The Thran (Magic, The Gathering)

Rating:
Summary: Surprizingly Good
Review: Before i ordered this book i was expecting a medicore story that would basically fill me in on what went on during the time of the Thran (you understand this better if you have read The Brothers War before). I was pleasntly surprized with the calibre of the story and writing talent. This book is a must read if you are interested in the Thran, the Phyrexians, or the Magic: The Gathering setting in gerneral. This book may not make much sence if you arent familiar with the Magic setting. "The Thran" tells the story of the origen of Phyrexia, the Thran/Phyrexian war, and Yagmoth. A well written book which perfictly fits in with any and all other MTG books.

Rating:
Summary: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAA!
Review: I love The Thran! The Thran is the Magic the Gathering book that starts out everything in the storyline behind the card sets ( not counting the out-of-print Magic the Gathering novels published by Harper Prism, which have nothing to do with the trading card game story at all ). Yes, this takes place BEFORE Urza and Mishra are born!

We all wanted to know where Yawgmoth and his evil little freind, Gix came from. The Thran explains this. The Thran also has a character named Rebbec ( she's on the cover of the book ) and she becomes Gaea. Yawgmoth was originally a medical doctor ( what the? ) who was banished from the city of Halcyon due to his incredibly painful methods of healing people. Glacian, Rebbec's husband, is infected by a lethal disease called: thisys. Glacian got the disease after being stabbed in da back with a pointy-tipped powerstone. The mysterious person who stabbed Glacian is Gix. I won't spoil too much storyline for you but hear this: YOU HAVEN'T LIVED UNTIL YOU READ THE THRAN!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Successful but ensanguine tome
Review: It behooves a parent to check in occasionally with his or her children, and find out what they are reading, listening to, watching, and doing. Not only to help keep them out of trouble, but also so that they can have a decent conversation once in a while with the person who is going to be borrowing the car all too soon. In this spirit I started playing the card game Magic: The Gathering, upon which this book is based, and in the same spirit I read THE BROTHERS' WAR and I have enjoyed them both thoroughly. Magic is a wonderfully imaginative game, one that is constantly changing and much more interesting than any shoot-em-up video game. I admit to trepidation when I saw the series of books based on a card game, as I was afraid that the whole series would be nothing but an advertisement for the game--something like: "Suddenly Uzra pulled out his Urza's Orb, but Mishra tapped his mana and shattered the Orb into tiny pieces with a lightning blast before Urza was able to use it! 'Oh, no!' shouted Urza, 'I curse you with a Soul Burn! '" Fortunately that was not to be--Jeff Grubb did a commendable job and although the book is not faultless, it stands on its own fairly successfully and isn't a blatantly obvious marketing ploy. Unlike most series, though, the Magic: The Gathering books are by different authors--even books within a single "cycle" are so. My expectations were guardedly high when I turned to this prequel to THE BROTHERS' WAR, THE THRAN by J. Robert King. Like the earlier book, THE THRAN follows the card game's storyline--how odd it must be for an author to have to follow a plot so thoroughly worked out by others, without the possibility of revision--and it, too, manages to be much more than an advertisement for the game. Certainly it fills in the "history" of Dominaria, and the story is told with a fine sense of irony and contextual realism. Only rarely will the reader unfamiliar with the game scratch their head in puzzlement and say, "Why is THAT there?" At the same time, gamers will have a bit of an extra thrill when they recognize allusions that others will miss--rather like adults who watch Sesame Street. But altogether unlike Sesame Street, THE THRAN is filled with gore. It reads like a veritable thesaurus of carnage, viscera, and butchery. Well-written and with an admirable vocabulary, the bloodthirsty details are unpleasantly unrelenting and will upset certain readers. Most Magic players are surely inured to this level of violence, but their parents may have some concern about what sometimes seems like an adolescent AMERICAN PSYCHO. The reason for all these entrails and dismembered limbs is a realistic depiction of evil (within the context of fantasy, of course), personified in the character Yawgmoth--a postmodern, post-Kymer Rouge view of a force all too human and banal, but inexorably relentless. This abattoir of a book is dedicated to the memory of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, "who survived a real-life Yawgmoth". Although no more is said of this, the reference is of course to Joseph Stalin, Lenin's successor and the mass butcher of the USSR. But the character Yawgmoth bears a stronger resemblance to Adolf Hitler--after exile or imprisonment, both came to power on the strength of their own personality and ability to pander to and manipulate mob psychology; both attempted to create a "master race" and sadistically engaged in truly horrifying biological "experiments" against their opponents. And both pursued the total destruction of other races and peoples under the guise of a benevolent concern for their own. Where readers will understand this exploration of depravity, and where the fantastic setting distances it enough for lengthy contemplation of its consequences by younger readers the book is all to the good; but those readers who simply revel in the slaughter need a trip to the Holocaust museum. Hesitantly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Awsome. Best book in the world.
Review: The first book I read in this series is Nemisis, then I got Apocalypse, and all time I wanted to know more abot Yawgmoth, Rebbec and Halycon, now I know! This is so good I cried, even the sample pages show how cool the book is. J. Robert King writes the best MTG books (and the funniest and must cursed filled ones.). This is my favorite book in the world.

