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Magic: The Gathering: Ice Age Cycle #2
The Eternal Ice
After the darkness comes the ice
Thousands of years after the explosion at Argoth that ended the Brothers' War, ice has covered the world of Dominaria. The strong have turned to barbarism. The weak have died. Now Lim Dûl, a necromancer with a taste for power, seeks to awaken a deeper evil.
Thousands of years after the explosion at Argoth that ended the Brothers' War, ice has covered the world of Dominaria. The strong have turned to barbarism. The weak have died. Now Lim Dûl, a necromancer with a taste for power, seeks to awaken a deeper evil.
311 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 2000
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581 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Grubb
198 books194 followersHe is an author and game designer.
See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Grubb
See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Grubb
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 13, 2024
This was a very different kind of MTG book. Even compared to the last, this one felt extremely unique. This really feels like the first time I've read an MTG book where the Planeswalkers really feel like these eldritch and all-powerful beings, few in number, known only in legend. The first true look at pre-mending Planeswalkers. It was really interesting to realize that the plot was being puppeteered by Leshrac and Freyalise. And now I ask myself, with how this book ends, what could the third book in Ice Age possibly be about? Shattered Alliance is around the corner.
April 29, 2018
Another solid title from Grubb but not as stellar as his first in this series. Introduces Jaya Ballard and Freyalise.
June 4, 2018
Book 5 for JALL.
Read my review for the first in this series here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thank god I don't have to slog past this one like I did the first one. I have much more to talk about this time.
This is the second book, also staring Jodah. (Who is still likable.). Surprising, he is now important mage who goes by a large number of titles that is kind of ridiculous.
Well, the good news for us, unlike the first book which is long-winded and slow, this one comes out swinging. Turns out, Jodah is in a period known as the Ice Age.
I don't want to get into too much here, read the book. It is far better than the first. (Which to be honest, you can probably skip but if you are a purist like me, you are not going too even if it is mediocre.)
Characters- Lovable and far more interesting then the first book. I really liked Jaya, Jodah, Dim-Bulb (lul) and Lesharc. Lesharc has this Aura first seen as a sort of devious and downright cruel planeswalker.I will argue that this is the first book in the magic canon that tackled the idea if a planeswalker is good or evil. It is a hard question to ask. Their mannerisms are easy to understand, back to that good old Jeff Grubb style as written in the first book in the artifacts cycle.
Setting- Dominaria, during the Ice Age. Besides being a frozen wasteland (Still kind of boring), it is ruled by City-States and mages. During this time, magic is far more accepted and mages are basically chief officers in the military and it is basically a 180 of the previous setting thematically. It builds up in just the right ways without it being an info dump and to be fair, even though I don't like the Ice Age period, the author does a far better job of keeping this world interesting, such as by using magic as now a means of advancement in society and the culture of the nation is far more mercantilist.
Plot- Quick and always moving. There were a few small snags in the middle, but this one was not as noticeable as the first book. This plot seems to be moving more so because of Jodah's and Jaya's actions, and they both compliment the plot well, so it is refreshing. The only small snags is the small stop in the middle where the plot halts for a good reason. Can't get into it and it only lasts about..40 pages so it is passable.
Time to finish: One day flat, it was that good. I only give it four stars because of the boring setting of a near-apocalyptic wasteland of Ice Age Dominaria, but if that is your fancy, you can gladly rate this five stars!
Strengths:
No Info Dump, the world has been established thanks to the first novel, even if it was shoddily done.
Likable Characters
Jodah has really great character development.
Plot is so refreshing. I just kept turning page after page and I didn't at one point feel bored. Only took breaks because of eyesores.
Weaknesses:
Small snag in the middle?
I am starting to hate Ice-Age the period.
Overall, I recommend this to those interested in the magic story. Jodah AND Jaya are relevant to the current story and are generally speaking, well done in this book and their early interpretations are really a great read. This book also has a 'thin hook', you can stop here for a while. The first book still has an unresolved plot line and it just felt like a tease. Here, the events of the Ice Age ended (thank god) and it felt like a good place to end while also exploring the now rebuilding of society in Dominaria.
Read my review for the first in this series here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thank god I don't have to slog past this one like I did the first one. I have much more to talk about this time.
This is the second book, also staring Jodah. (Who is still likable.). Surprising, he is now important mage who goes by a large number of titles that is kind of ridiculous.
