I Just Finished Reading Two Books in Three Days…

By jen

Yes, my reading obsession is in overdrive.  I needed a break from my usual Vampire Porn as Unabrewer calls it.  I hit the Barnes & Noble site and started looking at new releases in everything from Sci/Fi Fantasy to Paranormal Romance and stumbled across a mention of a book called WebMage by Kelly McCullough.

Description: WebMage: A fantasy-cyberpunk hybrid that revolves around Ravirn, a grandson of the Greek Fate Lachesis. In order to keep up with an ever increasing number of life threads, the Fates have upgraded to a computerized system that blends magic with programming. Of course where there are computers, there are also hackers. In the process of “testing” his Great-Aunt Atropos’s security, Ravirn, a hacker/sorcerer, and his laptop familiar, Melchior, uncover a plot that could shake the foundations of Olympus and change humanity’s relationship with Fate forever.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Remember the Fates, those ancient Greek spinners, weavers and snippers of life’s threads? They’re back in McCullough’s original and outstanding debut, and still ruling destiny—but with their own digital web, based on a server called the Fate Core. Power-hungry as ever, they’ve coded a spell to eliminate human free will. Unluckily for them, one of their demigod descendants is a cheerfully rebellious hacker-sorcerer named Ravirn who, when not studying for college midterms, likes to mess around on their web with the help of his familiar, Melchior, who can change from a goblin to a laptop. Ravirn and Melchior, let loose in McCullough’s delightfully skewed and fully formed world—much like our own, but with magic, paranormally advanced technology and Greek gods—set out to thwart Ravirn’s “great-to-the-nth-degree aunt[s],” careening from one discovery to another, enlisting unlikely allies and narrowly evading destruction at the hands of both Fates and Furies. McCullough handles his plot with unfailing invention, orchestrating a mixture of humor, philosophy and programming insights that give new meaning to terms as commonplace as “spell checker” and esoteric as “programming in hex.” Though a preponderance of techie-talk may put off some readers, this is the kind of title that could inspire an army of rabid fans; it’s a good thing a sequel is planned for 2007. (Aug.)

It took me a few chapters to get really invested in the book but then I was having fun.  He has sort of combined hard sci/fi with cyberpunk with greek mythos and a healthy dose of sarcasm and humor.  His little webgoblin Mel (who changes into a laptop on command) was a good foil to the main characters total scatterbrained behavior.  Maybe that is why I like Ravirn so much.  He has loose shit everywhere and that is oddly familiar to me.  Have no idea why…

The second book in the series was Cybermancy and a better book.  It follows the evolution of Ravirn to Raven and has a great couple of scenes involving Ravirn playing bridge with Cerebus the three headed dog guardian of Hades aka Mort, Dave and Bob respectively.  His love life is more complicated and much to my chagrin his woman Cerise (whose webgoblin Shara is like a miniature purple Mae West and far more entertaining than her creator) is still alive.  The Goddess of Discord, Eris makes an appearance though not as much as in the first book, but still she was fun and bitchy.  Here is the review of Cybermancy:

Description Cybermancy: : If it looks too easy, it probably is. The sequel to WebMage sends Ravirn and Melchior on a mission to Hell and back to rescue Cerice’s familiar and her dissertation. CyberMancy also sees Ravirn learning what it means to be the Raven and coping with his new status among the descendants of the Titan’s as he interacts with old “friends” like the Furies and meets new ones like Hades and Persephone

Review by VOYA: In this sequel to McCullough’s much-praised cyberfantasy, WebMage, Ravirn, the young hacker-trickster-mage of that novel, now tellingly renamed Raven by his aunts, the Fates of Greek mythology, must brave the underworld and the wrath of the god Hades to achieve his objective. Shara, his girlfriend Cerise’s much-loved webgoblin/laptop, who incidentally contains the data that Cerise needs to finish her doctoral dissertation in computer science at Harvard, has been trapped in the underworld. Sahra is a pawn, as readers gradually discover, in the on-going battle for supremacy between various gods, including Eris, Goddess of Discord; Persephone, the brooding, self-involved and unwilling Goddess of the Underworld; and the powerful and mysterious Necessity, whom even the gods themselves fear. Worse still, Raven soon discovers that the entire “mweb,” the magical internet through which modern-day Olympians conduct their important affairs, is in imminent danger of crashing, and he has been set up to take the blame. McCullough combines tropes from cyberpunk, contemporary fantasy, and Greek myth with dazzling proficiency and great humor, combining scenes that evoke a legitimate sense of wonder with witty repartee and just a touch of sexiness in a manner that recalls both Roger Zelazny’s Amber series and the earlier mythological romps of Thorne Smith. Although not for the prudish, it is a genuinely lovely book.

Thank God I am not prudish, but then I have an affinity for Vampire Porn….   I just stumbled across a review for the third book coming out in a few weeks…

Codespell: In McCullough’s taut third book in the Ravirn series (after WebMage and Cybermancy), Necessity, sentient creator of the mweb, has fallen victim to a virus, and all of reality is at stake. It’s up to sorcerer/hacker–cum–minor deity Ravirn, accompanied by his faithful familiar, Melchior (laptop and goblin in one) to save the day. Of the host of evildoers interested in controlling Necessity (and thereby reality), public enemy number one is Nemesis, who is likely partnered with Fate. Meanwhile, Ravirn’s ex, Cerice, is apparently working against him, and Ravirn finds his affections torn between Eris (a Discord) and Tisiphone (a Fury)—but can he trust either of them? A hint of cyberpunk, a dollop of Greek mythology and a sprinkle of techno-magic bake up into an airy genre mashup. Lots of fast-paced action and romantic angst up the ante as Ravirn faces down his formidable foes. (May)

Woo woo, he is losing the ball and chain!  Maybe Discord will kick her ass?  One can only hope.  Anyway, the two books I have read so far were definitely worth the cost of gas to get to Barnes & Noble and the $6.95 price tags.

Enjoy!

JenNote:  I will eventually return to politics… well maybe when I start giving a fuck again and when I can express myself without it foaming at the mouth about Obama and McGreenweenie…