An Unwelcome Quest: Magic 2.0, Book 3

The Magic 2.0 book series is a fun and fast read for young adults who are interested in sorcery, magic, and computer programing as well as their adults. There are some adult themes including violence/death and non-traditional views of justice that may not suite the youngest of readers.The characters of this series are fun and compelling while being relatable to the readers. each character seems to be unique and well developed.This book series should not be read out of order as key plot points in books 1 and 2 are referenced heavily in the third installment.Consider reading if you like the Harry Potter series. Purchase of the narrated audiobook was worth the money ($1.99 for Kindle Unlimited users). The narrator has a gift for developing unique vocal tones that draw you into the story rather than being distracting (which is the case for some narrated books).

The first two novels in the Magic 2.0 series were fantastic, and while I feel that "An Unwelcome Quest" did not quite measure up to the first two books, it was still an excellent read. Meyer is writing some of the cleverest, most underappreciated stuff currently in print (certainly the best current works in the niche genre of Sci-fi Comedy) and he continues to deftly build his world and characters in creative and entertaining ways. It was extremely rewarding to have a whole novels' worth of the Phillip/Jimmy dynamic that we've only gotten tantalizing glimpses of in the past, and the characters of Tyler, Gary and Roy are far more compelling now that I've gone on this journey with them. Todd was an entertaining villain, though I had a somewhat hard time adjusting from "surly teenager" Todd (that we saw in Spell or High Water and the prologue) to the "surly adult" Todd that tormented the wizards through the story. That said, Todd's interactions with Tyler were some of the best moments of the novel, and I was definitely fully on-board with adult Todd by the end.Now for some of the issues I had: I really missed the Martin/Phillip interactions that I've grown to love over the course of the series. Splitting the characters into two groups did let us see some fun character interactions that we might not have been able to see otherwise, but I always felt that Martin/Phillip interactions were the highlights of the series, and I feel like this book suffers somewhat from their separation. I also felt like having the second group follow more-or-less in the footsteps of the first group made their journey feel a little tedious. I felt that reading the descriptions of places we've already seen and the dialog of NPCs we've already met made their story drag a bit. Finally, I was disappointed by the lack of Murphy and Miller. They were some of my favorite characters in the series, and they were sorely missed in this volume.I really liked the ending of this book. Jimmy has become one of my favorite characters, and I especially loved the conclusion to his part of the story. I enjoyed the book overall, and I really hope that we will see more in the series.

In this third installment of of the magic 2.0 series, our intrepid nerds find themselves whisked away to play out a twisted game designers Real-life simulation. And in this game, magic is against the programming.As always, Scott Meyer provides a humorous and geeky storyline filled with pop culture references and engaging characters.Luke Daniels reads with an amazing talent for voice work making each character unique and the entire production a truly entertaining experience.

I split the read between Audible and the Kindle version. The narrator is very good and probably earned the story an extra star.This was a fun, humorous, engaging romp through some places many of us have been... terrible games you just have to get through, for some reason. There are books that I read that have amazing world-building and plot, but poor characters. This is the opposite of that. The characters are well defined (with just a couple of exceptions) and their response to external stimuli always fits nicely with what we've come to learn about them over the previous 2 books. They seem like versions of people I know. I think if some of my friends found "The File", this is truly how they would behave.My fault with the book is that it didn't really do anything new. The character Jimmy mentions how they never really used time travel to do anything other than get from A to B, and it's true. There's no subtlety or surprises in how the amazing powers are used. The first book introduced the abilities these guys have and why they have them, and the second showed how other groups of people in other times/places have done similar but different things. Here, I had hoped to see some deeper diving on that. It started out that way, with the antagonist using what are basically pointers (if you are a software guy) in the file to redirect characters to somewhere outside of "reality". Ooooh the potential! But.. that's about as far as it goes.I understand the author's hesitancy to spend too much time on the techy geeky parts and in so doing lose the fun of it all. I hope the series isn't over, though, and we can do more with this world. I'd like more on how changing past doesn't affect the future. I'd like to see more fun clever things done with reality. Maybe we can even touch on the nature of the file itself and its origins.Overall, a fun, endearing effort that I very much enjoyed and would recommend to my friends. A particular subset of them. You know the ones I mean.

Hier kommen Fans von Fantasy, Pop-Kultur, schrägen Charakteren und trockenem Humor voll auf ihre Kosten. Ich sage nur: Zeitreisende Computer-Nerds in originellen Roben spielen Magier und werden von einem ins nächste Abenteuer manövriert. Und das in 6 Bänden. Klare Kauf-Empfehlung!

It is an innovative and funny story, like the previous titles. I really like this series. Let us see what happens next

El libro continúa la saga. Esta vez presenta una historia totalmente distinta trayendo a un personaje que mencionan desde el primer libro. Además está contado como un videojuego. Aún así la historia me ha gustado menos que el libro anterior. El final deja cosas abiertas, así que habrá un cuarto seguramente. La saga es bastante entretenida en general

The author is really finding his feet in this series now, and is a clear fan of Douglas Adams, with shades of Pratchett and Robert Rankin also. However, if you don't get the cultural references in this book you will miss half of the jokes, but I'm a 42-year-old gamer so I probably got most of them, and every one brought memories and a smile.This book is more of an ensemble piece than the others and develops some of the other characters. Some things are glossed over - one character wondering about how another's robe ended up in the washtub was something I had expected but didn't happen.All in all though, if you're a gamer and want to see what you could do if you had to live through a poorly-designed, glitching computer game, this is for you.

Scott Meyer is managing to innovate quite well in his magic 2.0 series. An unwelcome quest shifts the action once again (Medieval England, then Atlantis, now a pseudo-video game), and the characters show actual change and development. Recommended.