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novelinsights's review against another edition
4.0
This was much more enjoyable than Arena (and is completely unrelated, so feel free to skip straight to this one if you're looking for a starting place for reading old MTG books). This book opened with a fairly standard high fantasy premise (simple country boy's town is attacked by magic), but I was excited to see that it didn't take the traditional route of said country boy discovering that he had magic all along, etc. Granted, the twists in the plot were still very predictable, but there was some uniqueness to it, at least.
Aside from the predictability, the only real complaint that I had for this was that I never really felt sucked into the story. I think that this was probably partly to do with the fact that, again, there were long, drawn out fighting sequences, and I tend to zone out during books that do that. (Yes, reading a series of books based on a card game that simulates magical combat may have been a bad idea for someone like me, but here we are). Additionally, while the author's writing isn't particularly horrible, he does have the unfortunate tendency to use elegant variation, which can be annoying and even occasionally confusing.
I will say that I much preferred Emery's take on the MTG world than Forstchen's. I was drawn to reading these books because, when I first started playing the game, I was attracted to the wide variety of different creatures and objects that were referenced in the cards. My writer brain liked to imagine the kinds of stories that could be told in that world with those objects, and I wanted to read those stories. However, in Arena, all of those creatures seemed to be magical figments of the imagination, non-beings that poofed out of existence when they were destroyed or the spell ended. In this book, however, Emery gives them life, showing them to be real beings that were transported by the wizard away from wherever they initially belonged. That intrigued me, and I'm looking forward to reading more about the world that houses these beings in Emery's other two Greensleeves books.
Aside from the predictability, the only real complaint that I had for this was that I never really felt sucked into the story. I think that this was probably partly to do with the fact that, again, there were long, drawn out fighting sequences, and I tend to zone out during books that do that. (Yes, reading a series of books based on a card game that simulates magical combat may have been a bad idea for someone like me, but here we are). Additionally, while the author's writing isn't particularly horrible, he does have the unfortunate tendency to use elegant variation, which can be annoying and even occasionally confusing.
I will say that I much preferred Emery's take on the MTG world than Forstchen's. I was drawn to reading these books because, when I first started playing the game, I was attracted to the wide variety of different creatures and objects that were referenced in the cards. My writer brain liked to imagine the kinds of stories that could be told in that world with those objects, and I wanted to read those stories. However, in Arena, all of those creatures seemed to be magical figments of the imagination, non-beings that poofed out of existence when they were destroyed or the spell ended. In this book, however, Emery gives them life, showing them to be real beings that were transported by the wizard away from wherever they initially belonged. That intrigued me, and I'm looking forward to reading more about the world that houses these beings in Emery's other two Greensleeves books.
puppy_eyes's review against another edition
2.0
I can't give it any higher than this. It's not a bad book! I knew it was in trouble when the first stage started talking about bladders. As I read, I went easy on it by constantly reminding myself of the TIME it was written in and how times were just so different back then. I enjoyed the random adventure aspect, especially when things slowed down and there was some character development.
Even the part about his sister being a simpleton, I love stories about siblings, and Gull's constant drive to protect his little sister kept him strong. What I DON'T like, is how a basic farm boy can fight a group of trained soldiers, powerful wizards, cataclysmic beings, and still win (with a bad knee). I looked forward to more lore about the Magic world, but instead, it felt like starting in the middle of one of those random shows that come on TV sometimes. It reminded me of almost every video game to movie adaptation: doomed to fail.
Which sucks, because I liked the characters at their core. Who they are. Their personalities. I think the party style fad of the '80s fantasy books got to this one though because even for the 90s, I can count on at LEAST two hands the number of times rape has been a threat to every woman in this book.
Basically, a small villager gets roped into travelling with a wizard and his gypsy caravan while drawn into numerous wizard duels over other travelling wizards.
The action was the worst of all.. it just all went by too fast. I found myself skimming towards the end, and I never do that. I get it, the wizards are calling and summoning magic just like you do in the game. I love that IDEA! But it didn't *work* that well on paper. It was just too sped over to put any real suspense into it.
"Here's a giant!"
"Oh yeah, well here's a HYDRA!"
"EARTHQUAKE!"
And then they used the same spells for the next two battles they proceed to get in..
The fun part for me was trying to match up and recognise classic Magic cards that were called out to battle. Like Nightmare, Giant Badger, Fungusaur, and especially a shout out to the crave of the Black Lotus, I chuckled at that one. And there WAS some explanation of lore, like how Mana is collected by literally travelling through the lands and drawing in on its power until it's used in duels and recollected again. A wizard's life seems fun, though pretentious. I enjoyed the characterization of Towser, his use of blue defensive and mental magic, but it's a shame how the ending turned out.
I guess we saw it coming.
The whole thing just sounds like a book written for an 8th-grade audience, that's what I was thinking, that it had to be for high schoolers. But then it's completely riddled with sex and adult themes, like rape, so ehhh... ? I wish I could see it in a genuine novel-like form, it might have made a good background for the lore. As of now, it just reads like a random episode of a random series.
The land comes into play a lot, and you get to see it's effect on people as the scenery starts to change from one 'color' to the next.
I feel like reading them all in order from first to most recent is a bad idea, but I can't justify starting a book in the middle of the series or even the end, so I suppose I have to read on to see if the more modern ones improve. There is NO sense in these costing so high!
Even the part about his sister being a simpleton, I love stories about siblings, and Gull's constant drive to protect his little sister kept him strong. What I DON'T like, is how a basic farm boy can fight a group of trained soldiers, powerful wizards, cataclysmic beings, and still win (with a bad knee). I looked forward to more lore about the Magic world, but instead, it felt like starting in the middle of one of those random shows that come on TV sometimes. It reminded me of almost every video game to movie adaptation: doomed to fail.
Which sucks, because I liked the characters at their core. Who they are. Their personalities. I think the party style fad of the '80s fantasy books got to this one though because even for the 90s, I can count on at LEAST two hands the number of times rape has been a threat to every woman in this book.
Basically, a small villager gets roped into travelling with a wizard and his gypsy caravan while drawn into numerous wizard duels over other travelling wizards.
The action was the worst of all.. it just all went by too fast. I found myself skimming towards the end, and I never do that. I get it, the wizards are calling and summoning magic just like you do in the game. I love that IDEA! But it didn't *work* that well on paper. It was just too sped over to put any real suspense into it.
"Here's a giant!"
"Oh yeah, well here's a HYDRA!"
"EARTHQUAKE!"
And then they used the same spells for the next two battles they proceed to get in..
The fun part for me was trying to match up and recognise classic Magic cards that were called out to battle. Like Nightmare, Giant Badger, Fungusaur, and especially a shout out to the crave of the Black Lotus, I chuckled at that one. And there WAS some explanation of lore, like how Mana is collected by literally travelling through the lands and drawing in on its power until it's used in duels and recollected again. A wizard's life seems fun, though pretentious. I enjoyed the characterization of Towser, his use of blue defensive and mental magic, but it's a shame how the ending turned out.
I guess we saw it coming.
The whole thing just sounds like a book written for an 8th-grade audience, that's what I was thinking, that it had to be for high schoolers. But then it's completely riddled with sex and adult themes, like rape, so ehhh... ? I wish I could see it in a genuine novel-like form, it might have made a good background for the lore. As of now, it just reads like a random episode of a random series.
The land comes into play a lot, and you get to see it's effect on people as the scenery starts to change from one 'color' to the next.
I feel like reading them all in order from first to most recent is a bad idea, but I can't justify starting a book in the middle of the series or even the end, so I suppose I have to read on to see if the more modern ones improve. There is NO sense in these costing so high!
mewpasaurus's review
3.0
This was a fair bit better than Arena, but still takes place on the same plane as the first novel. Different characters, but same realm. Probably not really for people who are looking for more information on the planes explored within the Magic: The Gathering game so much as those that just like the mechanics and allure of old Magic.
Non-cyclical (compared to later novels), but not terrible.
Non-cyclical (compared to later novels), but not terrible.
manwithanagenda's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
'Whispering Woods' starts off and moves a great deal more slowly than 'Arena', because, I think, Emery was leaning too hard on the fact he was writing a trilogy and could take the time for the character development that Forstchen ignored in favor of blood and explosions. What we get is almost a reverse of 'Arena', a look at the repercussions of a Wizard's actions through "common" eyes that had been so dehumanized as "the mob" previously.
In 'Arena' Garth and the other wizards simply pulled a bauble out of their satchels and summoned creatures to fight and die on their behalf without a thought. Emery wonders where did those creatures live before finding themselves suddenly in the Arena? Did they have any say at all in being summoned?
That is what makes this book interesting as a tie-in novel to the series. Emery introduces shades of grey into the workings of magic. Spells must be learned, mana must be gathered and summonings be "tagged" to gain the knowledge and power they need to fight the corrupt wizards, but they come at a heavy price. Garth justified his killing of thousands as the only way to stop the corrupt Arena system, but he didn't really give a damn about anything other than his revenge. Gull (and Greensleeves and Lily (his love-interest)) know they're in the right, but to what lengths are they justified in going?
I'm touching on the other two books of the trilogy, and I don't want to oversell them--these are tie-in novels for a trading card game after all--but I was impressed at the way Emery addressed these issues at all and didn't make the woodcutter a great general at the drop of the hat the way more prestigious genre novels sometimes do, or give Greensleeves and Lily full use of their powers when the discover them late in life and unschooled. The "movement" Gull and his sister found isn't a total success either. The end of 'Whispering Woods' has the group victorious, but not totally, and at a terrible cost of life.
At this stage the characters are still unsure and unformed, but they do get better and makes, with Hanovi Braddock's 'Ashes of the Sun', one of the most satisfying prerevisionist Magic storylines.
Garth/Greensleeves
Next: 'Shattered Chains'
Previous: 'Arena'
In 'Arena' Garth and the other wizards simply pulled a bauble out of their satchels and summoned creatures to fight and die on their behalf without a thought. Emery wonders where did those creatures live before finding themselves suddenly in the Arena? Did they have any say at all in being summoned?
That is what makes this book interesting as a tie-in novel to the series. Emery introduces shades of grey into the workings of magic. Spells must be learned, mana must be gathered and summonings be "tagged" to gain the knowledge and power they need to fight the corrupt wizards, but they come at a heavy price. Garth justified his killing of thousands as the only way to stop the corrupt Arena system, but he didn't really give a damn about anything other than his revenge. Gull (and Greensleeves and Lily (his love-interest)) know they're in the right, but to what lengths are they justified in going?
I'm touching on the other two books of the trilogy, and I don't want to oversell them--these are tie-in novels for a trading card game after all--but I was impressed at the way Emery addressed these issues at all and didn't make the woodcutter a great general at the drop of the hat the way more prestigious genre novels sometimes do, or give Greensleeves and Lily full use of their powers when the discover them late in life and unschooled. The "movement" Gull and his sister found isn't a total success either. The end of 'Whispering Woods' has the group victorious, but not totally, and at a terrible cost of life.
At this stage the characters are still unsure and unformed, but they do get better and makes, with Hanovi Braddock's 'Ashes of the Sun', one of the most satisfying prerevisionist Magic storylines.
Garth/Greensleeves
Next: 'Shattered Chains'
Previous: 'Arena'
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