Customer Reviews

The Wiz Biz II: Cursed & Consulted

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This wonderful book is actually two books for the price of one: The Wizardry Cursed and The Wizardry Consulted! These novels tell the continuing story of Walter Irving "Wiz" Zumwalt, a computer programmer and magician extraordinaire. Hijacked from Earth to a world where magic works and technology doesn't, Wiz realized that magic could be worked liked programming, and turned the world upside down. First, Wiz must control how the "new" magic is used, so as to avoid a war between humans and the powerful beings that have run the world up to this point. But, this proves to not be the hardest job facing Wiz, when a couple of malicious hackers from Earth make their own journey to the other side.

This is a great book, one that I have enjoyed reading several times. The system of magic that Rick Cook used was a fascinating breath of fresh air, and I must say that I enjoyed the stories and characters immensely! I highly recommend this light-hearted swords-and-sorcery fantasy to you.

This is a great sequel to first "Wiz Biz" volume. Now that we've met William Irving "Wiz" Zumwalt and learned about his World and his magic compiler, the fun really begins!

In the first half, "The Wizardry Cursed", an interesting set of circumstances brings two computer criminals to the cusp of the World where magic works. They are trying to take over both Wiz's World and our own, and it will take all the magic of the Council, the inventiveness of the programmers, and a lot of luck to stop them.

In the second half, "The Wizardry Consulted", Wiz is thrown out of his element once again, this time to a small town with a bit of a dragon problem. He needs to dust off all his knowledge of how consultants work, in order to keep the city council busy so he can get his job done. In this book, the usual programmer quotes that begin many chapters have been replaced by quotes from the "consultant's handbook", telling how to B.S. and get away with it.

Although there are plenty of bad puns, and the jokes may be a bit too technical for most people, overall this book is a great read.

Not perhaps as good as The Wiz Biz I but it still makes a good companion book. Light, fun, fairly clever read that pokes fun at computer programers and does not settle for the obvious.

This is a compilation of the third and fourth books of Rick Cook's "Wiz" series. The central conceit is the arrival of a computer programmer from our world into a world where magic works, who discovers that spells can be treated as computer programs. The books are a working-out of the implications of this; in practical terms of designing a magic program/compiler/operating system, to the effects on Wiz's own life, and to the societies of both worlds. Throughout the books, basic issues of computer programming; root access, buggy code, even endless loops, take on in this world direct and often dangerous form.

You don't have to be a programmer or IT person to enjoy it, but if you know a little about the field, there are easter-eggs a'plenty. (At one point a group of programmers from our world are looking for the notebook where Wiz kept everything about his "magic compiler." They find it on a table and there is a small red dragon curled up on top of it like a cover illustration.) (If you don't get it, don't be ashamed!)



For those that haven't read them, the first book (compiled also into a two-volume set), details Wiz's accidental(?) summoning as "A great magic user" by a council of more-or-less good wizards to help them stop a group of evil sorcerers. Wiz flails and fails for most of the book but when the woman he loves is kidnapped he pulls out all the stops and makes war HIS way.

The second book follows two threads; Wiz is kidnapped by the survivors of the bad guy wizards, and struggles to survive in their ruined citadel after escaping. The good wizards, meanwhile, go to our Earth and hire a group of consultants to turn Wiz's "Magic Compiler" into a full-fledged Operating System anyone can use.




From the descriptions I expected to enjoy "Cursed" more than "Compiled" but that was not the case. "Cursed" revolves mostly around a misfit pair from our world who are basically given wish powers by some gods trying to shake things up for Wiz's new home. There are a couple of Rick Cook's neat insights, still. For instance, one of the hackers tries to wish up a jet fighter, and discovers his imagination is simply not up to visualizing all the parts of a functional aircraft at one go. So he takes a step back, and visualizes a CAD system instead. And basically bootstraps his way up to more and more complicated "wishes."

"Compiled" takes the action down several notches and reduces the character count. It is mostly Wiz, alone, in a small village. He does hardly any magic, but he does a LOT of talking; the story reminded me most strongly of "The Inspector General" or another one of those comedies where someone is pushed into more and more complicated improvisations in an attempt to keep the subterfuge going. As this was combined with various pithy remarks about how being a consulting engineer works in our world, it made for a fun read.

In short, the novelty has worn off, but if you enjoyed the first book or books this is a way to keep reading more of the same. And, no, having a wizard raise his arms above his head and cry out, "Backslash Fireball.EXE!" never gets old.

Rick Cook is a great author. The only major problem with this series is it ended. I really wish there were more. Its great brain candy! I really enjoyed his humor.

Hard to find and dated but the stories are still good. If you come across this series give it a go and you won't regret it. Fun and light enough read.