Disappointment. This fills in the biggest opinion I had of this book. A book based on a game dealing with spells and magical summonings, this had very little. The mystery portion of the book left much to be desired, and the link to the next book was weak. I can't even begin to detail the problems that I have with the concept behind the book. It gains some ground in the fact that I liked the ending, the finality of the chapters. ( )

I've been playing the game Magic: the Gathering for a long time, and a few years ago, out of curiosity, I started working my way through the novels that have been published based on the game. They tend to fall in the catagory of guilty pleasures. Some have been fairly entertaining, while others have been god-awful. I've just finished reading Ravnica and I have to say it's the best of the ones I've read. In fact, I'll go so far and say that this one doesn't even need the "guilty pleasure" label, it's just a very well-done fantasy novel.

What's most interesting about the book is how it manages to blend the fantasy genre with elements of a police procedural. The main plot revolves around Argus Kos, a law enforcement officer on the city-plane of Ravnica, as he investigates a conspiracy that threatens the Guildpact, the treaty/enchantment that maintains the peace between the nine guilds that run the plane. Kos is a cop in the hard-boiled tradition, not your usual sword wielding adventurer. The juxtaposition of the modern, more urban setting and situations with the trappings of fantasy, with the magic and angels and vampires and the like makes for a very compelling world and one that I look forward to revisiting in the next two Magic novels. ( )

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12438465