To be perfectly fair, your review about prophecy centered mostly around how the plot had nothing to do with the main storyline. The overall execution of the book was not mentioned at all; you just basically just whined about the book had nothing to do with the rest of the series. Oh sure, it IS out of the way, but I dare say-since I haven't read it yet-that this partly explains how Teferi became a planeswalker.
P.S. I have read a book that had main character who basically didn't do anything and I loved it.
Actually, Prophecy starts out with Teferi already being a planeswalker and never explains how it happened. I believe it's still one of the big unanswered questions of Magic: the Gathering.
I could have tolerated Prophecy if it had at least been well written, like Mercadian Masques, but it just wasn't. The author lavished incredible amounts of detail on completely inconsequential matters, introduced the legendary characters from the card set but barely developed them, Haddad just whined, whined, whined and the whole things was devoid of any real character or emotion. In all fairness, there is some stuff about the Twilight Prophecy which sets up some events from the Invasion cycle. But it's buried beneath piles of garbage.
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The Weatherlight Saga's awkward middle section
It's no secret that the Weatherlight Saga that we got is not the one that was originally planned. After a strong start (unfortunately badly novelized) and an excellent prequel series, the saga returns to present day with an odd cycle of simultaneous arcs. I'll review each of them below.
Mercadian Masques at least has always been planned in some form, as Mark Rosewater wrote back when he introduced the saga that he wanted to take the crew to a plane "where the whole world is a market and everything is for sale". It's an enjoyable read for the most part, with some sorely needed character development and interaction between the crew. However, some characters are still underdeveloped, like Sisay and Hanna. The book's biggest fault is that it feels a little disconnected from the main storyline: although there are some interesting revelations later on and another confrontation with Volrath, it feels more like just another obstacle for the Weatherlight crew to clear instead of an integral part of the story. It's a Wacky Wayside Tribe taking up an entire book.
Nemesis is very good, one of the best Magic novels in fact. It's the saga's Villain Episode, focusing on the inhabitants of Rath's Stronghold. However, I have one problem with the book: Crovax's sudden transformaton into a villain, something which wasn't in the original plans. His intended character arc has been completely butchered: after having way too little pagetime in Rath and Storm, he now abruptly turns into a bloodthirsty maniac who eats people alive. However, Ertai and Belbe more than make up for this, raising the question: in a hopeless situation in which there are only bad choices, how far would you go to survive? The ending is a real gut punch, showing us that there are no easy answers.
And then there's Prophecy. If Mercadian Masques is a Wacky Wayside Tribe, then Prophecy is Trapped by Mountain Lions. It involves three side characters (Barrin, Rayne and Teferi) in a plot that has absolutely nothing to do with the main storyline of the saga. It then sidelines those three characters to focus on Haddad, who whines and does absolutely nothing. I remember it being so awful that it's the only book I skipped outright during my Weatherlight Saga re-read.