3.5 Stars
Don’t you just love it when your favourite author writes surprise novellas!?!? Brandon Sanderson has gifted us with a novella set in the world of Magic: The Gathering and I was on it like white on rice.
A set of twin sisters protect their village against all sorts of things that go bump in the night, by way of their magical gifts/curses. But then the day comes when an unknown evil attacks, and the sisters’ gifts/curses fail them. The likeliest culprit seems to be the Lord of the Manor, a demon-consorting mystery of a man.
It is a fun, quick read and does not require any knowledge of Magic: The Gathering. Sanderson fills this story with all the good stuff and does not skimp on characters , worldbuilding, humour or magic, regardless of the size constraint of the novella format. Despite everything it had going for it though, this has turned out to be my least favourite Sanderson story. I think my expectations were just a bit high, and had I tempered them or had I not known this was written by Brandon then I would have liked it much more. After all – my all time favourite novella is Brandon’s The Emperor’s Soul.
A solid novella though.
You can get the ebup or pdf for free here:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/story
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