Customer Reviews

Off to Be the Wizard (Unabridged)

Bought this having been a fan and follower of Scott Meyer's 'Basic Instructions' website, and having seen all of the praise he'd received in the comments there. It helped that he's made the first couple of chapters available to read as a taster, and upon reading that I immediately grabbed my Kindle and bought a copy of the full thing.

Clever, fun, funny, and easily readable - reminds me a bit of some of Tom Holt's stuff, maybe also Robert Rankin. Can't wait for whatever comes next!

You know you can download a sample to see if the book's worth buying, you're just reading this to see if it's worth trying the sample. It is! Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and in some places "sufficiently advanced" means an Apple IIe. A fun fantasy story which really finds its feed once it gets the early explanation out of the way. It also answers the most important questions of omnipotent power: what would you do if you could do anything? And how would you respond when they almost immediately tried to arrest you?

This was one of the very few books where, immediately upon finishing the last page I went back and started re-reading it from page 1. It was just so much fun, I wanted more of it.

Imagine the guys from 'The Big Bang Theory' finding the 'cheat codes' for life. How would they react?

The thing that makes the book sparkle is the humour, and the way the guys interact with each other. Really had to laugh at some of the put-downs used.

I have to confess I have been a fan of Scott Meyer for quite some time through his 'Basic Instructions' comic strip. Anyone who hasn't come across this yet, I seriously advise you to check it out...

Now, I'm wanting to know what comes next. Hope there is a sequel coming out soon...

A very good read and nothing to dislike in it. That is the reason for giving it a five star rating.

I liked the exploration of "time travel" in this book. If you're a techy, don't get too caught up on the idea of 'the file', just go with it - you'll enjoy it!.

I am a fan of Basic Instructions the comics and rather enjoyed this piece of silliness. Essentially our dashing protagonist finds a piece of code that describes reality. The kicker is that by altering the parameters of the code he can alter the parameters of reality. Hijinx ensue in this silly but well written exploration of messing with reality, travelling in time and the bifurcations that ensue.

The world is a computer simulation, we don't know why, who or how, we just know that it is and that certain people can edit it. This allows them to time travel, have super powers and set themselves up as a bunch of wizards in a past that never was. Confused? This is a novel which enjoys exploring its amazing premise and basically shows what happen when a bunch of geeks inherit the earth. Things get loopy, crazy but within a set of parameters that make sense. The characters are lighthearted and funny, and there is a knowing humour that reminds me of Pratchett. Read and enjoy. I'm glad the author didn't try to explore why the world is a computer simulation, in the end it just isn't important and I think any explanation would have been an anti-climax.

Not a lot of depth to this story about a bunch of computer geeks who discover our world is a giant computer program they can manipulate and who obviously all become wizards and fight amongst themselves and do geeky things.

Not terribly funny either and what humour is in there feels forced and at times out of synch with the tone of the story as it tries to get more serious.

This is an easy read. The concept is fun without being too thought provoking. It's one that you might read in between more substantial books

You really can't get a good assessment of this book from the sample, or the first couple of chapters for that matter. I'd recommend this book to someone willing to commit to slogging it through the first half of the book.