My review of Dot Slash Magic

An underground magic club, an AI program that may be summoning monsters and a whip-smart coder with a brilliant sense of humor are the main ingredients of this outrageously funny book. Read my 3 star review

Out: Now

Twenty-something coder Seven stumbles onto an underground magic club with real wizards. Having her own power, she joins the club and creates an AI program that helps her with it. The club is suspicious of her and when a student dies by creature, they think her AI summoned it. Is it true? Her only ally is a cute ex-Navy Seal, and as she fights the monsters, she must figure out if her program is responsible.

I have to start by saying that you have never read a book like this before. Presenting a refreshing, in-your-face honesty, we immediately feel comfortable in Seven's cynical, smart-ass, 'I don't take shit from anybody' POV. Biting, clever humor, you feel as if her mind goes a hundred miles a minute and you love it. Honest & direct in thoughts and feelings of the moment. Punchy, to the point, no excessive fanfare sentences set the pace. It does surprise you with out-of-the-blue creative details or figurative speech that give you far from ordinary, often outrageous and certainly memorable images. The author gets wildly creative with these and I'm here for it.

Shipton lets you know exactly what is going on. You are unequivocally along for the ride. I enjoyed the protagonist's initial reluctance to the club and disbelief in the magic or better yet her magic. The "hippie nonsense" as she calls it. This was fitting for Seven. She is very inquisitive and asks a lot of questions, often one after the other; therefore, much of the magic system is given through dialogue in question-answer form instead of info-dumping narration paragraphs. The author's imaginative view of how magic would exist in a modern-day setting with rules and even bureaucracy is well thought out and feels natural in the prose.

The AI works in an unexpected manner, channeling her power, and is entertaining in its evolution, seemingly fun but also scary. As she delves deeper into the knowledge of using magic, so grows the intrigue of the weird things happening. Fantastical events colored with the frenzy of preposterous. The crazy is so welcome. And let us not forget her attraction to a certain someone. Smirk-worthy Wizard flirting and beyond.

There are some great ideas in this storyline and the humor is undeniable, but it does trip over itself, unfortunately, in some parts, and I do wish that in others it was a bit tighter. I needed to see more magic and monsters before the extended, you-see-everything-happening confrontation, which was jam-packed and pretty exciting. If you thought that you knew how it would end or that it couldn't get weirder, think again. I literally clapped at one of the reveals.

I like how it touches various social, moral, and prejudicial topics through natural to the narrative dialogue without becoming overly sanctimonious. Maybe a little preachy. Or better yet, members of the group were too preachy. And quite repetitive in that. I preferred it when it gave logical explanations and conclusions without expecting you to agree. And of course, our main theme of the AI discourse. The book champions doing what is right for yourself, not what others tell you is right. And it reminds us that no person is meant to be an island.

The story was engrossing and I wanted to yell at the book quite often (in a good way). I just cared about our hero, or if you prefer anti-hero. This is a magic-filled adventure of self-discovery, full of surprises and loads of fun.