BKWZDCNS.RVW 960508 "Wizardry Consulted", Rick Cook, 1995, 0-671-87700-3, U$5.99 %A Rick Cook rcook@bix.com %C 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 %D 1995 %G 0-671-87700-3 %I Baen %O U$5.99 +1-212-698-7541 %P 282 %T "Wizardry Consulted" Dungeons, dragons, hobbits and all manner of fantasy hold endless fascination for the techie crowd. Elements of sword and sorcery (wiz, daemon, etc.) have even made it into the technical lexicon, quite aside from the round of MUDs (multiple user domains) and other role playing games. So the idea that a programmer, thrust into an alternate dimension where magic works, can make it as a wizard is both appealing to the target audience and completely unsurprising. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with UNIX and the Internet will understand the technical references herein. (To make it easier for the novice to identify them, they are all printed in bold type.) What I'm not sure of is the reason that said references are all garbled. Of course, this *is* fiction, but it could at least have a consistent syntax. This book is part of a series, so it may be possible that the interesting questions of how science and wizardry relate, and all the good jokes about agrarian peasants not understanding computer jargon, were all used up in the earlier volumes. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKWZDCNS.RVW 960508 ====================== roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca This message is in beta test. The real message should ship any day now ... Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER)