In his most recent Savor the Flavor column, Doug Beyer thanks a reader for their appreciation of A Planeswalker's Guide to Alara, and urges us to buy a copy to support production of more books like this in the future.
My response to this was a big old "What?" followed by "Hey, awesome." Here's the cover:
This is basically an "art of" book for Alara, akin to "art of" books for movies. Here's the product blerb:
You are a planeswalker, one of the most powerful mages in the multiverse. Countless planes of existence are yours to master. Now you have arrived on the fractured plane of Alara. Where do you begin?You begin with this lavishly illustrated guide that brings the Shards of Alara to life and gives MAGIC: THE GATHERING fans a look behind the scenes with concept art and insider information available nowhere else.The Planeswalker Guides will feature full-color illustrations drawn from early concept art and final card art to bring the worlds of MAGIC: THE GATHERING to life.
That's from the Amazon product page
Wizards did an art of book for one of the Magic cycles years ago (my friend has a copy, but I'm currently blanking on the set in question), and after seeing the occasional excerpts from their style guides from time to time, I've really been wanting them to bring out new ones to go with each new set. This new book sounds like pretty much what I was looking for, and I'm glad to hear about it, although I'm a little surprised it wasn't better publicized. I'm putting in my Amazon order now, and I'll post a review as soon as I receive it and have a chance to look through it.
Good stuff.