Books like Bloodlines: The Story of Urza's Destiny

Bloodlines is exactly the reason I'm wary of series that are passed off from author to author, only being connected by large plot points while even those are muddied from book to book. Now, I'm not a major MtG fan but I've gotten into these string of Magic books collectively known as "The Weatherlight Saga" and I've really been enjoying them. However this book is clearly the black sheep when reading in chronological order, starting with "The Thran." If you're thinking about reading it, here's a quick recap: Urza wants to breed an inheritor to his fight with the Phyrexians. Someone who is capable enough to fight them with the drive to fight them but also possessing great enough empathy with the Phyrexians to understand how they think. To do this he must use genetic manipulation and experimentation, something that brings the master Artificer closer to the Phyrexian way than his principles ever allowed before.The Good:It progresses the storyline. Presents a little bit of moral ambiguity as Urza walks a fine line between this Bloodlines project and completely betraying his own principles to mimicking Phyrexia.Also the conflict between Davvol and Croag over control of the Phyrexian realm, Rath, is fun to read. Davvol is allowed control of Rath for his wit but is clearly being used only for that. Davvol is clever, cautious, and seems to be aware he's having his strings pulled, but longs to be Phyrexian and hopes his Phyrexian masters will allow this if he can only prove himself enough. Croag is ruthless, powerful, and has the true final say on what happens in Rath but he also underestimates Davvol's capability.The Bad:One issue with this novel is that that is there simultaneously too much going on with too little actually happening. In the narrative there are many immortal or at least long lived characters that can survive for centuries. This is used interestingly to update the reader on on different parts of the world as Phyrexia gains a stronger foothold into Dominaria. We see the Phyrexian invasion of Keld, Phyrexian battles near a colony of Serran refugees, and the events that take place at Tolaria in the meantime. This *could* have been used effectively but the book fails to make any character save Gatha actually interesting to read about. Urza can also be interesting but he's so devoid of personality in this book that it's only by the grace of the previous Artifacts Cycle book that he still holds attention. A lot of the times this book chooses to tell you about minor characters that are next to these Godlike semi-immortal beings and because of this they're left in the dust of time, not meaning a thing. Several times you will be reading about a character that just offers absolutely nothing to the narrative. Then you'll learn later long after their death about their great grandkid... who, again, doesn't offer anything to the narrative. You'd think with the name "Bloodlines" these generations that are followed would actually be, you know, important?? Most of them aren't though. A better use of this book's concept would be to emphasize these generations MUCH heavier and show how these individuals are changing lives. It's mentioned by Urza towards the latter half of the book that many of the individuals in his many Bloodlines projects across the nations have shown extreme intellectual and magical capabilities. This alone is a majorly fascinating thread and had it been pulled could have led the novel in a much more interesting direction, showing how it might have affected the nations fighting back Phyrexian invaders. Instead it was used to reveal that many of Urza's brightest students were of the Bloodlines project, unbeknownst to them. Which, somehow, still fails to make any of those characters interesting.So essentially we loosely follow groups of random people, likely in the scope of Urza's many generations long Bloodlines project with plotlines that fizzle out and are just riddled with uninteresting drivel. And when the long awaited "heir" is finally revealed as a baby at the end of the book you're left unsatisfied. I could take the heir being introduced as a baby at the end but as I've said, none of what you follow in the narrative save Gatha's character (with Kreig) and the conflict between Davvol and Croag are actually interesting. The baby is from the Capashen clan whose political significance is presented but left so vague it's just confusing... and they were utterly boring. One might be pleased to know there's finally an heir at some point but there's absolutely no reason to be interested in the individual who turns out to the heir.It'st just so... dull.The Ugly:Despite all the bad I had to say, this is my real main issue with the novel: regressive characterization. This could be the result of how closely published the books are which shows they were almost certainly being worked on at the same time with Time Streams being published in May of 1999 and Bloodlines being published in August 1999. But if this is the case it really just illustrates that if you want to do something right you need to take your time doing it. Wizards of the Coast, in their eagerness to have these books out, really made the quality suffer. Some more time and some major rewrites could have saved this book with the concepts it rested on... But I'm slipping back into "bad." Back to "ugly."I mention the publication dates because it's the only way I can justify the absolute butchering of Urza's established character. Urza is no saint but there was undeniable character growth in Time Streams that's absent here. Urza may be flawed and narrowed sighted in his own genius but during the events of Time Streams Urza not only proves himself sane but also gains empathy like he never had before. SPOILERS AHEAD FOR TIME STREAMS:He was tortured several times and one of these was special because he was exposed to an ancient pain he caused in the events of the Brothers' War. He comes to know pain and experiences it through the eyes of others he's hurt. Urza also learns that his genius is not the only genius. In working so close with Barrin and his brightest students Urza seems to see that he's not the only one with good ideas and actually works with the ideas of others. He also often takes the risk of putting trust in others to get the important work done. Lastly, there is a huge significance at the end with how Urza treats Karn. Despite gifting a silver golem with sentience akin to true life he treats it like a machine. However, after Urza has his gemstone eyes ripped from his head and begins to die he has a revelation about how similar he is to Karn. Despite being a planeswalker, the powerstones in Urza's head are essential to his life... they've become his core. He's like Karn in that his core is something artificial, a stone of power, not based on anything organic. In a way they're both machines... and they both feel just as alone. After this event Urza comes to treat Karn less like a machine and more like a son. Not just like a "person," but like a son.Of course, ALL of this is ignored for the sake of Bloodlines. Yes, the events of Time Streams still happened but any and all character growth Urza had (which, as you can read, is a lot) is neutered. He's presented less in this book than the last but when he is doing something he's back to being a self-obsessed genius with eyes only on his goal of eliminating Phyrexia while treating Karn like nothing more than a machine to be ordered.Conclusion:I really cannot fathom how so much character development can be established then followed with this book. The only saving grace is that they almost certainly were worked on at the same time so the lack of character consistency is at least understandable. But as you might be able to tell from both my bad and ugly portions, characters were never this book's strong suit. The narrative is so busy trying to hit plot point after plot point like they're just bullet points on a list that it fails to make any characters used in the plot as interesting. As a result it's like everything you read is being viewed through a stain glass window, distant. Whereas in Time Streams you really felt the characters in the heart of the plot, especially as they grew. And this is seen in no greater form than Urza.I'm still going to push on with this series. The book does advance the plot and had a few interesting things so it was okay but it just didn't hold up to its fellow MtG novels.They really should have just given the entire Weatherlight anything to Robert King, writer of "The Thran" and "Time Streams" which have so far been the most shining gems of this series.