From Publishers Weekly
DeChancie's latest is a fantasy overlaid with a thin veneer of science fiction, its plot based on a bizarre blend of computer communication and sorcery. With the precision and speed of computers, the invocation of magic spells has become easier and more effective. Certain sorcerous hackers have developed MagicNet, a sort of online cyberspace network where magic works, demons roam and the ambitious wizard Lloyd Merlin Jones schemes to consolidate his growing control. Smart-alecky English professor Schuyler King receives a disturbing phone call and a mysterious package from his odd friend Grant Barrington, who soon thereafter meets a bloody and untimely end. The package contains software that conjures Grant's ghost, who directs Schuyler in a confrontation with Merlin Jones. DeChancie ( Castle Kidnapped ) adopts a lighthearted tone laced with sarcastic wit, which makes his rather absurd premise almost palatable; but the plot veers too quickly into random action, spinning its wheels aimlessly before tying up the ends in a perfunctory climactic scene. This is an entertaining bit of fluff, an afternoon's diversion, but no more. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this full-cast dramatization of DeChancie's 1993 sf novel, Schuyler ("Skye") King talks with his pal Grant Barrington on the phone and hears his friend being murdered by a demon. The next day he receives a package of computer disks Grant had posted earlier. Their software draws him into the "MagicNet"?a strange Internet-like network in which magic rules. Skye's computer also connects him with the ghost, or simulacrum, of Grant, who then directs Skye on a bizarre quest to save the MagicNet from evil forces. Evidently, this work appeared before the advent of the real "MagicNet" online service; it should appeal to computer buffs not too fussy about distinctions between fantasy and sf. While its acting performances are passable, its sound mixing is awful?the volume level is erratic, its simulated computer voices are strained, and much of the production sounds like it was recorded in an echo chamber in a garage.?Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
In the current revival of radio drama, the indestructible art form has moved to cassette. Magicnet, an adolescent, albeit clever and diverting, science fiction adventure, exemplifies the little audio theater movement. For instance, the lead character, a youngish English professor who loves Keats, is played by gauche, thick-tongued Russell Jones, who mispronounces words like "slavish." On the other hand, the production values are admirably clean, sharp and professional; the players committed and energetic. Sci-fi buffs will love it. More sophisticated listeners may get a chuckle or two out of its sillier conceits but may not be able to endure all three hours of it. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Amid the current proliferation of cyberspace novels featuring increasingly elaborate and ingenious technological extrapolation, DeChancie's entry comes as a welcome sigh of comic relief that plays off of the concept of virtual reality for the pure fun of it. Schuyler (aka Skye) King is an English professor in a quiet college town whose life takes a turn for the bizarre when his close friend, computer hacker Grant, is brutally slain by, of all things, a red-eyed demon. Grant's persona is, however, quickly resurrected, albeit as a disembodied voice, via the machinations of a sophisticated computer program Skye receives in the mail. After tutoring Skye in the otherworldly idiosyncrasies of the MagicNet, a new and revolutionary computer network merging cyberspace and ancient spells, Grant sends Skye on a sometimes hallucinatory cross-country odyssey to neutralize Grant's killer, a diabolical hacker named Merlin Jones, who has assumed control of the MagicNet. Shamelessly droll, literate, and thoroughly entertaining, MagicNet is the fantasy genre's whimsical answer to Neuromancer. Carl Hays

From Kirkus Reviews
DeChancie's hardcover debut begins when English professor Skye King receives a desperate phone call from his computer-nut friend Grant Barrington; minutes later Grant falls silent, while Skye hears noises of destruction.... He hotfoots it over to Grant's place, where his friend lies dead, his apartment trashed by what appears to be a demon. The following day Skye receives some computer disks by the mail; inserting them into his own computer, Skye finds he has booted up a part-computer, part-magic ghost of Grant! The latter explains that a computer-whiz rival named Merlin, who runs MagicNet--a sort of part-magic, part-computer network--is intent on changing reality and sent the demon to get rid of Grant. Grant hopes to stop Merlin with Ragnarok, a computer/magic program that should tie MagicNet up in knots. Thereafter, alas, things get steadily less intelligible and credible. Eventually it emerges that ancient Persian gods and demons are behind it all; Merlin turns out to be a good guy, sort of, and Skye and Grant are gods too...or something. Despite the hard work and literary connections, a truly horrible hybrid. What it's all supposed to add up to is anybody's guess; if the author himself knows he's not telling. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
English prof Schuyler King receives a call from his computer genius friend Grant Barrington and becomes an "earwitness to friend's murder. King finds himself thrust into an epic journey to track down Barrington's murderer - Lloyd "Merlin" Jones - the self-proclaimed ruler of the MagicNet - a mysterious blend of magic and Technology. The barely computer literate King must re-program our mundane universe before Merlin can erase our very existance.

About the Author
John DeChancie - critically acclaimed author of numerous science fiction-fantasy novels including the popular Castle series and Starrigger Trilogy novels.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

In this full-cast dramatization of DeChancie's 1993 sf novel, Schuyler ("Skye") King talks with his pal Grant Barrington on the phone and hears his friend being murdered by a demon. The next day he receives a package of computer disks Grant had posted earlier. Their software draws him into the "MagicNet"--a strange Internet-like network in which magic rules. Skye's computer also connects him with the ghost, or simulacrum, of Grant, who then directs Skye on a bizarre quest to save the MagicNet from evil forces. Evidently, this work appeared before the advent of the real "MagicNet" online service; it should appeal to computer buffs not too fussy about distinctions between fantasy and sf. While its acting performances are passable, its sound mixing is awful--the volume level is erratic, its simulated computer voices are strained, and much of the production sounds like it was recorded in an echo chamber in a garage.--Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA

AudioFile - Yuri Rasovsky