Scott Meyer

Ever since Martin Banks and his fellow computer geeks discovered that reality is just a computer program to be happily hacked, they've been jaunting back and forth through time, posing as medieval wizards and having the epic adventures that other nerds can only dream of having. But even in their wildest fantasies, they never expected to end up at the mercy of the former apprentice whom they sent to prison for gross misuse of magic and all-around evil behavior. Who knew that the vengeful Todd would escape, then conjure a computer game packed with wolves, wenches, wastelands, and assorted harrowing hazards--and trap his hapless former friends inside it? Stripped of their magic powers, the would-be wizards must brave terrifying dangers, technical glitches, and one another's company if they want to see Medieval England--and their favorite sci-fi movies on VHS--ever again. Can our heroes survive this magical mystery torture? Or will it only lead them and their pointy hats into more peril?

An Unwelcome Quest

Jeff James

Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Net Galley. Of course, I ended up going ahead and buying the audiobook version because Luke Daniels is a fantastic narrator.

Scott Meyer's Magic 2.0 series is fantasy with a science-fiction hook: a computer hacker named Martin discovers an all-powerful file that lets him control reality, so he travels back to medieval times and pretends he is a wizard. This fails spectacularly when he meets all the other hackers who had the same idea.

An Unwelcome Quest is the third book in the series. The first two weren't perfect by any means, but they were at least funny and light on their feet where this one quickly wears out its welcome. It's a huge shame, because this series was exactly what I was looking for when I wanted to have a few laughs during my commute. One definite bright side is that Luke Daniels continues to bring his A-game as narrator. Also, I occasionally enjoyed the last quarter or so after gritting my teeth and slogging through the fairly dire middle.

I think the only reasons I made it through this installment in the series are because I wanted to know what happened to the characters and the fact that I received a review copy. Unfortunately, one of the first big changes in An Unwelcome Quest is that the events take place almost entirely in the magical world instead of jumping back and forth between modern times and the past. This means that treasury agents Murph and Miller don't even appear during the story. Their presence is sorely missed. Meyer also splits up his cast of heroes into two groups, with Martin - the main character in the earlier books - relegated to a supporting role in an ensemble.

The book opens with Todd, a psychotic ex-wizard, escaping from prison. He kidnaps half of the characters and forces them to run through a badly designed RPG campaign. When Martin and the remaining wizards realize their friends are missing, they rush to the rescue and run through the same campaign in slightly different ways. Both sets of wizards bicker endlessly at every turn, and the effect is more sour than funny. It doesn't help that Meyer includes constant explanations and recaps at every turn, in case you weren't paying attention during the previous chapter. This repeats ad nauseam.

There is also a running joke that all the enemies in the game have the same basic attack pattern, which does nothing but undermine the already very low stakes. In fact, the villain explicitly the wizards that the obstacles they face will only annoy them without actually killing them until they reach the climax. That final sequence is basically the only part of the book where it feels like the characters are in even mild danger.

In the end, An Unwelcome Quest feels like an over-padded novella. There are entertaining moments here and there, and I did actually laugh out loud a few times. Unfortunately, getting to those good parts required slogging through a lot of tedium and redundancy. I might be willing to read another book in this series if Meyer somehow course-corrects, but it'll take some pretty glowing reviews to convince me.

Celeste Richardson

Full review now posted!

Literally made me laugh out loud multiple times.

This third installment of Magic 2.0 was by far the funniest. At least, it was to me. If you've ever played old quest games from the 80s and 90s, you’ll recognize and laugh at so many tropes. I’m not much of a gamer; I have less than stellar hand-eye coordination, which makes gaming incredibly frustrating. However, even I dabbled in Myst back in the day, and I’ve watched my brother play countless questing adventure games, so I’m familiar with the tropes. Even if you’ve never played a video game in your life, this book would still be hilarious for you.

Philip, Tyler, Jeff, Gary, and Jimmy are sucked into an unwelcome quest (as the title states) by someone they burned in the past. This person has been plotting his revenge for years, and has created a simulation world just to drop them inside and torture them with a shoddily plotted quest. The reluctant adventures embark on the quest because their “powers” have been stripped from them, and cooperating with their captor is their only hope of going home. Little do they or their abductor know that Martin, Gwen, Roy, and Brit the Younger are hot on their trail, and have followed their friends into the game. Both groups have to complete dangerous tasks, endure the cold, and trek through various landscapes populated by tree wolves, river wolves, cliff wolves, and various other breeds that are basically all the comprised of the same exact wolf, just replicated and re-spawned. A whole lot of hilarity ensues.

The shining star of this story was Tyler. He might not be the best-selling novelist of all time, but he is a writer, and the laziness of the story they’ve been placed in drives him insane. Of course, he loudly voices those criticisms every chance he gets, resulting in amused friends and a very disgruntled game developer. I know I’m terrible about picking apart movies or books that cut corners or haven’t been properly researched, so I loved watching a fictional character losing his mind over the same exact things that drive me crazy. Also, there’s this scene with zombie sirens that was one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.

If you like your fantasy and sci-fi mixed together and sidesplittingly funny, you can’t do any better than the Magic 2.0 series as a whole or this book in particular.

Original review can be found at Booknest.

Dani

If you liked the first two books, don't take these 3 stars too seriously, it's a very subjective review, it's still fun and well written as the previous ones, it's just that this particular story did not keep me on the edge of my seat, I'll still read the rest :)

Tyler Jefford

Third book in the series and I am still hooked on the story. However, this installment felt a little less interesting and a lot more repetitive. 

I do love the concept Scott Meyer chose with this book, as it was hinted at in the first book, but never brought up again.

An Unwelcome Quest

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