Song of Time

Magic: The Gathering

by Teri McLaren

Song of Time (Magic the Gathering) (View amazon detail page) B000OEUYS0

Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Collections

289 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 1996

Reviews

[Lorewarden]

This was an enjoyable novel that starts out in a MTG Arabian-themed world. The author sets up a compelling premise of a young man's quest to stop a dangerous artifact from unleashing a destructive monster, while finding out more about his own history. Despite this foundation, the story does kind of lose its focus as it leaves much of this behind to go down many side paths with new characters and new locations. These new additions were interesting, but meant that the focus, as set up, never really gets resolved, and what does get resolved is rushed. I did some quick research, and this was to be the first of a trilogy, which never panned out, so this story ends, sadly, abruptly.

[Shase Lindell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible. There's no way it's canon and it is poorly written as well as being absolutely ridiculous.

[Timothy Benoit · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is an awful slog. It lightens up near the end, but not nearly enough for me to suggest a read.
There are so many maguffins that it's hard to actually keep track of the current quest for (the map, the chroniclave, the stones, the totem, etc.). Compound this with the fact that everything is found by absolute chance meetings and deus ex machina, and you've got a story that is nearly impossible to invest in.
The characters are all paper thin characterizations, except for maybe Ogwater, but only because he makes some poor choices. Even this gets played as comic relief that falls flat.
There are almost no references to the world of Magic: the Gathering, apart from the prologue containing Urza and Mishra. But it also contains details that completely exclude it from canon. The world building is poor, and it felt like all the locations were just a few miles from each other, compounded by the fact that all the characters had a coincidental past together, and you have a world so small as to be completely uninteresting. As this is barely a Magic novel, you're better off just reading the Prydian series and pretending it happens on Dominaria.
Skip the book, read the write up over at Muliverse in Review, an spend your time on something more enjoyable.

http://multiverseinreview.blogspot.co...

[Khardiss · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story feels like it was conceived as a 1500 page epic fantasy novel and was edited down to a mere 288 pages. It was disjointed; multiple times I had to go back and reread a section because something just didn’t make sense - and rereading never fixed it. The main character is a 21 year old man who acts like a angst ridden 15 year old teenager thru much of the story. Character development was pretty much non-existent.

Overall, this feels like a story that a high school kid wrote, with a big story in their head that they were too lazy to write down completely.

Additionally, the “to be continued” ending and no sequel is lowering my ranking another star.

[Peter Lowry · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the Magic the Gathering Harper Prism Books this one's not that bad...
By no means is it a great book, but compared to some of the other MTG Harper Prism novels it was enjoyable.

Warning! Ends on a To Be Continued that was never continued (apparently it was developed as a trilogy & she even wrote the 2nd novel, but it was never published). Even so, it wraps up enough of the story to be content with how it ends.

[Sherrey Worley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I personally enjoyed this story, very much. I appreciated the lore within the book and reference to the brothers war. However, due to the lack of a sequel, the ending wasn't quite satisfying.

If you can live without a proper ending, then this is a wonderful book. Otherwise, there is much left to be desired.

[Myles · Rating 3 out of 5]

it had some good parts. Easy to read but didn't really hold my attention.
I think the characters 'set their jaw' about 40 times

[Thom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t explain why, but this just didn't work for me at all. It’s not terrible b y any stretch, but I just don’t enjoy McLaren’s style of writing and worldbuilding.

[Chip Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Song of Time takes place a couple of thousand years after the brother's war, when most of the happenings of that time have been forgotten or thought of as legend. Cheyne, an archaeologist, finds himself in the middle of serious trouble involving magic set in place by the warring brothers, in the form of a cockatrice, that could devastate his world. His birthright is such that he holds the key to preventing catastrophe and much of the book is taken up with his discovering such.

Nothing really special here, but this book has a bit more of an epic feel than the other MTG books, taking place over a long period of time and having fairly well-developed heroes and villains. Og the Songmage is particularly interesting, even though his story is never fully revealed.

WARNING: The book ends with a "to be continued" and I'm not sure if there was ever a sequel published or not... Although much of the plot is wrapped up in this novel, you're still left hanging in a number of ways.

[Miranda]

Along with Dragon Lance, Magic the Gathering holds some of my favorite fantasy stories I read while growing up. Very disappointing that the sequel Teri McLaren clearly planned with the way Song of Time ended, was never published.

[Derp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this book as a slapstick farce and it's actually kind of fun. That absolutely wasn't McLaren's intention, but you know, death of the author and all that.
Tragic we'll never get the sequel. Who knows what goofy antics would've ensued.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchanting. Definitely a fun read. =)

[Janne Järvinen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Carried on well for a while, but fell apart by the end.

[Tio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, it has no second part leaving a lot hanging.

[Rainbowmagicmarker · Rating 3 out of 5]

While interesting overall I'm disappointed in the lack of questions answered, though that's somewhat understandable since the story was never completed from my understanding.

[ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off slow and confusing, got better, ended with a forever cliffhanger and a million unanswered scenarios. Lame.

[Shylos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as other MTG novels, but easy enough to read and not boring.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though better than the last few, this book still suffered from the same problems of trying to cram too much content into too few pages. It would have been a much stronger story with 2 less plotlines and fewer, more thoroughly written main characters.