The Gathering Dark - Jeff Grubb

Yes, I should be gaming for those final points of the challenge as the clock is ticking down, with less then 3 hours to go.

No I ain't, Chu was supposed to be doing this in my stead and finish the first episode of the second season of The Walking Dead...it'll be close to finish it before the end though...

On the other hand, I have been reading a lot today as I spend most of the day on either the bus or in the waiting chamber of a union office.  And managed just now to finish The Gathering Dark, a Magic: the Gathering novel by Jeff Grubb.

The story tells about the mage Jodah and his first steps on his road to becoming one of the greatest wizards, mostly encountered in the Mirrodin block, as he was the one that broke the barrier to Phyrexia.

The tale is at the end of the period called The Dark, when mages really started to make differences to the world after the devastation of the Brother's War between Urza and Mishra.  Losing his teacher Voska to the Church of Tal, and meeting with the elven mage Sima, Jodah ends up in the Conclave, a school of wizards founded a long time ago by Ith.

Now it turns out that his former pupil Maersil has usurped the position of Ith, but has kept the old mage locked away and slowly tuning him insane.  But as Jodah finds out he is the link to breaking open the void towards Phyrexia, he frees Ith, and events he had started by his encounters with the church start a snowball rolling that destroys the Conclave, and in the annals seems to be the start of the end.

And all the while, the weather changes and an Ice Age seems to be comming up...