Sometimes a college student actually has more to worry about than if they get their papers in on time, whether their prof loves them or how well they did on an exam. For example. Ravirn's got his mid-terms at the University of Minnesota to ace so his grandmother won't cut off the school funds, but a bigger problem as well. Stopping his great-aunt Atropos from destroying the fabric of the universe.
Oh, didn't you know? Poor Ravirn's got a swell bunch of relatives -- the Fates, assorted cousins including the beauteous Cerice he's had a crush on for centuries. And as all good super-heroes, a sidekick in the form of a webgoblin, Melchior. I want a laptop who performs at my EVERY command! But most of all, Ravirn has a talent for hacking. He can hack into anything, even the complex networks and scripts created by the various gods and goddesses like the Fate Core. So when Atropos decides to shut down humankind's free will, Ravirn and Melchior leave the academic life behind to hack into the biggest system around to stop her program from implementing.
WEBMAGE is an exciting debut novel by Kelly McCullough and engages the reader from the first paragraph with intricate weaving of logical computer lingo and mythology we've learned over the ages. Meeting the various gods as hotshot programmers will make many a technophile a very happy camper, uh, reader.
Ravirn is a child of the Fates, literally. His grandmother
is Lachesis, the Greek weaver of destiny, and like
Hercules, Ravirn lives in the middle country between the
human and the immortal. Heβs also a hacker whose divine
talent is find the fatal flaw in just about any program.
Since magic in the 21st century has gone digital to keep up
with the times, this makes him a better than average
sorcerer. His best friend and familiar is both a goblin
and a laptop, changing shape from one to the other to suit
the needs of the moment.
Ravirn's a bit of a shape changer too, demi-divine hacker
one minute, harried college student the next. His
grandmother has enrolled him in C-Sci at the University of
Minnesota, in hopes of turning his talents toward the good
of the family. She started him at MIT, but after a little
incident with the grades computer he had to relocate. His
great aunt Atropos has uses for him too. She thinks free
will has gotten to be too much of a good thing and wants
Ravirn's help in fixing the problem.
But as a hacker, Ravirn has a thing about free will. When
he not only refuses to help, but begins to actively oppose
her, all hell breaks loose. Ravirn has to decide which is
more important, the integrity of destiny, or his own skin.
With the free will of every living being hanging in the
balance, Ravirn is caught between Fate and its ancient
enemy Discord with both sides out to get him. Now Ravirn
and Melchior have to find a way to stop Atropos and get him
off Discord's hit list. Even with the help of his sorceress
cousin Cerice, a friendly troll, and the webgoblin
underground it's going to be a very close call.
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