• Spell or High Water

  • Magic 2.0, Book 2
  • By: Scott Meyer
  • Narrated by: Luke Daniels
  • Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (20,299 ratings)

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Spell or High Water  By  cover art

Spell or High Water

By: Scott Meyer
Narrated by: Luke Daniels
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Publisher's summary

The adventures of an American hacker in Medieval England continue as Martin Banks takes his next step on the journey toward mastering his reality-altering powers and fulfilling his destiny.

A month has passed since Martin helped to defeat the evil programmer Jimmy, and things couldn’t be going better. Except for his love life, that is. Feeling distant and lost, Gwen has journeyed to Atlantis, a tolerant and benevolent kingdom governed by the Sorceresses, and a place known to be a safe haven to all female time-travelers.

Thankfully, Martin and Philip are invited to a summit in Atlantis for all of the leaders of the time-traveler colonies, and now Martin thinks this will be a chance to try again with Gwen. Of course, this is Martin Banks we’re talking about, so murder, mystery, and high intrigue all get in the way of a guy who just wants one more shot to get the girl.

The follow-up to the hilarious Off to Be the Wizard, Scott Meyer’s Spell or High Water proves that no matter what powers you have over time and space, you can’t control rotten luck.

©2014 Scott Meyer (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

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What listeners say about Spell or High Water

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SQUID PRO QUO

KILL ABILITY
IF I SAY IT, AND YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, THAN IT'S A WORD
In the introduction, we are told that this is to be considered funny and light hearted and not to be taken serious. Which I believe is a great intro to this series. If your looking for some serious Science Fiction or Fantasy, for something dark or mentally challenging, than your in the wrong place. This is the second book in the series and you will be lost if you do not start with the first most excellent book (OFF TO BE THE WIZARD).

SMART PEOPLE DO STUPID THINGS
While I did not enjoy this as well as the first book, (which is not unusual for any series), I still enjoyed it and it was well worth my credit. In places it is extremely funny. Most of the book takes place in Atlantis, which is a pretty cool place to begin with, especially since it is a society run by women. The male attendants are especially funny. I will say that they stayed in Atlantis too long and the whole plot there started to wear thin. That is after several very funny chapters, though. The whole thing with the Brits also got a little old.

ARGUING WITH A DUMB PERSON NEVER WORKS
The side story involving an exiled magician and the FBI agents, turned out to be some of the funniest stuff in the book. Agent Miller is hilarious. I already have book three in my library and I am looking forward to listening to it.

Luke Daniels does a fantastic job. He makes the listening of this ten times better than the reading of this.


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76 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Narrator!

Luke Daniels is prolly one of the best voice actors I have heard. His voices make this series even better than it already is.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Grows increasingly annoying

I felt the first book had a lot of flaws for me. Primarily it was too cartoonish with simplistic characters. The voice acting aligned with this as well with over the top inflections and accents. However I really liked the premise and there were some laugh out loud lines for me such that I purchased this second book in the series. Well, the story this time was weaker and the voice acting grew incredibly annoying. I finished the book but overall did not enjoy it and will not continue with this series.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Martin and Philip's Atlantis Adventure

Would you listen to Spell or High Water again? Why?

Yes, but I'll give it a few. Got to keep the story fresh. This is an easy listen with a funny storyline and likeable characters.

What did you like best about this story?

The whole Atlantis thing - 100:1 male to female ratio and the whole women wear the pants scene while the guys are fired up to clean and get their hair done. Different take on roles makes the story funny in a kooky way.

What does Luke Daniels bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Luke Daniels is a flat out pro. He made this book flow. I bought Spell or High Water this morning and just finished it - almost 11 hours of audiobook and I feel refreshed. The author made the right choice in hooking up with Luke Daniels.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Is Martin up to the challenge of winning Gwen's heart? Stay tuned to see what gets stuck in Martin's mouth - Gwen's tongue or his foot!

Any additional comments?

Get this book. The price is right, Luke Daniels comes up strong and Philip wakes up next to an "untraditional" vixen and doesn't even think about pulling a coyote.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Fun but a bit cringe-inducing

I enjoyed the first book in this series, though I found it unpolished and a bit small in scope. Those same criticisms apply to the sequel.

Meyer has written about a universe where literally anything is possible. All the main characters have the powers of gods... which is why the story feels very small when they are all content to play wizard for centuries at a time. The characters' failure of imagination is disappointing. None of them create anything new... they just emulate works of fiction of their respective time periods of origin, or they recreate the past from the same set of fairy tales.