Rating:
Summary: Background History for Magic: The Gathering Players
Review: There are said to be millions of players of the Magic: The Gathering card game all around the world. Many of them should have heard about the arch-villain Yawgmoth. The problem really is, nobody seems to know who Yawgmoth is, or indeed, what he is. Is he a demon? a wizard? a cyborg? or just what? Now the publisher reveals for the first time the little known history of the mysterious ancient race Thran, and traces the origin of the evil Yawgmoth, and his disciple Gix. That alone is of great interest to fans of the M:TG game.

What about the general readers then? They would certainly find the whole notion less impressive. What is so important about this Yawgmoth personality? Are those bloodthirsty cyborg warriors, with the strange name Phyrexians, such a sensation? Perhaps not. As for the storyline itself, there may be ambiguities and inconsistencies all along. Until the reader discovers the M:TG game and appreciates the finer points of the fantasy world, he will likely find the book too puzzling.

Rating:
Summary: Masterfully done - an incredible reading experience
Review: This book is excellent. It has a lot of background information on some important characters in the magic universe. This book takes place before Urza and Mishra, and even before there were colors of magic. In fact, there is no knowledge of magic in "the Thran." This book starts with the knowledge of a Thran-Phyrexian War. It then jumps back and explains the build up to this war - which by the end will leave you wondering what just happened and how the magic universe was drastically affected thousands of years before Urza rocked the world in the Brother's War.

Very interesting book and I recommend it for Magic: The Gathering fans and those who have never played the game. M:TG fans will certainly love the history provided but the story is still so well written and an amazing tale that even people who do not know who Yawgmoth is will still like the book.

Upon finishing this book I wanted to immediately to jump in to the "Invasion" cycle because the Phyrexians are so crazy and powerful. I can't wait.

Rating:
Summary: Ideal background material for Magic:The Gathering
Review: This is definitely a must-read for Magic fans out there. It answered questions on how Phyrexia and its lord:Yawgmoth was formed. It tells you about the Thran and its superior advancement in artifacts that in the future leads Urza to become what I would say the master of artifacts. After reading this book, no longer will you be pondering with questions of Phyrexia.

Rating:
Summary: The begining
Review: this is the bomb. If you ever wondered how yawgmouth came to power this is the book you need. Must have

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book!!!!
Review: This is the first book I have read by J.Robert King, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well written it was. The story of Yawgmoth and how he came to power was gripping, it was hard to put down when I got to the last hundred pages or so. The description of the creatures, and the acts they performed including the stuff that Yawgmoth did were very easy to see pictured, and sometimes very shocking. The only thing that I didn't like is that Yawgmoth's early life, parents, relatives etc.. wasn't gone into. But overall, this book rocks!!!

Rating:
Summary: Best Magic Book I Have Ever Read
Review: This was clearly the best Magic The Gathering book I have ever read.

We all know Yawgmoth was a demon and Phyrexia was a terrible place. However, it was a mystery why it was so. This book charts how Yawgmoth from a medical doctor slowly became a demon and how Phyrexia came into being. It also blended very well with earlier stories like the Brother's Wars. Mysteries in the earlier books were explained here. For example, who was Gix? Why were there nine planes in Phyrexia? How did the practice of meshing body parts to form new Phyrexians come about? What roles did the Meekstone and Mightstone play? What happened in the war between Thran and Phyrexians? This book clearly explained all the mysteries in the earlier books and made the whole Magic story more interesting and convincing.

I sort of lost interest after the second book in Artifact Cycles. I thought it was incoherent, rambling and raises more questions than it answers. Also, I guess I had expected Serra to be more powerful than it was depicted.

But King has made me interested in the story again. I will definely read his Artifact Cycle book 3 now.