Time Streams Book

The farther I read through this series, the gladder I am that it is moving ever closer to modern conventions of Magic: the Gathering storytelling. This book is particularly self-aware, as the author seems to have had a lot of time to cobble together information from both its contemporary cards sets and the book that came before it. It is, for that reason, the first Magic: the Gathering novel that seems to know where it's headed: establishing fan favorite characters and ushering the age of the Weatherlight and long-term Magic continuity.

Its self-awareness also shows in the writing of Urza Planeswalker. The writing of Planeswalkers in the early Magic: the Gathering novels is unfortunately difficult, as authors are expected to characterize infallible superhuman beings who can do near anything with a thought. The previous author accomplished this by omitting Urza from the story almost entirely and giving us a proxy for the audience. Time Streams follows up rather elegantly by giving us a new proxy character in Barrin (and to an extent Jhoira). King elaborates on the solution by acknowledging Urza's real flaws and giving him a comeuppance: the story strangely feels like a struggle to humanize Urza, and King somehow manages to place Urza in situations where even he, in all his godlike glory, has genuine stakes and a chance of death or failure. In the earlier parts of the book, there are also a few humorous moments when the author seems to knowingly lampshade Urza's godliness, making a show of how boring Urza's omnipotence is without actually boring the audience.

This story is especially poignant and impactful because of the characters it introduces. Fans of current (especially post-2017) Magic storylines will instantly recognize Karn, Jhoira, and Teferi. These fan favorites are among the only Dominarian characters who are still in the MtG limelight some 15 years later, and it says a lot that King was the one responsible for bringing them to life for the first time.

This is possibly the first Magic: the Gathering book (in chronological order) that I admire for what it is, not what it represents. In more ways than one, Time Streams is when Magic: the Gathering lore finally starts to get good.