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WebMage

WebMage, July 2006
by Kelly McCullough

Ace
Featuring: Ravirn
320 pages
ISBN: 0441014259
Paperback
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"Saving Free Will Is Just A Hack Away..."

Fresh Fiction Review

WebMage
Kelly McCullough

Reviewed by Lexi Carter
Posted August 4, 2006

Fantasy

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.

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SUMMARY

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. He’s 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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