Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208133 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

Out-freaking-standing!
Magic has kept up with the times, changing as the world does. So of course magic has gone digital. The three Fates are sisters. Lachesis is the absolute dictator of the Fate family. She measures each life thread. Clotho is the spinner of destiny. She decides the destiny of each. Atropos is the cutter of threads. When her shears cut a thread, the life depending upon it dies, cut off from life.

Prince Ravirn, of the House of Lachesis, is a junior in Classics and Computer Science and his college midterms are looming in the near future. As a child of a Fate, descended from Lachesis's blood line, he is far from your average computer whiz. He is a wizard at hacking viruses and programs. He can zero in on any flaw and manipulate it to his desires. That talent is what causes Great Aunt Atropos to summon him.

Atropos is out to crush free will of mankind. To do this she has spelled a digital virus called Puppeteer. She needs Ravirn to debug the program before she downloads it into the Fate Core. The Fate Core is the place where the destiny of every living thing is laid out. From inside you can rewrite that destiny. However, Ravirn is all for free will. He not only refuses to debug the spell, but actively opposes her.

By Ravirn's side is Melchior "Mel", his webgoblin/familiar. Mel can shapeshift into a sleek lap top or into a blue goblin form. Also with him is Cerice, a sexy sorceress who happens to also be a mean programmer. With Cerice is her webgoblin/familiar, Shara. Problem is that no matter how Cerice feels about Ravirn, there are times she must wonder if Ravirn is working with dysfunctional motherboard for a brain. Lastly, there is the webgoblin underground. But to go against all three Fates, as well as the Furies and other relatives is difficult, to say the least. Ravirn's destiny is now uncertain and it may take all the power of Orion to stop Puppeteer.

***** It has finally happened. Someone has crossed the genres of sci-fi and fantasy to create a magical world that has modern (futuristic) computer hackers. Since I love to play online RPGs and mess around with computers (never mind how), reading this novel was a MUST! I am happy to say that I am in no way disappointed. Author Kelly McCullough has taken characters out from the darkness of mythology and brought them into the light of the modern digital age. Deciding to use a child of the Fates is not unique; however, this magical/digitalized twist is. Out-freaking-standing! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Cybermagic
The Greek gods are alive and well and living in cyberspace. The Fates, too, and the Furies. And yes, there really is a goblin lurking inside your computer.

In WebMage, Kelly McCullough weaves ancient and modern themes into an intricate skein of intrigue that winds between the icy gloom of a Minnesota winter and the darkest corners of an internet that has been invaded by magic. With the intrepid insouciance of a geeky James Bond, Ravirn, not quite immortal demigod and super hacker, challenges his many times great aunt Atropos, snipper of the threads of life, who has decided that this free will business is not such a good idea after all. Assisted by his goblin familiar, Melchior, and his sexy and talented cousin, Cerice, Ravirn has to deal with a queue of nasty adversaries before he finally takes on the terrifying Eris, goddess of discord, in her own lair. All this without failing his mid-term university exams. And as if that weren't bad enough, Ravirn has been put under the Cassandra spell, which means that nobody believes a word he says.

You don't have to be a demigod, or even a computer hacker, to find WebMage a fun read. As an off-beat adventure story, it's an entertaining escapade from start to finish, with plenty of action and strong doses of humour, as Ravirn and Melchior get drawn deeper and deeper into more and more trouble. If you know a little bit about Greek mythology you'll get even more out of it; if you use a computer, there's more for you still (what does a spell checker really do, for example?). But not all the jokes are in jokes--most of the humour lies in the byplay between Ravirn and Melchior as their relationship grows from master-slave into something much more.

If you enjoy this one, look out for the sequel, CyberMancy, later in 2007.

Author doesnt understand computers
This book is unfortunately one of the worst I've ever picked up. That's not to say it's not well written and full of very good ideas. From the few pages I've read it is full of promise. Unfortunately the author bases the story around a technology that he does not understand.

The blend of magic with technology is well done, but the author doesn't understand the technical terms that are being used to communicate the technological side of the story. As a result it reads much like a war novel would if the author didn't know the difference between a tank and a jeep, or indeed a field radio and big cell-phone.

I'm sure that many people who have no knowledge about how the technology works or what the technology specific words mean will really love this book. Anyone who does understand will consider the book tripe however.

If you are considering buying this book and know what a mainframe is, and what Baud measures, or indeed that a million kilo-whatevers is a Giga-whatever, then save your money and we'll all club together to buy Kelly Mcullough a copy of Computer Networks by Tannenbaum in the hope that this travesty will not repeat itself.