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Magic: The Gathering
Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum: A Magic: The Gathering Set Novel
For gamers and fantasy fans alike, a fast-paced, stand-alone adventure that brings the popular trading card game Magic: the Gathering(R) to life.
Lurking in the space between the aether and the physical plane, there is a great evil waiting to emerge.
Zendikar is a land of danger and adventure, a world of deadly risks and priceless rewards. It is also a prison to one of the most deadly species known to the Multiverse: the dreaded Eldrazi.
When our story opens, part of the mystical containment spell that has kept the Eldrazi captive for millennia has been breached. The brood lineage, the Eldrazi minions, have been released and are poring over the plane, devouring everything in their path, but the swath they cut across the land is nothing next to the destruction that the still-imprisoned Eldrazi Titans will wreck once released.
Nissa Revane, a planeswalker and proud elf warrior of the Jorga Nation, is witness to what the brood lineage can do. She sees that they pose a bigger problem than most suppose. Sorin, an ancient vampire planeswalker, knows this as well as anyone because he was among the original jailers of the ancient scourge. He has returned to Zendikar to make sure the Titans do not escape. They both want the Eldarzi threat extinguished but each has their own agenda. Nissa wants the Eldrazi off her plane entirely. Sorin wants to put the lock back on their cell. And there are still others who want the Titans to escape.
Together they set out across the land on search of the Eye of Ugin, the source of the Eldrazi uprising, where they will face what could be their final challenge. Will the Eldrazi escape to menace the Multiverse once again? "From the Paperback edition."
Lurking in the space between the aether and the physical plane, there is a great evil waiting to emerge.
Zendikar is a land of danger and adventure, a world of deadly risks and priceless rewards. It is also a prison to one of the most deadly species known to the Multiverse: the dreaded Eldrazi.
When our story opens, part of the mystical containment spell that has kept the Eldrazi captive for millennia has been breached. The brood lineage, the Eldrazi minions, have been released and are poring over the plane, devouring everything in their path, but the swath they cut across the land is nothing next to the destruction that the still-imprisoned Eldrazi Titans will wreck once released.
Nissa Revane, a planeswalker and proud elf warrior of the Jorga Nation, is witness to what the brood lineage can do. She sees that they pose a bigger problem than most suppose. Sorin, an ancient vampire planeswalker, knows this as well as anyone because he was among the original jailers of the ancient scourge. He has returned to Zendikar to make sure the Titans do not escape. They both want the Eldarzi threat extinguished but each has their own agenda. Nissa wants the Eldrazi off her plane entirely. Sorin wants to put the lock back on their cell. And there are still others who want the Titans to escape.
Together they set out across the land on search of the Eye of Ugin, the source of the Eldrazi uprising, where they will face what could be their final challenge. Will the Eldrazi escape to menace the Multiverse once again? "From the Paperback edition."
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First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 21, 2010
This was not what I was expecting. I was hoping for powerful planeswalkers traveling to contain the Eldrazi threat. I was hoping for some cool spell battles, a couple of decent fights, some history and character exploration.
This was not what I got. I got 3 people walking to their destination. There conversations are cryptic and we vaguely learn a bit about Nissa`s past, but not much. Sorin is just along for the ride, we learn nothing about him. We know he is a planeswalker, but him and Nissa don`t really explore his past or his ideas.
At the end the Eldrazi are freed and he just leaves. We learn little about him and his companions who imprisoned them. We learned little about the Eldrazi. The brood just start attacking from nowhere.
I love MTG specifically because you travel to new planes and explore new worlds. There was little of that here. Just walking, some random battles and random characters appearing out of nowhere. We never get to know any of the characters.
I also did not like how Chandra and Jace did not make an appearance. The whole purpose of The Purifying Fire was the map to Zendikar. It was also the purpose of a lot of the web comics and then here, nothing.
Overall a book that I was excited about ended up being a big disappointment.
This was not what I got. I got 3 people walking to their destination. There conversations are cryptic and we vaguely learn a bit about Nissa`s past, but not much. Sorin is just along for the ride, we learn nothing about him. We know he is a planeswalker, but him and Nissa don`t really explore his past or his ideas.
At the end the Eldrazi are freed and he just leaves. We learn little about him and his companions who imprisoned them. We learned little about the Eldrazi. The brood just start attacking from nowhere.
I love MTG specifically because you travel to new planes and explore new worlds. There was little of that here. Just walking, some random battles and random characters appearing out of nowhere. We never get to know any of the characters.
I also did not like how Chandra and Jace did not make an appearance. The whole purpose of The Purifying Fire was the map to Zendikar. It was also the purpose of a lot of the web comics and then here, nothing.
Overall a book that I was excited about ended up being a big disappointment.
November 28, 2021
Lets start out by saying that this book is extremely bad, and also that I, tumblr user anowon, am the world's authority on the absolute trainwreck contained between those covers. I probably know them better than "Robert B. Wintermute," whoever that is. Why? I don't know. It's my brand.
In the Teeth of Akoum is the second worst Magic: the Gathering Novel ever written. If you've only started reading the novels recently, I promise some of them are really good. This is not one of those.
The plot? Makes no sense at any point. The characters? Hilariously stupid parodies of themselves. Pretty sure no editor saw this at any stage. It's not even worth reading if you like the lore of Zendikar because almost everything from Teeth was retconned out of existence, and for good reason. There were some recent attempts at callbacks to the book, which is quaint, but "alluded to in Magic Story" is as canon as this book will ever be.
This book is my burden, like a child I regret having. I gave it 4 stars because I would be lying to you by saying I don't love it anyway. If you really have to know DM me on tumblr and I'll give you the highlights.
In the Teeth of Akoum is the second worst Magic: the Gathering Novel ever written. If you've only started reading the novels recently, I promise some of them are really good. This is not one of those.
The plot? Makes no sense at any point. The characters? Hilariously stupid parodies of themselves. Pretty sure no editor saw this at any stage. It's not even worth reading if you like the lore of Zendikar because almost everything from Teeth was retconned out of existence, and for good reason. There were some recent attempts at callbacks to the book, which is quaint, but "alluded to in Magic Story" is as canon as this book will ever be.
This book is my burden, like a child I regret having. I gave it 4 stars because I would be lying to you by saying I don't love it anyway. If you really have to know DM me on tumblr and I'll give you the highlights.
October 6, 2020
This book misspells the main character's name in the opening line. That's about the quality of it.
November 4, 2019
This was so disappointing. I thought with the Eldrazi this was going to be really epic and they were going for a grand scale, with hints of Lovecraft since, you know, Emrakul drives all who gaze upon her to madness or some such (at least according to anything but this book).
What we got was a by-the-numbers journey story from point A to point B with inconsequential speed bumps along the way. Nissa's motivation and character made absolutely no sense, especially her being the one to free the Eldrazi? Then claiming she didn't know DESTROYING THE THING CONTAINING THEM would do that? It's all really muddled and confusing and it makes no sense at all.
The same with Sorin. He was telegraphed the entire time as having an ulterior motive and really setting out to free the Eldrazi, not strengthen their containment. But then....turns out he was just acting shady for no reason and is in fact just out to contain them?
It feels like the author didn't want to just write a straightforward story, there had to be a surprise twist....but he over-thought it and decided the best twist would be to do everything possible to hint at the twist, then just not have one and SURPRISE everything Sorin was saying was legit. It's Linda's dinner theater show from Bob's Burgers in MTG book form.
It's far better to just do the "cliched" thing and have Sorin be duplicitous and out to free the Eldrazi because reasons and just develop that motivation. Have Nissa be really just out to save Zendikar and be confused as Sorin's motivations become muddled about what she has to do to accomplish that.
Have weird vampire dude actually subvert the stereotype of vampires that Nissa subscribes to, like he did in the first half of the book, and he's really just interested in studying the Eldrazi. Hell, have Sorin and Nissa at a stalemate over the fate of the Eldrazi, and this nerdy vampire who means well tips the scales because he just wanted to study these ancient beings and didn't think through the consequences of releasing them (he thinks he can communicate with them and they aren't pure evil so we can all coexist).
But instead we get this really bizarre journey where each beat of the story bears no resemblance to anything else. They screw over everyone they meet, sometimes literally eating people who save their lives, and our "hero", Nissa, is just ok with this? At best we get a sentence of her objecting, but then we move on as if they didn't just murder the guy who ex machina-ed the fuck out of their situation and saved them dying in the desert by pure chance.
Everyone seems enraptured with Zendikar to the point that we're going back AGAIN next year, tying it again with Ravnica for the most visited plane (not counting Dominaria since the idea of different planes as blocks didn't exist yet). I don't get it. The story here is not compelling in the slightest, and I think people just want more overpowered Eldrazi cards that will inevitably break multiple formats.
Maybe the story is better in Battle for Zendikar down the road? I'm not holding my breath.
What we got was a by-the-numbers journey story from point A to point B with inconsequential speed bumps along the way. Nissa's motivation and character made absolutely no sense, especially her being the one to free the Eldrazi? Then claiming she didn't know DESTROYING THE THING CONTAINING THEM would do that? It's all really muddled and confusing and it makes no sense at all.
The same with Sorin. He was telegraphed the entire time as having an ulterior motive and really setting out to free the Eldrazi, not strengthen their containment. But then....turns out he was just acting shady for no reason and is in fact just out to contain them?
It feels like the author didn't want to just write a straightforward story, there had to be a surprise twist....but he over-thought it and decided the best twist would be to do everything possible to hint at the twist, then just not have one and SURPRISE everything Sorin was saying was legit. It's Linda's dinner theater show from Bob's Burgers in MTG book form.
It's far better to just do the "cliched" thing and have Sorin be duplicitous and out to free the Eldrazi because reasons and just develop that motivation. Have Nissa be really just out to save Zendikar and be confused as Sorin's motivations become muddled about what she has to do to accomplish that.
Have weird vampire dude actually subvert the stereotype of vampires that Nissa subscribes to, like he did in the first half of the book, and he's really just interested in studying the Eldrazi. Hell, have Sorin and Nissa at a stalemate over the fate of the Eldrazi, and this nerdy vampire who means well tips the scales because he just wanted to study these ancient beings and didn't think through the consequences of releasing them (he thinks he can communicate with them and they aren't pure evil so we can all coexist).
But instead we get this really bizarre journey where each beat of the story bears no resemblance to anything else. They screw over everyone they meet, sometimes literally eating people who save their lives, and our "hero", Nissa, is just ok with this? At best we get a sentence of her objecting, but then we move on as if they didn't just murder the guy who ex machina-ed the fuck out of their situation and saved them dying in the desert by pure chance.
Everyone seems enraptured with Zendikar to the point that we're going back AGAIN next year, tying it again with Ravnica for the most visited plane (not counting Dominaria since the idea of different planes as blocks didn't exist yet). I don't get it. The story here is not compelling in the slightest, and I think people just want more overpowered Eldrazi cards that will inevitably break multiple formats.
Maybe the story is better in Battle for Zendikar down the road? I'm not holding my breath.
October 25, 2014
As a disclaimer, I have been searching for a book about Tibalt the Fiend-Blooded. Almost desperately. This desperation caused me to make the seemingly obvious assumption that a book with Sorin Markov would also include a mention of Tibalt in some form or another. However, once Sorin was placed in a forest, traveling with an elf and another vampire, I knew I would be sorely let down. And I was.
Others have said this, yet I will repeat it: there is a lot of walking. The plot had potential and it was linear: start at point A and end up at point Z, but everything in between was just walking and fighting monstrous inhabitants of the area they were walking through. There was no build up anywhere else. This book was just 'ok', but the last thirty pages were actually very interesting and the ending was not what I expected. I appreciated the horrific twist. Nissa was torn between two choices, and she picked the wrong one.
I truly enjoyed every part with Sorin and he was intriguing, humorous, and he was portrayed as the perfect anti hero. I would have loved if the book was all about Sorin. In Innistrad. With Tibalt.
Others have said this, yet I will repeat it: there is a lot of walking. The plot had potential and it was linear: start at point A and end up at point Z, but everything in between was just walking and fighting monstrous inhabitants of the area they were walking through. There was no build up anywhere else. This book was just 'ok', but the last thirty pages were actually very interesting and the ending was not what I expected. I appreciated the horrific twist. Nissa was torn between two choices, and she picked the wrong one.
I truly enjoyed every part with Sorin and he was intriguing, humorous, and he was portrayed as the perfect anti hero. I would have loved if the book was all about Sorin. In Innistrad. With Tibalt.
January 19, 2014
This is a book that starts off interestingly, with worldbuilding and action, and then almost nothing happens for the middle 80% of the book. The pacing is such that you could fit most of the characters' journey into a quarter, maybe even a fifth of the pages. And the ending doesn't even resolve the main tensions of the book. There's fascinating concepts in here, but buried under a mountain of "And then they walked some more. And then Sorin implied he was a vampire planeswalker and Nissa didn't get it. And then they walked some more. And then Sorin ate somebody."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2012
Oh my god this book was awful
October 8, 2019
This book is all about the card game MTG(magic the gathering) and I love playing it. Plus my favorite creature type is the Eldrazis. So I was very happy to read about their back story, their origins, and why are they at this planet called Zendikar. I recommend this book to anyone who likes magic the gathering and would like to know a little more about the cards you play. I love it and if you like magic the gathering, I think you would like it to.
April 2, 2020
As I love the Zendikar block I really wanted to enjoy this but I did not. It was poor writing, the premise was poor, and the characters were just bad. Nissa is just a racist, self indulgant moron and I can't relate with any other characters either. Sorin missed the mark. And the story basically just leads intot he events of the set; certainly not a stand alone story here. There is a reason why they pretty retconned the Nissa elements of this book when they brought about Nissa as a main character later. It's just bad. Even for magic novel standards.
March 28, 2017
The book was mildly entertaining but only because of the Eldrazi's inherent cool factor. The beginning was fast paced and captivated my attention with the introduction of The Brood. After the initial burst of excitement the book took on a very uniform structure of traveling-battle. Some of the descriptions were successful, but after a few chapters it began to feel like the characters were just going through the motions. The characters were flat, cliche, shallow, and aggravating. Sorin adopts the overdone personality of contemptuous superiority, resorting to annoying sarcastic quips and one word dismissals like, "Quite." Nissa is just like every other tree hugging forest dwelling cliche. Anawon is reduced to a map with almost no personality at all. There was such promise to bringing these characters to life but it was completely squandered. Too many dues es machina plot devices that only serve to get the boring characters from point A to point B while offering nothing to deepening characterization or strengthening bonds. The writing was sloppy and packed with errors. And finally when the Eldrazi are released what do they do? Hold tentacles and howl at the sky? 0.5 stars out of 5
August 25, 2015
This book was god awful. Let's just ignore for a moment the fact that it's rife with grammatical and spelling errors (even the main character's NAME is misspelled at least once).
Let's forget that the only adjective Wintermute seems to know to describe Sorin Markov's voice is "booming."
Sorin Markov is supposed to be a BADASS. He's basically the oldest planeswalker, short of Nicol !@#$ing Bolas, but you would never, ever know that he is powerful for reading this book. First, he's stuck playing second-fiddle to Nissa Revane, as if anyone picked up a book about Zendikar because they wanted to read about elves. Seems like every time there is a fight, Sorin gets knocked out by some aspect of the environment because Wintermute can't write about what more than one character is doing at a time.
