The Greek gods are alive and well and living in cyberspace. The Fates, too, and the Furies. And yes, there really is a goblin lurking inside your computer.
In WebMage, début novelist Kelly McCullough weaves ancient and modern themes into an intricate skein of intrigue that winds between the icy gloom of a Minnesota winter and the darkest corners of an internet that has been invaded by magic. With the intrepid insouciance of a geeky James Bond, Ravirn, not quite immortal demigod and super hacker, challenges his many times great aunt Atropos, snipper of the threads of life, who has decided that this free will business is not such a good idea after all. Assisted by his goblin familiar, Melchior, and his sexy and talented cousin, Cerice, Ravirn has to deal with a queue of nasty adversaries before he finally takes on the terrifying Eris, goddess of discord, in her own lair. All this without failing his mid-term university exams. And as if that weren’t bad enough, Ravirn has been put under the Cassandra spell, which means that nobody believes a word he says.
You don’t have to be a demigod, or even a computer hacker, to find WebMage a fun read. As an off-beat adventure story, it’s an entertaining escapade from start to finish, with plenty of action and strong doses of humour, as Ravirn and Melchior get drawn deeper and deeper into more and more trouble. If you know a little bit about Greek mythology you’ll get even more out of it; if you use a computer, there’s more for you still (what does a spell checker really do, for example?). But not all the jokes are in jokes—most of the humour lies in the byplay between Ravirn and Melchior as their relationship grows from master-slave into something much more.
If you enjoy this one, look out for the sequel, CyberMancy, next summer.

WebMage, by Kelly McCullough. Publisher: Ace Books (Aug 2006), ISBN: 0441014259
For more about the author, visit http://www.kellymccullough.com/