From archive (archive) Path: sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!sco!seanf From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers Subject: _The Wizardry Compiled_ (no spoilers) Message-ID: <5688@scolex.sco.COM> Date: 15 Apr 90 05:13:50 GMT Sender: news@sco.COM Reply-To: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan) Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. Lines: 23 TWC is the sequel to _Wizard's Bane_, both, of course, by Rich Cook. Like WB, TWC is not a *great* book: the plot is nothing new, and a lot of the story is predictable. What's *fun* about it, though, is the various puns and "inside" jokes that abound. WB was the story of what happened when Wiz, a hacker, got Summoned into a world where magic worked, and how he made sense of that magic. TWC follows shortly thereafter, and a large portion of it deals with what happens when a bunch of programmers try to make a "magic compiler." Each chapter begins with one or more quotes that put the universe into a programmer's prospective, and I could certainly agree with more than one. Anyway, for people into both computers and fantasy, WB and TWC are enjoyable reads. Unless you find yourself overly offended by bad puns 8-). -- -----------------+ Sean Eric Fagan | "It's a pity the universe doesn't use [a] segmented seanf@sco.COM | architecture with a protected mode." uunet!sco!seanf | -- Rich Cook, _Wizard's Bane_ (408) 458-1422 | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'. Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!mcevans.tip.net.!newsfeed.tip.net!news.seinf.abb.se!inquo!bofh.dot!in-news.erinet.com!imci5!imci4!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!news From: "Rob Slade" Subject: Review: Wizardry Consulted Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Keywords: author=Rob Slade Lines: 33 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Organization: Intelligent Agents Group X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 18:15:31 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Lines: 33 Wizardry Consulted, by Rick Cook Copyright 1996 Robert M. Slade Dungeons, dragons, hobbits and all manner of fantasy hold endless fascination for the techie crowd. Elements of sword and sorcery (wiz, daemon, etc.) have even made it into the technical lexicon, quite aside from the MUDs (multi-user dungeons) and other role playing games. So the idea that a programmer, thrust into an alternate dimension where magic works, can make it as a wizard is both appealing to the target audience and completely unsurprising. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with UNIX and the Internet will understand the technical references herein. To make it easier for the novice to identify them, they are all printed in bold type. What I'm not sure of is the reason that said references are all garbled. Of course, this *is* fiction, but it could at least have a consistent syntax. This book is part of a series, so it may be possible that the interesting questions of how science and wizardry relate, and all the good jokes about agrarian peasants not understanding computer jargon, were all used up in the earlier volumes. %A Rick Cook rcook@bix.com %C 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 %D 1995 %G 0-671-87700-3 %I Baen %O U$5.99 +1-212-698-7541 %P 282 %T "Wizardry Consulted" roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca This message is in beta test. The real message should ship any day now ...