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Wiz Zumwalt, ex-Cupertino programmer and now mighty wizard in a sword-and-sorcery world, must contend with the need to act as a leader in the Council of the North, the need to teach his new magic programming system to others, and the need to rewrite his spell compiler system. He also learns of incredibly destructive ends his spell compiler is being put to, as well as growing resentment of humans by the magical creatures of the World, which may culminate in war.

I just finished “The Wizardry Compiled” by Rick Cook, which like the first book in the series I downloaded for free from the Baen Library. I started reading this book in iSilo format on my Treo, but switched to an iPhone in the middle so ended up finishing it in Stanza. While I never had any problem with reading e-books on my Treo, I have to admit the e-book experience on the iPhone is a lot better!

“Compiled” takes place about two years after Wiz defeated the Dark League in “Wizard’s Bane.” Having earned his place among the Mighty and a seat on the Council, Wiz finds himself mired in bureaucracy, typical of large committees. The other Mighty are skeptical of his new magic and his attempts to teach them magical “programming” are going frustratingly slow (partially due to his poor instructional skills). His work on the compiler is progressing, but he soon discovers that someone has modified his ‘ddt’ spell (for safely dispersing magic) into a “hacked” version called ‘demon_debug’ that simply erases anything magical from existence. The humans along the Fringe of the Wild Wood are using demon_debug to move back into the forest, simply nullifying anything in their way … which will shortly cause an out-and-out war with the magic creatures who live there. On his way back from a trip to see the effects of demon_debug first-hand, Wiz is captured by the remnants of the Dark League who still inhabit the shattered City of Night.

The book splits into two separate narratives at this point. While Wiz is a fugitive in the City of Night trying to evade re-capture, Moira (the hedge witch, and Wiz’s wife), travels back to our world to recruit a team of programmers to work on the spell compiler. Soon, there’s a whole managed project going on as the team attempts to understand the workings of magic and Wiz’s new programming language. Can the team complete the compiler, and can Wiz escape from the City of Night, in time to prevent war?

Like the first book, I enjoyed the juxtaposition of programming and code with the world of fantasy and magic. In addition to the technical programming concepts, Cook adds the team and aspects of managing a large software development project (another area I’m familiar with due to my consulting background). Also, in a reversal of roles from the first book, Moira travels to California and gains a better understanding of Wiz’s world (and gets to try pizza!).

I’m going to continue the series, so I’ve already purchased the next volume (“The Wizardry Cursed and Consulted“) from webscriptions.net for a mere $4.