I see why this got so much hate

 So, despite my best attempts to avoid it, I did read Greg Weisman's deeply unpopular War of the Spark: Forsaken this week. 

Picking up right after the last volume, we get into the chase after 3 planeswalkers who had sided with Nicol Bolas. Including the perpetual Liliana Vess, who's popularity has remained constant over the years since her introduction. The others are Tezzeret and Dovan Baan. 

Ugh. Anyway, of the 3, only Dovan actually dies, mainly because someone else kills him and plans to blackmail the person who was supposed to. (This was an older storyline, so the plot should be pretty familiar to anyone who reads the book.) 

There were a couple of odd reveals, such as finding out that Rat, the invisible girl, also has a male personality that assassinates people, and exactly who all the shapeshifter Laslov is actually impersonating. (One of his old printings is actually a lot of fun to play.) 

And then there's the controversial part. See, it was heavily implied that Chandra and Nissa were having an affair. And in this book, we find out it was never consummated, and most folks read it as bi-erasure. Which, yeah I get that. On the other hand, letting Chandra and Nissa have a happy ending given that everyone else gets a bad ending (Jase and Vraska are back to Human/gorgon coupling, but lacking trust in each other; Ral and Tomik losing together time; Gideon dead, etc etc....) it kind of makes sense that the world is bereft of elf on pyromancer fanfic for a while.  I'm sure they'll retcon the retcon eventually. 

Readable, but silly.

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...