The Silicon Mage

This book is a sequel to The Silent Tower, starting shortly after the first book left off, and eventually resolving the cliffhanger from that book. I enjoyed it, but I was never engrossed by it, and there were times when I felt restless, particularly around the middle.

An additional character took part in this story who seemed pretty interesting, but she didn’t get a lot of page time. The recurring characters were about as likeable as before, which is to say that I liked them but was only moderately invested in them. There were some plot elements that were a bit of a stretch for me, and I never really bought into the main villain’s motivation, but the general story did hold my interest most of the time and I enjoyed the ending pretty show more well.

There are two more books in this series, but I’ve decided to stop here. show less

"are all computers insane?"
"i know that the good are often happy as well"

CARIS IN THIS BOOK...!!!!
Do you ever just suddenly feel wild affection for a character you were only fairly middling caring about before after one specific scene? because my WORD Caris and his arc in this book. Yeowch!! The baby delivering scene... I was so shocked when the book was j casually like Ye he dead WHY did he try to shoot at Suraklin with a na-aar gun? revenge I suppose, but BOY you knew better. and then I was a lil put off by Antryg's 'resurrection' of him for a bit before I was like, well, that's just in a way right because Caris deserved to live and find that joy and love and life and it made more sense especially w him and his sasenna vows and that show more tumult. bro is NINETEEN that is my age. but I suppose it worked out! and that was such a cool arc to me in a sense.

so, yeah I mean these books aren't necessarily going to be that important to me in the long run but in a way they were fun. The magic/technology conversation went absolutely off the rails in this book and that was truly fun in so many ways, especially with the bit with the Dead God (using pi and the Planck constant to remind it of itself... crazy). And something about the whole idea of magic being such a loose concept with so many possibilities in the sigils and the self (Antryg teaching Caris? cool! once again, Caris arc go brr. & Antryg is pretty darn cool. oh and the ELECTRICITY! and the spells working against each other like mad in the end - ig the appeal of the magic is that it's pretty unexplainable) vs/plus the hard rules of computer science is very neat (and Joanna relating magic to subroutines). I liked that.
Joanna & Antryg are obviously the centerpiece of these books which is fine and I enjoy them enough (once again whatever the heck trope Antryg is goes HARD I genuinely love that character archetype LMAOO the half mad wizard is so very cool guys) but also some of the side characters were really fascinating (Pella!! The Prince!). There was an odd sort of disconnect between those two and everyone else in a sense, even Caris, because they were clearly on different missions and letting each other take of themselves so I was never really invested in any of the characters in general it was a very odd sort of balance and I wasn't a huge fan of it but also I get it, I guess. In general I think it's harder to care about these characters tho it was so very detached To Me
I did however never believe for a second Antryg was bad or dead lmao that is clearly not the nature of these books. How do you name a series Windrose then expect us to believe that. I don't know LMAO interesting choice
anyway idk it was pretty fun in a sense and also I was also kind of uninvested at the same time. things were certainly happening Question Mark. I do like the world, though, the dynamics of state and church tryign to quash magic for their own reasons and the sasenna as sworn to their masters and the dog wizards. Don't think I will read the third book. This is good enough of an ending for me goodbye show less

This book completes the story begun in The Silent Tower. I found the conclusion satisfying. I’m not quite sure all the threads connected, but I enjoy Joanna and Antryg too much to quibble. Characters with depth are, I think, Hambly’s greatest strength. She writes characters to really care about. There is also highly imaginative world-building here, as well as plenty of tension and a wealth of wonderfully descriptive language (over-stuffed sentences notwithstanding).

The computer-magic connection is original, at least in my experience. Being an older work, these are computers as they were in the 1980’s, which some younger readers might find annoyingly old-fashioned. They’re the computers I grew up with, however, so I tend to enjoy show more the nostalgia instead. I enjoyed the setting and the characters enough to go looking for additional sequels. From what I can see, Dog Wizard is the only other full-length novel about Joanna and Antryg, although there are some shorter works as well. show less

he second part in a trilogy. I don’t know why it’s only the second part—everything seemed wrapped up at the end to me. The most enjoyable part of these books is the characters, who are not only believable but *likeable*. It's a rare book when I can read the climactic battle with the Big Bad Evil and not scoff, but this is a good example of what to do *right*.

Computer programmer Joanna Sheraton returns to a magical world to rescue her lover, the wizard Antryg Windrose. She must save him from captivity and stop the evil mage Suraklin, who is attempting to merge computer technology with magic to attain immortality by draining the life force of both worlds.

Joanna discovers the evil Suraklin has not possessed Antryg, as previously thought, but has taken over her ex-boyfriend, Gary. Suraklin plots to connect magic with technology, feeding off Earth’s life force, making him an unstoppable threat.

With Antryg imprisoned by the Council of Wizards, Joanna must cross the Void back to his world, where she is alone, pursued, and must rescue him to stop Suraklin.

I really enjoyed these books, even with the somewhat similar crossover world theme, and the general Hambly theme of wizards. Even so, the characters are as engaging as always.

As with volume one, on re-reading found the angst a bit wearing.