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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Planeswalker by Lynn Abbey

The book's name hints that it will be probably about a planeswalker, more precisely about Urza. It is about Urza but not the way I would expect it. At the beginning we learn a bit about Urza's psyche, his regrets and his aim - vengeance against Phyrexia in the name of his "murdered" brother.

It wasn't regret that later sent Urza on his own private invasion to Phyrexia. It was revenge for his brother. Somehow Urza convinced himself he hadn't killed Mishra, the the Phyrexian Gix had done it...But Urza was Mishra's slayer. Not in his mind, though... Urza blamed Gix and plotted to get even. His motive was mad, and his invasion madder still. Urza attacked Phyrexia - one planeswalker against armies of demonic monstrosities. He lost of course...

We learn about Urza's moves and his psyche through a Phyrexian newt named Xantcha (at the same time learning about her own past). She became a companion to Urza. But never a real friend. Urza always cared about artifacts more than real people. It was Xantcha who after 3000 thousand years wanted Urza to become more sane and that is why she started to look for a person who could play Mishra's role. She found such person - Ratepe. Urza later claims that it was because of these two that he regained his sanity. But is truly a sanity?

Personal Rating: 2/5
I might write more comments later...
Really bad book in terms of almost everything. Might be because the author wanted us to have some empathy with something/someone who's not human nor anywhere near human. It alienates us from both the planeswalker and the Phyrexian and the only human and sane person dies.
I did not like the accentuation of the 'etherworldly' stuff either. Once, twice ok. But everywhere in the book, just to remind us that neither of these characters are human? That also makes the personalities of those characters broken.

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