Battle of the Linguist Mages

By: Scotto Moore

Narrated by: Justis Bolding

Maybe you can help me stop sparklegeddon!

In modern-day Los Angeles, a shadowy faction led by the governor of California develops the arcane art of combat linguistics, planting the seeds of a future totalitarian empire.

Isobel is the queen of the medieval rave–themed VR game Sparkle Dungeon. Her prowess in the game makes her an ideal candidate to learn the secrets of power morphemes—unnaturally dense units of meaning that warp perception when skillfully pronounced.

But Isobel’s reputation makes her the target of a strange resistance movement led by spellcasting anarchists, who may be the only thing stopping a cabal from toppling California over the edge of a terrible transformation, with forty million lives at stake.

Time is short for Isobel to level up and choose a side—because that cabal has attracted much bigger and weirder enemies than the anarchist resistance, emerging from dark and vicious dimensions of reality and heading straight for planet Earth!

©2022 Scotto Moore (P)2022 Recorded Books

Overly cute and derivative

If you have never read Ready Player One this book will be a little easier to listen to but there isn’t enough new material here to make it worth the time.

shit is complicated!

I was expecting whatever this was not. it is quite a complex story with many dimensions ;) I got a little lost sometimes but I will happily reslisten to it!

Fun, clever, snarky, and maybe not for everyone

I _loved_ this book. It was pure catnip (and X‽) from about three sentences in. Wordplay, semantics, snark, and glorious typography. Memes, and music, and linguistics, and some deeply weird ideas. Plus a VR-based MMO that's well enough described, it sounds like a hit game in real life. If you think "Ready Player One", but add...well, a lot of weird fun (yes, more than RPO), and aliens, and a reality eating monster, and lots and lots of glitter, you're in the ballpark.

This book has what might be my favorite two sentence line in any novel, when a certain, ahem, character introduces itself. However, it contains both spoilers and profanity, so I won't repeat it here. I don't want to get hit with Takedown Notice.

It's not for everyone. Read the reviews here, and see if you "identify" with any of the folks making comments, you'll find your level. If it's not your thing, give it a pass. But if you give it a chapter or two, and it clicks, it's going to really, really click.

Is it perfect? No. Is it maybe too long, and could have used some tightening up in editing? Well, I'd say the same thing about "Order of the Phoenix". No one hits every shot. But a lot of them _do_ land here, and if they land for you, you're going to have a blast listening to this story.

I hate to give short shrift to the narrator's performance, but they were _perfection_ for this novel. Clearly distinct voices for the various characters, and an absolutely sublime vocal combination of glitter, cotton candy, and snark for the main character's voice. [chef's kiss emoji]

Good overall

I really wanted to give this 5 stars but the last few hours of the book seemed to drag on with unnecessary complications that are never fully resolved. Still, the book is a lot of fun.

Tons of fun

I had a blast with this book! It felt like injecting glitter and cotton candy in my veins. It's fast, idea dense, clever, snarky, and tons of fun.