The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Innistrad: Volume 2

Great coffee table books for the Magic fan.High production and always great to re-look through

A great supplement for fans of magic the gatherings Ravnica plane.

So so so so incredibly beautiful. This convinced me to get the other art books of mtg too!

It was a birthday present for my son.

Prix très intéressant et envoi rapide.

"On the world of Innistrad, horrors stalk in the shadows and scratch at the door in the night. Humanity is beset on all sides ..."The opening to the book sums up the feel of the plane of Innistrad in just one sentence, its gothic horror with a lovecraftian twist (provided by the beloved Emraku) by the spade load.As with Mr Wyatt's previous outing to the hallowed lands of Zendikar, the writing here is top notch, the world unfolds on the pages of the book in glorious detail and the many shades of black that the world can offer you. From descriptions of the land and the areas of interest to the creatures that inhabit the plane (and shadows), the angels and demons, the vampires and werewolves and everything in between right down to the politics, the church and inquisitions of the land.Clocking in again at 240 pages in a hard bound, square-format, lusciously wrapped in a stunningly illustrated dust cover, this book (as does the series so far) oozes quality and a well thought out design process, pride has definitely being put into these book I can tell you that.Lets get something straight here before I get into the meat of the review. I do not count myself as a heavy player of Magic any more, a few years ago I was, but these days the best I can say is that I get to the launch events for a few games and a clutch of new cards, I also do not do as much pen and paper role playing that I used to in my youth either but this does not detract from the enjoyment that can be had out of these books, so really you just need to have a passing interest in the subject matter and not some kind of indepth knowledge of Magic and its planes, most referances in this review to story blocks and the plane its self have either been gathered from the bookf or from the Wizards of the Coast website or MTGSalvation and its Wiki.The book itself covers the 5 parts of the 2 Innistrad blocks (Innistrad, Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored from 2011-2012 as well as Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon from 2016), if you have the slightest interest in a European gothic horror setting set in the middle ages then this is a book that could play a major part in setting the scene or giving you the visual stimulus you need to get those creative juices flowing, even if you don’t play Magic or any role playing system this is still an amazingly sumptuous book to have in the book case. Stunning artwork and great and involved writing that deeply expands the world of Innistrad and its denizens. It has been said before (even when I reviewed the Zendikar art book) that these are more than simple pictures on a page and as such are more akin to a style guide\world source book for the plane in question, it has been revealed that in some cases this is the case with the release of the Planeshift D&D rules from WotC itself, that explains how to bring the plane of Innistrad into the world of D&D and run full blown RPG campaigns in said campaign world, obviously this book with 240 pages goes into a little more detail and it also doesn’t cover much in the way of game mechanics to either D&D or to Magic for that matter (Except the final chapter of the book but even that only covers a few pages)So 25 quid for the Art of Innistrad book... Is it worth it? I will be honest I was not too enamoured with the appearance of Emrakul in Innistrad, as I am not a fan of the Eldrazi and for me they sorta spoilt the Zendikar block, but I guess multi-planar demon lords would be all powerful at the end of the day, and here Emrakul does provide himself as WotC's own take on The Great Old Ones and Mr Cthulhu, so we can forgive him from turning up I just (Personally) don't think he fits into the medieval feel of the plane ... but that hardly detracts from what I hold in my hand within the pages of this book .. Of course 25 quid is worth it ! .. As soon as I heard of this book then i knew I had to have it, the setting is so gorgeous and atmospheric it seeps Stoker from its veins, this is the perfect addition to anyone’s book case that likes fantasy artwork. Like the Zendikar book the artwork generally sits alongside the text .. there isn't much cross over between them but as again this is a style guide, the text more explains and details the world and does not discuss the thought patterns behind the artwork its self as expected in some other art books out there.So yeah get your 25 quid and ORDER THIS BOOK, Magic or D&D fan, fantasy or horror rpg fan or simply someone who likes good art work and can enjoy reading and getting lost in the details of the world (here’s looking at the writers out there).This is turning out to be a very interesting series .. On too Kaladesh and the next volume out in Jan 2017 :)

2nd book in The Art of Magic series.

Having received this as a present, I am very pleased. As with all the ViZ Art of Magic books, it’s a well-bound, solid, beautiful package, but instead of only art from the most recent visit to Ravnica, this has art from all three blocks to enhance the history and lore of this flavour-filled plane. This is actually one of the only downsides, in that the book could actually be twice as long, and I do miss my favourite piece of art, which seems to have been squeezed out (Eytan Zana’s Golgari Guildgate), but in general, each piece being larger than the cards allows you to see details that get lost at the smaller size, it’s an amazing showcase of this unique artistic venue.