Nate Black is about to be arrested for some of his actions earlier in his life, his life as a hacker. Something he was careful to do when he was underage but apparently this isn't going to save him. He's offered a chance to escape to another world and then finds himself in an alien world where aliens rule over humans, and where he has a key to the system of magic. It's a language, a code and he can translate it.

It's not a bad book, dwells a little too long on the torture of the main character but otherwise not a bad read. ( )

Nate Black, once a notorious hacker named Azrael, receives an email warning him that his cover has been blown and that the Feds are out to get him. As he is fleeing he suddenly finds himself in a place between worlds where he is told to choose. He can return to face his past in his own world or forge ahead into an alien world and take his chances there. He of course chooses the alien world and is soon captured and thrown into a dungeon because of his strange appearance. He soon learns that magic is real and that he is believed to be the prophesied angel of death that will bring on the end of mankind by freeing an enslaved race called the Ghadi. He must learn the magical language of the world using his knowledge of computer language if he is to survive.


This book had an interesting concept that magic works like a scripted computer language. The character is able to decipher the meaning of this language through his knowledge of code. The people of the world he visits do not understand the language at all, they merely memorize and use it without understanding the meaning of things. They know a spell lights a candle but they do not know what the spell actually commands.

Somewhat amusing as a computer user because I see this every day in my workplace... people using a machine they do not fully understand and then getting frustrated with it because of their own error. ( )