Spell or High Water by Scott MeyerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Possible spoilers if you've not read the first one.
Magic 2.0: Spell or High Water is the sequel to Off To Be The Wizard. In which, main character martin discovered existence was virtual, and could be manipulated by editing a single file that he'd stumbled upon. By changing it's parameters he could change anything in existence. As you'd expect, this got him into a lot of trouble and he ended up fleeing to Medieval England, where he met Philip and eventually, Gwen and set about setting up a new life as a Wizard. With me so far?
With all the geekery, retro pop culture references and bizarre magic spells from before, Magic 2.0 is back, and this time the gang of wizards has been invited to a summit at the mysterious sunken city of Atlantis, where Gwen left to in the previous book. A meeting between all the time travelling coders who have stumbled across the file to come up with some sort of order to things. Head of the committee is Brit and Brit, who through some odd time travel shenanigans, exist simultaneously at different points in their lives. Brit the elder seems insufferably annoying, whilst Brit the younger has an almost emo angst going on, but develops a little bit of a thing between her and Phillip.
As events proceed, it seems someone has it in for Brit, and the crew band together to get to the bottom of it. This of course involves so many funny and bizarre battles, magic spells and a fair amount of time travel, just to make things that bit more confusing.
As before, the cast and characters are all extremely colourful and, and the geek references from Phillip's Commodore computer, to the odd Star Wars reference are right up my street. Discovery of the plot seems quite slow, until suddenly, it isn't! Everything seems to kick off at once, with a climatic battle scene which can feel a bit lengthy... and then, and then, and then... Yet it's all amusing and enjoyable to a point, I think I just wanted to find out how it would end more than I wanted to enjoy the ride at the time.
Simultaneously there's a sub plot involving the mastermind evil wizard Jimmy from the previous book, culminating in a rather unexpected conclusion. You'll want to keep reading to find out how this goes, trust me.
So it's manic, bizarre, funny and actually a bit romantic in places. I enjoyed the ideas again and it was a comfortable, easy and very geek read. For fans of Hitchhikers Guide, Warlock Holmes, Ready Player One and other witty fantasy, sci-fi stories.
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