I'm not overly familiar with Magic: The Gathering. I know that it's a fantasy card game in which players battle each other using custom-constructed decks. And it was a big deal back in high school. It originated the term to "tap", or rotate, a card in play. And it was a huge influence on one of my favorite card games. That's the extent of my knowledge.

I am, however, very much familiar with Matthew Stover. He happens to be one of my all-time favorite authors, and is the sole reason I picked up Test of Metal.

Now, tie-in fiction is a tricky animal: most of it just isn't that good. I read a lot of Star Wars novels, but I enjoy them because they're Star Wars, not because they're necessarily well-written—and if I'm being honest, most of them really aren't. So I read tie-in fiction primarily because I'm a fan of the larger shared universe it's set in. But what about when I'm not? Can a favorite author make me care about a franchise I know nothing about?

Well, yes. And no.

From the (minimal) research I did after reading this book, I know that Test of Metal follows up directly on events in Agents of Artifice by Ari Marmell, another book in the Planeswalkers subseries. At the end of that book, the planeswalker (basically a type of wizard who can hop between different dimensions) Jace Beleren killed fellow planeswalker Tezzeret, ostensibly the "bad guy" of that novel. In Test of Metal, Tezzeret is not only resurrected, but is made the main viewpoint character. This is his story.

We start in media res with Tezzeret on an island made entirely of the magical metal, etherium. He is soon confronted by the powerful dragon Nicol Bolas, who, as it turns out, was responsible for recreating Tezzeret and sending him on a quest, of which this metal island is the end. Bolas then proceeds to trawl Tezzeret's memories; subsequent chapters are the result of this mind-link, where the bulk of the novel's story plays out in flashback, with Tezzeret as narrator.

Stover has loved playing with viewpoint and linearity in his Acts of Caine novels, and Test of Metal is no different. In addition to most of the chapters being flashbacks and narrated in the first-person by Tezzeret, we get additional first-person perspectives (one chapter each) from the other featured planeswalkers, Jace Beleren and Baltrice. And interspersed between those are the "present" goings-on at the metal island, related in standard third-person, from the POVs of both Tezzeret and Bolas. Alternating between the third- and first-persons is something Stover does extremely well, and its use suits the story perfectly. What I enjoyed perhaps the most, though, was how the book effectively begins at the end of the story. In fact, before I read the final chapter, I flipped back and reread the first chapter and had a couple of those great "Aha!" moments where the puzzle pieces start fitting together. But beyond just the structure of the novel, the story itself makes use of a limited amount of time travel in the form of a type of magic called "clockworking"; there's a very nonlinear feel to entire book that's simultaneously refreshing and bewildering, but Stover's successful in keeping it all tightly under control.

If I had a main complaint, it would be that the story mostly boils down to a fairly-straightforward MacGuffin quest with powerful wizards throwing a bunch of magic at each other. And some of the dialogue is laughably juvenile—though as it more often that not also made me laugh in the good sense, I can overlook any quibbles there. In the end, it's Stover's handling of Tezzeret's character and the internal journey he undertakes that elevate the book above the level of "mere" tie-in fiction. We get a bit of Tezzeret's backstory, we come to understand his motivations, and watch as he undergoes both physical and internal transformations. He's a fascinating character: highly intelligent, but not physically or magically overpowering, so he has to rely on his wits to get by. Plus, he's also a bit of a smartass. Very much in Stover's wheelhouse.

In fact, I enjoyed reading about Tezzeret so much that I really want to pick up Agents of Artifice just to get the first half (as it were) of the story. But I don't think I really care enough about the Magic universe to bother doing so. Rather, I think I'll just savor Stover's contribution to it.

It's not great literature, but it's still better than most tie-in genre fiction deserves to be. It makes you use your brain. And it's got all the classic Stover touches (warning: violence and strong language), plus plenty of twists and turns and double-, triple-, and quadruple-crosses. It's great fun, and I'd recommend it to any fan of fantasy. [3.5 out of 5 stars] ( )