Nicol Bolas needs ketchup

 So, one of my older HPB purchases was Greg Weisman's novelization of Magic: the Gathering's War of the Spark. 

Now as someone who plays the game occasionally, I knew the plot here, but reading the novel was kind of a novel concept to me.

Problem being that, like many novels written about gaming material, it's really uneven. 

So, plotwise, we open on Elder Dragon Nicol Bolas landing on the city plane of Ravnica, and setting his trap. The Planar Beacon to draw every planeswalker in the multiverse to Ravnica, the Immortal Sun, to trap everyone there, and the Planar Bridge opened in the Guildhall to disrupt the leylines and let the mummified Eternals to march on Ravnica, taking everyone's Spark to feed Bolas.  

As such, what remains of the Gatewatch gathers to try to put down Bolas once and for all. 

Anyone who plays the game has a good understanding of this. People who don't aren't likely to read this. 

Anyway, there are a few surprises in here, like finding out Static Shock er Ral Zarek has a male lover. Or the about as subtle as the Village People lesbian undertiones between Chandra and Nissa. (Supposedly, in the sequel volume, they retcon the hell out of that.) We get the silliness of Jace's love for the Gorgon Vraska (it's sweet, but I'm trying to figure out what the children would look like), and Rat, who almost no one can see. 

Honestly, the weak parts here are trying to humanize the characters. They have no real depth.

On the other hand, as befits the authors work with comic books, the action sequences match if not surpass the grand fight scenes in your average MCU movie, where everyone gets some screentime to show off. I mean, when the Invulnerable Gideon Jura, paragon of White Magic attacks Bolas after jumping off the Black and red Demon Radkos, I felt the urge to yell loudly and throw popcorn. 

Honestly, I enjoyed it enough to feel I didn't waste money by buying the volume, but...