Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

by Akemi Dawn Bowman, Emma Mieko Candon (Contributor)

With tension between the factions, and a mysterious disappearance, join our hero as they fight to bring balance with the help of some favorite planeswalkers. Step into the future with a journey through Kamigawa's techno sci-fi plane!

Genres: Fantasy

ebook

Published January 24, 2022

About the author

Akemi Dawn Bowman is a critically-acclaimed author who writes across genres. Her novels have received multiple accolades and award nominations, and her debut novel, STARFISH, was a William C. Morris Award Finalist. She has a BA in social sciences from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and currently lives in Scotland with her family. She overthinks everything, including this bio. You can find Akemi on Instagram @AkemiDawnBowman.

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun jaunt into anime-style storytelling for Magic. Some clunky language, but it's the kind of thing that I'd put on the editor rather than the author.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am (finally) catching up with actually reading the stories rather than just the cards, so I came into this knowing what the major story beats and ultimate outcome was going to be. Regardless, the main storyline - the one about figuring out what Tezzeret was doing and hinting around phyrexian involvement for some reason - was quite enjoyable. As I've said in other reviews of MTG stories, I'm extremely pleased to see Tezzeret return as a legitimately threatening villain, and I also enjoyed getting to spend time with Tamiyo again (at least, before she was worse than killed). I'm not a huge fan of the cyberpunk themeing of the set - it was very disconcerting to see it when I've come to expect high fantasy - but I felt that it worked much better in the story and that the story did a better job of giving in-universe reasons why it was happening. As with pretty much all the new Magic stories, I really wish the main storyline was longer and more involved - the way it was for multiblock storylines, like original Innistrad and Ixalan - as that would have given more space to explore Kamigawa as a plane (as it was, there wasn't a whole of exploration why the spirit and mortal realms were merging, what it meant for people beyond basic implications of major social shifts, etc) in a way that there was no time to do in five episode format. We do get the 'prequel'/side story, but that doesn't do much for this either. Also, it's so divorced from the main storyline that it was honestly quite difficult for me to muster the caring necessary to really give it proper attention. (I might go back to try and reread it later, but it was so boring I also might not bother.)

All in all, Neon Dynasty was kind of a mixed bag. The main storyline was enjoyable and I wish we'd been able to spend more time there, but the prequel/side story was kind of boring and mostly went in one ear and out the other.

[MajesticalLion · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's kind of inspired to say "Hey. Original Kamigawa was set over a thousand years ago. Things would have evolved since then". I thought this was going to be a cyberpunk ripoff, but it really leans into being a Magic story. It doesn't lose its Kamigawa roots. Massive fan of Kaito now, and The Wanderer endeared herself to me a lot after a very lackluster showing in War of the Spark. This story also has two of the best side stories thus far. The sisters story and the Mech Pilot story were just fantastic. It's at least mildly encouraging to know Magic can still write an entertaining story after so many duds.

[Robbo Michielsen]

vond hier een manga van en heb dus nog enkel die gelezen, pretty cool