Well, the good news for us, unlike the first book which is long-winded and slow, this one comes out swinging. Turns out, Jodah is in a period known as the Ice Age.
I don't want to get into too much here, read the book. It is far better than the first. (Which to be honest, you can probably skip but if you are a purist like me, you are not going too even if it is mediocre.)
Characters- Lovable and far more interesting then the first book. I really liked Jaya, Jodah, Dim-Bulb (lul) and Lesharc. Lesharc has this Aura first seen as a sort of devious and downright cruel planeswalker.I will argue that this is the first book in the magic canon that tackled the idea if a planeswalker is good or evil. It is a hard question to ask. Their mannerisms are easy to understand, back to that good old Jeff Grubb style as written in the first book in the artifacts cycle.
Setting- Dominaria, during the Ice Age. Besides being a frozen wasteland (Still kind of boring), it is ruled by City-States and mages. During this time, magic is far more accepted and mages are basically chief officers in the military and it is basically a 180 of the previous setting thematically. It builds up in just the right ways without it being an info dump and to be fair, even though I don't like the Ice Age period, the author does a far better job of keeping this world interesting, such as by using magic as now a means of advancement in society and the culture of the nation is far more mercantilist.
Plot- Quick and always moving. There were a few small snags in the middle, but this one was not as noticeable as the first book. This plot seems to be moving more so because of Jodah's and Jaya's actions, and they both compliment the plot well, so it is refreshing. The only small snags is the small stop in the middle where the plot halts for a good reason. Can't get into it and it only lasts about..40 pages so it is passable.
Time to finish: One day flat, it was that good. I only give it four stars because of the boring setting of a near-apocalyptic wasteland of Ice Age Dominaria, but if that is your fancy, you can gladly rate this five stars!
Strengths:
No Info Dump, the world has been established thanks to the first novel, even if it was shoddily done.
Likable Characters
Jodah has really great character development.
Plot is so refreshing. I just kept turning page after page and I didn't at one point feel bored. Only took breaks because of eyesores.
Weaknesses:
Small snag in the middle?
I am starting to hate Ice-Age the period.
Overall, I recommend this to those interested in the magic story. Jodah AND Jaya are relevant to the current story and are generally speaking, well done in this book and their early interpretations are really a great read. This book also has a 'thin hook', you can stop here for a while. The first book still has an unresolved plot line and it just felt like a tease. Here, the events of the Ice Age ended (thank god) and it felt like a good place to end while also exploring the now rebuilding of society in Dominaria.
November 21, 2016
It's a good story, and I enjoy that none of the main characters are planeswalkers, it adds to the feeling of struggle.
July 23, 2018
This was better than the previous book, as seems to be a theme with these trilogies.
The one thing of note is that this does the exact opposite of my biggest pet peeve about writing: Of all the books to do so competently, this one handles an "amnesia plot" well. A huge annoyance, to me, is when authors substitute deliberately concealing information from their audience for actual dramatic tension and mystery.
This helped me further refine why that bothers me. What this book did well is it DOES conceal information from the reader....but also from the protagonist. Sure, we don't know everything, but we still know exactly as much as Jodah does at any given time.
What most authors I've criticized do, this made me realize, is have omniscient narration until they want to have some tension. Then they abruptly shift and restrict what is shared with the audience. It's not that we don't know everything that is inherently a problem, it's that sudden shift to just cutting off what was a steady flow of information up until that point.
It's a lazy way to build tension. If you wrote a competent story, it wouldn't be necessary to do that to artificially create mystery and suspense. The reader should be eager to learn what happens next because the action is itself interesting, not because they just want to find out what you stopped sharing with them for some reason.
It's really sad when you can hold up this tie-in novel as an example of what bafflingly best-selling modern novels do all the time (looking at you, Dan Brown).
The one thing of note is that this does the exact opposite of my biggest pet peeve about writing: Of all the books to do so competently, this one handles an "amnesia plot" well. A huge annoyance, to me, is when authors substitute deliberately concealing information from their audience for actual dramatic tension and mystery.
This helped me further refine why that bothers me. What this book did well is it DOES conceal information from the reader....but also from the protagonist. Sure, we don't know everything, but we still know exactly as much as Jodah does at any given time.
What most authors I've criticized do, this made me realize, is have omniscient narration until they want to have some tension. Then they abruptly shift and restrict what is shared with the audience. It's not that we don't know everything that is inherently a problem, it's that sudden shift to just cutting off what was a steady flow of information up until that point.
