he tells people who think they’re worthless that they’re not. and most of all, his way of actually achieving the first act of his revenge (well, more escape than revenge in this first entry) is by rallying other victims of the evil wizard he’s fighting to find hope and community with each other and be ready for a chance to escape.

oh, and, small detail that it would have nevertheless probably been impossible for him to escape if it weren’t for the latent wizardry of his girlfriend and he still would’ve died basically immediately if it weren’t for the latent wizardry of his sister.

i’m not saying this is one of the best books i’ve ever read. i’m not saying that it doesn’t have plenty of the trappings of this era of genre fiction that turned me off about arena. i am saying that simply by having people be kind to each other and genuinely try to help each other out, by not having a constant, unrelenting background (and foreground. and midground.) of misanthropy, whispering woods is such a blessed relief.

we also still get plenty of pre-revisionist weirdness in how spells work! in fact, the era’s understanding of the exact mechanisms behind how creature spells (sorry, summon spells) worked is one of the central elements of the book’s plot. this is certainly in the category of things that don’t really fit in with modern understandings of the world of magic the gathering, but that’s honestly part of the appeal here.

also, my boy nightmare appears in this one! i was obsessed with that card as a kid. show less

Really bad book. This gives MTG series a bad taste in my mouth. I love the magic series and the game but this was just soo bad. It was almost as if the author threw a bunch of cards in a book and connected them with a few words.

F/SF

Gaviota nunca tendría que haber aceptado ese empleo. Pero con su aldea destruida y una hermana medio retrasada de la que cuidar, ¿qué otra cosa podía hacer? Por lo menos el sueldo era bueno. Pero aquel hechicero era todavía peor que los otros de los que había oído hablar. Entre las peleas de taberna, las batallas mágicas y el cuidado de aquel extraño artefacto que habían desenterrado de un cráter, apenas conseguía encontrar el tiempo suficiente para recuperar el aliento. Y cuando repentinamente su hermana empezó a volverse inteligente, Gaviota descubrió que ya no le quedaba tiempo ni para eso... "Magic: El Encuentro" es un juego de cartas coleccionable en el que cada jugador diseña su propia baraja de combate y se show more enfrenta con ella a sus adversarios en un duelo mágico. Descubre el juego que ha fascinado al mundo entero y pide en tu tienda habitual una baraja de iniciación para poder empezar a jugar. Y si quieres conseguir nuevos hechizos para añadir a tu baraja, pide sobres de ampliación. ¡Entra en contacto con un universo mágico de infinitas posibilidades! show less