Customer Reviews

Logical Magician

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has been reprinted as A Modern Magician, had no trrouble getting it myself

This is an entertaining and lighthearted pair of fantasy novels. As with other books of this type, the basic premise is that magical and mythical creatures continue to live among us. Weinberg finds witty ways to integrate the magical into ordinary life. The magician Merlin is a financial consultant, wood nymphs inhabit shopping malls, etc. The hero is a young mathematician who uses logic and knowledge of modern society to vanquish the villains. Of these two books, A Calculating Magic is the more amusing with better character development and clever use of Norse and Arabic mythology. The major joke at the end of A Calculating Magic is particularly clever. These books are hard to find but well worth a few dollars in a used book store.

I first came across this book at the age of 13; a friend had lent it to me after buying it from the drugstore as an impulse purchase at the counter bookrack. At first I simply regarded it as some nightly reading material that would put me to sleep and nothing more. As I delved deeper into the novel I found myself gladly lost in Weinberg's characters and scenarios. Weinberg was able to take the fantasy of every science fiction fan and turn it into a lovable story filled with conspiracy, adventure and intrigue. Unfortunately I have not been able to find this novel again after my first time reading it. My friend has since become yet another alienated soul from my childhood and the novel is long lost on the bookshelf of a bitter old girlfriend. But fond memories of reading this novel and enjoying every time consuming minute remain. Every aspect from when Jack Collins steps into Merlin's modern yet modest office to when he found himself being seduced by a fantastic Succubus has been engraved into my memory. It's unfortunate that I can no longer find any copy of this novel, especially now at an older, and hopefully wiser, age when I can better appreciate what was already a marvelous story to begin with. With plenty of references to old Fantasy style characters, and environments only read about alongside such devices as knights, dragons and maidens, Weinberg creates for us an idiot's guide to fantasy novels. Placing, what we call, Science Fiction into reality and having a logical and practical man play the part of the hero gives us the opportunity to listen to him ask questions about the plot rather than leave the SF challenged in the dark. Definitely a good book you can't put down and walk away from.

Twenty-seven years old Jack Collins, weary of being a mathematics graduate teaching aide and in dire need of an income, answers an odd advertisement and ends up working for Merlin the Magician, who has gotten with the times and currently fronts himself as a prognosticator of stocks and bonds. Merlin explains that Jack's new position is nothing less than being the champion of humanity, selected to face off against the ever-marshalling forces of darkness. But no sooner does Jack hire on than Merlin and his office aide Megan (who we quickly find is more than a mere office aide) are kidnapped, leaving Jack to fend for himself against the minions of darkness, armed with just an enchanted ATM card. To make it worse, Jack learns that there just might be a malefic Old God - to wit, the Lord of the Lions - back in town. Add to that the fact that he becomes suspected of being a drug lord by the campus head of security and that his students can't seem to grasp the fundamentals of Calculus 101...well, Jack's got problems.

Included in Robert Weinberg's body of work is a lighthearted urban fantasy series starring Jack Collins, comprising of two novels titled The Logical Magician and A Calculated Magic. There was to be a third - titled Subtract One Sorcerer - but unfortunately was never published, due to changing market tastes. In the series, Weinberg supposes that the human collective subconscious, down thru the ages, powered with the sheer power of belief, has made all its superstitions come into actual being. Thus, in this modern age of reason and technology, there are thousands of mythical and supernatural creatures co-existing in silence amongst us.

The main character has a mathematics background and a certain knowledge of fantasy literature, and he uses those assets and his innate common sense to find solutions grounded in logic to exploit the given weaknesses of his various magical adversaries. The methods Jack employs in eventually triumphing over a vampire and a will-o-the-wisp, in particular, showcase his practical savvy.

Not as outright goofy or pun-filled as Robert Asprin's Skeeve and Aahz series or Piers Anthony's Xanth novels, A Logical Magician (and its sequel) still lets loose its share of comedic moments while maintaining a certain gravitas to the proceedings. A Logical Magician is diverting stuff and is definitely worth a look-see. I myself give it 3 and a half stars.

A word of caution: this book was later reprinted as A Modern Magician. Buyer, beware.

I came across this book in my local Safeway, and since then it has earned an extremely special place in my bookshelf as well as in my heart!

I have rated this book 5 stars, but if I were given the option I would put hundreds more, to do "A Logical Magician" justice.

The book rocks, I checked it out from the library and fell in love with it. Unfortuatly, it's hard to find.