Ari Marmell is not a famous author outside of his field, but in the realm of fantasy and role-playing games he is well known. Agents of Artifice is as close to a published fanfiction as books can get. The characters in the book as well as some of the most basic plot ideals are not Marmel's own but instead belong to Wizard's of the Coast pertaining to their popular card game Magic: The Gathering. This novel follows into the mind and story of Jace Beleren, a "Planeswalker" that can travel between worlds but must do so in secrecy. In Marmell's novel, he emphasizes the well-known story of realizing you're being used for evil purposes and fighting back. When you have a mind mage, a confused human, a necromancer with ulterior motives, and an uninvolved elf fighting against a lord of metal and time itself, things tend to get a little out of hand. Marmell writes beautifully of backstabbing and destroying people internally through their mind and ability to think. It also follows a line of ethical versus unethical as Jace explores how much of his mind-manipulation magic is really just to use. At what point does one surpass the levels of humanity in altering someone else's mind? The book itself was thrilling without being overdramatic, flirty without being sexual, and even taught the value of friendship and how it goes unnoticed until you lose someone precious to you. Unfortunately, the editing is a bit spotty and the story itself reads like a fanfiction where there are unnecessary flowery wording thrown in at really inappropriate places. It also reads very personally, almost like a grand storyteller is reading it to you but is omniscient into each characters mind and feelings. This is not a book I would recommend to a book club or would feel that one of my professors had read. It's mostly a story that gives life and depth to a character printed on a trading card, which makes it hard for people that have no background in Magic: the Gathering to have little to no drive to seek the book out (and trust me the book is pretty difficult to find). Ari Marmell has never written another Magic: the Gathering book though there are many other Magic books available from different authors. From all of the other Magic books I read, Agents of Artifice had the fewest editing errors and was the most well-written and structured story line. I typically don't call better than bad something worth reading, but this book is definitely an interesting read for a rainy day. As an MTG player, I am familiar with the broken Jace variants out there, and always saw him as the mister-perfect bad boy hero. Boy, was I wrong. Jace was written GREAT! He came off as a real person, following a realistic (at least as much as fantasy allows) path. But there's more to the story. Liliana was the perfect girl-with-a-dark-secret. Tezzeret was the perfect power-hungry villian. And Nicol Bolas was the perfect immortal, omniscient, evil dragon overlord. If you play MtG, read this.If not, better start learnin'. You've got a book to read.
What do You think about Agents Of Artifice (2008)?
I liked the story and the characters, but it was very gory for my taste.
—elina
For a WoTC book it was delightful. This book leaves you wanting more!
—Joebonje
the start is so awesomereally good book for people who love fantasy
—Erato
