Gatecrash

The Secretist #2

by Doug Beyer

The stakes are higher than ever as Jace races to crack the code of Ravnica's mysterious Implicit MazeConfronted with the mystery of the Implicit Maze and the rumblings of a guild war, planeswalker Jace Beleren tried to retreat from the action. But when his elf friend Emmara Tandris is kidnapped by members of the Cult of Rakdos—a ‘thrill kill’ guild looking to curry favor with more powerful guildmasters—he has no choice but to engage.Jace succeeds in finding Emmara, but the two are now deep into enemy territory, with few options to free themselves. As Jace struggles to get them to safety, he begins to piece together the greater mystery of the Implicit Maze. It's now a race to see who will unlock its secrets.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Magic, Adventure

97 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Doug Beyer went from being a Magic: The Gathering fan to web developer for magicthegathering.com, then prolific flavor text writer, and eventually, the coordinator for Magic creative text. His background is in philosophy, software design, and amateur ghost hunting.

Reviews

[Chip Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part 2 of THE SECRETIST was much more well-executed than Return to Ravnica. My major gripe with the first volume centered upon Beyer's insistence on forcing card names from the expansion set into the story, without those cards having major impacts on the story, and actually detracting from the book. In GATECRASH, Beyer eases back on that, and focuses more on developing the plot. It makes for a much smoother and more enjoyable story, not having obvious and jarring cameos keep popping up without impacting the story. That's not to say that you don't get a healthy dose of characters and cards from the MTG expansion sets in these digital pages. Exava, Lazav, Ruric Thar, Niv-Mizzet, Lavinia, and Mirko Vosk all play prominent roles in GATECRASH. The story of the Implicit Maze and its still-mysterious role continues to develop here, and as the guilds become more and more agitated at each other, under the sly guidance of the Dimir, tensions run high. Jace, Ral-Zarek, and Emmara skip from one adventure to the other, in a story I look forward to finishing in Dragon's Maze. Recommended for fans of MTG fluff only.

[Tobias Helgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doug Beyer really steps up his game with this second entry in the three part Secretist series. The characters are better written, there is more tension in the story, and you truly feel that the main characters are the only ones who have any sense. And even though the main plot twist was a tad obvious to anyone familiar with the characters and guilds, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, and I would recommend reading this to anyone looking to expand on the Magic the Gathering story. With that said I do feel that the Secretist story would be better of as one single story.

[Ari Rockatansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The addition of a power hungry shapeshifter makes everything better. Also, the relationship of Jace and Emmara is lovely, and evolves nicely from the first book to Gatecrash. Jace, and Ral, of course, are good and funny protagonists.

[Etti Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best #2 book I have ever read

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was better than the last one, but that's such a low bar to clear that I'm not surprised if a book can accidentally stumble over it.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Secretist part 2, however it may not make as much sense to someone who doesn't play Magic: the Gathering or hasn't read up on the lore behind Ravnica.

The imagery transports you to Ravnica and you begin to connect more with the characters and the guilds. It'll be interesting to see what The Implicit Maze is all about, to me it feels a lot like The Hunger Games. unfortunately we'll have to wait til part 3 to find any real information out.

You definitely need to read part 1 to fully understand what's going on in this book. Annoyingly the book was left on a cliffhanger, ready for part 3 (Dragon's Maze).

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A continuation from my review of the first part:

The story remains interesting while delving further into the mystery of the Implicit Maze and involving a few new key players in the form of a nasty shapeshifter and some sneaky vampires.

Jace finds himself in a few entertaining situations as well and I particularly enjoyed his fight against one of the characters that forced him to not use his magic offensively, but to use it to help in the fight in a way that he was not used to or wouldn't have been capable of without the clever use of his abilities.

Overall, it was fun and I was looking forward to the third part.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gatecrash was a fun read that built strongly upon the story and actions of the first novel. The book really grew through a number of twists and turns provided by the author. I found these interesting and engaging but I found myself very disappointed that the book was as short as it was. While the kindle version goes to 100%, at 81% the book is over and the last 20% is a promo for another book. I would have much preferred this as a longer novel without the extra promo fluff. All in all though, this was a fun and interesting read that builds on the story and characters of the first book in the series and gets ready for the third, and final, book in the series.

[T.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I liked the Return to Ravnica novelization a little better. This was longer, but very choppy. Things happened too quickly and it was difficult to follow in a way. I do like the shorter books for my attention span, but its a little difficult when we're trying to follow half the guilds in a short story.

I really do like the story as an overall whole. I do wish there was a little more length (read: depth) just to help me feel bad for the characters in their losses or hate characters in their evil triumphant moments.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I read about him, the more convinced I am that Jace Beleren is the Poochie of the Magic universe. He's the main face/mascot of the game now, the same way Urza was in the early years, but he feels forced into the storyline, rather than seeming like he belongs there. And there's enough going on here - between the mental vampire Mirko Vosk, the mad scientist planewalker Ral Zarek and his goblin assistant, and the tripartite dryad mind of Trostani - that Jace's presence really isn't needed, and takes up precious space that could have been spent on the Ravnican story.

[Adam Buccafusco · Rating 4 out of 5]

You don't need to know much about the world(s) of Magic: The Gathering to appreciate Gatecrasher or Return to Ravnica. Unfortunately, Gatecrasher (book 2 of The Secretist) ends on such a cliffhanger that you can't help but pony up the rest of the coin to find out what happens in the third arch. This "trilogy" is really only one story broken up into three purchases. It's has if Wizards of the Coast would rather you keep buying these packs of chapters to boost your reading experience.

[Steven Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than part 1, the story here is starting to get more interesting. It's still only interesting to people who are interested in MTG's worlds, though.

It also might be better to read all three parts back to back (as opposed to the gaps imposed by the release schedule).

4 of 5 stars.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good story. Loved the game tie-ins. The author succeeds in painting some impactful action scenes fluidly and weaves a decent set of intriguing political clashes. I really enjoyed learning more about the city of Ravnica and its colorful inhabitants.

[Sherwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Implicit Maze is revealed!

The novella is an excellent continuation of this Return to Ravnica. Jace's adventures invest him further in the future of his beloved plane and the Firemind has invited all to run the Maze to determine Ravnica's future.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with part one, this doesn't feel like a complete book despite the way it's separated on Kobo and other ereaders - but as the second act of the larger story, this is much more interesting, entertaining, and satisfying than its predecessor.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

While better than part one in this series, still of lesser quality when compared to the original set novels.

The time to create and develop characters and plot is squeezed in this short format and suffers for it. Not a great read.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part two felt much shorter than part one, unfortunately. i enjoyed the setup for part three though, and im eager to see how this affects the dragon maze set

[Costea32 · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit messy and too much actions happening at the same time, but there was not so much development of the story...

[Alice]

This is a good action and adventure story. However if you are not familiar with Magic The Gathering it will be confusing.