Fantasy novel by
Rick Cook, fourth in the series beginning with
Wizard's Bane.
Wiz Zumwalt, mighty
programmer-
wizard and savior of his
sword-and-sorcery World on at least three separate occasions, looks forward to some good
old-fashioned boredom. However, a very old and wise
dragon has other ideas, enlisting Wiz to solve the problem of
relations between
dragons and
humans in a little town far into the
Dragon Lands. Unable to
depart due to a
geas laid on him by the
dragon, Wiz quickly establishes himself as a
consultant to the town's Council on
dragon-related matters, while setting up an untraceable
Internet connection to keep in touch with his
wife Moira and his friends
Jerry and
Danny. This attracts the attention of an
idiotic FBI agent in the "real" world, with
hilarious results.
Meanwhile, Wiz enlists the aid of one of the locals, Malkin the kleptomaniac thief, to deal with local politics, but is unable to come to any conclusions about the dragon problem. He finally is forced to engage in a one-on-one duel with a dragon, but Malkin manages to send a signal back to the Wizard's Keep, and Wiz's friends join him to defeat the dragon.
The keen observations about consultants in this book rival those of Dilbert, and the geeky references continue to play a major role. Highly recommended, as with the other books in this series.
Source: Rick Cook, The Wizardry Consulted (Baen Books, 1995)