The Thran

by J. Robert King

Before the Brothers' War. Before the five colors of magic. Before history itself, the plane of Dominaira was ruled by the Thran. They built machines and artifacts, the likes of which have never since... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786916001
• ISBN13: 9780786916009
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Masterfully done - an incredible reading experience

This book is excellent. It has a lot of background information on some important characters in the magic universe. This book takes place before Urza and Mishra, and even before there were colors of magic. In fact, there is no knowledge of magic in "the Thran." This book starts with the knowledge of a Thran-Phyrexian War. It then jumps back and explains the build up to this war - which by the end will leave you wondering what just happened and how the magic universe was drastically affected thousands of years before Urza rocked the world in the Brother's War.Very interesting book and I recommend it for Magic: The Gathering fans and those who have never played the game. M:TG fans will certainly love the history provided but the story is still so well written and an amazing tale that even people who do not know who Yawgmoth is will still like the book.Upon finishing this book I wanted to immediately to jump in to the "Invasion" cycle because the Phyrexians are so crazy and powerful. I can't wait.

Best Magic Book I Have Ever Read

This was clearly the best Magic The Gathering book I have ever read.We all know Yawgmoth was a demon and Phyrexia was a terrible place. However, it was a mystery why it was so. This book charts how Yawgmoth from a medical doctor slowly became a demon and how Phyrexia came into being. It also blended very well with earlier stories like the Brother's Wars. Mysteries in the earlier books were explained here. For example, who was Gix? Why were there nine planes in Phyrexia? How did the practice of meshing body parts to form new Phyrexians come about? What roles did the Meekstone and Mightstone play? What happened in the war between Thran and Phyrexians? This book clearly explained all the mysteries in the earlier books and made the whole Magic story more interesting and convincing.I sort of lost interest after the second book in Artifact Cycles. I thought it was incoherent, rambling and raises more questions than it answers. Also, I guess I had expected Serra to be more powerful than it was depicted.But King has made me interested in the story again. I will definely read his Artifact Cycle book 3 now.

AHA, now I get it!

This book goes a long way towards filling in the backgrounds of many legendary Magic names. Yawgmoth, Gix, etc. I love knowing their pasts.

Superbly written

The one thing that impressed me most about this book was how well it was written, A definite MUST READ! for any magic fans. Tells the story of Yawgmoth and the start of Pherexia."It no longer matters to you what I am. What does it matter if I kill him or not, worry about weather or not I will first kill you."

History Lesson

For those of you who play the game Magic: the Gathering, or have read any of the books, or are just a fan of fantasy war...YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK! This is the prehistory of a very diverse world of fantasy. Its machines verses dwarven warriors, magic verses science. The results of this war will shape the multiverse for the next eight thousand years.