Customer Reviews

The Brothers' War: Artifacts Cycle, Book I

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a casual player of the Magic: the Gathering card game but I find the books, especially this one in particular to be extremely good books. This one in fact stands taller than the rest.

Enter the strangest brother-brother relationship based on their birthdays and break them apart in a cannot forgive each other fight. Each being equally brilliant and equally capable of building machines or artifacts to increase the technological capacities of their two very different cultures, which also are at war with each other.

I found the plot to be very interesting, and it already made ties back to "the Thran" and this book will be referenced in every M:TG book until the end of time probably. The story is told mainly through the eyes of Kayla bin Kroog, Urza's wife, who coincedintally plays a roll in both of the brothers lives.

Seriously, I find it very hard to deny a book about a war between brilliant brothers, especially with cutting edge technology, unless it is written by a very poor author. I have read quite a few of Jeff Grubb's books and he has yet to dissappoint me, and I would be surprised if he ever did. Read this book if you are a fan of the card game and even if you have never heard of the card game. I have always been facinated by brotherhood, and this book goes deep into that theme.

Jeff Grubb proved himself a competent author with his work in the Dungeons & Dragons worlds for TSR. When Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR they made a good choice in picking Grubb for the first "Magic" author. He translated a very mathematical and orderly card game into a compelling story. It must not have been easy to essentially draft a back story to a game that had already been popular for four years at the time this was written. Above and beyond meeting fanboy(girl) expectations, the end product is actually a decent genre book in its ownright. I recommend it highly.

I'm what most consider to be a newbie to Magic: The Gathering. I've been playing since October of 2003. In the time between than and now, I've been looking at the past sets of Magic; Specificly the 'Antiquities' and "Urza Block" sets. This encompases 4 releases of card sets, each filled with great cards...but that isn't the point. The point is, I bought 'The Brothers' War', 'Planeswalker', and 'Time Streams' because they tell the story of the most interesting sets of the best Card game on the market. 'The Brothers' War' was, to say the least, very disappointing. It's 35 chapters long, 33 of which are, for lack of a better word, mind-numbing. I fought to read this book through to the end. There are high points here and there, but overall it isn't worth the drudge to the end. The author paints a great layout of areas, but has a great lack of real character discription. There is little action until the last part of the book, and the large part of story revolves around the brothers struggling with lack of materials...very drab. I will concede that the epilouge ties the stroy together very well, though. Rather than buying this product, go for books II or III of the Artifacts Cycle...much, much better.

Best book ever. The plot was perfect, the characters were perfect, the conflict was perfect. I couldn't put this book down. Jeff Grubb is a genius.

Well, just like many people who read this book, I play Magic, sure, it's a great game, but that doesn't mean it has to have a cool book, well, it doesn't have to, but it does have a cool book, I myself am not much of a reader, but the book... it's just awesome seriously.

I've been a Magic player since late 1994, around the time when the set Antiquities was released. The game is still a part of my life, as I play against friends and people online. But I wanted to see if a novel written about Magic would actually be worth reading. I started buying "Fat Packs," which came out just after a recent set was released. The "Fat Packs" contain five booster packs of Magic cards, two premium "foil" cards, a life-counter 20-sided die featuring the set expansion as the number 20, a card guide, and the novel for that particular set. I read all three of the Invasion series books by J. Robert King, and was thoroughly disappointed. Still, I wasn't going to give up hope, so I picked up a copy of The Brother's War by Jeff Grubb, and was astounded.

The book takes you to the origins of the two most dreaded personalities in Magic history; Urza and his younger brother Mishra. Several cards have been named in their honor, as well as the entire Antiquities set being devoted to their battles against each other. Any Magic player will instantly tell you who both are, but they probably don't know much about them. This book does a good job explaining how they became the people they are (or were).

Also featured in the book are Tawnos, an apprentice toymaker who helps Urza, and Ashnod, a brash young woman who falls for Mishra.

I don't want to go into too much detail about the book (since I hate it when people ruin stories for me with spoilers) but many of the cards from the Antiquities set are featured in the book, such as the Amulet of Kroog, the Clay Statue, the Triskelion, and the Clockwork Avian. I figured the storyline may be a bit cheesy and tainted, since it's based on the card game, but the presentation of the artifacts along with the characters blends very well.

I enjoyed reading every page of this book. I think it took me three days to finish it, and I couldn't have been happier. An excellent story told by a very good author. Definitely a great title to pick up, even if you're not a Magic player.

If you are into Magic the game you will enjoy the book. It adds some understanding to where some of the orginal cards came from. Good plot, with a good twist at the end. Enjoyable, quick read.

this is my favorite book of all time, i read it in 2000, the description goes on forever, it doesnt just paint a picture, i actually puts you into the story, as though your there, watching the world unravel, develop. words hardly do the book justice, but im trying hard. the whole mystery of the might/weak stones is interesting, the whole mysterious force, standing in the background, manipulating everyone is very intriguing. i reccomend this book to anyone who knows how to read.

This book is awesome, I have been a player and collector of magic: the gathering cards for a long time, but when I picked up this book it changed how I saw the game. The story is awesome and I have now read 14 of the Magic books. I still believe this is the best and Jeff Grubb is by far the most enjoyable author. I recommend all of the MTG books, especially the ones written by Jeff Grubb.

The Brothers War was a badass book. I was handed that book and when I read page 1 I was immeadiatly hooked! Urza and Mishra battaling it out both of their accounts on the story was just incredible it blew me away every page I turned to read about both of the greatest Artificers of all time.