The Fifth Dawn

Magic: The Gathering, Mirrodin Cycle #3

by Cory J. Herndon

All the powerful fury of Memnarch is hurled against Glissa and Slobad as they brave the perils of Mirrodin in search of new allies, making their way from the city of the Ieonin to the fortress of Panopticon to the home of the very creator of Mirrodin himself to hear the prophecy that will transform their world, in the epic conclusion of the Mirrodin Cycle. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Magic, Novels, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was awful and did not need to exist. The end.

Seriously, though, this was by far the worst one I've read yet. There was no real plot, we just jumped all over the damn place, and the ending was "push Memnarch into a thing, suddenly we win" (plus an almost-literal ex-machina of Karn showing up and explaining the bullshit reason he couldn't come back and fix things, which was a question on my mind the entire time).

More annoying than Slobad's constant "huh"s, though: "The elf girl". If I see that phrase again I'm going to stab someone. I think at one point I started counting them and found 10 instances on a single page.

[Bryan Jenks · Rating 4 out of 5]

the ending seemed rather abrupt compared to all of the buildup from the other two books, but reading this again as an adult was a wonderful nostalgic trip and I'm glad i re-read this series

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is by far the best in the Mirrodin Cycle. The new author did a good job of adding color to the world in ways that were overlooked by the previous authors of the series. Even little things like naming a village or tribe makes a big difference. The only point on which I was skeptical was his description of the Nim. He made them look like beetles and gave them the ability to fly, which I don't think is consistent with the original description in the first book. The author did a good job of pulling together a lot of the loose ends in that were left open in the previous books, and slowed down the pace, which was one of my complaints in the previous books. Would I recommend the series? Probably not, but it's an easy read and I enjoyed it.

[Rubén Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

El final de la saga de Mirrodin tiene dos mitades diferenciadas: la primera parte del libro repite la fórmula de la saga hasta llegar a saturar, pero tras un giro argumental la historia gana interés hasta terminar de forma satisfactoria.

En general, la saga merece la pena y es recomendable para fans del juego de cartas de Magic, los fans de la fantasía y los que gusten de historias plagadas de acción.

[Robert Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay. So this one is closer to 4 1/2 stars. Other than it being kind of slow moving at times, the ending sends most of the main characters to the point where they are meeting for the first time. After 3 books of these characters it is hard to go to that point that the end. I am not sure if this is setting up the Time Spiral cycle which is meant to be read after these three. That’s why I can’t really bash the book at the moment.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not enough story to spread over 3 books tbh. And absolutely insane that the prologue of book one let's us know that the Phyrexian Oil is here to cause problems only to not make any appearance over the course of the trilogy. I know those problems come up in future mirrodin sets but it seems like such a long foreshadowing

[Konstantinos Prprs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well my problems with the trilogy in general:

Many typos, many unessessery plot events, many childish dialogues but on top of that it feels rushed.

However the world structure was fantastic. The saga obeyed not only the mtg universe, but the elements of the mirrodin, the artificial planet.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gran libro. Terminó muy bien todo mientras ataba la historia a personajes sobrevivientes de otras series. Bien escrito, a los personajes se les da profundidad.

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s still not good, but this book is a step above the previous two. Despite sharing their consistent typos, the prose here is at least relatively competent and even clever at times.

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having read the first two in this series, I was invested in the characters and wanted to get through this one - it was a slog. The plot goes in some interesting directions, but none of it feels fully fleshed out, and the writing is pretty bad. I got to the end, after barreling through typos, doubles words, misspelled character names and all manner of editorial nightmare to find this quote in the about the author section:

"All this makes him well qualified to explore the farthest reaches of Mirrodin, where, despite being pursued by levelers, vedalken, and other fearsome creatures, he is at least safe from the depredations of editors."

He could have used said depredations.

[Paul Dudoward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well Glisa has gone though so much in the first two books, I thought she couldn't do what she had to. This being the third of the trilody had me reading from start to finish. Well this one has a sweet ending, one I would like to read more of :) Just a quick thought on all the suporting characters in all three books, you will love, hate, and even miss once its done.

[Audrey Buchman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe how good this book was! I never thought a magic book would make me cry, but this one did. It has such a sweet ending, it's something I could definitely read over again.

[Amanda and tony schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tony