You never really learn anything about any of the characters, much less the other planeswalkers who helped Sorin seal the Eldrazi - about whom you also never learn anything - away. It's just a road trip, less interesting than even the most boring of D&D campaigns. There's SORT of a twist at the end, but by the time I got to the end, I was just hanging on and powering through because I kept hope that Sorin would be redeemed by the end. He wasn't.
Let's forget that the only adjective Wintermute seems to know to describe Sorin Markov's voice is "booming."
Sorin Markov is supposed to be a BADASS. He's basically the oldest planeswalker, short of Nicol !@#$ing Bolas, but you would never, ever know that he is powerful for reading this book. First, he's stuck playing second-fiddle to Nissa Revane, as if anyone picked up a book about Zendikar because they wanted to read about elves. Seems like every time there is a fight, Sorin gets knocked out by some aspect of the environment because Wintermute can't write about what more than one character is doing at a time.
You never really learn anything about any of the characters, much less the other planeswalkers who helped Sorin seal the Eldrazi - about whom you also never learn anything - away. It's just a road trip, less interesting than even the most boring of D&D campaigns. There's SORT of a twist at the end, but by the time I got to the end, I was just hanging on and powering through because I kept hope that Sorin would be redeemed by the end. He wasn't.
February 6, 2017
Not one of the strongest Magic: the Gathering books
While i love the borderline Lovecraftian tale of this story and it is a quick read, there are a couple of issues with this book. As it is a single novel trying to cover the story of a full block, there's a major issue that affects a lot of pacing and building for the books.
This book could have either been expanded in order to build the atmosphere and conflict more. This would have also allowed further character building, which would make the characters more compelling than they are.
Another thing that could have helped was turning this book into a collection of short stories. While this wouldn't necessarily be ideal, it would have been better to introduce the various races. It would have also allowed for deeper exploration of the world as well as its strengths and weaknesses.
While i love the borderline Lovecraftian tale of this story and it is a quick read, there are a couple of issues with this book. As it is a single novel trying to cover the story of a full block, there's a major issue that affects a lot of pacing and building for the books.
This book could have either been expanded in order to build the atmosphere and conflict more. This would have also allowed further character building, which would make the characters more compelling than they are.
Another thing that could have helped was turning this book into a collection of short stories. While this wouldn't necessarily be ideal, it would have been better to introduce the various races. It would have also allowed for deeper exploration of the world as well as its strengths and weaknesses.
May 25, 2012
BLAH! The only reason why I read this was because I wanted to learn more about Sorin Markov, and dang it, the book barely talks about his history! Is there a book ABOUT Sorin Markov, who he is, and so on? I mean, oh wait
SPOILER ALERT
They don’t even stop the bad guys! It ends on a cliffhanger. And what are the bad guys? Tentacle monsters. Come on, couldn’t you come up with something more original?
No, I did not enjoy this book. Besides, for a tough guy, Sorin sure did get his butt kicked a lot in this book.
SPOILER ALERT
They don’t even stop the bad guys! It ends on a cliffhanger. And what are the bad guys? Tentacle monsters. Come on, couldn’t you come up with something more original?
No, I did not enjoy this book. Besides, for a tough guy, Sorin sure did get his butt kicked a lot in this book.
March 23, 2013
I was a little disappointed in this book. I hadn't played much of the Zendikar set so I was really relying on the book to fill me in on the storyline. But the book just kind of built up and then ended. Much more interested in Sorin now and I feel my dislike of Nissa is vindicated.
April 15, 2012
Too much walking around not getting things done.
October 1, 2013
The novel begins well but the resolution is horrible.The elf is unbelievably stupid.The first three quarters of the book is good though.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews