MAGIC: THE GATHERING – RISE OF THE GATEWATCH: A VISUAL HISTORY / AUTHOR: JENNA HELLAND / PUBLISHER: ABRAMS COMICARTS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Magic: the Gathering is one of those games with a very rich backstory. With decades of art and storytelling, backing it up, many find the whole prospect of delving into the world of Magic a little daunting. What you need is a pocket-sized guide to the lore, something that fits neatly in with your card collection.

Rise of the Gatewatch: A Visual History is a handy little book that crams in a lot of the artwork and backstory of the various Magic: the Gathering storylines. Given that the card game mostly communicates its plot via pictures and small amounts of flavour text, this tome neatly fills the gap.

It’s a collection of previous art, mostly gathered from the cards but also from various posters, video games and so on. As mentioned, it’s pocket-sized so anyone looking for a coffee table book of Magic: The Gathering art will have to look elsewhere. Which is a pity as the art is gorgeous and quite often, very weird.

The narrative follows the core team of Planeswalkers, the dimension-hopping wizards who form the backbone of the franchise’s storyline. All your faves are present, we get Jace Beleren, Ajani Goldmane, Gideon Jura, Kaya, Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Liliana Vess, and Teferi. Of course, the big bad is present in the form Nicol Bolas, in all his twisted glory. If all of this means nothing to you, don’t worry, that’s the point of this book. It’s more a handy primer to the world of the Planeswalkers than anything else.

As such, it’s not really a story or a novel. It’s more series of short bursts of information backed-up with nice (if small) art. Rise of the Gatewatch feels a bit like a DVD extra; full of facts and interesting visuals, but sort of meaningless out of context. It uses a scrapbook approach of card art (and sometimes the cards themselves) as well as images and information from other sources to bring together one central tale. This does mean that some of the characters get more story and this makes it a little uneven and might disappoint fans of characters such as Teferi, who don’t get much screen time.

This is a handy way to get into the world of Magic and is of use to anyone who likes playing the game, and anyone who may want to explore that world in other media.