CodeSpell

I've been remiss. My friend Kelly's third book came out last month, and I haven't used my enormous blog power to tell people to go get it. CodeSpell is book three in what is shaping up to be a five-book series if Kelly and his publisher agree (the first two are WebMage and Cybermancy). They combine computers (of a sort), the Greek pantheon, and a smart-assed hacker who's suddenly found himself with just enough power to get into big trouble and more of a sense of responsibility than he's willing to admit.

The fun part of these books for me is that I've had a role in shaping them. Don't get me wrong. They're Kelly's books from beginning to end. But Kelly has this thing about theme. His books all end up with one, but he (almost?) never knows what it is. So I get to read them and tell him what his theme is. Then I get to point to those parts of the book where he came really, really close to reinforcing his theme and if he just tweaks that...there, it'll even look like he planned it that way.

CodeSpell is special in this respect. I haven't read the revised ending yet, so I'm dying to know whether the change I suggested and he made is as effective as I thought it would be. Of course, I can't read it fresh, so if you pick it up, you'll have to let me know what you think.