Customer Reviews

Legions: Onslaught Cycle, Book II

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was awesome! Im not one to read a bunch of boring crap but this was not boring at all. The nonstop battling was perfectly written. You could depict every little detail. From a drop of blood to an enormous battle. I would deffinatly recomend it to anyone who can read.

This book is great. Phage, minion of the Cabal, goes head to head with Akroma, creation of Ixidor, as well as both of their armies. However, their war doesn't break out until the very end of the book. Another good twist is the three unmen, who were supposed to protect Ixidor, but failed, and are now trying to become human. There are many other twists as well, like the rise of the former Numena, who were like gods. And there's still a lot of bloodshed throughout the book. However there's only one thing I didn't like about the book.
There are no slivers! The main reason I read this book was to learn more about the Riptide Project and the Sliver invasion. On some cards in the Magic the Gathering: Legions set say things about the wizards of Riptide bringing sliver fossils back to life and that the slivers swarm out of Riptide and invade the main continent of Otaria. I thought that it would at least mention that subject.
Otherwise it was a really great read. It gets really good when Phage becomes pregnant with the son of Virot Maglan, the Cabal Patriarch, or more commonly known as the First. She wanders the continent to try to slay Akroma before the war starts and she comes to the city of Averru, formerly known as Sanctum and meets an old friend. Then, the second of the Numena rises, and everyone prepares for war.
Also, while the unmen go and try to get new bodies, they come across the path of the First, and he makes a deal with them to accompany Phage on here quest and bring back the heads of both Phage and Akroma (the First went a little insane in his coliseum). The First gives them temporary bodies (dog-sized roaches) and promises them human ones if the unmen bring back the heads. The unmen then follow Phage and wait.
On the other side of the story, after Ixidor was eaten by a wurm, Akroma took over his role as ruler of Topos. She then develops a religion based on Ixidor's vision to make the world beautiful, and cleans it of all dirt (Phage and the Cabal). While at a party to convert some new countries, she finds the wurm that ate Ixidor, and plunged down into it. There, she found Ixidor, still alive, and tried to get him to return to the palace. Ixidor refused, and Akroma soared back up to the palace. After that, she gathered her army, and marched to Averru, ready to take on Phage.
Phage then searches for Akroma, but instead finds a lost friend of hers, named Braids. She sends the roaches with Braids to the coliseum, and the First becomes enraged and takes away the roaches bodies and gives them their old ones. After Phage returns to the coliseum; she gives birth to her baby, and sets off to Averru to fight Akroma. The two of them battle and only one becomes victorious. I like this book, and highly recomend it to everyone who likes books about war and spells.

I have read many Magic books (about half of the twenty, or thirty that are out), and this book ranks a close second only the "The Brother's War". While I've heard some fans criticize it for being mindless violence, I'd like to point out that the vast majority of this book is philosophy, character development, and polotics, all building up to the pivotal moment when you know either Phage, or Akroma will die....BUT WAIT! THEY BOTH DIE ALONG WITH ZAGORKA! AND THOUGHS SIX BEAUTIFUL WORDS FINISH THE BOOK:

"I am Karoma (changed in Scourge to "Karona", go complain to the continuity editors). I am magic."

The funniest thing about those lines is I was apparently the only Magic fan on the planet to take them literally, which lead me to believeI couldn't possibly be wrong, hence I joined my fellow MTG fans in interprettations.....meaning I lost my right to NOT be made a fool of by the genius of Mr. King. Oh well in the land of the blind the one eyed mans king, but that rule goes both up and down. In the land where everyone else has an IQ lower than two hundred, King is king. So I suppose I have nothing to be ashamed of.

This was a great book, I don;t care what anyone else says about it. I wish Ixidor was in it though but still, Waistcoat and Sash were a great add on though I was very sad when Umbra sacrificed himself for his friends. Akroma is a witch, and I hope once you read this book you feel the same. I kind of believed in Ixidors vision and hated it when he refused to come back from the worm. (Though I here he comes back in Scourge) Phage is cool though except for the fact that she rots anything she touches. Great Book

At first, when my friend told me about this, I expected a boring book about stragne creatures that fight. BIIIGG DEAAAL I thought.
But I was in for a shock. This book is interesting, not just fighting and strength, but about strategy aswell. Deserves 10 out of 5, but i can only give it a 5.

OK, this book is sort of interesting. Unfortunately, it would be nicer if it connected more with the set. It gets way off by mentioning all sorts of characters that didn't appear even once, not even in the flavor text.

Also, WHERE ARE THE SLIVERS?! There are 15 Slivers in the Legions set, and that's 10% of the set! And they cannot set aside 1% of the book? I was hoping it would at least mention the Riptide Project! Look at the flavor texts of some of the Slivers:

Essence Sliver: The slivers would survive, even at the expense of every other creature on Otaria.

Shifting Sliver: Once the last few slivers the Riptide Project controlled were dead, there was nothing to keep the island from being completely overrun.

Crypt Sliver: "Death couldn't contain the slivers. What made us think we could?." -Riptide Project researcher

Blade Sliver: After breaking free from the Riptide Project, the slivers quickly adapted to life on Otaria-much to the dismay of life on Otaria.

Brood Sliver: Within weeks, more slivers nested in Otaria than ever existed on Rath

Root Sliver: "It would take another apocalypse to stop the slivers now." -Riptide Project researcher

Now, Otaria is where pretty much all of the book takes place. Look at those flavor texts. It makes it seem like Otaria is under quite a bit of trouble from the Slivers. Yet it never mentions them. Not once. Please, I was really hoping for them to return! They mention them in the "Rath and Storm" novel, why not this? Well, maybe they'll show up in the next book, Scourge...but unlikely.

Maybe I'm making too big a deal out of the fact the Slivers aren't in it. But still, it seemed to go quite a bit aways from the set. Besides, I wanted to know what, if anything, stopped the Slivers. But does it mention them? Nope.

I preferred Onslaught greatly to this.

This is an excellent book worthy of praise. It is not a book to be read as a stand alone novel. It is the fifth book in a six part series, so it would behoove you to read the first five. The people that bad mouthed the book for some reason read this one without reading the previous books. The entire series is a wonderful collection to have, especially if your a fan of swords and sorcery.

Legions by J. Robert King is Book Two of the Onslaught Cycle, a fantasy novel series bringing to life the story from the Onslaught line of "Magic: The Gathering" collectible card game. Two titanic beings, the bloodthirsty Phage and the ruthless angel Akroma, rend the world with their deadly war, while the one man whose terrible wrongs created Phage and Akroma alike must find a way to protect what is left of mortal kind from their devastation. An exciting and titanic science fiction action/adventure saga.

Along with Time Streams, this is the best KingÂ's book in the series. The plot is great, itÂ's never confusing and catches your attention from the beginning. I loved to hear from Ixidor again, and I canÂ't wait to see him as a god in Scourge! Walking holes, death wurms and the marvels of Topos are great too. I think King had a not-so-brilliant period (Invasion, etc. were not as good as Time Streams) but with Onslaught and mostly with Legions, he returned to the good old times!

After reading Legions(twice because I thought I read it too fast) I was highly dissapointed. The story never really focuses on just one spot for a long time to understand what is going on. King(who wrote the Invasion novels cycle, which was an excellent mix of fighting and story) couldnt really show the conflicts that happened (extremly odd since Legions was expected to have a lot of fighting), and those that were shown were too short or simple.

Only buy this book if you plan to have the entire collection. If you are looking for something to enjoy I recommend some of King's earlier work but not this one.