Wiz Biz Series 1

Wizard’s Bane

By: Rick Cook

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Q: How does a shanghaied computer geek conquer all the forces of darkness and win the love of the most beautiful witch in the world?

A: By transforming himself from a demon programmer into a programmer of demons!

It all began when the wizards of the White League were under attack by their opponents of the Black League and one of their most powerful members cast a spell to bring forth a mighty wizard to aid their cause. What the spell delivered was master hacker Walter "Wiz" Zumwalt. The wizard who cast the spell was dead and nobody - not the elves, not the dwarves, not even the dragons - could figure out what the shanghaied computer nerd was good for.

But spells are a lot like computer programs, and, in spite of the Wiz's unprepossessing appearance, he was going to defeat the all-powerful Black League, win the love of a beautiful red-haired witch, and prove that when it comes to spells and sorcery, nobody but nobody can beat a Silicon Valley computer geek!

©1989 Rick Cook (P)2020 Tantor

awesome

enthralling entertaining beter even wen heard out loud after having read paper published book.moving on through series with trepidation

So excited this book is finally available

Loved reading this series years ago. So excited to see these books coming to Audible. Anyone who works as a developer will feel a kinship with the MC. I cant wait for the second book as I think it is even better than this one.

Small spoiler

I like the book over all but the infatuation curse that’s put on him in the beginning becomes the focus of the mc’s character... it was tolerable during the first leg of his adventure but instead of leaving him there and going back to her life like she was suppose to... she gets ordered to stay it kinda spoiled the book for me it’s frustrating and unnecessary. I got why it was originally done but why did she not remove it at-least when they got to where they were going....

not my bag

I hated are main character didn't like him early on didn't like her at all only character a good like died in the 1st 5 pages its just not for me

Great book, performance detracted from it

Excellent book, fun and a nice take on the "science in a world of magic" story.

Unfortunately, the audio performance wasn't as good as I'd hoped, with occasional mispronounced words and names, though perhaps the original text had typos, and inconsistent character voicing.

slow start

No magic to start. World building and character development is good. The narration was done well. No real magic tell the end of the book.

Loved it

I didn’t like the female live interest but the main character was pretty awesome. After he get going in the book he progress and process is amazing

Review

This audiobook started off slow like really really really really slow!!!.. at first I was going to give up on it, unfortunately I was at work and I did not have any signal where I was located so I had to struggle through the slow parts of the book. About halfway in the book it started to really picked up an overall it wasn’t bad listen once I gave it a shot👍

Nice Visit with an old Friend

If you liked Off to be The Wizard you might like its ancestor Wizard's Bane. Both deal with the idea that magic is controled by symbols. In off to be the Wizard its becasue reality is a simulation. In Wizards Bane its because the main character is transported to a new universe where the force of magic responds to symbols equaly computer code or D&D style Verbal, physical and semantic symbols to work magic. This was one of my favorite science/magic blend series of the ninties and it still holds up well. It isn't as deep or fast paced as later entries in the series but still good and is more like part one of a larger story. It is a little slow but this book was made before new books could be uploaded every few months like some of the much more shallow books that get released these days. Wiz the MC gets transported and losses everything tht gave him value in his world and has to learn a new way to make himself valuable in this new world that dosen't value anything that was important in his old world. And avoid the evils wizards and demons that want to kill him.

Spoilers ahead. Tread with caution!

I've listened to this narrator before and aside from a few mispronounced words he did a good job.

Overall the book was what I expected going into it. Programmer taken to a new world with magic, cool!




(spoilers below)






Where this book goes wrong is when MC is "bound" through an infatuation spell to a b*tch witch that hates him and treats him like crap. I strongly dislike all interactions between the two through the WHOLE book. Eventually the spell is broken but he never notices and still loves her for no reason other than she is kind of pretty.

The other problem I had is the magic system. According to the book everyone can use magic but not usually on purpose, however those that study how to use magic can be considered wizards. That's fine I guess but when any wizards talk about mc they say they cant sense any wizard potential in him. I cant figure out how that works if all they have to do is study? By the end of the book he is casting powerfull spells that arent considered spells and he is still not a wizard. I can only assume that means he is a magical programmer, but isnt that the same thing?

These two problems bugged me through most of the book but it wasnt enough to dissuade me from finishing the book like others I have left incomplete.


Not horrible, but not great. Just a mediocre book in my opinion.