It's a lazy way to build tension. If you wrote a competent story, it wouldn't be necessary to do that to artificially create mystery and suspense. The reader should be eager to learn what happens next because the action is itself interesting, not because they just want to find out what you stopped sharing with them for some reason.
It's really sad when you can hold up this tie-in novel as an example of what bafflingly best-selling modern novels do all the time (looking at you, Dan Brown).
December 11, 2021
It follows Gathering Dark but is easy to read on its own on account of [SPOILERS] one of one protagonist having memory loss. I think as a fantasy book in vacuum it does its job just fine. It paints a decent picture, has a nice pace, and tells a somewhat middle-chapter story. What lifts it up is if you care about Magic cards. There are possibly hundreds of cards woven into the story. Some as characters playing vital parts, some as a single mysterious sentence. It's never namedropping them as "And then he used his Black Lotus and put on his Sol Ring". They are often described without being named, adding some cryptic mystery. Reading the books gives life to the cards, Knowing the cards gives life to the book.
July 20, 2021
I thought this story was much better than the previous book, The Gathering Dark.
I thought Grubb did well introducing new villains and planeswalkers and I very much enjoyed how the early story was a bit undisclosed until later on in the book.
I thought Grubb did well introducing new villains and planeswalkers and I very much enjoyed how the early story was a bit undisclosed until later on in the book.
July 20, 2018
Another great entry in what is arguably one of Magic’s best novel series.
January 25, 2022
Really enjoying this cycle
July 4, 2012
I love the Magic the Gathering multiverse and I enjoy learning the stories behind my favorite card game. The Ice Age block was before I started playing, so I have few cards from then and don't know much of what went on. This book is helping fill in the blanks I have from reading some of the earlier books and later books, now I know how to connect the dots. I liked the book but I have two minor complaints, the main antagonist was referred to as Dim-Bulb by one of the characters which seemed kind of anachronistic to me. The second problem was a bit of dues ex machina. I understand that the pre-revision planeswalkers were virtually godlike, but it was still kind of frustrating the way they would breeze in and make a mess of things. (But maybe that's part of the point, showing how disruptive they can be for the normal human.)
June 17, 2016
I dig the way this book opens. Our hero from the last book, Jodah, is now dead, and has been raised by a necromancer a couple thousand years in the future to help with a project they have. This is certainly not what I expected, and not the usual turn of events one expects from book two of a trilogy. There's a twist (not terribly unexpected) that comes around page 70, and with that twist things get exciting for a little bit, but then the last half of the book turns into this really dull war-gathering plot, and suddenly we're supposed to care about Balduvian barbarians and their bickering with others, or what have you. It all culminates in a decent way, because it falls back on Jodah & his past, but frustratingly it's not a past we even got a hint of in book one. Still, I definitely enjoyed the inner struggle of the first third or so of the book.
December 29, 2016
In my opinion, this book took a serious step down from the the previous one, The Gathering Dark. Where that one introduced and developed a great new character and a more MTG-faithful system of magic, this one simply tells a basic and almost generic story without adding much of anything to the MTG multiverse. While Grubb is undoubtedly a talented writer, and this book will entertain, I couldn't help but being somewhat disappointed by THE ETERNAL ICE. The story of Lim Dul's attempts to take over the world just seemed like a side story for the overall tale of Jodah, who wasn't really too involved in this book's outcome. The inclusion of a couple of Planeswalkers (especially Freyalise) added some to the book, but not enough to make it worth your while. Not recommended.
May 28, 2013
This is my favorite of this particular arc as it is a really great example of an origin story that develops into a solid story. I greatly enjoyed it however, and it helps explain the basis of magic in the world, making it into an interesting perspective that most novels don't take. Definitely check this one out if you're curious into more elaborate explanations of the mechanics of magic.
September 7, 2011
Eternal Ice was my first ever Magic: The Gathering book that I ever read because at the time I was very familiar with the storyline of the MTG's Ice Age expansion and the book has validated and clarified some of the questions I had in mind.
June 26, 2012
OMG the detail to the small things with out spending the over amount of time most books spend is a perfect blend! I love this book and I am VERY picky about my fiction books. It's a MUST read even if you have to find an old dusty copy and spend half of your time sneezing while reading it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews