Why I'm Excited about the Edge of Eternities Story
“This is holy writ, writ in holy blood. Defy it at thy peril. Now listen!”
Okay, look. I was already hyped for Edge of Eternities. Solar collapse? Weird space at the edge of the known universe? Existential dread at the speed of light? Inject it straight into my stack of sleeved draft chaff, please.
But then today at the Edge of Eternities preview panel, Roy Graham announced that Seth Dickinson is writing the massive 11-part story arc for the set—and I just about lost it.
If you know, you know. If you don’t? Buckle in. Because Seth Dickinson isn’t just a good writer. He’s one of the most emotionally intelligent, razor-sharp, unapologetically devastating science fantasy authors working today and a personal favorite. To me, he crafts beautiful stories, but only after he dissects them. His characters lie, hurt, and claw their way through impossible choices, and somehow still feel heartbreakingly real. He writes like he’s trying to hurt you in a way that makes you grateful for the wound.
The man wrote The Traitor Baru Cormorant, for crying out loud; a book about empire, identity, and impossible compromise that left me staring at the ceiling for hours after finishing it. His prose cuts like obsidian, and his political intrigue reads like a chess match between geniuses who both know they’ve already lost. So when I heard his name is attached to Magic’s next big narrative arc it felt like an absolutely perfect match.
So. Who is Seth Dickinson? Why is his writing such a big deal to me? And what might it mean for the direction of Edge of Eternities? I wanna talk about it. Because if this set’s story ends up anywhere near as bold, sharp, and emotionally complex as his novels, we are in for something unforgettable.
If you were already excited about Edge of Eternities, then you know that you’re not alone. So let's talk about Seth's portfolio, and hopefully once you've read this, you’ll see why he’s the perfect fit.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant Trilogy
Dickinson blew onto the scene in 2015 with The Traitor Baru Cormorant, a debut that reshaped expectations of character-driven epic fantasy. Baru infiltrates the conquering empire that destroyed her homeland, climbing its ranks to subvert it from within. But the real story isn’t conquest—it’s how power warps her. She’s brilliant, determined, and heartbreakingly compromised. Dickinson’s writing is surgical; every word is laden with desire and loss, every victory marked by its cost. NPR called the novel “smart, brutal, and emotionally wrenching,” and Tor.com praised its “precise, dispassionate prose style…designed to carve out a hollow in your heart.” The subsequent entries—The Monster Baru Cormorant and The Tyrant Baru Cormorant—only deepen the moral complexity, chronicling Baru’s struggle against becoming the very thing she swore to destroy.
Short Fiction & Speculative Nuance
Before his novel trilogy, Dickinson honed his craft in short fiction, earning acclaim in genre magazines. His story “Worth of Crows,” published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, pits a woman against Death itself in an icy, mythic duel. In “Laws of Night and Silk,” also in BCS, Dickinson examines war, sacrifice, and the making of monsters, lighting up hearts with cold, elegiac prose.
On Tor.com, his emotionally raw “Please Undo This Hurt” delivers intimate, haunting reflections of a first responder facing grief and moral failure. And in Clarkesworld, “Morrigan in Shadow” tackles love, war, and the monstrous choices that follow in their wake. These stories earned multiple anthology selections, solidifying Dickinson as a force in showcasing how ordinary people endure extreme moral crises.
Expanding Horizons: Exordia & Game Writing
In 2024, Dickinson surprised readers with Exordia, a science-fantasy epic featuring aliens, ancient tech, and philosophical wonder. Publishers Weekly praised it for combining “cool alien technology, admirably hopeful heroes, and SFF pop culture references” that “will have readers hooked” . Separately, his contributions to the Destiny franchise—particularly the metaphysical Books of Sorrow in The Taken King expansion—demonstrate his ability to craft immersive, mythic lore from sparse detail.
So what ties it all to Edge of Eternities?
Dickinson excels where Magic’s next set needs him: at the edges of grand ideas and intimate heartbreak. He writes in the spaces between—that moment where a plan spirals beyond control, where ideology crushes innocence, and where even cosmic-scale conflict can hinge on a single human moment. Whether it’s empire, entropy, or æther, his storytelling thrives in the tension between vast stakes and fragile souls.
If Edge of Eternities is about stars collapsing, cultures scavenging for faith in the ruins, and narratives unravelling, then Seth Dickinson is the kind of writer who could weave those strands into something deeply moving and undeniably unforgettable. And I, for one, can't wait to see what he builds on the edge of forever.
Why I'm So Excited—and How Episode 1 Proves Seth’s Vision Is Already Here
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/edge-of-eternities-episode-1
By the time I finished Episode 1 of Edge of Eternities–20 minutes after it went live–I was vibrating with delight. It opens with a directive–a simple one– make a choice. The reader is prompted over and over again like a choose your own adventure. We are reading, but we are interacting with this system, with this program. We learn of scoundrels scavenging a lost artifact, catch wind of Tezzeret’s dangerous influence, and eavesdrop on whisperings of the Eumidians, Monoists, the Kav, and the Illvoi, all orbiting this star that is kept in undeath…a fragile supervoid.
The episode captures exactly what makes Dickinson’s writing fascinating: he’s not just describing worlds, he’s populating them with ideologies. He’s not merely worldbuilding—he’s cryptoeconomics-meets-ethics in outer space. It’s a cosmic academic symposium spun into conflict—and Seth has seen, and loves, that kind of tangled moral web before.
This episode reads like the opening chapter of The Traitor Baru Cormorant, but with spaceships and cat-planar weirdness. We don’t just learn who is present; we learn why they’re here—their goals, their hopes, and, far more interestingly, their contradictions. That’s Dickinson’s signature. He plants an artifact at the story’s center, not just as a plot device, but as an ideological keystone—something both character and reader will debate long after the arc ends.
What excites me, though, is that Seth isn’t watering Magic’s multiverse down. Edge of Eternities is almost a standalone epic. It lives on the very edge of the Magic story as we know it. He’s leaning into that. That Eden-with-edges premise—interstellar politics, faiths vying for cosmic control, techno-magical relics that might collapse a star—it’s his beat. And the story doesn’t gasp under that breadth; instead, the writing buzzes with tension. We feel the systems wobbling already. We sense that “greater good” just waiting to swallow someone whole. (Cheeky lil Tau reference)
So between his track record of exploring how ideology corrupts, how hope bends into something monstrous, and how broken worlds are often rebuilt by people with guts—and grudges—I’m beside myself. Episode 1 isn’t just promising. It’s delivering what I’ve been waiting for: that electric mix of grand scale and fractured humanity. And as the story stretches into the void over the next ten episodes, I’m ready for the ride.
Standing on the Edge—and Loving Every Second of It
I don’t say this lightly: Edge of Eternities is shaping up to be one of the boldest, weirdest, and most emotionally resonant–to me–stories Magic has ever told. And with Seth Dickinson at the helm it feels like a turning point. Will we see more standalone sets in the future? I really hope so.
What excites me isn’t just the high concept stuff (though I’m all in on collapsing stars, political space-factions, and existential scavenger hunts through multiversal graveyards). It’s the way Seth handles people. Ideology. Doubt. Compromise. He doesn’t write easy heroes or cartoon villains. He writes characters you ache for, even when they’re doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. And that kind of storytelling? It’s exactly what Magic needs right now.
We’re entering a story that doesn’t just threaten the multiverse’s rules—it threatens the stories within the multiverse. And that’s where Seth shines. He understands how systems break people. He understands how people bend systems. And he understands how, sometimes, even in the face of annihilation, we still reach out. We still believe. We still choose.
So yeah—I’m all in. I’m strapping myself to the deck of The Seriema, and I’m ready to get emotionally annihilated in eleven chapters or less.
We are all on the edge now, and I’ve never been more excited to see what happens when we fall.