I found the romance in the book to be extremely cringe-inducing. It's one thing to have a couple of awkward and romantically inept characters... it's completely different when EVERYONE in the book, regardless of age, sex or background, all get giggly, shy, and generally emulate the attitudes of 12-year-olds whenever anything vaguely romantic or sexual happens. It felt like these bits of the story were written by a child, rather than a grown man.

The childishness of the characters were not limited to their attitudes about sex, but instead extended to every aspect of life. Fart jokes were frequent, and nearly every character exhibited a childish lack of self-control. The ill-tempered Treasury agent being the prime example.

The style of the story remains balanced between thoughtful and bizarrely cartoonish, with characters sometimes saying extremely thoughtful things, while remaining completely two-dimensional.

Spell or High Water was an enjoyable read, but rather than showing the improvement of a growing author, it was merely a continuation of a small plot, without any growth or development in the story or writing style.

I'd probably read another book in this series, because at the end of the day it is very fun, and I keep hoping that the author will reach his potential.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

It’s humorous, light, and enjoyable

I really enjoyed the first volume of Magic 2.0; the characters, humor, and pop-culture references made for a fun read, or more accurately, all of those things combined with Luke Daniels’ performance made for a great listen. I think of it as a melding of The Matrix and Dungeon’s & Dragons, at least on the surface. There is a computer file out there hidden in different locations and times that contain the entirety of the world as we know it. Some people have stumbled upon it and, for one reason or another, ended up manipulating it and traveling through time to pose as someone who can use magic.

It’s been 2 months since the wizards stopped Jimmy, aka Merlin, from killing hundreds of people by manipulating their DNA in an effort to create a variety of fictional creatures such as; the elves, orcs, or hobbits of Middle Earth. Now that Jimmy has been stripped of his power and sent back to his own time, some semblance of normalcy has fallen over the wizards of England. Until one day when Philip discovers and glass bowl at the bottom of his stairs and invites Martin over to help figure out what it is and where is came from. It turns out to be a message from Gwen inviting Philip and Martin to Atlantis. They are holding a conference for delegates from the different groups of magic users. Meanwhile, 30 years after he had been stripped of his powers, Jimmy stands in front of Martin’s house, putting in motion his plans of the last 3 decades. Upon taking in the utter beauty that is The Sunken City of Atlantis, and after trying to take in the utter confusion that is Brit, or the Brits maybe, it’s still a bit confusing; Martin, Philip, and Gwen discover someone is trying to kill Brit the Younger. Alas, no one believes them because Brit the Elder is still there (as I said previously, confusing). Now, with the help of a few new friends and old ones they didn’t know they had, the trio has to figure out who is behind these attacks and why.

Like the first book, Off to Be the Wizard, Luke Daniels took on narrator duties for Spell or High Water. Like the first book, he did an amazing job. His reading for this book was even better this time around. With his becoming more familiar with the characters, and his progression as an artist, he delivered each line with even more feeling, putting different twists on how Martin, Philip, or even the new character of Ampyx. He makes an extremely fun tale even more entertaining.

Overall, I enjoyed this book as much as the first, which was immensely. It’s humorous, light, and enjoyable. Scattered with little looks at how some people can change without taking itself too seriously, and inform you of a few solid facts. Two of my favorites being; 1) Smart people do stupid things, and 2) You can’t argue with a dumb person, they just don’t give up. If you enjoyed the first volume, definitely give this a listen. It’s filled with everything you liked about the first one, complete with new faces you can’t help but like, and adventures you will absolutely enjoy.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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So So.... Disappointed

Honestly the book was so boring. The journey to Atlantis was so so and along with the uninteresting mystery make the book very boring. Martin became secondary in this book or should I say no focus on who was the main character or who story was being told. It just so random. The first book have a dumb smart but also funny story, but this have a dumb not smart and not very funny story. Even Roy the character who appear in the beginning for Martin to train was irrelevant to the story. Disappointed!!!

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A horribly disappointing sequel

After an enjoyable opening to the series, this attempt is a painful follow-up. Plot inconsistencies, flawed logic, and infuriating dialogue fill the pages of this book that had a lot of promise. Only the charismatic performance of Luke Daniels carried me through.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator Goes to 11

Great story. I feel like the narrator was just 1 degree TOO animated... like, hearing a story told by Shaggy from Scooby Doo... After a while, the mewling, whiny voice/character impersonations took on a prepubescent tone—like hearing adults talk in a "but I don't wanna go to bed" voice ALL the time.
Still, it's quite enjoyable.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Well performed, groaner humour

Maybe it was just the mood I was in when I listened to this one, but I really didn't enjoy the humour this time around. It leaned heavily on embarrassment and awkwardness. The geeks were so geeky with their geeking out I wanted to slam my head against something - not a book to relax to and chuckle at - not for me, not this week. Well performed for what it was though.

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