Outlaw: Champions of Kamigawa (Magic: The Gathering: Kamigawa Cycle)

Rating:
Summary: Semi-good, slow and confusing sometimes
Review: "Champions of Kamigawa" was not that great of a book. It had some moments, but I felt like it followed a stereotypical fantasy novel storyline, or at least the elements involved were that way. Parts of the book were confusing, and character types were not explained very well - like the fox and snake people, are they people in a fox tribe and snake tribe? but the snake people have scales, so... It's just confusing but I guess when the cards come out we will learn more about the characters, but as a self-contained book (which of course it is not) it fails in that regard.

I was hoping for more legendary creatures throughout the book. The carset is legendary creature heavy and there were only a handful, if that many, present throughout the book. Konda, the beast of a man on the front barely graced the book. How discouraging.

There may be some promise in the next two books though, because the black mage is a very peculiar guy with some pretty sweet magic. He draws symbols, like runes, called kanji, and then speaks a word. With the Japanese based setting I could just imagine the kanji looking very similar to the written characters in the Japanese language, and some of the effects are quite neat. At first I was a little dissappointed that there seemed to be a kanji for everything, but then I realized that there is a Japanese written character for almost everything, and it is all just a learning process of memorization and practice, much like the mage describes as teaching himself the kanji.

All in all, this book was decent, but definately below average of the M:TG books I have read so far. I don't think that the Kamigawa cycle will be anywhere near to the calibre that the Ice Age cycle was, but I can see some potential in the next two books, if done correctly.

Rating:
Summary: Great story, badly needs competent editing
Review: As a Magic addict, I love reading the background stories and lore lurking behind the cards. I've gone Samurai-crazy with the recent release of "Champions of Kamigawa," and I went out on street release day to buy a fat pack of the new set (tournament pack, 3 boosters, this novel, etc. in one package). Kamigawa presents an awesome new setting for Magic, and /Outlaw/ in turn serves as a great introduction to this setting and its major players. The story has a good flow to it and is filled with well developed characters from the various races. The stage is nicely set for the Kamigawa War, and it really is exciting to read the book and see how all the races and spells in the new card set fit together.

I really want to give this book a full 5 stars, but I can't for one very simple reason - the editing in this novel is abysmal. It's inevitable that any book of significant length will contain a typographical error or three. However, there are far too many ridiculously simple screw ups in this book. The biggest offenders were mismatched quotation marks and improperly placed commas. Also, many words are used improperly or are obviously the result of overzealous use of the "replace" button on a spell checker. It's clear that there was no independent reading done on this book before it went to press. Any competent reader would have spotted most of these errors just in a casual read through.

/Outlaw/ is a great book that provides a solid background for the Champions of Kamigawa set. If you can ignore the disturbingly frequent editing errors, you will be rewarded with a very enjoyable time exploring the world of Kamigawa. Despite being marred by the absence of good editing, this is a story well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Thank you Scott McGough for writing another MTG book.
Review: For those that don't play Magic The Gathering or understand how the books help define a set of cards, this might not make sense. For those that do, this book is wonderful. I was so dissapointed with the books after Chainer's Torment that I stopped reading them altogether after starting Onslaught. I would like some advice if I should go out and buy the Mirrodin series now that Scott has restored my faith in the possibilities of MTG books.

Outlaw kept me so invloved I was sneaking around with the book reading it at every possible moment. I agree with the first reviewer in that typos are abundant and silly. If the book was read through completely by an editor, fire that person immediately. I disagree with the second reviewer. This book certainly has a unique twist on the traditional story line of ruler abusing power and child setting things to right. A writer needs to use the basic themes that are available to him in a case like this, but in developing new systems of magic and aprenticeship while creating a purpose for the Kami wars and the characters in this story, he did a fantastic job.

At times I felt like Toshi was a bit too powerful, but then I remeber what became of Khamal in the Odyssey series and he too became godlike; although it took three and a half stories to attain that level of power. I for one, am excited to see what level of power Michiko attains in the next novel and how Toshi uses his new found matriarch.

Keep em coming Scott.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but could have been amazingly great.
Review: Great story, one of the best for these types of thing. By 'these types' I mean novels for games or movie adaptation.

Story had a nice flow and classic but very compelling plotline. IN other words, it rocked.

However, I must mention that its kind of spoils the entire mystery of the Kamigawa block all too early. By the prologue, reader's would have already guessed what went down and everything is pretty much explained by 3/4 of the book. After reading it, the Kamigawa storyline pretty much reduces down simply down to: " This is bad; that's good; here's the problem and lets try to fix it."

The other reviewers had it right too by saying the the hero is overpowered. We've seen perfect heros, heroes that could do no wrong, and this is not one of them. Here's a rogue that could beat everybody... breaks the story somewhat. The author could have made the hero more vulnerable and gets himself out of jams in more ingenious ways instead of powering himself through everything.