Scott Meyer

An io9 Can't Miss Science Fiction and Fantasy title in March 2014. 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.

Off to Be the Wizard

Avery

Fun premise though it was frustrating at times. Felt like large plot holes were introduced in order to make it follow a typical story narrative. I will probably give the sequel a chance to see if it improves.


Characters make many seemingly crazy decisions, especially near the beginning -- your best idea for an escape button is.. medieval England? Before even checking to see if your phone will work from there? Why not like.. the roof of some building in the same city? Also seems ridiculous that the wizards would make their robe/hat/staff an actual requirement of casting all their magic.. sure, you can wear them if you want but it's just an unnecessary complication added to justify all the wizards in the story being dressed as wizards, and it gets predictably taken advantage of.

As a side note, it seems hard to believe that a bunch of independent computer nerds would rely on one centralized shell without having any programs hosted on their own computers as backup in case the shell stopped working.

Todd Luallen

I'm surprised that so many people liked this book. It definitely has an interesting premise, which is obvious by the description provided by the publisher. But the book spends way too much time describing details that are rather mundane. The main enemy isn't introduced until the last half of the book, and the main conflict doesn't come up until the last 50 pages. I enjoyed the beginning of this story quite a bit, but the story quickly slowed and I lost interest. I was listening to this book on Audible and by the end I was listening at 1.5x speed (which typically means I can't wait for it to end).

Celeste Richardson

Full review now posted!

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I can’t remember the last time a book made me laugh this much.

Imagine if you stumbled across a computer program that is basically running the entire planet, and that you can manipulate that program. Imagine that you’re able to dramatically increase your bank account without stealing a cent from another person. You can teleport. Heck, you can even travel back in time, though you’re admittedly unable to visit the future. Now, imagine that the government found out, and your only reasonable method of escaping capture is to travel back to medieval England in hopes of passing yourself off as a wizard. 

All of this happens to Martin, our protagonist, in the first few chapters of the book. Unfortunately, upon arriving in medieval England, Martin discovers that he’s not the only wizard around, because he’s not the first person to discover the File, as it’s been deemed. And anyone who discovers the File eventually ends up in trouble and on the run. Since most of the people who stumble across the File are of a type, most of them have the same idea for their escape plan, leading to a Europe littered with “wizards” from the modern era. 

I absolutely loved Martin, even though I almost sprained my eye muscles from frequently rolling them at his decisions. Martin felt quintessentially part of my generation, as he survived off of equal parts intelligence, luck (both good and bad), entitlement, and laziness. He’s also super awkward, was makes for a lot of added entertainment value. But my favorite character in the book was undoubtedly Philip, Martin’s wizard trainer. The sass levels pulsating out of that man were almost toxic, and were one of the biggest contributors to my enjoyment of the book.

This book was a perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy, of parody and original plot. What made this book even more enjoyable for me was that I listened to the audio version, voiced by the incomparable Luke Daniels. This was my first experience with Daniels as a narrator, but it definitely won’t be my last. His different voices for each character were all fantastic, but his voice for Philip completely made the story for me. I’m sure the book is very entertaining when read in physical format, but I don’t know that I would’ve enjoyed the book at the same level had I not listened to the audio version. I literally laughed out loud on multiple occasions.

I highly recommend this book when you need something lighter that will make you laugh. And I can’t recommend the audiobook highly enough!

Original review can be found at Booknest.

Amanda Wells

This book was exactly what I signed up for - it was fun, it was silly, and it was an interesting idea that kept me reading. I really enjoyed the pace of the book, and found the characters to be just believable enough to work. This is not a "great" book you'll find on a list of high literary fiction. But I wanted a fun read and I got it. 

I do wish there was more than one believable female character, and also wish the "locals" weren't just set pieces, but really - all the characters are relatively undeveloped to serve the story. This book is about an amusing idea, and it really succeeds there for me. 

Glad I found it on others' read lists, and glad I gave it a go.

Dani

Muy al estilo de Douglas Adams, con referencias ñoñas sin ser agobiante como otros *mira fijo a RPO* 😬😂 
Lectura muy entretenida de principio a fin.
Dani recomienda. 🖖

Off to Be the Wizard

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