Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
I bought Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyer on a weird impulse after falling down an internet rabbit hole. Which feels kind of apt when it comes to this fantastical and surreal story.
I was actually Googling something about Kindle books and innovation, and someone mention the book. It had animated illustrations, which sounded intriguing, and then I read what it was about and was even more interested as it sounded fun and a little odd.
I guess a quick plot synopsis is in order.
Here is the blurb from Amazon:
“An io9 Can’t Miss Science Fiction and Fantasy title.
Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.
What could possibly go wrong?
An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.”
Intrigued? I was. Not just by the idea of the story, but also by the concept of being able to add art animations to a book.
You can see some of the animated art here. It is pretty fun and the art, by Liz Pulido, is really well done. But is the book itself any good?
Scott Meyer and the actual book review
(That sub-header sounds like a weird book title in itself.) Scott Meyer used to be a stand-up comedian according to his blurb, and Off to be the Wizard is fun and lighthearted. It’s an easy read that I enjoyed. The main issue for me is that it is clearly setting up a larger world and series, so the first half of the book is establishing and explaining stuff. Thankfully, the characters are good (although slightly shallow), the setup is fun (although it raises questions), and the story does end up having an antagonist and plot (although the pacing is a little out).
To be fair, I am a ridiculously huge fan of Sir Terry Pratchett and have been since his first book, The Color of Magic. Pratchett’s first novel was a fun book but lacked most of the elements of the remaining series. It didn’t have a lot of plot and lacked some of the philosophy and ideas exhibited from books 3-41 onwards. Off to be the Wizard has a similar feel – it is setting something up. Unfortunately, it just isn’t as good, deep, or fun as Pratchett. But it is fun, short, and has good characters.
I don’t have a scoring system on this site, but if I did, I’d give Scott Meyer and his first book in the series a four out of five. I enjoyed reading it, but it was an intro, or something, to a bigger world. Check out the reviews and see what you think.
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