An Unwelcome Quest by Scott Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love being wrong nearly as much as I enjoy being surprised. With An Unwelcome Quest, I got both. I really expected this thing to run out of gas by now, but to my happy surprise, An Unwelcome Quest was my favorite of the three books in the Magic 2.0 series.
Although I loved Spell or High Water, it was a rather involved story, with several arcs going at once. They all worked very well together, but I still welcomed the more direct and linear plot of An Unwelcome Quest.
Almost of the characters have been established in at least one of the previous books, so the novel just jumps in and gets going.
In a plot slightly foreshadowed in Spell or High Water, former wizard apprentice Todd, exiled for his obvious evil tendencies, obtains access to the program and seeks revenge against the other “wizards”. Instead of a simple murder attempt or direct violence, Todd transports those responsible for his banishment into a computer RPG of his own design, removing his targets powers for good measure.
To be totally honest, that didn’t sound like a real promising story when I read the blurb. It was too simple, too pat. But that’s sort of the brilliant thing about it; with a simple mandate, the characters get to be themselves – maybe more than usual. There’s something wonderfully contrary about each of the wizards – it’s what led them to the program and the Middle Ages in the first place. So forced into a structured situation where their actions are mandated, they hilariously refuse to follow the narrative at all. It’s pretty great, actually; their would-be tormentor is increasingly frustrated by their unwillingness to play along with his involved vengeance scheme.
Far from being let down by a needless attempt to continue a concept past its usefulness, I loved An Unwelcome Quest and now actually hope there are more installments in the series.
Todd smiled. “I just thought I’d give you the opportunity to explain Foucault’s pendulum to your friends.” Tyler said, “Sure. There was this guy. His name was Foucault. He got himself a pendulum. They called it Foucault’s pendulum.” – this is my favorite joke in the whole book; don’t ask me why…
