An Unwelcome Quest

In this third installment of Scott Meyer’s Magic 2.o series the infamous Todd Douglas has come to get his revenge on the wizards for exiling him. Todd was the first magic user that had to be sent back to his original time for breaking the rules. Todd still doesn’t understand why he was punished, he doesn’t understand what he did wrong. Todd’s obsession with video games has shaped his life, and now has shaped his revenge. On movie night, during the intermission between movies, Phillip, Tyler, Gary, and Jeff suddenly disappear. They find themselves, and Jimmy, standing atop a cliff in the middle of the night, being given a quest by a computer programmed character. Todd has developed a video game specifically to torment the wizards for his exile. They must travel through this fantasy world invented by Todd and hopefully survive to tell the tale. When their friends disappear Gwen, Martin, Brit, and Roy (the newest wizard recruit) decide to go in after them to help. Will any of them survive? What is Todd’s end goal? Is there any end to the wolves that keep attacking the adventurers?

The same humor that Meyer weaved into the two previous books I’ve talked about in my other reviews is present throughout this sequel as well. It is so interesting to see what it would be like to live inside one of the video games we use as an escape. It is an interesting concept. Scott Meyer also forces us to think about what would happen if a player came right after us: what evidence would be left in our wake, what glitches and mistakes would be left due to our passing by. Watching characters known well from the two previous books interact with a new world and with an actual formal quest was really cool. It was an interesting break from medieval England and the town of Leadchurch. Watching relationships grow and change between characters as the story moves along is fun as well. The way Roy, the new wizard, tries his best to fit in with the rest of the wizards. Being from the early 1970s makes him stick out among the others like a sore thumb, and that interaction, that tension, is really fun to read. Yet another really great, fun, and light read.